Curious if anyone experienced something like this and is there any chance I could get credited for at least some of these fees? It’s quite a confusing situation.
I received a $1,500 order, but Shopify flagged it as potential fraud. I canceled and refunded the order immediately, but I was still charged $55 in processing fees. When I contacted customer support via chat, they confirmed this was standard practice, (?) which is frustrating but understandable.
However, on the same day, the customer also filed a chargeback. Apparently the chargeback takes precedence over the refund, so the refund was canceled, and Shopify charged me an additional $15 for the chargeback fee (okay also, understandable)
Despite the chargeback overriding the refund, Shopify still keeps the original $55 fee. So, in total, I’m now out $70. For NOT fulfilling a fradulent order they flagged.
When I spoke to support, they initially agreed that since the refund wasn’t completed due to the chargeback, I shouldn’t be charged both shopify fees and the chargeback fee for the same order.
Despite this, they haven’t been able to assist further or reverse the charges. This could continue to happen where I lose $70 per order, and I would never be able to prevent it.
Has anyone else dealt with this issue, or have any advice on how I might be able to resolve it? Appreciate any insight. About to bail on the platform but figured I would see if anyone had ideas here! Thx!
What I do now is to set up manual payment capture. Then, I use Shopify Flow to automatically capture payments when it determines that the orders are low-risk. In this way, I can judge whether the medium- and high-risk orders are real orders and then manually capture payments.
To address the processing fees related to the chargeback, it might be beneficial to review Shopify’s terms regarding chargebacks and refunds to understand the policies fully. Although it’s standard for processing fees to be retained, you can provide your case details to support again, emphasizing their initial agreement about the situation. Lastly, consider documenting all interactions with support for reference in future discussions.
@wo 's exactly right. You’re paying for processing fees because your checkout settings are set to capture the payment automatically.
There are two phases to a credit card charge:
Authorization - this is when your store gives the credit card details to the payment gateway and it’s accepted
Capture - after the card is authorized, then actually capture (aka charge) the card for the order. This is when transaction fees occur.
If you set your checkout payments to manual mode, then you can manually initiate the second step (charging the card). That way you can control when to actually charge the customers card and avoid processing fees on risky orders.
Unfortunately, yeah… Shopify (and most payment processors) don’t refund the original processing fees (if it was already processed), even if you cancel or refund — and when a chargeback kicks in after that, it can override the refund and pile on even more fees. You’re not the only one this has happened to, but this are the current limitation to the card rails.
One option to avoid this kind of mess going forward is considering pay by bank transfer. It’s a direct bank payment — so no chargebacks, no double fees and you actually get to keep more of what you earn.
I know, that it is not helpful for this time — but could potentially save a lot of headaches down the line.
