Buyer Chargeback: Contest, Fix or Accept

How to read this sheet

Contesting and fixing address disjoint halves of the same debit and neither can reach the other's. A deduction that is genuinely owed will keep arriving until its cause is removed, however well it is argued; a deduction that is not owed cannot be engineered away, because there is no fault to remove. Reading the two columns as alternatives is the mistake this sheet is built to prevent - most types want one, some want both, and a type that wants neither is being accepted deliberately rather than by default, which is the only respectable way to accept one. Contesting is priced per claim rather than per currency unit, because the hours are much the same whatever the amount. That is why frequent small deductions are usually worth arguing and rare large ones often are not, and it is the reverse of where attention naturally goes. The unjustified share is a judgement and it decides almost every row: read strictly it means the share that could be substantiated to the buyer with documents already held, not the share that feels unfair, and entering the second turns this sheet into a case for arguing about everything. Win rate should come from what this buyer has actually conceded, not from the merits. Not modelled: the relationship cost of contesting, which is real and asymmetric - a buyer who concedes a claim may still remember it at the next price negotiation; the possibility that a fix reduces claims the sheet counted as unjustified too, which would understate its return; and any deduction whose real purpose is a renegotiation of price by other means, where none of this arithmetic applies.