In the most typical case, when a customer is not happy with the items they have purchased or with the service provided to them and wants to draw the store owner's attention to this problem, they will open a dispute. However, a store administrator can also open a dispute themselves if required.
A store administrator receives a special notification on the homepage of the store Admin area on all new disputes opened by customers.
Also, all threads with disputes are specially marked in the Messages list (Orders -> Messages).
As long as a dispute is open, you continue your communication with the customer via order messages the usual way, but this communication thread is given more prominence. It has a "Dispute" mark, and the customer can see that a dispute is in progress.
To open a dispute from the Admin area:
Locate the order you want to dispute in the list and open order details.
In the Messages tab of the order details page, click Open dispute.
In the popup, specify a reason for opening the dispute and click Open dispute.
As a result, a dispute will start.
As long as the dispute is in progress, its open status is highlighted in red mentioning who and when opened (like "Dispute opened on Nov 19, 2020, by Admin Admin") in the Messages tab of the order details at the top of the communication thread.
To close a dispute:
In the Messages tab of the order details, click Close dispute in the communication thread.
Confirm the action.
After that, the dispute will be closed:
Closed disputes are not highlighted in the communication thread.
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