Disputes in WAITING_FOR_SELLER_RESPONSE, clock is ticking on evidence (default 10 days).
At a glance
Live count of PayPal disputes (T19xx) currently waiting for the merchant’s evidence response. The clock is ticking, PayPal’s default response window is 10 days for most case types. Miss it and the dispute auto-closes against you. Any non-zero value triggers an alert because every open case has a deadline.
| The formula | COUNT(event_code STARTS T19 AND status IN [P, WAITING_FOR_SELLER_RESPONSE]). Open T19 events, not yet resolved, awaiting your action. |
| Event code filter | T19xx only (PayPal dispute family). Includes Inquiries, formal Disputes, escalated Claims, Pre-Arbitration, and bank-routed Chargebacks. All T19 sub-types count if their status is open. |
| Status filter | P (pending review) + WAITING_FOR_SELLER_RESPONSE. Resolved cases (won, lost, abandoned, closed) are excluded. The card shows what needs your attention RIGHT NOW. |
| Why it matters | PayPal cases auto-close against the merchant if the response window expires without evidence submitted. Default windows: 10 days for buyer-protection cases (INR / SNAD / Unauthorised), 7-14 days for bank-routed chargebacks depending on card network. The case is lost if the deadline passes; lost cases count toward your dispute rate (and the 1.0% Visa cap). |
| What “evidence” means | Tracking numbers + delivery confirmation for INR cases; product photos + listing snapshots + shipping confirmation for SNAD cases; signed delivery + IP + device fingerprint for Unauthorised cases. PayPal’s Dispute Center walks you through the upload process per case. |
| Refunds | A pre-emptive refund usually closes the case in your favour without needing evidence. T11 (refund) on the disputed payment typically resolves T19 (dispute) on the next status sync. |
| Currency | n/a (count, currency-neutral). Multi-currency PayPal accounts get a single, valid open-disputes count. The dollar value is in PP Dispute Value. |
| Pending status (P) handling | P here means “PayPal is reviewing the dispute itself” not “payment is pending”. Counted in this card. |
| Seller Protection | Coverage doesn’t change whether a dispute is open; it changes whether you’ll lose money on it if the dispute is decided against you. See PP Seller Protection Coverage. |
| Page cap | 10,000 transactions per /v1/reporting/transactions call. Open disputes are sparse so the cap rarely matters; if you have > 10k open disputes you have a much bigger problem than reconciliation. |
| Time window | RT (real-time, refreshes every sync, typically every 5-15 minutes during business hours). |
| Alert trigger | > 0. Any open dispute triggers the alert because each one has a ticking deadline. |
| Roles | owner, finance, operations |
Calculation
Calculated automatically from your PayPal data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.Worked example
A US-based home-goods brand. The PayPal dispute queue at 09:00 UTC on 12 Apr 26:| Case ID | Reason | Filed | Days remaining | Amount | Evidence ready? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PP-CASE-7821 | INR (Item Not Received) | 09 Apr 26 | 8 | $124.99 | Tracking uploaded, delivery confirmed |
| PP-CASE-7799 | SNAD (Not As Described) | 06 Apr 26 | 5 | $89.50 | Listing screenshots needed |
| PP-CASE-7755 | Unauthorised | 02 Apr 26 | 1 | $349.00 | Shipped to verified address, evidence uploaded |
| PP-CASE-7740 | INR | 28 Mar 26 | 0 (today) | $52.00 | Customer called, refund issued |
| PP-CASE-7732 | Bank chargeback (Visa) | 25 Mar 26 | -2 (overdue) | $199.99 | NOT YET UPLOADED |
| PP-CASE-7720 | SNAD | 22 Mar 26 | 7 | $76.00 | Pending listing review |
| PP-CASE-7715 | Inquiry | 20 Mar 26 | 9 | $45.00 | Customer-initiated, awaiting reply |
- PP-CASE-7732 is overdue. The 7-day Visa chargeback response window expired 2 days ago. PayPal will auto-close this case against the merchant on the next batch run; the $199.99 will be debited from the next payout AND the case counts toward the 1.0% chargeback monitoring threshold. This is the single most urgent item on the queue, evidence cannot recover it now (the deadline has passed) but the merchant should still upload a chargeback rebuttal in case PayPal allows a late submission.
- PP-CASE-7755 has 1 day left. Unauthorised cases require the strongest evidence pack (signed delivery confirmation, IP / device fingerprint, billing-shipping match). The merchant has uploaded; this should resolve in their favour because Seller Protection generally covers Unauthorised when shipped to the verified address.
- PP-CASE-7740 was customer-resolved with a refund. It still appears in this card until PayPal’s status syncs catch up (usually within 24 hours of the refund). On the next refresh it should drop off.
- The merchant has 7 open disputes totalling ~$936 (PP Dispute Value shows the dollar view). At 4,820 successful payments in the rolling 30-day window, the active dispute density is 0.145%, well below the 0.9% alert; but if any of these become “lost” they count toward PP Dispute Rate which has the regulatory cap.
- Reason mix: 2 INR, 2 SNAD, 1 Unauthorised, 1 Inquiry, 1 bank chargeback. That’s a balanced distribution suggesting no single root cause is dominant. A pattern of mostly INR would point to fulfilment issues; mostly SNAD to listing accuracy; mostly Unauthorised to a fraud attack. None of these dominate here, so the operator works the cases individually rather than chasing a systemic fix.
Sibling cards merchants should reference together
| Card | Why pair it with PP Disputes Open |
|---|---|
| PP Dispute Value | Dollar value of the open queue. Combine count + value to triage. |
| PP Dispute Reason Mix | Are the open cases concentrated in INR (logistics fix), SNAD (listings fix), or Unauthorised (fraud fix)? |
| PP Dispute Response Time | Average days you take to respond. If too high, operational fix needed; if low, you’re just unlucky on case count. |
| PP Buyer Protection Win Rate | The downstream outcome card. Of cases you defend, what fraction do you win? |
| PP Dispute Rate | Trailing 30-day rate. This card is “right now”; that one is “trend”. |
| PP Chargeback Lifecycle | Lifecycle states (Inquiry → Chargeback → Pre-Arbitration → Arbitration). Helps prioritise late-stage cases. |
| PP Seller Protection Coverage | Coverage on the underlying payments. High coverage = open disputes hurt less if lost. |
| Stripe Disputes Needs Response | The Stripe twin. Multi-processor merchants often run both queues from a unified ops dashboard. |
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard
Where to look in PayPal Business:- PayPal Resolution Center, the live case queue with response-deadline countdowns. This is the canonical view, the merchant takes action here.
- PayPal Business → Activity → Disputes filter for an aggregated transactional view.
- PayPal Seller Performance dashboard for context on whether your open-disputes count is contributing to seller-performance flags.
- “Cases” tile on the home dashboard groups all dispute states (open + closed) into one number.
- “Refunds and reversals” feed includes T11 refunds, which are not disputes.
- “All transactions” filtered by status “Disputed” usually shows historical disputes regardless of current state.
| Reason | Direction of divergence | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Refresh lag. Card refreshes every 5-15 minutes; new disputes filed in between are not yet visible. | Vortex IQ may be lower for the most recent few minutes | Wait for next refresh; PayPal Resolution Center is real-time. |
| Status sync timing. A dispute the merchant just refunded out of may still appear here for up to 24 hours until PayPal closes the case formally. | Vortex IQ may be higher | Refresh within 24 hours; cross-check Resolution Center for ground truth. |
| Status enum granularity. PayPal exposes finer-grained statuses (UNDER_REVIEW, OPEN, RESPONSE_RECEIVED, RESOLVED) than our simple “open / closed” bucketing. Edge-state cases may differ. | Tiny | Use Resolution Center for definitive case state. |
| Time zone. PayPal Business uses your account-configured timezone for the “deadline” countdown; Vortex IQ uses UTC. Cases that look “1 day remaining” in one view may look “2 days remaining” in the other depending on tz. | Boundary effects | Resolution Center is authoritative for response deadlines. |
| Inquiry vs formal dispute. PayPal sometimes upgrades inquiries to formal disputes mid-case. The status may change between syncs. | Tiny | Wait for next refresh. |
| Comparison | Expected relationship | When divergence is legitimate |
|---|---|---|
pp_disputes_open ↔ stripe.stripe_disputes_needs_response | Two independent queues, no equality expected. PayPal disputes typically file faster (easier buyer-side flow) and resolve faster (PayPal’s mediation is more streamlined). | A PayPal-only spike usually means a customer satisfaction issue concentrated in PayPal-paid orders (international buyers, mobile shoppers). Stripe-only spike usually means a fraud wave on card-on-file customers. |
pp_disputes_open ↔ commerce platform “open returns” | Loosely related, both signal customer dissatisfaction. | A return is a peaceful customer; a dispute is an escalating customer. Rising returns + flat disputes = generous returns policy working. Rising disputes + flat returns = something is short-circuiting your returns flow into a dispute (return RMA process broken, contact form unreachable). |
Known limitations / merchant FAQs
What happens if I miss a dispute deadline? The case auto-closes against you. PayPal debits the disputed amount from your next payout, charges a chargeback fee (typically $20), and the case counts toward your dispute rate (which has the 1.0% Visa/Mastercard regulatory cap). Missing deadlines is the single most-avoidable cause of merchant losses in the dispute flow. Can I just refund the dispute to make it go away? Yes. A refund issued through PayPal usually closes the case in your favour without needing evidence (PayPal interprets it as resolution-by-mutual-agreement). The refund counts as a refund, not a lost dispute, so it doesn’t hit your dispute rate. The trade-off: refund cost vs evidence-and-defend cost. For low-value cases (< $50), refunding is almost always cheaper than the operational time of building an evidence pack. What evidence wins PayPal disputes? Depends on case type:- INR: tracking number with carrier delivery confirmation. Tracking that shows “in transit” but never delivered usually loses; tracking that shows “delivered” usually wins.
- SNAD: original product listing screenshot, shipping photos showing the item packed correctly, return policy clearly visible to buyer at purchase.
- Unauthorised: signed delivery confirmation (especially for high-value), IP address match between order and historical buyer logins, billing-shipping address match.
- Inquiry (informal): just respond promptly with a polite explanation. 60% close without escalating.
IN [P, WAITING_FOR_SELLER_RESPONSE] filter excludes briefly. Wait one refresh; if the gap persists, PayPal Resolution Center is authoritative.
Are inquiries counted here?
Yes if they’re awaiting your response. Inquiries are early-stage cases where the buyer asked PayPal to mediate without filing a formal dispute. They have shorter response windows (typically 7 days) but most close in your favour after a polite reply explaining the situation.
How do I respond to bank chargebacks routed through PayPal?
Differently from buyer-protection cases. Bank chargebacks (the 2 in our worked example) are filed by the issuing bank under Visa or Mastercard rules; PayPal forwards them to you with a network-specific evidence template. Win rates are lower (typically 25-35%) because card networks have stricter evidence requirements than PayPal’s own buyer-protection programme. Pre-emptive refund usually doesn’t close them, the bank has already moved the money.
The card shows 0, am I done forever?
No, just for now. New disputes can be filed up to 180 days after the original payment. Watch PP Dispute Rate Trend for the trailing trend; if disputes are filed weeks or months after orders, you’ll see a long tail.
Why is the alert at >0 not a higher threshold?
Because every open case has a deadline. Even one open case with 8 days left can become a lost case at day 11 if forgotten. The card is binary-by-design, when it’s non-zero, action is required. For trend-monitoring use PP Dispute Rate instead.
Can I bulk-respond to multiple disputes at once?
PayPal Resolution Center supports per-case responses only. There’s no bulk-evidence-upload UI in PayPal Business. Some third-party dispute-management apps integrate with PayPal’s API to streamline the flow; for high-dispute-volume merchants those tools pay back quickly.
My multi-currency PayPal account, does this card work?
Yes, count-based metrics are currency-neutral. A multi-currency account gets a single open-disputes count across all currencies. The dollar value (in PP Dispute Value) sums across currencies without FX, so multi-currency stores should also use the per-currency breakdown for triage.