Two things a difficult customer can do to hurt you without ever going to court: reverse the payment on their card, and threaten a bad review unless you cave. Both are winnable if you handle them right, and both are lost by panicking. Here is how to defend against each.
Chargebacks
A chargeback is when a customer disputes the charge with their card company and the payment gets reversed. Contractors are especially exposed, because a finished job is not something you can "return." Two things make or break it:
- The window is short. You usually have 20 to 45 days from notice to respond, and it is often your only shot. The card networks generally do not let you add new evidence later, so your first response has to be complete.
- The evidence package wins it. Send: the signed contract with the scope, any signed change orders, invoices and payment records, photos or video showing the work was completed, every text and email where the customer approved or said they were happy, a completion confirmation, and your refund policy as it was shown to them at signing.
Write it assuming the bank's reviewer has about 90 seconds. Lead with one plain paragraph ("work was completed per the contract on this date, the customer signed off, and no warranty claim was made before the chargeback"), then attach the documents, clearly labeled.
Winning still costs you, and losing does not end the debt
Two things about the outcome that nobody explains until it has already happened.
A chargeback usually costs you a fee whether you win or lose it. Processors generally charge for handling the dispute and generally do not refund it when the decision goes your way, and a business whose disputes climb as a share of its transactions can find its merchant account reviewed or closed. The exact fee and the exact threshold are your processor's, not the card network's, so go and read the dispute section of your own merchant agreement now rather than at the point you need it. That is a ten-minute job that tells you what a difficult customer can cost you.
And a lost chargeback is not a judgment. This is the part that changes what you do next. The card network has decided who holds the money for now. It has not decided who is owed it, it is not a court, and it does not extinguish the debt. If the work was done and the contract was performed, you are still owed, and every ordinary route to collect is still open to you: the demand letter, the mechanic's lien on the property, and small claims. See Not been paid? Here's your ladder of options and, if the amount is worth it, Taking a non-paying homeowner to small claims court.
Which is why the clock matters while you are fighting the chargeback. A dispute can eat a month or more, and your mechanic's lien deadline is set by statute and does not pause for it. Get your state's date from the mechanic's lien deadline tool the day the chargeback notice arrives, and protect the deadline in parallel rather than waiting to see how the dispute lands.
Review extortion
Review extortion is when a customer threatens to post a damaging review, or has posted one, unless you give them a refund, a discount, or free work. The response:
- Do not pay. Caving signals the tactic works and invites more of it.
- Document the threat. Screenshot it, with timestamps and the URL.
- Separate any real complaint from the extortion. If there is a genuine workmanship issue buried in the threat, deal with that on its own merits. Do not let a fair complaint get tangled up with an unfair demand.
- Report it to the platform. Google added a dedicated review-extortion report form in 2025, and Yelp, Angi, and Houzz have their own flagging tools.
- For provably false statements of fact, an attorney's cease-and-desist letter can sometimes compel removal. Opinions are protected, false facts are not.
- Respond publicly and calmly to any review that stays up. Future customers judge you far more by how you handle an unfair review than by the review itself. How to get more reviews the honest way covers the reply that works and the ones that make it worse.
- Do not buy your way out of it with a refund tied to the review coming down. A refund for work that was genuinely not right is a refund. A refund conditioned on a review being deleted is a payment for a review, and it puts you on the wrong side of the same line that stops you buying good ones. If the complaint is real, fix it because it is real, and ask for the honest reply separately.
- Expect it to arrive with company. A customer angry enough to threaten a review often files with the state board as well, and that is a different process with its own deadline. A customer complained to the licensing board. Now what? is the other half of the same afternoon.
The through-line
Notice the pattern: your paper trail is the whole defense. A signed contract, signed change orders, photos of the finished work, and saved messages are what win a chargeback and take the teeth out of an extortion threat. The contractor with the records wins. The one relying on memory loses.
Cut the exposure before the dispute exists
Everything above is what you do after it has landed. This is the half that decides how bad it can be, and all of it is settled when you write the terms, not when the trouble starts.
- Never let the whole job sit on one card payment at the end. A deposit and staged payments as the work passes agreed points mean the amount anyone can reverse is one stage, not the contract. That is the single biggest lever you have, and it costs nothing.
- Know what each payment method can and cannot be pulled back. A card payment carries dispute rights for months after the job. A bank transfer or a cleared check does not work that way. For a large final balance, offering a small discount for a bank payment can be cheaper than carrying the reversal risk, and it is a normal thing to ask for.
- Get a sign-off at completion, in writing. One line the customer signs or texts saying the work is finished and acceptable is worth more in a chargeback file than a hundred photographs, because it is the customer's own words on the date it mattered.
- Put the cancellation and refund terms in the contract itself, where they were shown to the customer before they paid, not on a website page you can edit later. A term the customer agreed to reads very differently to a bank than a policy you produced afterwards.
- Write the scope so "not what I expected" has an answer. Most chargebacks and most bad reviews on a finished job are scope disputes, not quality disputes. The contract that protects you (and the one that gets you sued) and a signed change order for every extra are how you stop that argument before it starts: Change orders: how to actually get paid for extra work.
- Watch for the version of this that is a scam rather than a customer. An overpayment followed by a request to refund the difference is an old trick with a new payment method attached. Scams that target contractors (and how not to get caught) has the shapes.
Common questions
How long do I have to respond to a chargeback?
Usually 20 to 45 days from the notice, and it is often your only chance, so respond fully the first time. The card networks generally do not let you add new evidence later, so a rushed or partial reply can lose a case you should have won. The moment you get a chargeback notice, pull your whole evidence package together (signed contract, change orders, invoices, photos of the finished work, and messages showing the customer approved) and send it as one complete response. Windows and platform rules change, so act on any notice immediately.
Can I win a chargeback after the work is already finished?
Yes. A finished job is not a lost cause, as long as you can document that the work was completed and the customer accepted it. Contractors are exposed because you cannot "return" a remodel, but that is exactly why the paper trail wins: a signed contract, a completion sign-off, dated photos or video of the work, and texts where the customer said they were happy. Lead your response with one plain paragraph stating the work was done per contract and accepted, then attach the labeled documents. The bank reviewer has about 90 seconds, so make it easy.
Is it illegal for a customer to threaten a bad review unless I refund them?
It can cross the line into extortion, but proving that is hard, so the practical response is not to pay, to document the threat, and to report it to the platform. Screenshot the demand with timestamps and the URL. If there is a genuine workmanship complaint buried in the threat, deal with that on its own merits, separately from the demand. Google added a review-extortion report form in 2025, and Yelp, Angi, and Houzz have their own flagging tools. Paying only signals the tactic works and invites more of it.
Can I sue a customer over a false review?
Sometimes, but only for provably false statements of fact, not opinions, and it is genuinely hard to win. Calling your work "terrible" is protected opinion; stating something untrue that you can disprove, like claiming you were never licensed or never showed up, may be actionable. For clearly false facts, an attorney's cease-and-desist letter can sometimes get a review removed. Winning a defamation suit also means proving the statement cost you real money, so document any lost revenue. For most unfair reviews, a calm public reply does more good than a lawsuit.
The honest bit
- Chargeback windows and platform rules change, so act on any notice immediately rather than waiting.
- Suing over a false review is hard: you have to prove the statement was false fact, not opinion, and that it cost you real money.
- This is general guidance, not legal advice.
Know someone who needs this?
Keep reading
Templates you might need
Was this guide useful?
Didn't find what you were looking for?
Spotted something wrong or out of date? Email us at hello@kilnguides.co.uk.
In crisis? 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline 988 ·