What to do with an UNFULFILLED order if it's already got a chargeback

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment
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Topic summary

A $3,200 order was flagged high‑risk and soon triggered a chargeback ($3,200 reversed plus a $15 fee). The merchant asked whether canceling now would cause another $3,200 deduction and how to handle the unfulfilled order.

Key guidance:

  • Don’t issue a separate refund once a chargeback is opened. Instead, manage it by submitting evidence or accepting it (chargeback = bank reverses a card payment at the cardholder’s request).
  • If you win: the bank returns the $3,200 and reverses the fee. You can then cancel/archive the order in Shopify without refunding (to remove it from Open orders).
  • If you lose: the $3,200 remains with the cardholder and you lose the fee; there’s no second $3,200 deduction beyond the amount already withdrawn when the chargeback was opened.

Risk/long‑term impact:

  • Multiple chargebacks can jeopardize eligibility for payment gateways like Shopify Payments.
  • Use fraud tools (fraud analysis, third‑party protection such as Signifyd) to reduce exposure and get financial guarantees on approved orders.

Status: Clarifications provided; action is to handle the chargeback via evidence and not issue a refund. Discussion appears resolved.

Summarized with AI on January 19. AI used: gpt-5.
3

Hi Elias,

Thank you for replying. Your insights and suggestions have eased our anxiety a lot. We will follow your advice to look into financial protection Apps and not to cancel the order. I do have a question regarding the latter: say we don’t cancel the orders, and submit evidence to Shopify, if we win, is the chargeback retracted？Then what should we do with the orders? If we lose, do we still get to keep the money from the order (which means what we really lose is financially is the chargeback fee?)

Thank you!

Lily