Delivery platforms do not publish an evidence standard for refund disputes because their process was not built around evidence. That does not mean evidence does not work; it means you have to bring it in a form a support agent can absorb in the twenty seconds your ticket gets. This guide is the packing list.

The five things worth attaching

1. Your pass photo. A photo of the packed order, taken before the bag was sealed, with the order number visible on the sticker or receipt. This is the single most persuasive item you can own, because it is timestamped, specific to the order, and shows the food. If you do not take pass photos yet, start today; our guide to the fake photo refund scam explains why it changes everything downstream.

2. The order record. The itemised order as the platform shows it, with the acceptance and handover times. Agents can see this themselves, but putting it next to your pass photo saves them a step.

3. The customer's photo, as a file. Download the attachment from the dispute rather than screenshotting it. If the platform only shows it in-app, a screenshot is better than nothing, but say so.

4. The image check. A short, factual analysis of the customer's photo: whether it shows signs of editing or generation, where, and what the metadata says. FraudBite produces this as a one-page PDF with the score, the heatmap and the detected features; attach the PDF and quote one line from it.

5. Any prior contact. If the customer messaged you first — especially if the message included a demand — include it. Threats to review are relevant context for a quality dispute; see the review blackmail guide.

That is the whole list. Do not attach your hygiene certificate, your reviews or a paragraph about your standards. They are not evidence about this order.

The template

Fill in the brackets, delete what does not apply, and keep it under 150 words. Agents read the first three lines.

Dispute — order [number], [date, time]

We dispute this quality refund. The order was prepared and packed as ordered; our pass photo (attached, [time]) shows the items as sent.

The image attached to the complaint does not appear to depict the order as delivered: [the container/label is not ours] / [the image shows signs of editing in the area of the alleged defect] / [the file carries no camera metadata and was last saved by an editing application] / [the capture time predates the order]. Our image analysis (attached) marks the affected region and lists the findings.

We ask that the adjustment be reversed. We're happy to provide the original files or further detail.

Notice what it does not do. It does not call the customer a liar. It does not speculate about motive. It states what your evidence shows and asks for a specific outcome. That is the tone that gets adjustments reversed, and it is also the tone that protects you if the customer turns out to be telling the truth.

Describing a doctored photo without accusing anyone

This matters more than it sounds. Platforms are cautious about anything that reads as a merchant attacking a customer, and a claim you cannot prove ("this customer is a fraudster") weakens a claim you can ("this image shows signs of editing").

Use the vocabulary of the evidence:

  • "shows signs of editing in the region of…" rather than "was photoshopped"
  • "carries no camera metadata" rather than "they stripped the data"
  • "does not appear to depict the order as delivered" rather than "this is fake"
  • "the capture time predates the order" rather than "they reused an old photo"

Each of those is a statement about the file. The agent can check it, or at least see that it could be checked. Conclusions about the person are yours to draw privately.

Per-platform notes

The platforms differ mostly in where the dispute button is and how long you have; our guide to how each platform handles complaints covers that. Two habits transfer:

  • Dispute inside the window, every time it is worth it. A dispute filed late is lost regardless of evidence.
  • Keep a folder per dispute — pass photo, customer photo, analysis PDF, the text you sent, the outcome. Patterns across a month are what account managers act on.

When not to dispute

Sometimes the check comes back clean, the pass photo shows a missing side, and the customer is simply right. Refund, apologise, fix the process. Disputing genuine complaints costs you goodwill with the agents who handle your account, and a high dispute-loss rate can draw attention you do not want. The point of checking the photo first is to know which fight you are in.

The routine, end to end

  1. Photograph every order at the pass.
  2. When a refund lands, download the customer's photo.
  3. Run the check; read the score and the heatmap.
  4. If it is clean, refund and move on. If it is not, fill in the template, attach the five items, and send it inside the window.
  5. Log the outcome.

Ten minutes per dispute, and a real chance of getting the money back. To see what the image check produces before you build it into your routine, run one of our sample photos — no account needed.