Shopify Payments kept our funds for over 3yrs, told me we're lucky to get them back

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment
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Topic summary

Merchant reports a disputed order and prolonged fund hold with Shopify Payments, seeking others’ experiences.

  • Timeline: A risky order was identified and refunded on 8 Jun 2020 after confirming the card was used fraudulently. A chargeback (bank-initiated reversal) for the same order arrived on 31 Jul 2020. Support said the original funds would be returned but they were not received until 31 Aug this year (over 3 years later).

  • After funds were returned, Shopify Payments support emailed urging the merchant to “give the funds back to the customer” again, implying the merchant was keeping the customer’s money. The merchant notes they already incurred the chargeback fee and believes the cardholder should have been reimbursed via the chargeback.

  • Recent support interactions were described as dismissive (“lucky” to get funds back), with no apology. The merchant feels support quality has declined compared to earlier years.

  • Outcome and status: Funds eventually returned; chargeback fee remains. Merchant is asking if this is an isolated case or a broader issue (tags: fraud-protect, shopify-payments). Discussion remains open.

Summarized with AI on January 17. AI used: gpt-5.
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Hi,

I’m posting in here as I’d like to understand if anyone else has experience this or if we’re just “lucky”.

We had an order come through over 3yrs ago that looked risky so we made contact with details that were provided and discovered that the cardholders number was used but it was a fraudulent order. We processed a refund for the customer. This was on the 8th June 2020.

On the 31st July 2020 we received a chargeback on that same order. At the time I contacted support and was informed we would receive the original funds back. This didn’t happen until we finally received them on 31st August this year. When the funds were returned I received multiple emails from Shopify payments support telling me I should try to give the funds back to the customer again, wording it as I was keeping their money, when we were already out of pocket for the chargeback fee and the customer should have received their funds through the chargeback process.

I’m now getting attitude from customer support, telling me I’m lucky we got out money back, with no apology for keeping it in the first place. I feel like customer support is no longer supporting their customers the way they used to (it used to be very personalised 10yrs ago with actual account managers and regular meetings), and I’m curious if this a one off and I really am just lucky or if this is something other business owners have or are experiencing?

Would love to hear from anyone who has experienced similar..