A merchant was hit with over $5,900 in Shopify transaction fees after a fraudster attempted to purchase approximately $300,000 worth of gift cards using stolen credit cards. Despite immediately canceling and refunding all fraudulent orders within seconds, Shopify charged non-refundable transaction fees because the merchant uses a third-party payment processor (Authorize.net) instead of Shopify Payments.
Key Issues:
The merchant cannot use Shopify Payments due to selling supplements, forcing reliance on third-party processors that trigger additional fees
Shopify’s fraud prevention tools (fraud filters, customer blocking) don’t prevent fees from being charged—they only cancel orders after processing
The payment processor confirmed no charges on their end; fees are purely from Shopify
Current Status:
Shopify support initially stated the fees are non-refundable as standard policy
A Shopify moderator has escalated the case (ticket #46249806) for review by specialized teams
Other users confirm this is standard practice, with one suggesting disputing the charge directly with the connected bank
The discussion remains unresolved, awaiting response from Shopify’s escalated review
Summarized with AI on October 27.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
I have been on Shopifys platform for 3 years now. Its been a largely positive experience but I had a massive issue 2 nights ago and I still can’t get an answer on it.
I had a fraudulent order come in that was clearly from a stolen card (they used 5-10 different cards and finally one worked). I cancelled it immediately. Then they ordered again, and again. We have gift cards available on my website, and they started buying 500 x $150 gift cards, somewhere around $300,000 in them. I was cancelling and refunding within 15 seconds of the order, and finally just blocked their home country from ordering.
I own a supplement company so I cannot use Shopify Payments, I was kicked off of it 2 years ago even though my formulas are WADA/USADA compliant, 3rd party tested and made in a GMP facility. Because of this, I have to use a 3rd party (Bankcard/Authorize.net) for payments. They told me that because everything was cancelled/refunded, there would be no additional charges from them, HOWEVER Shopify hit me with over $5,900 in their transaction fees. To this point, I have yet to make any headway with Shopify support. It seems like they claim it is non refundable, because it is a fee associated with processing but they arent processing anything- They are just charging me for not using their system. If this was a few hundred dollars I might just let it slide and let it go but as a small business it is hard to justify $5,900 that was not my fault, ESPECIALLY when Shopify should have a block customer function (fraud filter is useless because it just cancels and refunds after the fact, so it would not solve this issue either) and I dont know what to do. Does anyone have any insight? I miss when Shopify actually had a dependable phone support system, It seems like it’s really regressing as a company that doesn’t care about its customers.
Thank you for sharing this experience and I am truly sorry to hear about this happening. Generally speaking, our support is correct that these processing fees being charged are non refundable. I do want to make sure though that this situation is being reviewed with the consideration and care it requires, given what has happened to create it.
Can you please share your most recent support ticket about this, I’d be happy to flag it for a review by some of our escalated teams.
Hi @Shay - I believe the ticket number was 46249806, started a week ago when this occurred.
I understand certain fees being non refundable but considering these were flagged as fraudulent, cancelled and refunded immediately, I am hoping they make an exception. Even speaking to my CC processor, they don’t charge Shopify, this is simply a transaction fee from Shopify. Which I am fine with paying, however in this case I don’t see why I would not get it back considering it’s over $5,900 in fees. I love Shopify up until this point, but the lack of customer service and the fact that this was an uphill battle to escalate or even have someone hear me out on this is disappointing to say the least. Thank you for helping escalate this, I hope I hear back with a refund soon,
This appears to be shopify’s way of keeping the transaction fee vs issuing it back on the refund order. They just pass this on to the seller (regardless if the order was fraudulent or not) This is a horrible business process on Shopifys part. But I do wonder if you can simply dispute the charge to your bank that is connected to your shopify store. Because its a draw on the account, cant you dispute that specific transaction where Shopify is taking money out of your account? I ran into this same problem and thought about doing this.