Give me back my money... with interest
The number of customers who dispute charges with their credit card companies is very low. My response rate is 100% and I have never lost a dispute.
Nevertheless, the first thing that happens when a customer initiates a dispute is that the disputed funds are debited from my merchant/bank account. I am also charged a flat fee.
I always contact the customer the same day I receive notice of the dispute and I send my reply to their bank immediately after that.
The dispute process is ridiculously long considering we're in 2014 and it usually takes around six weeks. I've even had customers admit they erroneously disputed the charge and they call their bank with me on the phone to drop the dispute. It still takes six weeks for my merchant to show the dispute as resolved in my favor!
That means it takes six weeks to get my money back. Thankfully my merchant also refunds the dispute fee if it's resolved in my favor, but that's six weeks where I've been unable to use those funds (including the dispute fee) and I no longer have the merchandise that I shipped.
So after six weeks, when the dispute is resolved in my favor: GIVE ME BACK MY MONEY WITH INTEREST!
Credit card companies charge their customers interest if the dispute is resolved against them. Why don't I receive interest on my money?
Throughout those six weeks my money goes somewhere. I don't know if my merchant holds onto it or if the merchant actually sends it back to the credit card issuer; even if it gets put into a lousy bank account then it would earn some interest.
The bottom line is that the funds are disputed, not stolen and the time value of money applies to merchants the same way credit card companies apply it to their cardholders.