Chargeback Policy

What Is a Chargeback

Upmos Inc. (“Upmos,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) is a Delaware corporation (registered office c/o Republic Registered Agent LLC, 262 Chapman Rd Ste 240, Newark, DE 19702, New Castle County), with its principal place of business at 9896 Bissonnet St, Houston, TX 77036, United States. Upmos operates an e-commerce marketplace at upmos.com. This Chargeback Policy (the “Policy”) describes how Upmos administers payment-card chargebacks on the marketplace, allocates liability between Upmos and vendors, and coordinates with the buyer-protection program described in the Upmos Guarantee.

A “chargeback” is a forced reversal of a payment-card transaction initiated by the cardholder (buyer) through the cardholder’s issuing bank, typically because the cardholder disputes the charge for one of the following reasons:

• The transaction was unauthorized (true fraud, including stolen or compromised card credentials);
• The product was not received;
• The product received did not match the description;
• The cardholder reasonably believed the charge was a duplicate or processing error;
• The merchant did not provide a promised refund or credit;
• The cardholder authorized the transaction but later disputes it (commonly referred to in industry usage as “first-party misuse” or “friendly fraud” — see Section 7 for important limitations on this label).

Chargebacks are administered under (a) the operating rules of the major card networks (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover); (b) for U.S.-issued credit cards, the Fair Credit Billing Act (15 U.S.C. § 1666 et seq.) and Regulation Z (12 CFR Part 1026); and (c) for U.S.-issued debit cards and other consumer electronic-fund transfers, the Electronic Fund Transfer Act (15 U.S.C. § 1693 et seq.) and Regulation E (12 CFR Part 1005). The buyer’s rights under those statutes are non-waivable (see, e.g., 15 U.S.C. § 1693l). Buyers experiencing item-not-received, item-not-as-described, or unauthorized-charge issues should first attempt resolution through Upmos’s Upmos Guarantee; nothing in this Policy limits a buyer’s right to pursue a billing-error or unauthorized-transaction dispute directly with the cardholder’s bank.

Liability Allocation

Upmos handles chargebacks under the following allocation:

Chargeback Fees

Each chargeback received from a payment network incurs a network-imposed chargeback fee (currently $15–$25 per chargeback depending on the network, processor, and program). The fee is assessed to the vendor regardless of disposition, except where the chargeback is fully reversed in the vendor’s favor and the network and processor (e.g., Stripe) refund the fee under their published fee-refund rules; accepting liability or refunding the buyer outside the network process does not trigger a fee refund. Excessive chargeback ratios may trigger additional per-chargeback assessments and mandatory enrollment in the network’s chargeback-monitoring programs — see Section 8 below.

Notification Timeline

When Upmos receives a chargeback notification from the card network, we will notify the affected vendor within twenty-four (24) hours via the vendor dashboard and the email address on file. The notification will include the chargeback reason code, the disputed amount, the buyer’s chargeback narrative (if available), the network’s evidence-submission deadline, and instructions on how to submit a representation.

Vendor Representation

To dispute a chargeback, the vendor must submit a complete representation package via the vendor dashboard within seven (7) calendar days of notification. Effective representation includes:

• Proof of delivery (tracking number, carrier-confirmed delivery to the cardholder’s address);
• Order details (item description, quantity, price, date);
• Communications with the buyer (chat, email);
• Photos of the product condition at shipment;
• Any signed delivery confirmation or photo evidence of delivery;
• Any policy disclosures (return policy, restocking fee, shipping terms) shown to the buyer at checkout.

Upmos reviews the representation, may add platform-level evidence (IP geolocation, device fingerprint match, prior account behavior), and submits the package to the network. Outcomes are reported through the dashboard.

Acceptance of Liability

A vendor may elect, in lieu of representing, to accept liability and refund the buyer. This may be preferable for low-dollar disputes, when the buyer is correct, or when the vendor’s representation package is incomplete. Important: accepting liability does not remove the chargeback from the vendor’s network chargeback ratio — the chargeback has already been filed and recorded by the issuing bank. Only a network-reversed (won) chargeback is excluded from the ratio. Acceptance does, however, end the dispute promptly and avoid further representation costs.

Friendly-Fraud Defense

“Friendly fraud” (also called first-party misuse) is industry shorthand for a transaction that the cardholder authorized at checkout but later disputes through the card-network chargeback process — for example, by claiming non-receipt of a delivered item. It is the most common form of chargeback. To defend against friendly fraud, Upmos and the vendor jointly rely on:

• 3-D Secure 2 / Strong Customer Authentication at checkout (which produces a liability shift in most networks);
• Delivery confirmation and AVS/CVV match data;
• Behavioral signals (returning customer, IP/device fingerprint match with prior orders);
• Compelling-evidence programs offered by the networks (Visa Compelling Evidence 3.0, Mastercard First-Party Trust Program, Amex Order Insight, Discover Dispute Insights).

Excessive Chargeback Threshold

A vendor whose chargeback ratio (chargebacks divided by transaction count or sales volume) exceeds a card-network monitoring threshold for two consecutive months is enrolled in Upmos’s Excessive Chargeback Program. Current network thresholds (subject to change by the networks) include:

• Visa — Dispute Monitoring Program (VDMP): 0.9% disputes ratio with 100 or more disputes per month; Fraud Monitoring Program (VFMP): 0.9% fraud-to-sales ratio with $75,000+ in fraud per month.
• Mastercard — Excessive Chargeback Program (ECP): 1.5% chargeback-to-transaction ratio with 100+ chargebacks per month; Excessive Chargeback Merchant (ECM): 3.0% ratio.
• American Express — Excessive Disputes Program: typically applied at or near a 1.0% disputes ratio.
• Discover — Dispute Resolution Monitoring System (DRMS): typically applied at or near a 1.0% disputes ratio.

Upmos’s Excessive Chargeback Program includes (i) elevated rolling reserves, (ii) mandatory remediation training, and (iii) potential suspension or termination of marketplace participation if the ratio is not brought below the applicable threshold within the next two monthly cycles. Reserve and termination actions are also documented in the Marketplace Participation Agreement.

Recordkeeping

Upmos retains chargeback representation packages, network correspondence, and outcomes for not less than four (4) years.

Contact

Email: chargebacks@upmos.com

How Can You Contact Us About This Policy?

If you have any further questions or comments or wish to report any problematic Content or Contribution, you may contact us by:

General Contact

• Phone: 1-855-637-2433 (Mon–Fri, 9 AM–5 PM CT)
• General Support: support@upmos.com
• Report Issue: upmos.com/report
• Send Feedback: upmos.com/feedback

Department Directory

Mailing Address

Upmos Inc.
9896 Bissonnet St
Houston, TX 77036
United States