Refunds, disputes and chargebacks

Refunds happen from the payment itself, not from the booking. Open Financial, find the payment on the Payments tab and tap it. You can search by name, email or description if the list is long.

1. 1

   Open the payment

   The detail view shows the amount, the status and every fee that came off it.

2. 2

   Choose Refund

   The button names the amount still available to refund.

3. 3

   Set an amount, or leave it blank

   Blank refunds the full remaining amount. Type a smaller figure for a partial refund. You can refund more than once, up to the original total.

4. 4

   Confirm refund

   The money goes back to the card your client paid with. Your Maelo fee is returned to you in proportion, so refunding half a deposit returns half the fee.

Your client gets the money back in a few working days. That timing is their bank's, not Maelo's, so it is worth telling them to expect a short wait.

Cancelling a booking does not send the money back. That is deliberate: whether a deposit is returned is your call and your policy, not something the app should decide for you. Cancel the booking first, then refund the deposit from the payment details in Financial if you have decided to return it.

If your deposits are non-refundable, say so in your booking policies before anyone pays. It is the single most useful thing you can have written down, and it is also the strongest evidence you have if the payment is ever contested. See Deposits.

Payments you took outside Stripe cannot be refunded through Maelo, because Maelo never held the money. Send it back the same way it came and note it in the thread.

A dispute, also called a chargeback, is your client asking their bank to reverse a payment rather than asking you. The bank takes the money back straight away and then decides who was right. Banks usually take 60 to 75 days to reach a decision.

A disputed payment shows in Financial with the reason the bank gave and a deadline. That deadline is the part that matters most.

Open the disputed payment and tap Respond to dispute. Maelo shows you the reason the bank recorded and what tends to work against that particular reason, then gives you a short form.

• •What did they buy? Describe the work, the date and what was agreed.
• •Customer name and Customer email, as you have them.
• •Appointment date. When the work actually happened.
• •Your cancellation policy. Paste the policy they agreed to when booking.
• •Anything else. Messages, deposit agreements, proof they attended.

Save draft keeps your work without sending anything, so you can go and find a screenshot and come back. Submit evidence sends it to the bank.

Contesting is not always the right move. A dispute carries a fee whether you win or lose, so if the client has a fair point, or the charge really was a duplicate, refunding is usually cheaper and faster. A refund ends the dispute.

If you would rather not spend the time on it, Accept the dispute instead closes the case in your client's favour without a response. Only do that if you have decided you are not contesting, because it cannot be undone.

Before anything else, message the client. A large share of disputes are people who did not recognise a charge, or who wanted a refund and did not know they could just ask. A reply in the thread often resolves it before the bank ever weighs in, and it costs you nothing.

Then gather the evidence while it is fresh: the booking confirmation, your message thread, the reference images, the signed consent or waiver, and photos of the finished work. Your client's whole booking history sits on their client record, which is the quickest place to pull all of it together.