It's difficult to say. I disputed something several years ago; I paid for an item online and the seller didn't send the item. I had made several email contact attempts, and after 3 weeks passed I was nearing the dispute limit timeframe (30 days) so I made a dispute of the charge. I filled out the paperwork, and the item arrived four days after the dispute was initiated, postmarked the day after. I don't know if disputing moved things along or not. I suspect it did, but it's one of those things that you'll never know...to this day, four years later, that card still says, "In dispute status", even though I called and informed the ccc that the issue had been resolved.
At any rate, I would suspect disputes indicate a customer who may not want to pay, or made a mistake thinking the charge was fraudulent. FICO may consider the majority of disputes to be a cardholder error (not a ccc error) and therefore penalize for the inconvenience the dispute causes.
Dan
