How to use Intercom conversations as chargeback evidence

When a subscriber disputes a charge, the strongest evidence is often already sitting in your support inbox: the conversation where they asked about the renewal, used the product, or were told how to cancel. The problem is getting it out of Intercom in a form a card issuer will actually read, within the response deadline.

This guide explains what Intercom lets you export, how to pick the right excerpts, and how to attach them to a dispute response on Stripe. It relies on Intercom’s help center article on exporting conversation data, Intercom’s developer reference for retrieving a conversation and searching conversations, and Stripe’s dispute evidence best practices, dispute categories and Dispute object (all accessed November 2026).

What issuers want from support conversations

Stripe’s dispute evidence includes a customer_communication field. Stripe’s best practices page describes it as communication relevant to the case, such as messages showing the customer received the product or service, used it, or was satisfied with it. A few rules from the same page shape how you use Intercom:

• One file per evidence type. You can submit one piece of evidence per type, so combine all relevant messages into a single customer communication file.
• Excerpts, not threads. Include only the relevant parts. If you attach a long thread, remove the duplicated quoted text.
• Say whether the customer contacted you. Stripe recommends stating clearly whether the customer tried to resolve the issue with you before disputing. If they never wrote to support, that is worth saying too.
• No links, no video. Stripe notes that banks will not review external content such as links, audio or video. Everything must be in the uploaded file.
• One submission. Once you submit, you cannot add or change anything.

Stripe also gives a limit that matters: emails and chat messages support your case but do not verify identity. In a fraud dispute, a friendly chat proves that someone used the account, not that the cardholder authorized the payment. Pair it with usage and login records.

Which conversations help, by dispute reason

Stripe groups card network reason codes into categories. The ones subscription businesses see most, and the kind of Intercom message that helps for each:

Stripe category	What helps from Intercom	Pair with
Subscription canceled	Messages where the customer asked about the plan or renewal and was told how to cancel; absence of any cancellation request; continued use after the date they say they cancelled	Cancellation policy, renewal notices, usage log
Product not received	Messages showing the customer used the service, asked how-to questions, or got their problem solved	Login and access logs
Product unacceptable	Your replies showing you tried to fix the issue, and the customer’s response	Refund policy, any partial credit offered
Credit not processed	Messages where a refund was promised, denied, or already issued, with the policy explained	Refund policy, refund confirmation
Fraudulent	A support conversation from the cardholder about the purchase before the dispute	IP and device data, account history

Stripe’s guidance for cancellation disputes specifically mentions renewal notifications sent to the customer and acknowledgements of continued use after the claimed cancellation date. For cancellations, Stripe also suggests including any message showing the customer was told about non-refundable terms or offered an alternative.

How to get conversations out of Intercom

One conversation at a time

According to Intercom’s export article, a teammate can open a conversation in the Inbox, use the three-dot menu and export it. The transcript includes every reply with its timestamp, Fin and chatbot replies, and the names of customer and teammates. It leaves out internal notes, images, attachments and GIFs, which appear as text placeholders.

That is close to what you want for evidence: dated, attributed, without internal notes. If an attachment matters (a screenshot the customer sent), add it separately.

Many conversations, or automatically

For volume, Intercom points to the API. The search endpoint finds conversations, and retrieving a conversation returns it with its conversation parts, ordered oldest to newest. Intercom’s conversation model documentation notes two limits: parts are not returned when listing or searching, only when retrieving one conversation, and at most 500 parts are returned per conversation.

Each part carries its author and a creation timestamp, which is what you need for dated quotes.

Matching conversations to the disputed customer

Intercom contacts and Stripe customers are separate records. If you use Intercom’s Stripe app, it links them and syncs attributes such as stripe_id, but by default it only creates an Intercom user from a Stripe customer when both an email and a user ID are present in the Stripe customer’s metadata. Otherwise you match by email.

Be careful with that match. A customer can write from a work address and pay with a personal one, or share an inbox with a colleague. Before you put a conversation in front of an issuer, confirm it belongs to the cardholder’s account. A wrong match weakens the whole response.

Building the evidence file, step by step

1. Read the dispute reason first. Fetch the dispute in Stripe and note the reason and the response deadline (evidence_details.due_by on the Dispute object).
2. Find every conversation from that customer in the window that matters: usually from signup or the last renewal to the dispute date.
3. Pick the messages that answer the reason. For a “subscription canceled” dispute, the key questions are: did the customer ever ask to cancel, and did they keep using the product after the date they claim?
4. Quote, with dates and authors. Use the format “2026-09-14 10:32 UTC, customer (jane@example.com): …” Do not paraphrase what the customer said; quote it.
5. Write a two-line summary at the top of the file: what the conversations show, and whether the customer contacted support before disputing.
6. Combine into one PDF with your other customer communication (renewal reminder emails, cancellation confirmations).
7. Keep it short. Stripe asks for a succinct, chronological package. Three relevant excerpts beat forty pages of transcript.

What not to do

• Do not include internal notes. They were written for your team, can read as dismissive, and are not communication with the customer.
• Do not edit the customer’s words. Trim around them, but never change them.
• Do not reply to the customer about the dispute in a way you would not want an issuer to read. Stripe recommends keeping a record of all communication during the dispute; assume it may be read.
• Do not refund outside the dispute. Stripe’s How disputes work page says you cannot issue a refund outside the dispute process while a dispute is open.
• Do not count on a withdrawal. If the customer promises to withdraw the dispute, Stripe’s withdrawal guidance is to still submit evidence.

Preventing the next one from the inbox

The same conversations often show a dispute coming. A customer who writes “I never signed up for this” or “why was I charged again?” is one unanswered message away from calling their bank. Tag those conversations, answer them fast, and make cancelling or refunding easy when it is warranted. A refund the customer asked for is cheaper than a lost dispute plus its fee.

Doing this with NoChurn

NoChurn reads Intercom conversations through a read-only connector and matches them to customers by email; doubtful matches are suggested for you to confirm, never merged automatically. When a dispute opens on Stripe or Braintree, NoChurn gathers the evidence automatically, including dated verbatim excerpts from those conversations, cancel flow answers, emails sent and usage, and drafts a reply with AI. Nothing is sent to the processor until a person on your team has reviewed it. Intercom itself is unchanged: replying, tagging and closing stay there. See NoChurn + Intercom.