Shopify Hold For 120 Days and 30% hold

Shopify Discussion
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To the Shopify Payments Risk & Compliance Team,

I am writing to formally appeal the temporary hold currently placed on the Shopify Payments account associated with our business. Please note that this matter was previously raised with your team and assigned Ticket ID #65283066.

We are a premium menswear and womenswear brand that has been operating on Shopify for over 720 days. During our initial order wave, we encountered a short-term fulfillment delay caused by a miscommunication with our supplier regarding processing timelines. This was an isolated operational issue — not a pattern of behaviour, and entirely unrelated to any fraudulent activity.

Regarding chargebacks: the increase observed was largely a result of a temporary internal policy where we defaulted to issuing store credit rather than refunding to the original payment method. We have since corrected this — all customer refund requests are now returned directly to the original payment method. We take customer satisfaction extremely seriously, and we have also implemented automated tools to detect and process any potential chargebacks proactively before they escalate.

We want to be transparent: our business currently operates on a 15% margin, which reflects our deliberate commitment to high-quality service and carefully sourced products but is impossible to keep operating at 30% hold. This is precisely why an elevated chargeback rate is simply not sustainable for us, and why we are taking every possible step to ensure it never exceeds 1%. We also recently established a warehouse in the USA, which significantly improves our fulfillment speed and reliability going forward.

Corrective actions already in place:

  1. Supplier agreements now include written, confirmed processing timelines
  2. Refunds are now issued to the original payment method upon request
  3. Automated apps have been installed to flag and resolve potential chargebacks immediately
  4. Proactive customer communication is implemented across all open orders

Current standing:
— All pending orders are fulfilled or actively being processed
— Customer support response time is under 24 hours
— No unresolved disputes or active complaints
— Fulfillment operations are stable and consistently maintained

We understand and respect Shopify Payments’ obligation to manage financial risk responsibly. However, we want to be honest: if this hold continues, it puts the survival of our business at serious risk. As a small business with a strong and growing base of recurring customers, we are working hard every day to build something sustainable, and we are committed to doing that the right way.

We respectfully request a reassessment of our account and the release of held payouts where criteria are met. We are fully committed to compliance with Shopify’s policies and to building a long-term, trusted partnership on the platform.

Thank you for your time and consideration. We are happy to provide any supporting documentation upon request.

Best regards,

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Just out of curiosity, what or who told you to come here with your account issues?

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Shopify Risk holds are one of the hardest things to resolve because the Risk team barely engages through normal support. Your appeal reads well but posting it publicly here won’t speed it up on its own.

Three things that actually help:

  1. Reach out to @Shopify on X with your ticket number. It’s a poorly kept secret that public channels get faster triage than email for payment holds
  2. Add a secondary processor (PayPal Business at minimum, Stripe if you can get a direct account) so you’re not 100% dependent on Shopify Payments while this plays out. Cash flow matters more than principle right now
  3. The 120 day clock is tied to the chargeback window and won’t restart from policy changes. But the reserve tail can shorten once Risk sees clean history post-correction, usually 60-90 days

Honest take: plan your cash flow assuming the reserve stays in some form for at least 2-3 months after your ratio stabilizes. What’s your current chargeback ratio now that the store-credit policy is gone?

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Hey @Makenator you should only reach out directly to the support team with this and if you don’t get a response for whatever reason, try sending a direct message to their official Twitter page.