Help me Understand Disputes

[JSS3]

I called an HVAC company for my boiler. The fee was 80 bucks for the service call then they would diagnose and tell me how much I'd have to pay to have it fixed. I charged it to my Amex. He swiped and said it was declined. He said that he needed to type it in manually because their system was down. I gave him the card again. He typed it manually. After he left, I went to check my account to make sure it was just one charge and it was. That pended then posted. No problems. About 4 days later came another pending charge from them for the same amount. Weird to me that both charges didn't show up at the same time and then one fall off. I called them up, the lady said she didn't see two charges in their system and that I should contact my credit card company. I waited to see if the charge would post. It did. I disputed it with Amex. The resolution date is for March but Amex credited me the amount while they're going through this. Amex has told me that they contacted the company and have not received a response. it's been over a month. 

I have issues with this company regarding them quoting me high prices for other work and will no longer use them. However, I need to understand how this dispute process works and if this company will get away with not paying back the 80 bucks. I'm starting to think this was done on purpose. They could've easily responded and confirmed I was double charged. I think he lied when he said the card was declined and wanted to charge me twice. The day he came out, he was supposed to fix my boiler, but he quoted me an outrageous price. I decided to go with someone else, but still had to pay the service call fee. I think he wanted to make up for his loss of work by charging me twice. However, I am not sure. Does a chargeback look bad on their company? Will they know that Amex will just eat the charge while crediting me back so they do end up with the extra 80? Who loses? 

[Skye12329]

If they do not respond in time or they lose the case, amex reverses the charges. The company would lose out on the money, not your or the lender. Amex and other lenders usually give you back a temp credit until the case is resolved. To help with making payments. It prevents you making a payment that your not laible for. When the investigation is complete amex just takes their money back basically from the company, as far as i know. Will it look bad to them as a company? I dont know, a business owner would probably know more there.

[JSS3]

Ok so when they don't respond, they lose by default? Them not responding had me wondering if they'd triumph somehow if they held out. I mean, really, they could've easily done so in all this time but refusing. It's a simple check of their system, service date, and work done...even talking to the tech.

Glad to know they won't get to keep the $80. I was a little concerned because Amex credited me, but told me they could rebill me in the future.

[Dalmus]

 From my understanding (I just went through a chargeback issue with an online retailer that never shipped a package that they billed me for), when a chargeback is initiated, the charged card receives a credit for the disputed amount.  The bank then goes to the payment processor (not directly to the merchant) and asks them to do an investigation.  The payment processor then goes to the Merchant to find out what happened.

 If too many chargebacks occur against a particular merchant, the processor will close their account and the merchant will have to find a new credit card processor, that will probably charge them a higher rate per transaction.

 At least that is what happens in theory. 

[Skye12329]

Right if they don't respond they lose automatically. As for amex stating they can rebill you. Thats only if they find in fabor of the merchant. Because they adjust the amount on your statement until the dispute is complete. If you lose they simply recharge you the amount, if you win the amount is just removed permanently.

[JSS3]

I have my receipt just in case!

[Callandra]

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@Dalmus wrote:

 From my understanding (I just went through a chargeback issue with an online retailer that never shipped a package that they billed me for), when a chargeback is initiated, the charged card receives a credit for the disputed amount.  The bank then goes to the payment processor (not directly to the merchant) and asks them to do an investigation.  The payment processor then goes to the Merchant to find out what happened.

 If too many chargebacks occur against a particular merchant, the processor will close their account and the merchant will have to find a new credit card processor, that will probably charge them a higher rate per transaction.

 At least that is what happens in theory. 

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It probably depends on the agreement that the payment processor has with the merchant, but at my last job (online business, got lots of chargebacks!), if we had more than 1-2% (I think it was like 1.5% for us, I forget now) of our transactions charged back, we got "shut down." Their definition of "shut down" was not allowing us to access the reserve account (which is where all the money from the transactions processed goes, so essentially the company's money from customer payments) but they would still process payments as normal. This only happened when we weren't sending in rebuttals/responses for the chargebacks and as soon as we sent everything in, they would release the reserve account. This happened a few times. 

I'm sure when you get to a certain percentage, the payment processor will cut business ties with you but we never ran into that.