Evidence in a payment dispute is documentation that ties one specific charge to one specific, described deliverable: the customer's own request, the price and terms shown at checkout, a dated record of what was sent, and the messages exchanged around it. Card issuers review documents rather than explanations, and the cardholder's bank decides the outcome alone. That trail starts before checkout, with a follower confident they're paying through a legitimate page — see how to tell a creator's payment page is trustworthy. Custom Work lets you offer clearly scoped commissions and services: you set the price, the scope and the delivery time, and followers submit a brief and pay before you start.
A formal payment dispute — a chargeback — is not the same thing as a follower asking a creator for a refund. Once a follower contacts their card issuer, the issuer decides: Stripe's dispute documentation states that "Stripe facilitates your case, but doesn't have influence over the outcome, which is at the sole discretion of the account owner's bank" (Stripe: How disputes work). Card networks typically allow cardholders to open a dispute within 120 days of the original payment, and once a chargeback is created the seller has 7 to 21 days to respond depending on the network (Stripe: How disputes work).
What does "evidence" mean in a card dispute?
Stripe builds a response from named evidence categories — customer_communication, receipt, customer_signature, service_documentation, product_description — and every uploaded file must be assigned to one (Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices).
Stripe states that "fraudulent disputes account for over half of all disputes," so a strong response pairs proof that the legitimate cardholder made the payment — an AVS address match, a CVC confirmation, or the purchase IP address — with proof of delivery (Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices).
For a creator payment, the useful records are the follower's original request, the price and terms shown at checkout, proof the deliverable was sent, and the messages exchanged before or after — checkout terms sit alongside the other payment details a creator can see once a follower pays, covered in what payment information a creator can see when a follower pays. A sentence like "I completed the work" is not evidence; a timestamped delivery record naming the follower and the deliverable is. Stripe's guidance for service disputes asks for "documentation showing that the service was provided to the cardholder, including the date that the cardholder received or began receiving the purchased service," and notes it "could include a copy of a signed contract, work order, or other form of written agreement" (Stripe: Dispute reason code categories).
What documentation should a creator collect before a dispute happens?
Keep the follower's request, your fixed price and scope, and a dated record of the note, files, or links you delivered; delivery is one-time. Stripe allows only one file per evidence type, so related screenshots must be consolidated per category (Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices).
| What to keep | Stripe evidence category | Where it lives on Brillay | Why an issuer weighs it |
|---|---|---|---|
| The follower's original request text | customer_communication | Order page | Shows what was asked for and paid for |
| Price and terms shown at checkout | product_description | Order confirmation | Matches the charge amount to a specific offer |
| Delivery timestamp and what was sent | service_documentation | In-thread reply, file, or link | Establishes the date the follower received the service |
| Any messages the follower sent after delivery | customer_communication | Order page | Shows the follower engaged with the delivered work |
| Charge notification sent to the follower | receipt | Stripe-generated email receipt | Confirms the follower was told what was charged |
Format limits matter as much as content: Stripe caps a dispute response at 4.5 MB combined and fewer than 50 pages across all networks — 19 pages for Mastercard — and accepts only PDF, JPEG, or PNG files (Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices). A creator does not need separate contract software to meet that bar. Because Brillay keeps the request, fixed price, and completed delivery on one order page, the core record is already together (how it works). For building the habit before any dispute arrives, see Proof of Delivery for Personalized Custom Work.
Does a screenshot of a conversation count as evidence?
Yes, with a limit. Stripe's evidence guidance for product-not-received disputes explicitly names "a screenshot of a text conversation" and "a PDF of an email exchange" as acceptable customer_communication evidence (Stripe: Dispute reason code categories). Stripe also warns that message exchanges do not establish who the cardholder is, so a screenshot supports a response rather than carrying it.
"Many businesses also include email correspondence or texts with their customer, but be aware that these exchanges don't verify identity." — Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices
Stripe recommends cropping a screenshot "to the area of interest" and circling key components such as delivery confirmation (Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices). The version that helps is trimmed to the relevant exchange while still showing a date, the follower's request, and the creator's response — not an undated fragment with the request cut out. On Brillay, the order page preserves that sequence in one place, so a creator can export it rather than reassemble a conversation from scattered apps.
What if the follower says they never received what they paid for?
Answer a non-receipt claim with proof the deliverable reached that specific follower. For digital goods, Stripe advises including "an IP address or system log proving the customer downloaded the content or used your software or service" (Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices); for services it asks for the date the cardholder received it.
A follower messaging a creator to say something did not arrive is a service conversation, not a bank-facing dispute, and the two are answered in different places. Stripe's guidance for product-not-received cases also asks sellers to state plainly "whether or not the customer attempted to resolve the issue with you prior to filing a dispute" (Stripe: Dispute reason code categories). Once a dispute is formally filed with the follower's bank, the response has to go through Stripe's evidence submission process rather than a direct reply to the follower.
How is a chargeback different from a refund request?
A refund is settled between follower and creator on the platform; a chargeback hands the decision to the follower's card issuer, which pulls the disputed amount plus a dispute fee from the seller's Stripe balance and holds it for the whole case (Stripe: How disputes work).
Visa tells cardholders they "should not start a claim unless you have tried to get a refund directly from the seller" (Visa UK: Chargeback and purchase disputes).
Until the follower goes to their bank, a refund is still something you can give them directly. After a chargeback opens, that option closes: Stripe states that while a dispute is open, "you can't issue a refund outside the dispute process" (Stripe: How disputes work). Acting early matters for a measured reason: unless a payment is covered by 3D Secure liability shift, Stripe reports that 80% of early fraud warnings convert into a fraud dispute if the seller does nothing (Stripe: How disputes work). For the wider comparison, see how to protect yourself from chargebacks as a creator and can a follower reverse a payment after you deliver.
How long does the dispute evidence process take?
Stripe puts the full dispute lifecycle at 2 to 3 months: the seller has 7 to 21 days to respond to a new chargeback, and the issuer then takes 60 to 75 days to evaluate the evidence and decide, depending on the card network (Stripe: How disputes work). The timeline cannot reliably be accelerated.
Fees are charged on a separate schedule from the outcome. In the United States the Stripe dispute received fee is 15 USD, and for disputes initiated after 17 June 2025 countering one adds a 15 USD dispute countered fee that is returned only if the seller wins (Stripe: June 2025 pricing updates for disputes). The received fee is non-refundable for businesses outside Mexico; in Mexico it may be returned if the seller wins or the cardholder withdraws, and the countered fee does not apply in Mexico or Japan (Stripe: How disputes work). Fee amounts differ by country, so a creator outside the US should read the figure for their own Stripe account country.
Expectations should be set against Stripe's own published odds: its Radar win-likelihood scale runs from a 60% chance of winning for the highest-ranked disputes down to 5% for the lowest, and Stripe writes that "even in the most favorable cases, it's very difficult to overturn a disputed payment" (Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices). Non-card methods run longer clocks: Stripe notes that local payment methods such as Klarna and PayPal typically allow customers up to 180 days to file, compared with the 120-day window common for card payments (Stripe: How disputes work).
What is the follower's side of the evidence requirement?
A follower's dispute rights run on documented deadlines, not an open-ended complaint window. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act as implemented by Regulation Z, a billing error notice must reach the creditor "no later than 60 days after the creditor transmitted the first periodic statement that reflects the alleged billing error" (12 CFR 1026.13(b)(1), CFPB).
"You must also send a written billing error notice to the card company within 60 calendar days after the charge appeared on your bill." — Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The 60-day statutory clock and the 120-day network clock are different rules, and they do not contradict each other. The 60-day deadline in 12 CFR 1026.13(b)(1) is what preserves a US cardholder's statutory billing-error rights against their own card issuer; the roughly 120-day figure is a private card-network rule about when an issuer may push a chargeback through to the seller's payment processor (Stripe: How disputes work). A cardholder past the 60-day statutory window can still have an issuer file a network chargeback, which is why a creator can receive a dispute months after delivering the work.
| Clock | Who it binds | Length | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| FCBA billing-error notice | US cardholder to their card issuer | 60 days after the first periodic statement showing the charge | 12 CFR 1026.13(b)(1) |
| Card-network chargeback window | Issuer to the seller's processor | Typically 120 days from the payment | Stripe; Visa UK |
| Seller response window | Seller to the issuer | Usually 7 to 21 days, by network | Stripe |
| Issuer evaluation | Issuer, after evidence is submitted | Usually 60 to 75 days | Stripe |
The CFPB also tells consumers to "keep copies for your records" and to log the dates of any follow-up contact. A creator keeping dated records of requests and deliveries is building the mirror image of the file the issuer expects from the follower.
How do you actually submit evidence for a payment dispute?
Follow the submission instructions in the dispute notice before its deadline, and contact Brillay support if the submission path is unclear; creators do not have a separate Stripe dashboard. The seller assigns each file to an evidence category, adds the request, price, terms, and delivery record, then submits before the deadline shown on the dispute (Stripe: How disputes work).
"As soon as a dispute is active, the only way to overturn it is by submitting evidence in a response." — Stripe: How disputes work
Missing the 7-to-21-day response window generally means the dispute is decided without the creator's side being read at all. Stripe also advises presenting evidence chronologically, grouping it by type, and keeping it concise, because "card issuers review thousands of dispute responses every day" (Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices). Because Brillay's order page already holds the request, price, and delivery record together, most of a response exists before the dispute arrives; the remaining work is exporting it into Stripe's categories.
Frequently asked questions
Does Brillay handle the dispute for a creator?
No. Brillay processes payments and pays creators out through Stripe, so a card dispute follows Stripe's standard card-network process and the creator is the party who submits evidence. Stripe is explicit that a dispute outcome sits "at the sole discretion of the account owner's bank" (Stripe: How disputes work).
Is a text message from the follower enough evidence on its own?
A single message can help but rarely stands alone, because Stripe warns that email and text exchanges "don't verify identity" (Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices). The stronger response combines the follower's original request, the price and terms, and the delivery record, each sent under its own Stripe evidence category.
What if a creator misses the deadline to respond to a dispute?
Sellers usually have 7 to 21 days to respond depending on the card network (Stripe: How disputes work). Missing that window typically means the issuer decides without the creator's evidence, and the disputed funds already debited from the balance are not returned.
Does keeping good records prevent a dispute from happening?
No — records affect outcomes, not filings, and a follower can still contact their bank inside the network's window. Stripe notes that "dispute activity is calculated based on the disputes received, not won or lost," so prevention and record-keeping are separate jobs (Stripe: Dispute evidence best practices).
No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate (pricing). Dispute fees are set and charged by Stripe, not by Brillay (Stripe: How disputes work).
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