When a chargeback is worth fighting
The answer turns on how far the dispute has gone and on what you can prove.
Refund when the odds are poor
Before the bank files a chargeback, a refund can stop it from ever counting against you. If your evidence is thin, that is usually the better move. On a fraud claim, the bank's fraud report may already count.
Fight or accept
Once it is filed, Shopify and Stripe won't let you refund it while the dispute is open. Fight if your evidence is good and the amount is worth it. Otherwise accept.
Let it go
Under $25, a response costs more time than the order is worth. Accept it and spend the time on the disputes that matter.
We will tell you when a dispute is not worth fighting.
Decide reads every open dispute in your Shopify or Stripe account. It weighs your odds of winning, given the dispute type and the evidence on file, against the amount and the fees. Then it says fight, refund or accept, shows the arithmetic and the date your evidence is due. If Shopify Protect already covers a fraud chargeback, it tells you there is nothing to do.
Say a $200 dispute comes in and your odds are 40%. Fighting is worth $71: 40% of $200, less the $15 response fee on the 60% that fail. Decide says fight.
For the disputes worth fighting, Fight drafts the letter for you to read and send.
What decides the four common disputes
The order never arrived →
These are decided almost entirely on delivery proof. With tracking to the right address your odds are good; without it, Decide will usually say accept.
Not as described →
The bank compares what your product page promised with what shipped, and looks for any replacement you offered.
A cancelled subscription →
The bank looks at how easily the customer could cancel, and at any charge you made after they did.
The cardholder says it was not them →
Your security checks decide it, such as a matching CVV and address or 3-D Secure, along with the customer's history with you.
See the recommendation on your own disputes.
Measure is free. Decide adds a recommendation on every dispute.