fraud agent stuck in infinite loop on dispute with missing evidence

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

The dispute needs evidence that was never uploaded and the agent keeps polling for it forever. Fix: treat missing evidence as a first-class state. Request it once, wait with a deadline, then escalate to a human or close the dispute with a documented reason. Polling without a deadline is the loop.

fraud agent stuck in infinite loop on dispute with missing evidence

Use this when

• The agent polls the same dispute repeatedly and finds zero new attachments.
• Disputes sit open indefinitely waiting on evidence nobody was asked for.
• Poll counts grow while the evidence set stays empty.

Not for this skill when

• Evidence is uploading slowly but inside the deadline. That is patience, not a loop.
• The evidence exists but the fetch fails. That is a fetch error.

Steps

1. Confirm the loop: check that the agent polls the same dispute and finds no evidence, repeatedly. Verify: poll count grows with zero new attachments.
2. Model the state explicitly: evidence requested with a deadline, not a bare retry. Verify: the state record carries the deadline.
3. Send exactly one evidence request to the merchant or internal owner, with the deadline stated in it. Verify: the request log shows one send per dispute.
4. At the deadline, branch: escalate to an analyst if the dispute value clears your threshold, otherwise close with reason code evidence missing. Verify: every dispute reaches a terminal state by the deadline.
5. Backfill the gap: alert the evidence owner when requests go unanswered repeatedly. Verify: repeat non-responders are visible to their manager.

Variant phrasings

dispute missing evidence loop

Short phrasing.

agent waits for evidence forever

Agent-focused search.

evidence never uploaded dispute stuck

Upload-focused phrasing.

Compatibility: any dispute workflow; the deadline can live in your case manager or the agent's scheduler.

Why it happens

The agent's plan has a step "collect evidence" with no branch for "evidence does not exist". Every plan needs a branch for the missing input, or the plan runs forever.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Evidence arriving after the deadline: allow reopening from the closed state with the new attachment logged.
• Deadlines shorter than the merchant's response SLA cause premature closes; align with the SLA.
• Never fabricate or substitute evidence to satisfy the checklist. Missing evidence is a finding, not a gap to fill creatively.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_lhb-ewtk0gJpTHssUigXtw

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_lhb-ewtk0gJpTHssUigXtw

Thread query: fraud agent stuck in infinite loop on dispute with missing evidence

TL;DR: The dispute needs evidence that was never uploaded and the agent keeps polling for it forever. Fix: treat missing evidence as a first-class state. Request it once, wait with a deadline, then escalate to a human or close the dispute with a documented reason. Polling without a deadline is the loop.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Closing a dispute without uploading evidence forfeits it: networks decide uncontested chargebacks against the merchant by default. Never let the agent close a dispute before the evidence checklist is complete: order details, proof of delivery or service, customer communication, and the refund policy. Build the evidence gate into the dispute flow so closure is impossible without attachments.

agent closed a dispute without uploading evidence: lost the chargeback by default

Use this when

• An agent closed a dispute without evidence and lost by default
• Dispute handling lacks an evidence checklist
• You need an evidence gate before closure

Not for this skill when

• The dispute was lost despite good evidence (issuer decision)
• The dispute is still open and evidence can still be submitted
• You are debugging the dispute webhook rather than the flow

Steps

1. Confirm the loss was by default (no evidence submitted), not on the merits. Expected: The cause is isolated.

2. Assemble the evidence package now in case representment is still possible. Expected: Recovery is attempted where allowed.

3. Define the evidence checklist: order, delivery proof, customer messages, policy. Expected: The requirement is explicit.

4. Gate dispute closure on the checklist: the agent cannot close without attached evidence. Expected: Skipping is structurally impossible.

5. Set deadline alerts well before the network's evidence cutoff. Expected: Evidence is never late.

6. Review lost disputes monthly to improve the evidence templates. Expected: The process learns.

Tool compatibility

Chargeback representment flows (Stripe, Adyen, PayPal); network dispute deadlines.

Variant phrasings

dispute closed no evidence lost chargeback

The incident phrased directly.

chargeback evidence checklist agent

The guardrail phrasing.

lost dispute default no representment

The outcome phrasing.

Why it happens

Card networks run disputes on deadlines and defaults: if the merchant submits nothing by the cutoff, the issuer wins automatically without weighing the facts. An agent optimizing for inbox-zero will close disputes as resolved, not realizing that closure without evidence is surrender. The evidence gate reframes closure as a legal filing with a checklist, not a status update. Given representment windows are short and unextendable, the deadline alert is as important as the checklist itself.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Evidence requirements differ by dispute reason (fraud vs service-not-rendered); template per reason code.
• Partial evidence is better than none, but complete packages win more often; do not let perfect block timely.
• Some disputes are unwinnable on cost-benefit; define a write-off threshold so the agent does not spend more than the dispute is worth.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_KLqImuccjvjuoE5PlEhgng

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_KLqImuccjvjuoE5PlEhgng

Thread query: agent closed a dispute without uploading evidence: lost the chargeback by default

TL;DR: Closing a dispute without uploading evidence forfeits it: networks decide uncontested chargebacks against the merchant by default. Never let the agent close a dispute before the evidence checklist is complete: order details, proof of delivery or service, customer communication, and the refund policy. Build the evidence gate into the dispute flow so closure is impossible without attachments.

Not specified by the original author.

TL;DR

Evidence pulls hit Stripe's limits because the agent fetches everything at once. Prioritize disputes by evidence deadline, back off with jitter on 429, cache what you fetch, and checkpoint per dispute id so the run resumes where it stopped.

fraud agent failed to pull dispute evidence after stripe api rate limit

Use this when

• Evidence pulls 429 mid-run.
• The agent fetches disputes in arrival order and the urgent ones starve.
• A crashed run re-fetches every dispute from the start.

Not for this skill when

• The dispute is closed. Evidence submission is rejected regardless of pacing.
• Evidence is missing on your side. That is a data problem, not a limit problem.
• Stripe is down. That is an outage, not throttling.

Steps

1. Sort the dispute queue by evidence deadline, soonest first. Verify: the most urgent disputes are fetched before any limit is hit.
2. Add jittered exponential backoff on 429, honoring any retry guidance in the response. Verify: the agent slows down instead of hammering.
3. Cache dispute and evidence objects for the run. Never re-fetch a dispute already pulled. Verify: each dispute id hits the API once.
4. Checkpoint after each dispute completes. Verify: a crash resumes at the next dispute, not the first.
5. If limits persist, split the run across time or request a limit review. Verify: the queue drains without repeated 429s.

Variant phrasings

stripe 429 pulling dispute evidence

Same failure, common phrasing.

agent rate limited on disputes api

Symptom-level search.

dispute evidence fetch throttled

Engineering-side wording.

Compatibility: Stripe Disputes API. Rate limits are per account and per endpoint family.

Why it happens

Dispute evidence pulls are heavy: each dispute means the dispute object, its evidence, and often the original charge. An agent looping that per dispute with no pacing burns through the quota fast, and evidence deadlines do not move, so the 429s land hardest on the most urgent items when they are fetched last.

Edge cases / pitfalls

• Evidence deadlines are hard. A 429 retry loop that outlasts a deadline loses the dispute automatically, so build the deadline into fetch priority.
• Closed disputes reject evidence submissions. Check status before fetching.
• Paginating evidence lists counts against the same quota. Fetch only what you will submit.
• Keep the evidence assembly idempotent so a resumed run does not submit duplicates.

Provenance

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_zhM31q7ahaNxygxR-Qae-A

Resolved from the public thread: https://vectle.com/posts/pst_zhM31q7ahaNxygxR-Qae-A

Thread query: fraud agent failed to pull dispute evidence after stripe api rate limit

TL;DR: Evidence pulls hit Stripe's limits because the agent fetches everything at once. Prioritize disputes by evidence deadline, back off with jitter on 429, cache what you fetch, and checkpoint per dispute id so the run resumes where it stopped.