Disputes
Automated evidence building, triage scoring, and deadline submission for Stripe disputes.
How Disputes works
How Recova handles disputes
When a dispute opens on your Stripe account, Recova receives the webhook within seconds and begins building evidence automatically. For each dispute, Recova pulls your recovery email history for the customer, prior charge history, AVS and CVV signal results, Stripe Radar scores, and 3DS authentication data.
Recova then scores the dispute with a triage recommendation, fight or accept, and a confidence percentage. Disputes with a fight recommendation and high confidence have the evidence pre-staged and ready to submit. You review, add any additional context, and submit.
| Customer | Amount | Reason | Triage | Status | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marcus Vance | $149.00 | subscription_canceled | Fight82% | Needs response | May 27 |
| James Park | $99.00 | unrecognized | Accept68% | Needs response | May 29 |
| Priya Nair | $499.00 | fraudulent | Fight71% | Needs response | Jun 1 |
| Tyler Moore | $99.00 | subscription_canceled | Fight74% | Needs response | Jun 10 |
| Harborline Group | $349.00 | fraudulent | Fight88% | Won | — |
| Raj Patel | $149.00 | subscription_canceled | Fight61% | Lost | — |
Dispute triage
The triage score
Every dispute gets a triage score from 0 to 100 and a recommendation: Fight or Accept. The score is based on the strength of the available evidence: prior charge history, authentication signals, whether a recovery email was sent and opened, and the dispute reason.
Fight recommendations
A fight recommendation means Recova found strong evidence. Common signals: customer previously paid on the same card without dispute, recovery emails were opened and clicked, AVS and CVV passed, Radar score was low risk.
Accept recommendations
An accept recommendation means the evidence is weak. Common signals: first charge on a new card, no prior payment history, fraudulent reason code with no authentication signals. Accepting costs you the dispute fee but stops Stripe's dispute rate from climbing.
Dispute reasons
The reason code affects both the evidence strategy and the likely outcome:
fraudulent— strongest case for fighting when authentication signals exist. Recova win rate: 75% on fraudulent disputes.subscription_canceled— medium difficulty. Cancellation evidence and email history matter most.unrecognized— weakest case. Customer does not recognize the charge. Win rate depends heavily on Radar signals.
Evidence building
What Recova includes
Recova stages evidence from five sources automatically:
- 01Prior charge history. All previous successful charges from the same customer on the same card.
- 02Recovery email history. If a recovery sequence ran for this customer, Recova includes the email content and open/click events.
- 03AVS and CVV results. Address and card verification results from the original charge.
- 04Stripe Radar signals. The Radar risk score and any rules that fired.
- 053DS authentication. Whether 3D Secure authentication was completed.
The uncategorized text field at the bottom of the evidence form is for anything else: shipping info, customer communications, support tickets. Add it before submitting.
File uploads
You can attach up to 5 files (JPG, PNG, or PDF, max 5MB each) to a dispute as additional evidence. Common attachments: signed contracts, usage logs, email correspondence, screenshots.
Submitting a dispute
Review the pre-staged evidence on the dispute detail page. Edit the uncategorized text field with any additional context. Click Submit to Stripe. Recova saves a draft first, then submits directly to Stripe via API.
Auto-submit
If auto-submit is enabled in Settings, Recova submits evidence automatically 24 hours before the deadline. No manual action needed. You can still review and edit evidence at any point before auto-submit fires.
Deadlines
The deadline is shown in red when fewer than 3 days remain, amber when fewer than 7 days remain. Recova sends reminder emails at 3 days and 1 day before the deadline.
Accepting a dispute
Click Accept dispute on the dispute detail page and confirm. This closes the dispute without submitting evidence. Stripe charges the dispute fee to your account but your dispute rate is unaffected. No Recova fee is charged on accepted disputes.
Use accept when the triage score is low and the customer has a legitimate complaint. Fighting weak cases costs more in dispute fees and rate damage than accepting.
Settings
Auto-submit
Enables automatic submission 24 hours before the deadline for all disputes with a fight recommendation. Disabled by default.
Product description
A plain-English description of your product. Recova includes it in the uncategorized evidence text. Helps with unrecognized and subscription_canceled reasons.
Ships physical goods
If enabled, Recova adds shipping fields to the evidence form. Disable for pure SaaS products.
Billing
Recova charges 20% of disputes it wins. The fee is invoiced at the start of the following month alongside your Recovery fee. No fee is charged on lost disputes, accepted disputes, or disputes you submitted manually outside Recova.
The Disputes page shows your MTD dispute fee in the stat cards at the top.