Buyer protection
How refunds, problem reports and chargebacks work for buyers and sellers, and what ShopFast covers under each payment model.
Buyers get three ways to sort out a problem, from fastest to slowest: a refund from you, a problem report on the order, and a chargeback with their bank.
Refunds
Refund from Orders → an order → Refund: in full or in part, to the payment method or as store credit. A refund to the payment method goes back through the gateway the buyer paid with (ShopFast Pay, Stripe, PayPal, BTCPay Server). For manual payments the refund is recorded and you send the money back yourself.
A full refund ends what the order gave: delivered memberships end, Discord roles and Telegram access are removed, and download links stop working. Keys and files that were already delivered cannot be taken back (with Licensing, an early-access feature, the refunded key also stops validating), so check your refund policy says how you handle them. Refunds are idempotent: retrying one never refunds twice.
Your refund policy is part of your store’s policies and, for ShopFast Pay, of your application. Reviewers compare it with what you sell.
Problem reports (claims)
Buyers can Report a problem from their order page: not received, not working, not as described, wrong item or something else. The report opens a claim in Disputes & Claims with a reply-by date three days out. You reply in the thread, then resolve it as refunded, replaced or rejected (with a note the buyer sees); a buyer can also withdraw it. Resolving as refunded refunds the order.
Chargebacks
A chargeback is the buyer disputing the payment with their bank. ShopFast imports them from the processor (Stripe and PayPal) and lists them in Disputes & Claims with the evidence deadline. Add evidence there (delivery records, keys sent, the buyer’s IP and country, downloads), or accept.
| ShopFast Pay | Your own gateway | |
|---|---|---|
| While open | Your share of the order is frozen in a dispute hold, and the processor’s dispute fee is passed on to you | Nothing moves on ShopFast |
| Won | The share returns to your available balance | Nothing changes |
| Lost | Reversed like a refund (ShopFast’s fees and the tax are reversed too) | ShopFast took no fee; your processor’s rules apply |
What is covered
- ShopFast Pay: tax handling, the processor’s payment fees and the dealings with the processor. The money for a lost chargeback still comes back from the sale (the buyer gets it back), and the processor’s dispute fee is yours.
- Fraud: Fraud Shield checks every checkout (blocklists, VPN rules, velocity, risk scores, your own rules) and can ask for an email code or 3D Secure first. Orders flagged at payment are held until you approve them, and Why held? on the order shows exactly why.
- Not covered: refunds you choose to give, and disputes on your own gateway, which follow your processor.
High chargeback or refund rates count against a ShopFast Pay store: they show as risk signals to reviewers and can lead to lower limits, a reserve, a payout hold or a pause.