A chargeback or ACH dispute is easier to prevent than to fight. This article covers habits and settings in Sharper that reduce the odds a customer disputes a charge in the first place. If a dispute has already happened, see the companion article, How to Dispute a Chargeback or ACH Return, for how to respond.
Get a Clear Authorization Up Front
The single biggest factor in winning or avoiding a dispute is having a clear, signed record that the customer agreed to be charged.
Use an e-sign Contract on every reservation, not just the ones a customer happens to ask about. Once signed, it becomes a permanent, un-editable record with the signer's IP address attached. See System Settings - Contracts for setup.
If you take online reservations, turn on the Terms and Conditions field in Company Settings → Reservation Settings so customers must accept your terms before completing an online booking. Leaving this field blank turns the requirement off — no acceptance checkbox will appear.
These are two different things. Terms and Conditions in Company Settings only applies to reservations made through your online Customer Portal — it has no effect on reservations staff enter directly. A signed Contract, on the other hand, can be sent and collected on any reservation regardless of how it was booked.
Require a Deposit or Full Payment Before Confirming
A reservation that was never paid for in advance gives a customer more room to claim the charge was a surprise. Set a deposit or full-payment requirement on the product's Policy settings so payment is collected — and the customer has already seen the amount — before the reservation is confirmed. See Reservation Management - Cancellation and Deposit Policies (or the Campground-specific version) for setup, and Guest Booking Deposits for how deposits are charged, retained, or refunded.
Set and Enforce a Cancellation Policy
A customer who feels blindsided by a cancellation fee is a common source of disputes. Configure a clear cancellation cutoff and fee behavior on the product's Policy settings, and make sure that policy is stated in your Contract or Terms and Conditions text — not just configured behind the scenes. See Reservation Management - Cancellation and Deposit Policies for setup.
Verify the Card Before You Charge It
Catching a mismatched billing address before a charge goes through prevents a fraud-related dispute later.
Turn on Address Verification (AVS) so a saved card's billing address is checked against the card issuer's records. See CRM - Address Verification System for how it works and how to avoid false declines on PO Box addresses.
Sharper also runs a 3D Secure check automatically during online checkout, which asks the card issuer to confirm the cardholder's identity before the charge completes. This runs in the background and does not require separate setup.
Make Sure the Customer Recognizes the Charge
A large share of disputes start with "I don't recognize this charge," not real fraud. Two settings make sure the customer has a paper trail before their bank statement does:
Turn on Enable Booking Confirmation Email in Company Settings → Reservation Settings so a confirmation goes out as soon as a reservation is made.
Check the Email receipt option when taking a payment so the customer gets a receipt at the time of the charge, not just at month's end.
Give Customers a Heads-Up Before Auto-Pay Runs
Sharper does not currently send an automatic notice to a customer before an auto-pay batch runs against their saved payment method — the completion email only goes to your staff. If you rely on auto-pay, build a manual habit of emailing or calling enrolled customers a few days ahead of your billing run so the charge is never their first notice. See CRM - Setting up AutoPay for how the batch itself is configured.
Refund or Void Quickly When Something's Wrong
A fast, merchant-initiated refund often stops a dispute before it's ever filed — most banks won't process a chargeback for a charge that's already been reversed. If a customer flags an error, use the Refund or Void action on the payment or deposit directly in CRM rather than waiting for them to escalate to their bank. See CRM - Refunding Credit Cards and ACH Payments and CRM - Refund Amounts, Service Fees, and Gateway Limits for how refunds are processed and their limits.
None of these steps guarantee a dispute won't happen. If one does, see How to Dispute a Chargeback or ACH Return for where to find proof of authorization and how to respond before your bank's deadline.