Manage canceled disputes
- Sellers with the reports permission to view disputes reporting can see open disputes.
- Sellers with the reports permission to respond to disputes can accept or challenge a dispute.
- Set permissions in Square Dashboard.
About canceled payment disputes
If your customer decides they no longer want to dispute a payment — or if you’ve contacted your customer directly and came to a mutual agreement — your customer can contact their card-issuing bank to cancel or withdraw an active dispute. Once your customer successfully cancels a dispute, their bank will send the disputed funds back to your Square account.
Before you begin
Square cannot cancel or withdraw the dispute for you or your customer. The cardholder must cancel directly with their card-issuing bank.
The dispute cancellation process varies by card issuer and can be submitted any time during the dispute process, before it is closed.
Disputes that have been canceled don’t resolve and refund any faster than other kinds of disputes.
The disputed funds may be on hold during the dispute cancellation process.
Learn how to Manage payment disputes.
If you’re unsure if a resolution has been reached, respond to the initial notification email to check on the status of your case.
Step 1: Respond to dispute information request dispute cancellation
It is critical that you complete the information request, as part of the standard disputes process. While a customer may state that they intend to cancel a dispute, we recommend that you respond to the dispute with evidence as if the normal dispute process will be followed. This gives you a greater chance of winning the dispute in the event the customer changes their mind, or forgets to reach out to their bank to cancel the dispute.
To respond, open the Information request from your Disputes Dashboard to upload sufficient evidence for the active dispute if you haven’t done so already. Learn more about how to Manage payment disputes and Prepare documents to challenge disputes.
Step 2: Follow cancellation process for the card type
The dispute cancellation process can look different, depending on the card type used by the customer (Visa, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, etc.). You can see the card type used by viewing the Square receipt for the transaction from your Disputes Dashboard. Follow the instructions based on the type of payment card that your customer used.
Option 1: Customer used a Visa, Mastercard, or other non-American Express payment card
Contact the cardholder and ask them to cancel the dispute with their card-issuing bank and to provide you with a cancellation letter from their bank.
Sign in to your Disputes Dashboard. A reversals section (Cardholder canceled dispute?) will be available in the Dispute Tracker for non-American Express cases.
If you haven’t already, complete the required Information request form with sufficient evidence for the dispute. This form is also emailed to you.
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After you submit your information, the dispute will be in the Bank Review stage. Upload a cancellation letter while the dispute is in the Bank Review stage.
Select the Upload cancellation letter button and will be prompted to select the file to upload. We recommend the following file formats and size:Formats: HEIC, JPEG, PDF, PNG, TIFF
Max file size: 50 MB
Next steps
If your customer made the purchase using Visa, Mastercard, JCB, or other non-American Express cards, Square does not contact the card-issuing banks directly. You should check your Disputes Dashboard for updates on your dispute status.
Square typically receives notice of customer cancellations within 10 days. If your dispute status has not been updated after that period of time, we would recommend following up with the cardholder to confirm they canceled the dispute with their card-issuing bank.
Option 2: Customer used an American Express payment card
If your customer agrees to cancel the dispute, contact the cardholder and ask them to cancel the dispute directly with American Express.
Sign in to your Disputes Dashboard. The reversals section (Cardholder canceled dispute?) will be available in the Dispute Tracker for American Express cases.
If you haven’t already, complete the required Information request form with sufficient evidence for the dispute. This form is also emailed to you.
Once you’ve filled out the Information request form, the dispute will be in the Bank Review stage. You can notify Square the cardholder has withdrawn their dispute by clicking Cardholder canceled when the dispute is in the Bank Review stage.
Next steps
Once you’ve notified us about an American Express dispute cancellation, the request will be queued for review by the Square Accounts team. The reversals section will then update to Cardholder cancellation under review. Square will check with American Express to confirm that the customer has successfully canceled the dispute and update you within five business days. If American Express confirms the cancellation, we will release the payment hold on your account, if there is one.