Interesting information on chargeback and disputes.

[Dmitry-Afremov]

We have been doing e-commerce business since 2003. We consider ourselves not the pioneers of e-commerce, but rather as someone who has been there almost since the beginning of online retail. Twenty-three years of selling online is a long time. Although we have only been selling products related to art and Leonid Afremov, we write this blog as a retailer for other retailers and customers, regardless of what kind of product you sell. What I’m going to write about applies to anyone involved in online commerce—both the customer and the seller.

Since the very beginning, chargebacks and disputes have been an instrument for the customer to guarantee a return of their money if something goes wrong with the transaction. At first, it was almost impossible for a seller to win a dispute. I remember that in the period from 2003 to 2012, we were getting a lot more disputes than now, despite having far fewer online transactions. We had 5–7% of transactions disputed, compared to less than 1% after 2013.

Here you can see charts and statistics of all our disputes for transactions over the past 7 months. The current rate is 0.92%, which is well below the normal acceptable rate of 3%.

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We almost never won any of the disputes before 2013. Customers were getting the product and their money back most of the time. A small percentage of the disputes were for genuinely undelivered products with lost packages. The rest were disputes of this kind: “defective product,” “fraudulent transaction = I did not authorize the order,” and so on.

We lost a lot of products and a lot of money. This effectively had to be factored into the final price of the product. Our prices before 2013 were higher than some of the prices we have now because of this issue. We noticed a clear pattern of customers abusing the system. The majority of people are honest and law-abiding, but you always have this small percentage that wants to abuse the system (steal without consequences). We estimate that about 80% of the disputes showed clear intent to cheat the system. We can say that because in 2013 something changed, and the dispute rate dropped from 5–7% of transactions per month to 1% and less. We were never informed about what had changed; we simply noticed the drastic and sudden difference.


What we think happened is that the banks and credit card institutions noticed a clear pattern of abuse. They saw that the same customers were opening disputes on almost all of their online transactions. They also noticed that sellers had started pressing charges for theft when the product was not returned. Basically, they recognized a massive issue that needed to be addressed in order to preserve and grow e-commerce. What also happened is that people started facing consequences for their abusive actions. People began receiving fines, having credit cards cancelled, and facing legal consequences. If you watched Orange Is the New Black, there is a perfect example in the character “Lorna,” who went to prison for filing fraudulent disputes. She did this with luxury brands that cost a lot of money, so she was properly investigated.



But smart customers were only disputing small amounts below $500, where the crime is at most a misdemeanor. In our case, most of the disputed transactions were in the $150–300 range. It was very rare for customers to open a dispute on a transaction totaling more than $500. We also had to press charges a few times for dispute fraud. In the end, it was not worth the time or the money spent on legal fees.
After systematic changes by the banks and card providers, opening a dispute was no longer made that easy. Now they ask for evidence such as a broken product, an undelivered tracking number, or a copy of the written communication with the seller. At the same time, they ask for evidence from the seller from their perspective. Then, after checking the evidence on both sides, they usually make a correct decision—with the exception of one bank that we have noticed: JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A.

Here is a chart for reference

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We have won many disputes from different banks in several countries, but we have never won even a single dispute from JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. With this institution we have noticed an interesting pattern worth exploring. From January 1, 2026, until August 1, 2026, we had 4,463 direct credit/debit card transactions (besides other payment systems like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, etc.).

During this period we received 41 disputes/chargebacks from those 4,463 transactions, which equals 0.92% of all direct card transactions. Of these 41 disputes/chargebacks, 19 belong to JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. All 19 disputes were for “defective product,” and all 19 were closed in favor of the buyer without the return of the merchandise. We had similar disputes with other banks where the bank conditioned the refund on the customer returning the product.

Here you can see the chart with all these disputes.

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JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. is always taking the side of the customer once a dispute is opened. Although 19 disputes is not a large number, the pattern is clear. JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. allows its customers to cheat and steal by ignoring any return requirements, even when a prepaid return label is provided. It is hard to say whether this is intentional or simply general bank policy, but we had one customer who won a chargeback from JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. and then ordered more paintings on our site a week later. He had the audacity to complain when we refunded his order and blocked his profile. As a matter of fact, we block every single profile that opens a dispute.

If you cannot go through normal return protocols and instead involve your bank, we do not wish you as a customer. Every chargeback costs us $20 to $50 on top of the refund. We have customer service staff. We have a flexible return and exchange policy of 90 days. All you need to do is ask for an exchange or return with a prepaid return label. We will never allow a customer to keep the painting and get their money back. In some rare cases we do it for repeated customers who order very frequently. Almost all banks side with us on the necessity of the return in order to provide the refund in a dispute—except JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A.

It makes me wonder whether this bank promotes this kind of abusive behavior or whether they simply go by the old saying “The customer is always right.” The numbers suggest that most customers resolve their issues with our customer service, but there will always be a very small percentage who wish to abuse the system.