Managing chargebacks and inquiries
When you get a chargeback or inquiry on an order made with Shopify Payments, Shopify collects evidence and sends it to the credit card company on the due date. Before Shopify sends the response, you can add additional evidence in the Shopify admin. After the evidence is submitted, the chargeback or inquiry is resolved within 120 days.
Chargebacks are decided by the cardholder's bank. Shopify can't influence or revert this decision. Shopify can assist you by providing information to dispute the chargeback.
Refer to our section on chargebacks for more information about the types of chargebacks as well as strategies to prevent them.
On this page
Chargeback status
The status of a chargeback or inquiry explains which part of the process it's in. A chargeback or inquiry can be in one of the following states:
- 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.
View all chargebacks and inquiries
You see a list of all the orders with chargebacks or inquiries that Shopify hasn't sent to the credit card company yet.
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.
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.
The type of evidence that you should add depends on the reason for the chargeback.
Assemble 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. When necessary, merge multiple PDFs into one PDF file.
- 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.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Click the order that's being disputed.
In the chargeback banner, click Submit response.
On the Chargeback response page, review the information about the chargeback.
Enter any additional information.
Upload items of evidence.
Click Submit response.
Accept a chargeback
If you agree that a chargeback is valid, then you can accept the chargeback without submitting it for inquiry.
Steps:
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.
Click the order that's being disputed.
In the chargeback banner, click Submit response.
On the Chargeback response page, click Accept chargeback.
Click Submit response.
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.