Receiving funds once a credit card dispute is awarded in my favor

January 3, 2025 9:17 AM

Is there a law that states that a retailer must pay back funds awarded to the customer in a credit card dispute? How would this be enforced when a retailer is reluctant to credit back the money owed?

Last August I bought a metal shed off Amazon. It was assembled, per the instructions, by 4 skilled workers. After the first rain here in the SF Bay Area in early October I discovered the shed leaked both from the roof and at all sides on the ground. I called Amazon immediately to see what compensation might be forthcoming since the product description could not have been more misleading. It stated this shed would be watertight, sturdy, made of quality metal, etc etc. It is none of those things.
Because the return window had closed 30 days after the purchase date they wouldn't entertain any sort of compensation. Not for their faulty and misrepresented shed, or for the items damaged IN the shed. After several attempts I filed a dispute with Chase. After 30 days the determination was made in my favor. The credit should have appeared after this determination, but it has not. Amazon reps would tell me it had been made, but it has not.
In mid-December I contacted Chase again to ask about how to go about getting the funds - almost $350 - credited back to my account. Their best recommendation was to file another dispute that would take another 30 days to resolve.
What I'd like to know is if there is an actual LAW that states a retailer must refund money awarded to a customer in a credit dispute within a certain/reasonable amount of time?
At this point I'm all but done with Amazon. Any recurring payments on my Chase Amazon Prime CC have be moved to another card. I did not renew my $140/year Prime membership. And, I will never purchase anything from them again.
So... How do I actually go about getting my money back? I'd love to know. Thanks!

posted by SoftSummerBreeze to Shopping (9 answers total)

Generally, when a credit card company resolves a dispute in your favor, they immediately credit your account, and handle recovering the funds from the merchant themselves. That's the whole point of using the dispute process. The merchant has nothing to do with the process after stating their response to the case.
posted by funkaspuck at 10:01 AM on January 3 [15 favorites]

That's quite odd that Chase would tell you to file another dispute. If the dispute was resolved in your favour, Chase should have credited the amount to your account (Amazon would not credit it, Chase would). Can you call Chase again and provide the details of the dispute being resolved in your favour to ask them why that money is not in your account? Or are they saying that the dispute was initially resolved in your favour, but then reversed?
posted by ssg at 10:12 AM on January 3 [2 favorites]

I would call Chase again. And again, and again and again....My experience working at a payment processor (but not as a dispute expert) was if the dispute was resolved to the customers favor, the funds were automatically pulled from the merchant's account. In fact that often happened even before the dispute was resolved. Of course given that this is a behemoth like Amz, things could we different. Did you purchase from Amz directly or from a merchant selling on their platform. That might have made things more complicated. I think Chase messed this up, and then you didn't get a good answer when you called to follow up . Do you have the paperwork from the initial dispute?
posted by snowymorninblues at 10:14 AM on January 3

I work for a place which is subject to credit card disputes, and we have zero control over the funds once the dispute is opened - they are withheld from our account until the determination is made and if it resolves in the customer’s favor we simply don’t have it anymore. This seems like a Chase screwup to me.
posted by showbiz_liz at 10:15 AM on January 3 [2 favorites]

Yeah. I would call and/or double chec with Chase because it's on them to resolve this for you.
posted by Alensin at 10:49 AM on January 3

Chase are horrible.

Call them back and make them do it properly.

They cost me like 20K last year with their bullshit.
posted by Windopaene at 12:20 PM on January 3

And file a complaint with the CFPB!
posted by praemunire at 12:39 PM on January 3 [2 favorites]

Any recurring payments on my Chase Amazon Prime CC

Chase is in fact horrible,* and your card being specifically a Chase Amazon card probably doesn't help.

(*They once made a "mistake" where at first I didn't think to double check because surely a major, big-time bank wouldn't make that basic a mistake about something so obvious? And double down on it when I asked in person if a mistake perchance had occurred? But they did, and I'm curious to this day if they would have just pocketed the money they'd neglected to transfer to me if I hadn't double-checked the relevant regulations and written them a letter about it.)


You asked about a legal basis and hopefully you won't need to do the research on this, but as far as I can tell from a cursory search it looks like the responsibilities of the card issuer are defined in the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the Fair Credit Billing Act (FCBA). The former (and maybe the latter too?) are subject to regulations by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. According to this page, "Chargeback reversal for credit cards is governed by Regulation Z of the Truth in Lending Act".

In the quick search I did I saw references to the maximum time a credit card company can take to investigate a transaction and give you a response, but I haven't seen anything about any time requirements for crediting you with the actual refund. Still, you absolutely should not have to file a separate dispute if your original dispute was approved.

And file a complaint with the CFPB!

Yup. The CFPB says "If you’re having trouble with a credit card, you can submit a complaint to the CFPB online or by calling (855) 411-CFPB (2372)". The Federal Trade Commission says "If those steps don’t work, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau."
posted by trig at 1:21 PM on January 3 [1 favorite]

check the statements again. Chase would/should have reversed the charges right away when you filed the complaint.
posted by dum spiro spero at 6:00 PM on January 4