A chargeback occurs when a customer contacts their issuing bank (e.g. Capital One, American Express, Chase) and disputes a payment on their credit card. Head over to the understanding chargebacks guide to learn more about chargebacks and their phases.

Chargebacks can be actioned using Rainforest's reporting components:

• Chargeback Report Component
• Chargeback Details in the Payment Report Component
• Chargeback Respond Component

Embed the chargeback report

Session authentication

Create a session to grant the chargeback report component permissions to view and action chargebacks. The session should include at least the following permissions to view chargebacks and their related payins and refunds:

curl --location 'https://api.rainforestpay.com/v1/sessions' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {{api_key}}' \
--data '{
    "ttl": 86400,
    "statements": [
        {
            "permissions": ["group#chargeback_report_component"]
        }
    ]
}'

Session constraints

If the component permissions are constrained to a specific resource, data filters will need to be applied to give the chargeback report component the same level of permissions.

Commonly, the chargeback report is pre-loaded to show chargebacks for a single merchant. The session should be constrained to a specific merchant to ensure this session only has permissions to view the chargebacks associated to the merchant:

curl --location 'https://api.rainforestpay.com/v1/sessions' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer {{api_key}}' \
--data '{
    "ttl": 86400,
    "statements": [
        {
            "permissions": [
                "group#chargeback_report_component",
            ],
            "constraints": {
                "merchant: {
                    "merchant_id": "REPLACE_ME"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}'

Actions permissions

Enable the user to have permissions to respond to chargebacks, as well as other actions such as refunding a payin associated to a chargeback. If the user should not have action permissions, then omit the respective groups.

{
    "ttl": 86400,
    "statements": [
        {
            "permissions": [
                "group#chargeback_report_component",
+               "group#chargeback_report_component.update_chargeback"
+               "group#chargeback_report_component.create_refund"
            ],
            "constraints": {
                "merchant: {
                    "merchant_id": "REPLACE_ME"
                }
            }
        }
    ]
}

JavaScript bundle

Include the merchant JavaScript bundle in your frontend to access the chargeback report component.

<script type="module" src="https://static.rainforestpay.com/sandbox.merchant.js"></script>

Chargeback report component

Add the Rainforest chargeback report component with custom configuration designed in the component studio.

<rainforest-chargeback-report
    session-key="REPLACE_ME"
></rainforest-chargeback-report>

Migrating from older API versions

If you are integrated against a previous API version and your minimum API version is not 2024-10-16, then you'll need to set the api-version prop to 2024-10-16. See the API version upgrades guide for more information.

<rainforest-chargeback-report
    session-key="REPLACE_ME"
    api-version="2024-10-16"
></rainforest-chargeback-report>

Customize the component

Head over to the Chargeback Component Studio for more attributes you can provide to customize the component's appearance and behavior.

Column configuration

The chargeback report will load with a set of default columns. Simply omit the columns prop to use the following default columns.

[
    {"name":"Created","type":"builtin","value":"created"},
    {"name":"Status","type":"builtin","value":"status"},
    {"name":"Amount","type":"builtin","value":"amount"},
    {"name":"Customer","type":"builtin","value":"name"},
    {"name":"Method","type":"builtin","value":"method"},
    {"name":"Due Date","type":"builtin","value":"due_date"},
    {"name":"ARN","type":"builtin","value":"acquirer_ref"},
    {"name":"Merchant Name","type":"builtin","value":"merchant_name"}
]

Custom configuration

Columns can be customized to fit the needs of your platform. To override the default columns for the chargeback report, pass in the column specifications via a JSON payload in the columns prop.

<rainforest-chargeback-report
    columns='[{"name":"My Custom Column Name","type":"builtin","value":"id"}]'
></rainforest-chargeback-report>

A column specification needs a name, type, and value.

• name - The display header name for the column.
• type - Set to builtin or metadata
• value - The key corresponding to a value returned from the list payments endpoint.

Valid column values

Metadata column

A column can be configured to display a custom metadata value passed into the config requests for varying payment activities. The value for type metadata should be valid JSONPath to a corresponding metadata key.

For example, a payin created with the following metadata

{
    "account": {
        "id": "123",
        "name": "Jane Doe",
        "email": "[email protected]
    }
}

could have the following column specification to display the metadata account id

{
    "name": "Account ID",
    "type": "metadata",
    "value": "$.account.id"
}

Payin metadata is persisted to the associated chargebacks.

Templating columns

If you need to format the metadata for presentation to your users, you can specify a template pattern. In order to show the Account ID as above, but formatted as "Account #123". You can specify a template string, and the pattern {{value}} will be replaced with the value of the field:

{
    "name": "Account ID",
    "type": "metadata",
    "value": "$.account.id",
    "template": "Account #{{value}}"
}

Data filters

The chargeback report can be pre-loaded with a defined set of filters, including sort by and sort order. Data filters are defined by a JSON payload of key-value pairs passed into the data-filters prop.

A valid key includes any of the query params from the list payments endpoint. To pass multiple values for a given key, the value can be defined as an array of values.

{
    "merchant_id": "mid_123",
    "status": ["INQUIRY_ACTION_REQUIRED", "DISPUTE_ACTION_REQUIRED"],
    "sort_by": "created_at",
    "sort_order": "desc"
}

Data filters will always be applied to the report and any additional filtering via the component will be in addition to the filters passed in.

Embed a merchant work queue

Merchants will need to know what chargebacks they need to work and respond to. Filtering the chargeback report to the statuses of Inquiry Action Required and Dispute Action Required will show all the chargebacks the merchant needs to action.

Tabs in the report

Rainforest provides tabs in the Chargeback Report Component to quickly view chargebacks grouped by statuses. The Action Required tab allows your merchants to see all chargebacks that they need to respond to.

To enable the tabs within the Chargeback Report, add the prop show-tabs

<rainforest-chargeback-report
+   show-tabs
></rainforest-chargeback-report>

Custom filtering

You can also build your own custom merchant work queue by embedding the report with a status filter defined in the data-filters prop.

Action required

Pre-load the chargeback report with chargebacks the merchant needs to respond to:

<rainforest-chargeback-report
+   data-filters='{"status":["INQUIRY_ACTION_REQUIRED", "DISPUTE_ACTION_REQUIRED"], "merchant_id":"REPLACE_ME"}'
></rainforest-chargeback-report>

Simulate chargeback scenarios in sandbox

In production, some chargeback statuses can only be reached when the issuing bank decisions the chargeback or the customer initiates a phase of the chargeback.

In order to simulate these scenarios in sandbox, first simulate a chargeback against a payin to create a chargeback. A chargeback can be initiated into one of the following statuses:

• Inquiry Action Required
• Dispute Action Required

Once a chargeback is created, you can respond to the chargeback via the chargeback report components. This will move the chargeback to one of the following statuses depending on the previous status:

• Inquiry Action Required → Inquiry Processing
• Dispute Action Required → Chargeback Processing

Then, you can simulate the decisions made by the issuing bank or customer with the simulate chargeback status change endpoint. A chargeback can be simulated to one of the following statuses:

• Dispute Action Required
• Provisional Win
• Won
• Lost

See the chargeback status diagram for the various statuses a chargeback can transition into given the current chargeback status.