Customer says they cancelled the order

Visa 13.7 means the customer says they cancelled or returned something and were not refunded. Your cancellation policy is the case. You can have a clear policy and follow it exactly, and still lose if you cannot show the buyer agreed to it before the charge.

How it arrives

A 13.7 usually comes 3 to 90 days after the disputed sale. For subscriptions that is often a renewal. Your payment company (Stripe, Shopify Payments and the like) sends the notice, which carries the dispute reason (the code on your notice) and the customer's claim: cancelled and still charged, returned and not refunded, or a free trial that turned into a paid plan without their agreement. Respond before the date on that notice. Your payment company sets it, and it comes before the card network's own limit.

Subscription businesses see most of them. Stores selling physical goods see them when a refund was slow or the buyer disputes a restocking fee.

What the issuer is looking for

The customer's bank asks what the policy was and whether the buyer agreed to it. Then it asks whether you followed it.

The policy at the time of sale. A screenshot of checkout from the original sale date, or the terms the buyer clicked through, counts for more than today's terms page. Policies change, and the bank wants to see what the buyer saw.

Proof the buyer accepted. A click-through record, a checkbox state in the order log, or a confirmation email quoting the cancellation terms.

The message trail. If the buyer says they cancelled by email and you have no such email, the bank takes your records seriously, especially when you offer a documented cancellation route the buyer did not use. A refund or partial refund already issued narrows the dispute to the part not refunded.

Usage records. For software and digital products, logins at and after the renewal date weaken a claim of cancelling before it.

Common scenarios

• Subscription the buyer thought they cancelled. Your records show no request, or one outside the route you published. The question is whether that route was clear and easy.
• Return with no refund yet. If tracking shows you received the package and have not refunded, your grounds are limited. Refund the buyer and fix the delay.
• Software or course refund declined. A no-refund-after-access clause is defensible if the buyer agreed to it and used the product before asking.
• Free trial that turned into a paid plan. The strongest position is a checkout step where the buyer acknowledged the switch, with date and amount stated. A mention buried in the terms is weak.

Related codes

If the buyer cancelled before delivery and the package shipped anyway, the dispute may arrive as Visa 13.1 (customer says the order never arrived). If the buyer says the charge was not theirs, it belongs under a 10-series reason. For subscriptions only, see the narrower Visa 13.2.

How we help

Weak cancellation flows show up here as lost revenue. We draft the response from your policy as the buyer saw it, the record of their acceptance, the message trail, and usage data. If you have received one, your first response is free. Try free.