How to Dispute a Chargeback with Macy's

Where a Macy's deduction's detail lives

Macy's publishes deduction detail on macysnet. Its Vendor Standards list the research tools open to registered macysnet users: Chargebacks and RTVs (the detail of account deductions), invoice status by invoice or purchase order number, the trial balance, check summary and detail, and Vendor Integrity Audit Results. Macy's emails details of most expense offsets to registered users through its Auto-EXO program, and images of applicable expense offsets, such as an unusable GS1 128 label, are available through Chargebacks and RTV activity. Macy's instructs vendors not to request those images through an AP Form.

Invoice shortage and non-payment

For an invoice shortage or an unpaid invoice, Macy's asks for the invoice copy and proof of delivery. The 2023 Vendor Standards define valid proof of delivery as “a signed bill of lading or small package tracking confirmation”, and state that all proof of delivery documentation “must include the full delivery address (street, city, state).” Macy's AP contact matrix (June 2025) is more specific for invoice-payment disputes, including shortages: every inquiry “must include a full proof of delivery with final destination STREET address and invoice copy(s).”

When Macy's cannot verify receipt of an invoice, a deduction described as DM-POD REQ appears on the vendor's account. Macy's describes it as a notification to submit an Invoice Non-Payment/POD Dispute AP Form, with the invoice copy and proof of delivery attached.

Macy's Invoicing Channel and Payment Timing

Macy's 2023 Vendor Standards require every invoice as an EDI 810, matched to the EDI 850 purchase order it bills against. The vendor sends one EDI 810 per store, per purchase order, per bill of lading, matching the EDI 856 advance ship notice. A vendor unable to transmit EDI invoices mails invoices to Macy's Accounts Payable, and Macy's subjects any non-EDI invoice to an expense offset. Invoice numbers must be unique to the Macy's entity, never repeated, numbers only, and at most ten digits.

An EDI 810 invoice must carry the same terms and merchandise as the EDI 850; discrepancies between the invoice, purchase order, ASN, and physical receipt may result in delayed payment. The vendor should never enter a dollar allowance or discount on the invoice (the SAC segment): Macy's may then deduct that discount twice, once from the purchase order terms and once from the invoice.

This page's remittance and deduction sections above cover researching a deduction. For the dispute itself, see how to dispute a retailer deduction.

Expense offsets

Macy's 2023 Vendor Standards state that noncompliance with the standards constitutes consent to Macy's assessing charges and offsetting them from amounts otherwise payable to the vendor, and Appendix H lists the matters for which a charge has been established. Examples, quoted from Appendix H: a GS1 128 label that is missing or unusable, $8.50 per carton; a late EDI 856, $100.00 per receipt; not in production for EDI 810, $10.00 per invoice; merchandise shipped to the wrong location, $250.00 per receipt and $10.00 per carton and freight; a missing, wrong, or poor-quality U.P.C. ticket, $50.00 per receipt and .75 per unit, minimum $50 per receipt. Macy's notes that effective July 1, 2023, certain expense offsets increased from .60 per unit to .75 per unit.

Dispute an expense offset with the Expense Offset Dispute APForm. Pull any offset image from macysnet Chargebacks and RTV activity rather than requesting it on the AP Form, and answer the specific category the image and the offset detail show. Appendix H is the Macy's schedule for the charges it lists. Apart from the transportation offset in the public Backstage Routing Guide, Macy's Backstage expense offsets sit in the password-protected Backstage Vendor Standards, so none of these Appendix H figures should be assumed for a Backstage deduction.

Cost difference and markdown allowance

Macy's routes Cost Difference and Markdown Allowance Dispute forms automatically to the appropriate Macy's merchant, and states that responses to those inquiries reflect the merchant's response. A cost-difference or markdown-allowance dispute is therefore decided by the Macy's merchant.

Freight

Macy's does not reimburse freight charges incurred by the vendor, for example prepaid freight or the vendor's own carrier. Freight is deleted from any merchandise invoice that includes freight charges, and the invoice is paid net of freight. The Macy's Backstage Routing Guide sets the same rule for Backstage: unless the Macy's Transportation Office pre-approves otherwise, freight charges must be on a collect or third-party bill basis, and merchandise invoices that contain freight charges are paid net of freight.

Returns (RTV)

Vendors must receive and process incoming returns by bill of lading, not RA number, and disputed items go on the appropriate RTV APForm with only one bill of lading per inquiry. Vendor claims for return shortages, damages, and non-delivery must be made within 90 days of the financial deduction from the vendor account; Macy's states that disputes over 90 days will not be investigated. This 90-day limit is specific to returns. Macy's general rule for AP Forms inquiries is 60 days from the deduction date; the Vendor Standards state the 90-day return-claim limit separately.

Macy's Backstage: what is public and what is not

Macy's 2023 Vendor Standards state: “Requirements outlined in this Vendor Standards document are not applicable to Macy's Backstage shipments, other than where noted in the specific Macy's Backstage Vendor Standards.” Backstage guides sit in a separate section of macysnet, and Macy's Vendor Onboarding Instructions state that all of them require an additional password from the vendor's Macy's Backstage buyer. The Backstage Routing Guide adds that the Backstage Vendor Standards include the Accounts Payable general information.

What Macy's publishes for Backstage is the channel: AP Forms on macysnet.com for financial transaction inquiries, with Backstage sharing Macy's column of the AP contact matrix and its proof-of-delivery instruction. No Backstage dispute window is published, and apart from the Routing Guide's transportation expense offset, neither is a Backstage expense-offset schedule; this guide states neither. A supplier shipping to Backstage should obtain the Backstage Vendor Standards from its Backstage buyer and read the Accounts Payable section before relying on any deadline.

Macy's Backstage routing and freight rules

The Macy's Backstage Routing Guide (April 2026) can be downloaded from macysnet.com without sign-in as of September 2026, although Macy's lists it among the password-protected Backstage documents, and several of its rules decide who bears a charge. Every routing deviation must be individually authorized by the Macy's Transportation Office (MTO) before shipment, buying offices are not authorized to issue routing instructions, and each authorized deviation receives an authorization number that should be noted on the bill of lading. If a carrier or destination other than the designated one is used without MTO's prior authorization, the shipment is considered FOB Destination, and all freight charges, all loss of or damage to merchandise, and detention and demurrage costs become the vendor's responsibility. The guide's transportation expense offset for using a carrier not authorized for your shipping point is “$50.00 per freight bill, plus vendor pays full freight.”

Since December 1, 2025, all Macy's Backstage purchase orders are to be routed to the Backstage Columbus, Ohio distribution center, and Backstage uses 1:1 Merge Centers for consolidation, with every bill of lading consigned to the appropriate routing destination and each final destination distribution center as authorized by Macy's Transportation. The guide treats all shipments as “shipper count” regardless of the bill of lading's indication; for palletized freight, the driver counts pallets only and signs the bill of lading as a pallet count, “said to contain” the stated cartons. Vendors must submit their own detention or demurrage charges to Macy's Accounts Payable within 30 days of delivery; that is a deadline for charges the vendor raises, not a dispute window.