Not legal or financial advice. This page is not a substitute for your processor's retrieval / soft request console, card-network inquiry rules, acquirer playbooks, a licensed attorney, or your judgment. It describes a merchant ritual: use Pingpong to write a clear retrieval response and attach what the issuer asked for before the window closes or the case hardens into a chargeback. Nothing here coaches cardholders on opening inquiries or inventing claims.
A retrieval request (sometimes called a soft request, inquiry, or request for information) lands quieter than a chargeback. No fee yet in many stacks. Ops treats it like spam. Support files it under "they will probably drop it." One model already drafted a shrug email. The social risk is treating silence or a vague reply as free. Many retrievals that go unanswered or poorly answered become formal disputes with a shorter clock.
People searching how to respond to a retrieval request, chargeback soft request, or request for information merchant reply usually get processor help articles and forum war stories. Those can help. This page is narrower. It treats the retrieval reply as a written object that should answer the issuer's ask without oversharing, without arguing a chargeback you have not received yet, and without inventing proof.
This is distinct from respond to a chargeback (formal dispute / representment after a chargeback posts) and from respond to a fraud claim (fraud / unauthorized claim type). A retrieval is often the early ritual. Primary writing page: write your dispute description. CASE MAKER letterhead PDF path (first PDF free, then $9/PDF or 5-pack $29 when export ships): win disputes. Hub: dispute cases.
Use Pingpong to write your retrieval response. Paste the request text, what documents the issuer named, order facts, and what you can actually attach. Default chain: Grok, then Perplexity, then ChatGPT, then Gemini, then Claude. Later labs catch over-arguing, missing receipts, and attachments that invite a harder dispute. Brand: Pingpong at pingpongit.com. Not getpingpong.ai.
Definition: What is Pingpong. Mechanism: How it works. Founders: For founders.
Your first eligible web review is free. Web Plus $19.99/month, web Pro $124.99/month. iOS: three free Pingpongs, then Plus $24.99/month or Pro $59.99/month. Start free on pingpongit.com. Full table: pricing.
Pays-for-itself framing: one retrieval answered cleanly that never becomes a chargeback can save fees and ops time that dwarf a month of Plus. No win-rate promises. Response quality only.
Retrieval / soft request is a different social object than a chargeback
Issuers ask for information. Processors surface it as retrieval, inquiry, or request for information depending on stack and network. The merchant act is to return the asked-for documents and a short, factual narrative on time. It is not yet representment. It is not a place to prosecute the cardholder. It is also not a free pass to ignore the notice.
What usually breaks retrieval replies: silence until the case upgrades; pasting a full chargeback rebuttal letter when the issuer only asked for a receipt and shipping proof; uploading unlabeled screenshots; arguing fraud theory before a fraud code exists; tone that lectures; missing the reply window; waiting for a perfect PDF while a soft request hardens into a chargeback.
Hard line: legitimate merchant response only. If the sale was wrong, refund early. Do not fabricate documents to satisfy a soft request.
The merchant ritual before you reply to a retrieval
Read what the issuer actually requested. Match attachments to that ask: receipt, invoice, shipping and delivery proof, terms the buyer saw, cancel or refund path, authorization notes if named. Draft a short cover description that lists what you attached and answers the ask in plain language. Run Pingpong on the draft plus the inventory. Ask: does this over-argue, under-prove, or invite a chargeback with bad tone? Edit. Upload. Submit on time. Keep a copy of what you sent.
If a chargeback follows anyway: respond to a chargeback. Compelling pack habit: compelling evidence for chargebacks. Related irreversible-submit habit: Catch AI mistakes before you commit.
How the five-model handoff works on a retrieval reply
Example shape: Processor PROCESSOR, retrieval or inquiry ID ID, issuer request text TEXT, amount AMOUNT, order ORDER_ID, documents requested LIST, documents I can attach LIST, deadline DATE. Write my merchant retrieval response description, map each attachment to the issuer ask, flag over-arguing, and list what to omit. Do not invent proof I did not list.
Grok drafts. Perplexity through Claude review in sequence. You leave with a tighter reply and a gap list. Architecture: Sequential vs parallel AI. Framing: AI second opinion. Debias: Debias AI.
Letterhead PDF path (and what is live today)
Today Pingpong writes and pressure-tests the retrieval cover description and checklist you paste into your processor. The CASE MAKER lander for a letterhead pack outline is win disputes: first PDF free, then $9/PDF or 5-pack $29 when export ships. One-click PDF export is not a live product button today. Do not delay a soft request waiting for it. Use the sequential review now. Existing API orientation: developer docs.
When to skip
Skip for trivial inquiries you already answered with a clean receipt, counsel-owned cases, and sales you already know you will refund. Save the free eligible review when the issuer ask is ambiguous, the attachment pile is messy, or a soft request looks likely to harden into a mid-ticket chargeback.
Related
Hub: dispute cases. Write the response: write your dispute description. CASE MAKER: win disputes. Neighbors: respond to a chargeback, respond to a fraud claim, compelling evidence for chargebacks, dispute representment, Amex dispute evidence. Processors: Stripe, Braintree, PayPal, Shopify. Buyer-side distinct: before you file a chargeback. Pricing.
Run it before the soft request hardens
Restate the issuer ask, evidence inventory, and deadline as one question: write and pressure-test my retrieval response. Run Pingpong once. Keep survivors. Confirm in the processor UI. Start free on pingpongit.com, then Plus or Pro if the ritual sticks (web $19.99 / $124.99; iOS $24.99 / $59.99). Or the App Store.
Again: not legal or financial advice. Merchant-side retrieval response quality only. No consumer inquiry coaching.