Managing chargebacks in the Shopify admin
When you review a chargeback or inquiry in your Shopify admin, the status of the chargeback or inquiry explains what part of the process the dispute is in. A chargeback or inquiry can have one of the following statuses:
- open: Shopify hasn't sent the response yet. You can still add evidence to the response.
- submitted: The credit card company is reviewing the evidence and making a decision about the chargeback or inquiry.
- won: You won the chargeback.
- lost: You lost the chargeback.
Refer to the section on chargebacks for more information about the types of chargebacks as well as strategies to prevent them.
If you're managing chargebacks from many small fraudulent orders, then review the guidance on card testing and repeat fraud prevention for more details.
On this page
View all chargebacks and inquiries
You can access a list of all the orders with chargebacks or inquiries that haven't been sent to the credit card company yet.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Click the Search and filter button.
Click Add filter.
From the Add filter drop-down menu, select Chargeback and inquiry status.
From the Select a value drop-down menu, select Open.
Issuer claims and issuer responses
When a dispute is opened or resolved, the card-issuing bank might provide additional details about the dispute. These details appear on the dispute page for the order in the Orders page of your Shopify admin.
Issuer claim
An issuer claim is a document from the card-issuing bank that explains why the buyer opened a chargeback or inquiry. When available, Shopify provides the following information:
- A summary of the claim based on the document contents
- The full issuer claim document for download
Issuer claims can help you understand the customer's perspective and prepare stronger evidence for your response.
Issuer response
An issuer response is a document from the card-issuing bank that explains why the bank ruled against you. Issuer responses are only available for chargebacks that escalate from inquiries and result in a lost status. When available, Shopify provides the following information:
- A summary of the response based on the document contents
- The full issuer response document for download
Issuer responses can help you understand why your evidence wasn't sufficient and improve your approach to future disputes.
Availability
Issuer claims and issuer responses aren't available for every dispute. Whether these details are included depends on the card-issuing bank and the card network. If an issuer claim or issuer response isn't present on a dispute, then the issuer or network didn't provide this information.
View issuer claims and issuer responses
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Click the order that has a dispute.
In the chargeback details section, review any available Issuer claim or Issuer response information.
Optional: Click the document link to download the full issuer claim or issuer response.
Get help understanding a dispute with Sidekick
Sidekick can help you understand disputes and provide guidance on how to respond.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Click the order that has a dispute.
In the chargeback details section, click the chargeback reason code.
Review the Sidekick guidance about your dispute.
Add evidence and submit a chargeback
Shopify automatically collects evidence and sends it to the credit card company on the due date. To increase your chances of winning the chargeback, you can add evidence to support your claim. Your progress is saved automatically as you work on the response, and you can return to edit your evidence at any time before the due date.
For product not received disputes, AI-generated insights are included in the evidence submitted to help support your case. These insights are extracted from the evidence you submit and the evidence automatically collected from your Shopify account. You can opt out of including these insights from the evidence submission form.
The type of evidence that you should add depends on the reason for the chargeback.
Collect and organize your items of evidence using the following guidelines:
- Only PDF, JPEG, or PNG file types are accepted.
- Ensure that PDFs are PDF/A compliant.
- Don't include PDF Portfolios. Merge multiple PDFs into one PDF file, when necessary.
- Ensure that each PDF has fewer than 50 pages.
- Ensure that image files are cropped appropriately, are high contrast, and are legible. Use callouts or arrows to draw attention to pertinent information.
- Ensure each evidence file doesn't exceed 2 MB.
- Ensure that your combined evidence files don't exceed 4 MB.
- Submit only one file for each type of evidence. If you have multiple files for one type of evidence, then combine them into a single image or PDF file.
- Don't include audio or video files, links to external resources, or requests to call or email for more information.
Add evidence to a chargeback
You can choose to submit your response immediately after you save your evidence, or wait for Shopify to automatically submit it on the due date. If you submit your response early, then you can't make any further edits to your evidence.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Click the order that's being disputed.
In the chargeback banner, click Add evidence.
On the Chargeback response page, review the information about the chargeback.
Enter any additional information.
Upload items of evidence.
Click Save to save your progress.
Submit your evidence for review
After you save all your evidence, you can choose to submit the chargeback response immediately.
Steps:
- On the Chargeback response page, click Submit now.
- In the confirmation dialog, click Submit to confirm that you want to submit your response early.
After you submit your response, Shopify prepares your dispute for submission and generates a response file. When the response file is ready, Shopify submits it to the credit card company, and you can download a copy of the chargeback response document from the order page.
Accept a chargeback
If you agree that a chargeback is valid, then you can accept the chargeback without submitting evidence. You can accept a chargeback from the chargeback banner on the order page, or from the chargeback response form.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Click the order that's being disputed.
Accept the chargeback using one of these methods:
- In the chargeback banner, click Accept chargeback.
- In the chargeback banner, click Add evidence, and then on the Chargeback response page, click Accept chargeback.
- Click Submit to confirm.
Chargeback responses
You have the best chance of recovering lost sales from chargebacks when you use chargeback responses compiled by Shopify for each affected order. You can add additional evidence directly from Shopify, and then Shopify sends it to the credit card company.
For product not received disputes, AI-generated insights are included in the evidence submitted to help support your case. You can opt out of including these insights from the evidence submission form.
Refunding chargebacks
You can't refund a chargeback after the chargeback process has started. A chargeback happens when a credit card company refunds a charge to the credit card holder at your expense. An order's payment can't be refunded through Shopify after a chargeback process has been started, and the funds are automatically taken from your account by the bank.
If the chargeback is only an inquiry and the funds haven't been taken by the credit card company yet, then a refund is possible but not recommended.
The credit card company refunds the customer directly if you lose the chargeback inquiry.
Chargeback fees
When a chargeback is filed, Shopify Payments is debited the full amount of the charge fee to help cover the cost of processing the dispute. You can submit evidence to have a dispute resolved in your favor. If you end up winning the dispute, then the full amount (including the chargeback fee) is returned to you.
Reversing a chargeback
If your customer has agreed that the chargeback was a mistake, then only your customer can reverse it. If you communicate with your customer and they agree to cancel the dispute, then they need to contact their bank and inform them that they want to drop the chargeback. You should also submit evidence to the customer's bank, including the statement where the customer stated they want to cancel the dispute. The following types of evidence can be submitted to your customer's bank to support your claim:
- The date and time that you fulfilled the order
- The billing information that the customer used
- The IP address and country used for the order
- Shipping and tracking information for the order
Add evidence after submission
You can edit your evidence response at any time before the chargeback due date. The due date varies from 7 to 21 days after the chargeback or inquiry is filed. The date that displays is in your store's timezone. If no specific time is displayed, then the deadline is 11:59 PM on the date that displays.
After you click Submit now to submit your response early, you can't make any further edits to your evidence.
Chargebacks and closed stores
If your store is closed or paused, then you still receive emails about chargebacks.
If your store is closed or paused, and you receive an email about a chargeback, then you need to follow the link in the email to log in and pay for a new plan to reopen the store. After you reopen your store, you can submit the additional evidence for the chargeback.