Chargeback - Return of merchandise

[ChrisMartino]

A customer filed and won a chargeback even though the shipment was verified delivered by USPS. They now have a full refund AND our merchandise. My question is how can this happen and why is there no protection for the sellers because as far as I am concerned this is fraud. It seem like 100% of the time a buyer submits a chargeback to the credit card company it is a slam dunk win.

It would appear that no matter the evidence provided to prove otherwise it doesn't matter. This was a $900.00 order we now have to eat, not including the value of our product!

Chris M
Raceline Digital

[Dirk]

Hey, @ChrisMartino 

Sorry to hear about your chargeback situation. Unfortunately, they are a part of running a business. Banking institutions offer consumer protections to their clients by allowing them to dispute charges on their card. While Shopify is able to give you a space in your admin to submit evidence and state your case to the banking institution, at the end of the day Shopify does not have the authority to choose to win these cases. All chargebacks are entirely handled and decided on by the banks. 

With that said, we do have a useful guide that covers ways to protect yourself from chargebacks in the future to help prevent this from happening in the future.

If there is anything else I can help you with, please let me know.

[ChrisMartino]

We have given the buyer the opportunity to return our merchandise at our expense by paying for the shipping and providing them with the label to affix to the box.

There has been no response to any of our email before, during or after the chargeback.

There should be safe guards in place to prevent buyers that file and win a chargeback return our merchandise as part of the process (in our case we have confirmation from USPS that it was in fact delivered).


"You can't have your cake and eat it too".

Chris M
Raceline Digital

[royalbloke]

Dirk,

What a pathetic response to say that is part of doing business. Individual business owners are quite different than employees like you who get their weekly paycheck no matter what. I hope if you ever have the opportunity and courage to open your own business you remember what you told Chris Martino "it's part of doing business" - you might change your mind and try to fight for enforcing your policies to protect your business from the few who abuse it.

[royalbloke]

What a pathetic response to say that's part of doing business. I've been in corporate retail for over 50+ years and every retail company has store policies and they are enforced. Shopify needs to do the same and back the sellers. If too many of these chargebacks are allowed without getting the merchandise back you're going to see a mass exodus from Shopify especially from upscale sites such as mine.

[royalbloke]

I agree with you 100% Chris. Just now seeing your issue with Shopify chargebacks. I agree that Shopify cannot decide who should win the case but if you lose the case, the buyer should not be allowed to also keep the merchandise as well. Shopify can implement guardrails for that part. I have a client who wanted to return 6 pairs of the same brand shorts that were FINAL SALE and I told him I cannot accept them back, He told me they were too big. However, he told his bank they were all damaged. That is not possible and if so send me or Shopify photographs. I'm having too wait 2 months since he disputed the transaction and I find out this Sunday 7/28/24 the outcome. In the future I think I will try to work with the client because as well all know" the customer is always right" and the fact that Shopify doesn't back the seller like Poshmark or EBAY is terrible.