<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by QuietLion:
I always do both simultaneously. But you should always call the merchant first and whether or not they agree to the refund, then dispute the charge to protect your rights.</font>
The thing is, as soon as you do a chargeback you've cost the merchant extra money, regardless of the outcome. I think it's nice to give the company the opportunity to fix their error without having to involve the credit card company, and unless the charge is more than a few months old you don't forfeit your right to a chargeback if the merchant doesn't fix it. It's certainly the way I'd like to be treated if I had made the error ...
Besides, unless you think the merchant is going to give you the run-around, letting the merchant fix it is usually a faster way to get the entire issue resolved (yes, any credit card company will credit you the money immediately, but the issue is still not ultimately resolved for weeks in a best case scenario).