How Credit Card Processing Companies Handle Ticket Retrievals

Every now and then we at UniBul will get a request from one of its cardholders or directly from the card issuer for supporting data relating to some card transaction or other that was made at one of their merchants. The card issuer will particularly request documentation (what is known as a "Ticket Retrieval") from the merchant that pertains to the transaction at issue. When the request is received, the merchant is required to submit to its acquirer, who will then send it on to the issuer, a copy of the sales receipt or a refund invoice within 20 business days of the date of the request.

The merchant and its acquirer need to submit the requested paperwork by mail, e-mail or fax. If the credit card processing company does not respond sufficiently to a ticket retrieval request during the stated period, the issuer will most likely return the transaction to the merchant in what is called a chargeback. The supporting paperwork, or a copy of it, obtained by the issuer has to be legible enough for submission to the cardholder for examination or for the verification of the card account number.

In response to a ticket retrieval request showing the cardholder's signature, the merchant can submit a legible copy made with the electronic signature capture technology. To be in compliance with ticket retrieval requests for certain types of transactions, the credit card processing company may submit a substitute transaction receipt, as requested to comply with applicable requirements. In such instances, however, the issuer may subsequently initiate a dispute if any of the requested data elements stated below are missing:

• 16-digit card number.
• Customer name.
• Card's date of expiration.
• Entire transaction amount, including tips and taxes.
• Date of the transaction.
• 6-digit transaction authorization code.
• Retailer's name and location.
• Description of the product or services.

For mail order or telephone order (MO / TO) payments:

• The delivery address.

For transactions completed at cardholder activated terminals (CATs):

• The CAT's locations number or city and state.

For transactions made at an automated fuel dispenser machine:

• The service station ID number.
• The invoice number.

Still, under certain circumstances the issuer can return a formerly paid credit card sale to the payment processing provider, which will then send it to the retailer for repayment. These returned sales are called "Chargebacks." If a cardholder claims that a billing error has been made in regards to a card transaction, or if he or she contacts their issuer and complains about the quality of the items or services bought with the card at a merchant's establishment, the retailer is mandated to act in good faith to try to resolve the problem with their customer. If the customer refuses to pay the issuing bank for items or services as a result of a quality dispute, the issuer may then initiate a chargeback for the whole sales amount or the disputed portion of it, as applicable.