Shopify chargeback email: what to do in the first 24 hours

The email lands, the money is already gone, and what you do in the first day decides whether you have a week to build a proper response or only a few rushed hours.

A Shopify chargeback email means a cardholder has disputed a payment and Shopify has opened a case on the order. In the first 24 hours, confirm the notice is genuine in your admin, note the reason and due date, save your records, and decide whether to refund an inquiry, settle, or fight.

This guide is for you if:

• A Shopify chargeback email has just arrived and you are not sure what to do first, or whether the email is even real.
• You run a small team and need a simple first-day routine that anyone can follow.
• You have missed a chargeback email before, or rushed the response because the first few days slipped away.

Last updated: 9 October 2026. Written by the ChargeFix team. Reviewed against sources on 9 October 2026.

The 30-second answer (TL;DR)

• Chargeback emails go to your store contact email, even when the store is paused or closed. Check that address now, before a dispute arrives.
• The Shopify chargeback email is a notice. The case itself, with the reason, the due date and the evidence form, is on the order page in your Shopify admin.
• Open the admin yourself, not through the email, and confirm the chargeback banner is on the order. If it is not, treat the email as suspect.
• Your response window is usually 7 to 21 days, so a 7 day window loses about 14% of its length on day one.
• An inquiry can be ended by a full refund. An open chargeback cannot be refunded, so decide which one you have before you do anything else.
• Save screenshots of tracking, messages and policies on day one, and do not edit pages or delete messages.
• Shopify submits on the due date even if you do nothing, so use the first day to start a proper response, not to wait and see.

Quick note: The Shopify chargeback email is a notice, not the case. The case lives on the order page in your Shopify admin, which is where the reason, the due date and the evidence form are, so start there and treat any email that asks you to reply with evidence or send a payment as suspect.

The first 24 hours at a glance

When	What you do	Output
Hour 0 to 1	Verify in the admin, read reason, amount and due date	Confirmed case and a calendar date
Hour 1 to 4	Check the order, freeze changes, capture proof	Screenshots saved in one folder
Hour 4 to 12	Work out inquiry or chargeback, owed or not owed	A decision path
Hour 12 to 24	Contact the customer if it makes sense, log the case	A sent message and a log entry

What is a Shopify chargeback email, and who receives it?

It is the notice Shopify sends to your store contact email when a cardholder's bank files a chargeback or inquiry on a Shopify Payments order. It tells you a case exists and points you to the order. Shopify says the notice goes to your store contact address, and you can check or change that address in your store settings.

That address is not always the one you read every day. It is set when the store is created, and if the person who set it up has since left, or it is a forwarding address nobody watches, the notice can sit unread while the window runs. Shopify says the Shopify chargeback email also arrives if your store is paused or closed. In that case you cannot submit more evidence until you reopen the store, which Shopify says means following the link in the email, logging in and choosing a new plan.

Because we did not have a copy of a live chargeback email to inspect, we are not going to describe its wording or layout. What matters is what you confirm in the admin: the reason for the dispute, the amount, whether it is a chargeback or an inquiry, and the due date.

Where should the Shopify chargeback notification go?

To an inbox someone reads every working day, ideally a shared one so that holidays and sick days do not delay the first response. If you run the store alone, add a calendar reminder to check the contact address weekly. It takes thirty seconds and removes the most common way a dispute window disappears.

Menu wording changes, so follow what your admin shows. Shopify's help pages place the contact email under the store details settings.

Is your Shopify chargeback email real?

Check in your admin, not through the Shopify dispute email. Open Shopify by typing the address yourself or using your saved login, find the order, and look for the chargeback banner. A genuine dispute appears there with a reason and a due date. If nothing is on the order, treat the Shopify chargeback notification as suspect.

Scammers imitate platform notices because a disputed payment makes people anxious and quick to click. This is general security advice, not something we have verified about Shopify's own emails, but it is cheap and it works:

• Go to the admin yourself. Do not log in through a link in an unexpected email.
• Look for the order. Real disputes sit on the order page, with a banner and a due date.
• Do not reply with evidence by email. Shopify's help pages describe the response as something you submit from the order page, through the Add evidence form, so a request to email documents or card details does not match that process.
• Do not pay anything to "release" funds. Shopify's process does not ask you to.
• Check the sender and the address. If it came from somewhere odd, or asks you to act in minutes, slow down.

There is one exception worth knowing. Shopify says that if your store is paused or closed, you must follow the email link, log in and choose a new plan before you can submit more evidence. In that situation, log in directly if you can, look for the dispute, and use the email link only if the admin itself tells you that reopening is required.

What to do after a chargeback email: the first hour

Open the order in your admin, read the reason, the amount and the due date, and decide whether it is an inquiry or a chargeback. Put the chargeback due date in your calendar with a reminder two business days earlier. Do nothing else until you have those four facts.

A short sequence for the first hour:

1. Open the admin directly and find the disputed order. The chargeback banner shows the reason and due date, which uses your store's timezone.
2. Note the type. A chargeback has already taken the amount and the fee. An inquiry has taken neither yet.
3. Note the chargeback due date. If no time is shown, it ends at 11:59 PM on that date. Shopify's window is usually 7 to 21 days after the dispute is filed.
4. Set two reminders. One for two business days before the due date, one for the day after you plan to submit.
5. Tell your team. One line is enough: order number, reason, due date, who owns it.

That is the whole first hour. It is deliberately short, because a calm start prevents the two big first-day errors: refunding an order that is already in an open chargeback, and spending hours on a case you could have closed with a refund.

Illustration: how much of your window the first day uses

The shorter the window, the more each day matters. Here is what 24 hours costs you at each end of Shopify's range.

Window length	One day as a share of the window	Days left after day one
7 days	14%	6
14 days	7%	13
21 days	5%	20

One divided by seven is about 14%, one divided by fourteen is about 7%, and one divided by twenty-one is about 5%. The calculation is simple but it explains why a 7 day window is tight: a weekend can use two more days, and a single unread chargeback email can use more.

Illustration: a 7 day window that starts on a Friday

Suppose a dispute is filed on Friday 9 October 2026 with a 7 day window, so the due date is Friday 16 October 2026.

Day	Date	Business day?
Day 0	Fri 9 Oct	Yes, email arrives
Day 1	Sat 10 Oct	No
Day 2	Sun 11 Oct	No
Day 3	Mon 12 Oct	Yes
Day 4	Tue 13 Oct	Yes
Day 5	Wed 14 Oct	Yes
Day 6	Thu 15 Oct	Yes
Day 7	Fri 16 Oct	Yes, due date

Of the eight calendar days from Friday to Friday, only five are business days after the email arrives, counting Monday to Friday of the following week. If the chargeback email lands late on Friday and you do nothing until Monday, you have used three of seven days without opening a file. We could not verify how Shopify treats weekends or public holidays when it sets the date, so do not assume extra time.

What to do after a chargeback in hours one to four

Check the order against your own records, stop anything that changes the evidence, and capture proof. Find the delivery record, the customer messages, the product page and your policies, and save dated screenshots of each into one folder before you do anything else.

Check the order

Look at what happened: ordered, paid, shipped, delivered, collected or refunded. Check whether the dispute reason matches the facts. A not received claim on an order your carrier shows as delivered is a different case from a not received claim on an order that never shipped.

Freeze changes

Do not edit the product page, delete messages, change your policy pages or restructure the order. If a page must change for other reasons, take a dated screenshot of the old version first. Evidence that has been altered, even innocently, is worse than evidence that is incomplete.

Capture proof

Item	What to save	Why
Tracking	Full-page screenshot of the carrier's tracking page, with number and date	Direct proof for delivery claims
Delivery proof	Photo or signature record, if the carrier provides one	Strongest evidence for not received
Customer messages	The whole thread, with senders and dates	Shows what the customer knew
Product page	The page as it was on the order date	Answers not as described claims
Policies	Shipping, refund and terms pages as shown at checkout	Shows what the customer accepted
Order record	Name, email, phone and address match	Answers unrecognised charge claims

Shopify's help pages recommend screenshots of tracking pages and customer messages instead of external links, because reviewers can check them without leaving the case. We could not verify how long Australian carrier tracking pages stay available, so capture them now.

How do you decide what to do in hours four to twelve?

Decide by two questions: is it an inquiry or a chargeback, and does the customer have a genuine claim? Those four combinations lead to four different moves, and only one of them involves a full response.

	Customer has a genuine claim	Customer has no genuine claim
Inquiry	Full refund, which ends it and prevents a chargeback	Reply with evidence, or ask the customer to confirm with the bank
Chargeback	You cannot refund while it is open. Accept, or ask the customer to arrange a withdrawal	Build and submit a full response

A full refund on an inquiry ends it and prevents a later chargeback, because no money has been taken. A partial refund does not. Once an inquiry becomes a chargeback, you cannot issue a refund, because the bank holds the funds. If the customer then agrees the charge was valid, they can ask their bank to withdraw the dispute, and you submit the bank's withdrawal letter as evidence. A screenshot of a bank statement does not count, and withdrawal letters can take 30 to 90 days or more.

Illustration: the cost of choosing wrong on day one

An order of A$150 has goods costing A$55 and A$11 outbound postage already paid. The customer disputes it as not received and the parcel was in fact lost. Assume a A$4.50 card fee that is not returned on a refund, and A$9 return postage for a refund where the item comes back. Those two figures are assumptions for the example.

Item	Full refund on the inquiry	Lost chargeback
Goods lost	A$0 if returned	A$55
Outbound postage	A$11	A$11
Return postage	A$9	A$0
Card fee not returned	A$4.50	not counted
Chargeback fee	A$0	A$25
Real loss	A$24.50	A$91

Add the rows: A$11 plus A$9 plus A$4.50 is A$24.50, and A$55 plus A$11 plus A$25 is A$91. Choosing correctly on day one, by refunding the inquiry before it escalated, would have saved A$66.50. The saving is gone the moment the inquiry becomes a chargeback.

For the long form of this decision, see Should you accept or fight a Shopify dispute?.

Should you contact the customer in the first 24 hours?

Usually yes, once you have the facts and the tone is friendly. A short, neutral message can settle a misunderstanding, produce a bank withdrawal, or give you a written record of what the customer said. Do not contact them before you have checked the order.

The message should state the order, say you received a notice from their bank, ask whether anything is wrong, and offer a way to fix it. It should not accuse them of anything, threaten them, or mention the fee.

Message for a customer who may have a genuine problem

Hi [first name],

We received a notice from your bank about order #[number] for A$[amount]. Before it goes further, we want to make sure you have what you ordered.

If something is not right, tell us what happened and we will sort it out straight away.

Thanks,
[Name], [Store name]

Message when your records show delivery

Hi [first name],

We received a notice from your bank about order #[number] for A$[amount]. Our records show it was delivered on [date] to [suburb, state].

If you have it and everything is fine, you can ask your bank to withdraw the claim, and we will help with any detail you need. If you do not have it, please tell us today and we will investigate with the carrier.

Thanks,
[Name], [Store name]

Note for your team

Dispute: order #[number]  amount A$[amount]
Type: inquiry / chargeback     Reason shown: [reason]
Filed: [date]     Due: [date, time shown or 11:59 PM]
Owner: [name]     Next action: [what]  by [date]
Customer contacted: yes / no     Proof saved in: [folder]

Keep a copy of every message, because the customer's reply, or silence, becomes part of your evidence. If the customer replies that the claim was a mix-up, ask for the bank's formal withdrawal letter, and keep working on your response while you wait.

What should you not do after a Shopify chargeback email?

Do not refund an order with an open chargeback, do not edit or delete anything that could be evidence, do not accuse the customer, and do not leave the notice unread overnight. Each of these is a common first-day mistake with a real cost.

Do not	Why
Refund an order in an open chargeback	The bank already holds the money, so you risk paying twice
Delete messages or edit pages	Altered evidence looks worse than incomplete evidence
Accuse or threaten the customer	Reviewers read it as a weak case, and it can escalate the dispute
Reply to the chargeback email with evidence or card details	Shopify's process runs through the order page
Assume extra time for weekends or holidays	We could not verify any extension
Wait for the deadline	Shopify submits automatically on the due date with only its own data

What does each Shopify chargeback notification and status mean?

Each status on the order tells you where the case stands and what you can still do. Open means you can add evidence, submitted means the card company is reviewing, won or lost is the outcome, and resolved means a network programme settled it without a formal chargeback.

Shopify lists these statuses in its help pages. Reading them correctly stops you wasting time on a case you can no longer change, or ignoring one that still needs you.

Status you see	What it means	What you can do
Open	The evidence window is running	Add and edit evidence, submit early, refund an inquiry, or accept
Submitted	The card company is reviewing your response	Wait. No more changes, and no refund on a chargeback
Won	The issuer ruled for you	Check the next payout for the amount, and see whether the fee came back
Lost	The issuer ruled for the cardholder	Nothing to appeal. Look for the cause so it does not repeat
Resolved	Settled automatically, with the customer reimbursed and no evidence window	Review the order and your prevention steps

You can filter your orders by chargeback and inquiry status set to Open to see every case that still needs a response. Do this at the start of each week, and again whenever a Shopify chargeback notification arrives, so nothing waits in the list unseen.

An inquiry can end in your favour with no money taken, or in the customer's favour, in which case it may escalate to a chargeback and the amount and fee are debited. Shopify says that inquiries usually take 65 to 75 days to resolve and can run longer, so an inquiry that looks quiet may still be alive.

What if the chargeback due date is only a few days away?

Cut the work down to the essentials: confirm the due date, find the single strongest proof, build one clean file for it, add a short factual note, and submit early. A focused response beats a rushed full one. Shopify submits on the due date regardless, so start immediately.

A 48 hour plan for a short window:

Hours	Do	Skip
0 to 2	Verify in the admin, note the chargeback due date, decide inquiry or chargeback	Long customer back and forth
2 to 8	Capture delivery or order proof for the exact claim	Evidence that does not answer the claim
8 to 24	Build two to four labelled files under the 2 MB and 4 MB limits	Perfect formatting
24 to 36	Write a short cover note using dated facts and file names	Opinions about the customer
36 to 48	Check, then press Submit now	Waiting until the last hour

If your records are thin and the order is small, accepting may be the sensible call, as long as you make it on purpose. For the maths on small orders, see Shopify chargeback fee Australia: what A$25 really costs.

Also remember the weekend problem. A chargeback due date that falls on a Monday after a Friday email gives you one business day, and we could not verify any extension for weekends or public holidays. If the date is close, start on the same day the Shopify dispute email arrives.

How do you make sure a Shopify dispute email is never missed?

Send it to a shared inbox that more than one person reads, name an owner and a backup, check the open case list weekly, and put the due date in a calendar the whole team can see. A missed notice is the most avoidable way to lose a dispute.

Shopify says notices go to your store contact email, so the setup is mostly about that one address.

Dispute inbox setup
[ ] Store contact email is a shared address (for example disputes@yourstore.com.au)
[ ] At least two people can read it, and both know what to do on day one
[ ] A filter or label highlights messages about chargebacks and inquiries
[ ] A weekly 10 minute check: Orders filtered by chargeback and inquiry status = Open
[ ] Owner and backup named for every dispute, with holiday cover
[ ] Due dates go into a shared calendar with a reminder two business days earlier
[ ] A short written routine so what to do after a chargeback is not in one person's head

If you also use a bank terminal or another gateway, disputes from those arrive by different routes and on different clocks. NAB, for example, debits the account 10 calendar days after its first notice for fraud disputes, and 24 calendar days for others, if no response arrives. That is NAB's process, not Shopify's, but it shows why you should know every route that notices can take.

What's different for Australian merchants?

General information, not legal advice.

For Australian stores, the first-day work is the same, but the clocks around it are longer and the time zone matters. Cardholders can usually dispute for up to 120 days, your Shopify window is much shorter, and the due date uses your store's timezone.

Time zones. Shopify says the due date uses your store's timezone, and if no time is shown it ends at 11:59 PM on that date. If your store is set to an Australian timezone, that is local time. Check the setting if you have a mixed team or sell mostly overseas, because a wrong timezone can move your real deadline.

Long tails. Consumer Affairs Victoria says cardholders can request a chargeback 45 to 120 days after the transaction depending on the provider, and NAB lists 120 days for Visa and Mastercard disputes and 210 days for eftpos. A chargeback email can therefore arrive months after a sale. Keep order, delivery and message records for at least 18 months, which covers the 540 day outer limit CHOICE mentions for some goods-not-supplied claims.

Customers and banks. CHOICE advises cardholders to try the merchant first, and notes that Visa may refuse some claims, such as items not received, if they have not. A customer who skipped that step may be easy to reach and glad to fix it, which is another reason a friendly first-day message is worth sending.

Consumer law. Australian Consumer Law gives customers guarantees about what they buy, and a customer owed a remedy may recover it through a chargeback even if you resist. We have not re-opened the ACCC guidance for this guide, so the detailed rules are in our consumer law posts, which cite the ACCC directly.

Items we could not verify. Treatment of weekends and state public holidays when Shopify sets the due date, courier proof options, Afterpay and PayPal timelines, and GST and BAS treatment of lost chargebacks.

How do you keep a log so the first day gets easier?

Write down every dispute in one place, with the date it was filed, the reason, the due date, what you did and how it ended. After three months, the log shows which products, carriers and customer types cause disputes, which is more useful than any single response.

Date filed | Order # | Type | Reason | A$ | Due | Decision | Submitted | Outcome | Fee returned? | Cause
12 Oct 26  | 2087    | CB   | Not recd | 150 | 26 Oct | Fight | 23 Oct | Won | Yes | Carrier left at door

The last column matters most. "Cause" is your own note: a late parcel, a vague descriptor, a policy the customer missed. Patterns in that column are the cheapest chargeback prevention you will ever buy.

A simple 24 hour checklist

First 24 hours after a Shopify chargeback email
[ ] Opened the admin myself and found the order with the chargeback banner
[ ] Noted: type (inquiry or chargeback), reason, amount, due date
[ ] Due date and two reminders added to my calendar
[ ] Team told: owner and next action
[ ] Screenshots saved: tracking, delivery proof, messages, product page, policies
[ ] No refund attempted on an open chargeback
[ ] No pages edited, no messages deleted
[ ] Decision made: refund inquiry / ask for withdrawal / fight / accept
[ ] Customer contacted, if appropriate, with a neutral message
[ ] Case written in the log

Common mistakes with a Shopify chargeback email

1. Not knowing where the email goes. The contact address may be unmonitored.
2. Clicking through the chargeback email. Log in to the admin yourself and look for the banner.
3. Treating a chargeback like an inquiry. You cannot refund an open chargeback.
4. Treating an inquiry like a chargeback. A full refund might have ended it for free.
5. Waiting to see what happens. Shopify submits on the due date with only its own data.
6. Editing the evidence. Changed pages and deleted messages make the case worse.
7. Writing an angry first message. Accusations lose cases and sometimes lose customers.
8. Forgetting the weekend. A Friday email on a 7 day window leaves five business days.

Frequently asked questions

Where does the Shopify chargeback email go?

Shopify sends chargeback notices to your store contact email, which you can check or change in your store settings. It still arrives if your store is paused or closed. Make sure that address is one a person reads every working day, because the response window starts when the dispute is filed, not when you read the chargeback notification.

How do I know a chargeback email is genuine?

Open your Shopify admin yourself, find the order, and look for the chargeback banner with a reason and due date. If it is there, the case is real. If it is not, treat the email as suspect, and do not reply with evidence or card details, because Shopify's process runs through the order page.

How long do I have after the email arrives?

The window is usually 7 to 21 days from when the dispute was filed, as shown on the order. It uses your store's timezone and ends at 11:59 PM that day if no time is shown. Because the clock starts at filing, a late-read email can leave you fewer days than you expect.

What to do after a chargeback email: should I refund the customer straight away?

Only if it is an inquiry and the customer is owed money. A full refund ends an inquiry and prevents a chargeback. If it is already an open chargeback, you cannot refund, because the bank holds the funds, and a refund risks paying twice. Check the type first.

What if my store is paused and I get a chargeback email?

You still receive the email, but you cannot submit more evidence until you reopen. Shopify says to follow the email link, log in and choose a new plan. Do this early, since reopening takes time and the due date does not move.

Should I contact the customer first?

Often yes, once you have checked the order. A short, friendly message can resolve a misunderstanding or lead to a withdrawal from the bank, and it creates a written record. Do not accuse them or mention fees, and keep a copy of every message you send and receive.

Can I ignore a chargeback email?

You can, but you should not. Shopify Payments submits on the due date even if you add nothing, so ignoring it means the card company sees only what Shopify collected automatically. If you decide not to fight, accept deliberately by closing the form, after checking the cost.

What should I save on the first day?

Dated screenshots of the carrier's tracking page, any delivery photo or signature, the full customer message thread, the product page as it was on the order date, and your policies as shown at checkout. Save them in one folder, and do not edit or delete the originals.

Does the Shopify dispute email tell me everything I need?

No. The chargeback email is a notice. The reason, amount, type and due date are confirmed on the order page in your admin, and the evidence form is there too. We could not inspect a live email, so rely on the admin for the details and use the email only as a prompt to look.

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Sources

• Chargebacks and inquiries, Shopify Help Center
• Managing chargebacks in the Shopify admin, Shopify Help Center
• Overview of the chargeback and inquiry process, Shopify Help Center
• Resolving a chargeback or inquiry, Shopify Help Center
• Chargebacks, Consumer Affairs Victoria
• Chargebacks: prevention and dispute guide for merchants, NAB
• How do card chargebacks work?, CHOICE