TL;DR: Shopify does not care about you, and in the event of blatant fraud and chargebacks, Shopify will do everything in their power to NOT assist in anyway. Shopify support agents continually provided false or misleading information, incorrectly claimed that the issue was resolved, and denied me access to the appropriate department. They failed to take the one critical step that could have reversed the chargeback outcome: submitting a simple request in a timely manner. Instead, Shopify allowed its merchant (in the case, me) to be the victim of felony-level fraud, while taking no meaningful action to prevent it and zero accountability for its negligence.
Shopify support literally refused, lied, and misled about not being able to make a request to re-review/appeal a clearly fraudulent chargeback decision to american express (Amex sided with the customer on the chargeback) for 2+ months.
I had been shuffled around multiple agents and was consistently told that Shopify could not do anything else once the decision was made. I contacted both American Express and Stripe (Shopify's payment processor) support, and both have explicitly told me MANY times that Shopify, not only has the ability to request a review on the initial decision, but that Shopify is the only party with the authority and access to initiate the request.
Despite having overwhelming evidence that this was a clear fraudulent chargeback and that the decision was wrong, having Shopify support also telling me that the decision was clearly not correct due to overwhelming evidence, Shopify for months refused to assist me in anyway in getting American Express to review their initial decision, insisting that they could not do anything or make such a request.
American Express has explicitly told me that they are willing to take a look at the case again, and that they have no issues reversing the decision, but can't take a look at the case again unless Shopify initiates the request for an appeal/review on the decision.
Honestly, if the sum of money that was lost was smaller, despite how unjust and unfair it is, I would be willing to just brush it off and move on with it. But the person that committed the fraud not only got to keep $3500 worth of product, but also got to keep that $3500 without any sort of punishment.
I had contacted support many times, got shuffled many different support agents. It took around 2 months just to get transferred to the right department so that someone at Shopify can initiate the request for a formal review on the chargeback decision to American Express.
Even after getting transferred to a more "appropriate" department, the support agent from that department spent a few weeks telling me that Shopify is unable to help, and that I need to contact American Express (which i did maybe a dozen times already) and deal with it myself. I had to copy + paste Stripe support logs, and repeatedly tell Shopify support that both Stripe AND American Express support said that Shopify is the "merchant" since they were the ones that processed the payments, and both Stripe and Amex have told me Shopify is the only party that can initiate the request for a review on the decision, and that I don't have any the ability to do this myself.
After months of Shopify telling me that they are literally unable to make the request, Shopify support magically was able to finally put in the request for a re-review on the decision.
This was part of their reply:
Our processing partners informed us that they wouldn’t be able to appeal the chargeback or reach out to American Express initially. I advocated on your behalf regarding this situation, urging them to contact American Express to inquire about a potential appeal, as you mentioned that American Express was willing to consider it. However, they later followed up to inform us that American Express stated the chargeback was no longer eligible for a re-review or appeal because it was past the reply-by date of March 19th.
I understand that you mentioned contacting us before that deadline, but even if our team had received the ticket before the cut-off, there’s no guarantee that the chargeback decision would have been adjusted in your favor, though that was certainly the hope.
If you wish to escalate this matter to our legal team, you can do so by emailing them at legal@shopify.com.
I want to point out that nearly everything in that statement, such as advocating on my behalf and Stripe not being able to make an appeal is straight up bs and lies.
I even provided Stripe support chat logs that Stripe was not only willing to make the request as long as Shopify initiates it, but that Stripe support explicitly told me to tell Shopify that they are willing to assist Shopify in this matter as well too.
I repeatedly told Shopify support to please hurry because I knew after a certain period of time passes, the ability to appeal the decision cannot be made.
I contacted Shopify Legal 2 weeks ago, and then a follow up email last week, and have not had a single response. Shopify support also have been ignoring me.
I reported the incident to ic3.gov since this was blatant fraud, and I had overwhelming evidence that shows the customer submitted a fraudulent chargeback. It probably won't do anything, but I did at least want it documented and reported to authorities. The customer made a fraudulent chargeback claim saying "Item not received" despite tracking information clearly saying otherwise, and that the items were signed for and delivered successfully. I also have chat logs of the customer stating he wanted to return the product indicating he clearly received his order. It was a final sale item on a card game product, so we don't accept returns on these types of items since they could be resealed, tampered with, etc which is very clearly stated on our product pages and in our policies.
Honestly, this whole experience was straight up traumatic and distressing to say the least. This is the type of service and support that we're paying for when we use Shopify. I contacted American Express at least a dozen times because Shopify kept insisting that they can't do anything, and that I need to be the one contacting them. The last American Express agent I was talking to clearly could tell how stressed and frustrated I was by Shopify's refusal to assist in the matter despite being--quite literally--the only party that could help, and brought up a good point: Shopify is getting paid by me (and other merchants using shopify), and they are neglecting their responsibility and duty to do something that is a relatively quick and easy thing to do. Both American Express and Stripe have said that Shopify submitting a request to appeal the decision is a pretty quick and easy to thing to do. They don't even need to call or make direct contact with American Express. Shopify can easily do this through their merchant dashboard with Stripe, the same exact place where the evidence to the bank was initially submitted in the first place. Yet, they lied, denied, and refused any sort of responsibility and accountability to make such a request in a timely manner.
This was part of my reply to the Shopify support agent after telling me it was too late to make the appeal:
The chargeback decision could no longer be appealed BECAUSE of Shopify's negligence and refusal to assist in a timely manner. I clearly had contacted Shopify support before the deadline.
I understand that there is no guarantee that the decision on the appeal would have went my way. However, Shopify is the one solely responsible for not even giving me a chance at a proper appeal.
Despite this, Shopify refused to act for nearly two months following my initial outreach. I clearly and repeatedly stated that this was a time-sensitive matter and that the re-review deadline was rapidly approaching. Still, I was shuffled from agent to agent, misled, and ultimately ignored until the appeal option expired.
To avoid any misunderstanding: I am not disputing American Express's original chargeback decision—I fully understand that Shopify does not control the final judgment of card issuers. My sole request was, and always has been, for Shopify to submit a formal re-review request to American Express, as both Amex and Stripe confirmed was required. Shopify was the only party with the authority and access to initiate that request.
As a result, the buyer was able to retain both the merchandise (valued at $XXXXXX) and the full refunded amount—despite overwhelming documentation that the chargeback was fraudulent.
Shopify support agents continually provided false or misleading information, incorrectly claimed that the issue was resolved, and denied me access to the appropriate department. They failed to take the one critical step that could have reversed the chargeback outcome: submitting the request on time. Instead, Shopify allowed its merchant to be the victim of felony-level fraud, while taking no meaningful action to prevent it.
I have yet to still hear back from Shopify support and Shopify legal. I would not be surprised if this thread gets deleted either.
Just wanted to share this story as a cautionary tale for the type of service and support Shopify provides its merchants, and that while there are many benefits of using Shopify, there are some incredibly and costly downsides of using them too.
Honestly, this whole experience makes me genuinely sick, and it's unfair and sad how little Shopify cares and how little accountability Shopify is willing to take.
