Disputes, Refunds and Exceptions

When a sale goes wrong, Babylon gives you a ladder of tools. An order issue is the first step: the buyer and seller trade evidence and offers themselves. If that fails it can become a dispute, which you review and resolve, and resolving a dispute is what actually refunds the buyer or releases money to the seller. Separately, you can refund or cancel an order directly, and Babylon raises financial exceptions when money does not add up. This guide covers all of them. Payout statuses are explained in Orders, settlements and payouts.

Before you start

These are the permissions involved. See Team members and roles to grant them.

• Order Issues: access admin panel and either view disputes or review disputes.
• Disputes: access admin panel and one of view disputes, review disputes or resolve disputes to see the list.
• Moving a dispute through review and mediation, or cancelling it: review disputes.
• Resolving a dispute: resolve disputes to see the action and refund orders for it to succeed. Give both to anyone who resolves disputes.
• Refunding an order: refund orders. Cancelling an order: cancel orders.
• Financial Exceptions: access admin panel and view financials.
• Insurance claims: view insurance claims, review insurance claims and approve insurance claims.

Order issues

Post-Sale → Order Issues shows problems buyers have raised against an order before any formal dispute, such as an item not arriving, with a count on the sidebar item. The screen is read-only for your team: buyers and sellers raise issues, exchange evidence and make offers themselves, and you step in only if the issue is escalated to a dispute.

Each issue shows the order and buyer, the reason (Not received, Damaged, Not as described, Wrong item / missing parts, Counterfeit, Safety issue or Other), the status, the counterparty and their role, how the order was fulfilled (Seller fulfilled or Concierge fulfilled), any linked dispute and Dispute Type (Tier Challenge or Authenticity Challenge), and when the issue becomes eligible for escalation.

Statuses run: Issue opened, Awaiting counterparty, Eligible for escalation, Dispute opened, Under review, Resolved and Closed.

Open an issue to see three extra tabs before you decide anything on a related dispute:

• Evidence: files each party submitted, and who submitted them.
• Offers: offers made between the parties, their amount, whether a return is required, status, expiry and when accepted.
• Platform Review Requests: who asked for platform review, why they were eligible, its status and any admin notes.

The header links to View Order, View Dispute (once escalated), View Buyer and View Counterparty.

Disputes

Post-Sale → Disputes lists formal disputes, with a count on the sidebar item.

Tabs and statuses

The tabs are All Disputes, Filed, Under Review, In Mediation (each with a count), Resolved and Cancelled. A dispute moves through these statuses:

• Filed: raised and waiting for you to pick it up.
• Under Review: you are looking at it.
• In Mediation: you are working with both parties towards an outcome.
• Resolved: an outcome has been recorded, and any refund has been made.
• Cancelled: closed without an outcome.

Dispute types are Not Received, Not As Described, Damaged, Wrong Item, Counterfeit and Other. Older disputes may show Not As Described (legacy).

Working a dispute

Open the dispute first. The page shows the buyer's description, links to any Evidence they submitted, the Linked Issue if it was escalated from an order issue, the order details, and who reviewed or resolved it. Review the evidence and the linked issue's offers before deciding on money.

Then use the row's More actions menu on the Disputes list:

1. Mark Under Review (on Filed disputes, review disputes). You can also select several filed disputes and use the bulk Mark Under Review.
2. Mark In Mediation (on Under Review disputes, review disputes), if you need to mediate.
3. Resolve Dispute (on Under Review or In Mediation disputes). Choose a Resolution Outcome, enter a Refund Amount (labelled with the order's currency symbol) if the outcome is a refund, and write Resolution Notes (required). Confirm to apply it.

The Edit button (with refund orders) only lets you change the internal admin notes, which are never shown to the buyer or seller. Status, outcome, refund amount and resolution notes can only be set by the actions above.

What each outcome does

• Refunded: refunds the buyer the amount you enter, through the original card payment, and marks the order Refunded.
• Partial Refund: refunds the amount you enter, marks the order Completed, and recalculates the seller's payout on what remains.
• Seller Released: no refund. Marks the order Completed and recalculates and reopens the seller's payout so it can proceed.
• Cancelled: no refund. Marks the order Completed and reopens the seller's payout, as for Seller Released, but records that the dispute was cancelled.

Enter the refund in major units of the order's currency (for example 25.00); the label shows that currency's symbol. If your payment collection model is Deposit only, Babylon can only refund what it collected, so a larger amount is reduced to the deposit. On deposit only orders the seller's payout is not recalculated. A refund needs a completed card payment on the order; for an order paid offline, resolving with a refund outcome fails and you must refund the buyer yourself.

If your payout rules include a hold, a payout reopened by a resolution is placed on hold again. See Payments and checkout.

Amounts on the dispute page are currently displayed in pounds sterling whatever the order currency. Check the order itself for the correct currency.

Cancelling a dispute

Cancel Dispute (review disputes, any dispute not yet resolved) closes the case with a required Cancellation Reason. Unlike resolving with the Cancelled outcome, it does not change the order or the payout. Use it for disputes raised in error or withdrawn; use Resolve Dispute when the order and payout need to move on.

Refunding an order

You can refund without a dispute, for example as a goodwill gesture.

1. Go to Post-Sale → Orders and find the order. It must be Paid or Completed.
2. Open the row's More actions menu and choose Process Refund. It only appears if you have refund orders.
3. Enter the Refund Amount (labelled with the order's currency symbol). It defaults to the order total. As with disputes, enter major units of the order's currency.
4. Enter a Refund Reason (required) and confirm.

Things to know before you refund:

• The refund goes back through the order's most recent card payment, and cannot exceed what is still refundable on that payment. If the order was paid offline there is no card payment to refund and you will see "No charge transaction found for this order."
• On Deposit only orders only the deposit was collected, so reduce the amount to at most the deposit.
• A refund of the whole amount charged marks the order Refunded. A smaller refund leaves the status unchanged and is noted on the order.
• Test orders are refunded with your Stripe test keys, so no real money moves.
• Processing a refund does not recalculate the seller's payout. A payout sent through Stripe that has not gone yet is stopped and marked Failed with a reason beginning "Refund processed after payout was scheduled" when it is next attempted, and needs rescheduling; contact Hammerd support if that happens. For manual payouts, reduce what you pay the seller yourself before using Mark Paid Manually. If the payout has already been paid, recover the money from the seller outside Babylon. Where the buyer is disputing the sale, resolving the dispute with Partial Refund is usually better, because it recalculates the payout for you.
• Stripe refunds cannot be undone from Babylon.

Cancelling an order

Cancel Order is in the row's More actions menu on Post-Sale → Orders. It is only available for orders in Pending Payment, and only to staff with cancel orders. Add an optional Cancellation Reason; it is saved in the order's notes. The order becomes Cancelled. Orders that have been paid cannot be cancelled; refund them instead.

Financial exceptions

Post-Sale → Financial Exceptions lists money problems Babylon has caught automatically: a payment that will not reconcile, a failed payout, a settlement that does not add up, or anything Reconcile Selected on the Payouts page could not repair. You cannot create one by hand. An empty list means nothing is currently out of place.

Each exception has a status (Open, Triaged or Resolved), a severity (Low, Medium or High), a type and a summary. Filter by status, severity or created date.

To clear one:

1. Investigate using the summary, the related order or payout, and Post-Sale → Escrow Activity.
2. Fix the underlying problem, for example by retrying a payout or contacting the buyer.
3. From the row's More actions menu choose Resolve, enter Resolution notes (required) and confirm.

Resolve only records that you have dealt with the exception. It does not move or correct any money itself. There is no action to mark an exception Triaged. If you cannot work out the cause, contact Hammerd support with the exception's details.

Insurance claims

Insurance claims record loss or damage in transit against a shipment's cover. The Insurance Claims screen is not in the sidebar, and in the current version the Post-Sale overview does not link to it either. If your team needs to work claims, contact Hammerd support for access.

Once you have the screen open, claims show the related dispute and order, the claimant, claim type (Damage, Loss, Fraud or Other), the claimed and approved amounts, and status. The row's More actions menu offers:

• Mark Under Review: on Pending Review claims, with review insurance claims.
• Approve Claim: on Pending Review or Under Review claims, with approve insurance claims. The form asks for an Approved Amount (labelled with the order's currency symbol) and Review Notes, but in the current version only the approval itself is saved, not the amount or notes. Keep your own record of the agreed figure.
• Reject Claim: on Pending Review or Under Review claims, with review insurance claims. A Rejection Reason is required.
• Mark as Paid: on Approved claims, with approve insurance claims. This records that the claim was paid; it does not move any money.
• View Dispute and View Order.

Claim amounts are displayed in pounds sterling.

Common questions

Resolve Dispute failed with a permission error. The person resolving needs refund orders as well as resolve disputes.

Can I reopen a resolved dispute? No. Resolved disputes cannot be changed from the admin. Contact Hammerd support.