Retailer Chargeback Dispute Guides
How you dispute a retail chargeback depends entirely on the retailer. Each one defines its own reason-code taxonomy, its own submission channel (some accept email, others require a vendor portal), and its own required evidence in its vendor and routing compliance guide. This library covers the process for each retailer we hold a vendor guide for: the channel you file through, the evidence that overturns a deduction, and the reason codes each retailer issues.
OnePublished retailer guides
| Retailer | Dispute channel | What the guide covers | Guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dollar General | Email channel, full EDI (850/856/945/754). Shortage, concealed shortage, incorrect UPC, and compliance. | Read guide | |
| Kohl's | Not published — confirm with Kohl's | Kohl's publishes no dispute channel in its vendor guides. Routing, ASN, packing, and vendor accuracy categories; the deduction notice carries the authoritative reason. | Read guide |
| Burlington | Traverse Portal (VC / FRT); email (DMQ / DMC) | Traverse Portal for vendor compliance and freight charges, email for shortage and price debits. DMQ/DMC/CMQ/CMC case IDs (DMQ shortage, DMC pricing). Shortage disputes to Vendor Relations within 6 months of check remittance, on Burlington's Shortage Dispute Form. Signed-BOL gate, and Burlington's own sealed-trailer liability rule. | Read guide |
| Bealls | Email channel, VCC/VCCO case IDs. Pricing (dominant), shortage (signed-BOL gate), and compliance/routing. | Read guide | |
| Kroger (Fred Meyer, Ralphs, Smith's) | Timing against ORAD (3% of the invoiced amount), plus the appointment and Fred Meyer GM timing fees, across Fred Meyer, Ralphs, and Smith's. | Read guide | |
| TJX (T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods) | Not published — confirm with TJX Vendor Relations | Deductions surface in Vendor Self Service as invoice type VCB, with the reason as free text rather than a code. Backup mails with the check; paid invoices drop off after 30 days. | Read guide |
| Ross Stores (Ross Dress for Less, dd's DISCOUNTS) | Not published — confirm on the Ross Partners portal | No public reason codes, fee schedule, or window. The published surface is routing: the RTS Number versus the Ross BOL Number, and the Ross and dd's separation rules. | Read guide |
Roy, our AI agent, disputes across many more retailers than the ones listed here. We publish a retailer’s detailed guide once its vendor guide is sourced, and we only publish a specific — a channel, a reason code, an evidence gate — when it is sourced, never a guessed value.
How retailer chargeback disputes work
A retail chargeback (also called a deduction or an expense offset) is money the retailer withholds from your payment because it says a purchase order shipped short, shipped late, shipped wrong, or violated a compliance rule. Winning it back is not one process. It is a different process at every retailer, and three things vary the most.
The submission channel varies
Kohl's publishes no dispute channel in its vendor guides, so it must be confirmed with Kohl's directly. Dollar General and Bealls accept disputes by email. Burlington splits its channel: vendor compliance and freight charges go through its Traverse Portal, shortage and price debits by email. Filing through the wrong channel means the dispute is never seen.
The reason-code taxonomy varies
The authoritative reason for a charge lives in the retailer's own notice, not the generic code your ERP shows. A Kohl's charge your system files under a catch-all alias is really a specific violation named on the Kohl's deduction notice. Burlington encodes the deduction type into the case ID (DMQ for quantity or shortage, DMC for a price difference, discount, or substitution).
The evidence bar varies
Several retailers hard-gate specific dispute types on a single document. A Kohl's shortage dispute will not be accepted without a bill of lading. Burlington and Bealls both require a carrier-signed BOL for shortage disputes, and an unsigned BOL does not meet their evidence bar. Knowing the gate before you file is the difference between a dispute and a wasted filing.
How Roy handles it
Roy is the agent that verifies and prepares these disputes, which ROI-AI’s own analysts review and release. It works the same way at every retailer, then adapts to that retailer’s specifics. Roy reads the deduction and identifies the retailer’s own authoritative reason code, classifies the charge into a canonical dispute type (shortage, concealed shortage, compliance, pricing, incorrect UPC, or packing), pulls the evidence that dispute type requires (the signed BOL, the EDI 856, 945, or 754 records, the invoice detail, the buyer exception email), tests the retailer’s disputable-when condition against that evidence, and produces the retailer-specific dispute packet in that retailer’s channel. Where a path is not automatable or the evidence is ambiguous, Roy routes the case to human review rather than filing a weak dispute.
The problem this addresses is structural: vendor revenue is lost to deductions and chargebacks continuously, and a large share of those deductions are disputable when the shipping and EDI evidence contradicts the claim. The work of matching each deduction to the right evidence, at the right retailer, in the right channel, before the window closes, is exactly what Roy automates.
Explore further
See the code-by-code Deduction Code Library for the meaning and disputability of an individual reason code, or start with your retail volume and get a real number from your own deductions.