Collaboration

Owned by Devan Robertson
Last updated: Oct 03, 2024 by Kristafanie Somers
3 min read

QFD supports collaboration with card merchants via Ethoca and Verifi networks.  These integrations allow issuers to attempt recovery from the merchant before initiating a chargeback with the card association.  Merchant collaboration currently only supports card transactions.

At a High-Level

Following the enrichment step, a case is created with all enabled collaboration networks.  If a refund has been promised by a merchant via any of the configured networks, all cases are closed, and the dispute moves to Pend for Merchant Credit to wait for the credit to post to the account.


Initiating Collaboration

Before a case is created with a network, it is evaluated for eligibility.  Verifi provides an API to determine if a merchant participates in the network.  Results of the eligibility check are recorded in the Audit Log.  If eligibility is confirmed, a case is created and the dispute moves to the Pend for Case status flow to wait for an outcome.  No eligibility service is available for Ethoca, but transaction details are evaluated by the system to ensure that cases are only created for eligible disputes.  Additionally, the Ethoca service is called one hour after creating the case and the status is evaluated to determine if an alert was sent to the merchant.  If an alert was not sent, the merchant is considered to be ineligible and the collaboration attempt ends.  

Checking for Updates

While pending for case status, QFD will check with the network for an updated status every 6 hours.  The dispute will stay in a pending collaboration status for 5 days while it waits for a response.  If no response is received after 5 days, it will move forward in the case lifecycle, usually to Initial Investigation Assignment, and QFD will continue to poll the network for updates.  With Verifi collaboration if the case is not closed within the 5 days it will move ahead in the work flow but will spin off a flow to complete the Verifi case closer.  When the final status is retrieved, the case is closed.  As noted above, if a refund is promised, the dispute will move to the Pend for Merchant Credit flow to wait for the credit to post to the account.  To close the collaboration case and move to the next step in the workflow, select the "Cancel Collaboration" option from the Other Actions menu in the Collaboration step.

Verifi Case Closure

Verifi requires a issuer close the case within Verifi.  This sometimes takes longer than 5 days and once the dispute moves on a new flow is initiated to complete the case closure.   Occasionally a response will be received after the dispute has been moved on and when that happens the Review Collaboration Response assignment will be created for a user to review the response.  Once the response is reviewed the assignment can be completed and the user can review the respective dispute and take action as required.  


Configuration

The following configuration options are available for Merchant Collaboration.

Setting DescriptionRead Only?Ticket Required?
Merchant Collaboration - EthocaEnable merchant collaboration via the Ethoca network?  Include pending transactions?
Yes
Merchant Collaboration - VerifiEnable merchant collaboration via the Verifi network?  
Yes
Merchant Collaboration Prioritization

Prioritize collaboration requests by Network?  When enabled...

  1. One network will be designated by the client as “primary”.
  2. Collaboration requests will not be set to subsequent networks unless one of the following occurs:
    1. The merchant does not participate with the primary network.
    2. The merchant responds via the primary network with no promise of a credit/cancellation.
    3. No response is received via the primary network within 72 hours of request.

Yes

Chargeback Rights Expiration

If, at any point during the collaboration process, the date that chargeback rights expire is less than 72 hours away, the dispute will proceed to Recovery without any further collaboration activity.