Is Requesting a Chargeback the Right Move? Monica Eaton Weighs In.
Monica Eaton, Co-Founder and COO of Chargebacks911, was recently asked to contribute her thoughts to a PolitiFact piece about the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe and its decision regarding recent anti-vaccine protests.
PolitiFact is a nonprofit fact-checking organization headquartered right here in St. Petersburg, Florida, and managed by The Poynter Institute for Media Studies, who also own The Tampa Bay Times. The organization's purpose is to report on the accuracy of statements made by elected officials, candidates, lobbyists, interest groups and others as they relate to US politics.
GoFundMe is currently seeing a social media backlash from anti-vaccine activists on Facebook. The focus of PolitiFact's article was on the question of whether or not people can request chargebacks for any recent payments to GoFundMe as a way to “punish” the company.
“Without knowing how many charges would be disputed, it is difficult to say how a coordinated effort to request chargebacks would impact GoFundMe,” Monica said.
PolitiFact found that while there’s a chance GoFundMe could be damaged by such an effort, there’s really no guarantee such a strategy would achieve what was intended. There are systems in place for companies to defend against chargeback abuse. Additionally, GoFundMe stated that all funds that had been contributed would be promptly returned.
“While it’s possible a sudden surge in chargeback activity could be damaging to a company, the donors’ mass effort to protest credit card charges could also backfire,” she went on. “Participating in a coordinated chargeback campaign like this would probably be seen as chargeback abuse, so a bank may choose to deny the request.”
