Avoiding chargebacks on late fees and claims
Last checked 4 November 2026.
A chargeback is a customer telling their bank the charge wasn't right. The bank asks you for evidence, and decides. If you lose, you lose the money and a fee, and too many of them put your Shopify Payments account at risk. This page is how to make that outcome unlikely.
The one thing that matters most: photos
Card networks decide these cases on evidence, not on who is telling the truth. A charge with photographs of the item at handover and at return, timestamped and kept with the rental, is a different case from a charge with a sentence of explanation. Take them every time, even when the customer seems certain to be fine — you only find out you needed them afterwards.
Holdback keeps the photos with the rental and puts them in the evidence pack:
- On Rentals, open the rental and press Photos and evidence under More.
- Add a handover photo before the item leaves, and Add a return photo when it comes back. Your customer sees the handover photos on their deposit page and ticks to say they've seen them; the date goes in the evidence PDF.
- When you charge, press Evidence PDF under More. It has the order, the deposit, the charge, the reason, the photos, and the emails Holdback sent, on one document you can send to your bank or to Shopify. Names and words in Latin, Greek or Cyrillic letters (Łukasz, Zoë, Ольга) print as typed. Hebrew, Arabic and emoji don't print in the PDF yet; they're kept everywhere else.
Two handover photos and two return photos of the same angles are worth more than ten random ones: the pair shows the change.
Ask for what the loss was
Ask for what the loss was: the late days at your agreed rate, or for damage, a claim for the repair or replacement. Don't ask for a round number as a penalty. "Replacement pole, £39.96, invoice attached" survives a dispute; "£50 damage fee" invites one. For damage, loss or non-return that's a claim your customer approves and pays, never taken from their saved card: see Damage, loss and non-return.
Say what happened, in your customer's words
A late fee is worked out for you: the whole days late times the daily rate your customer agreed, and Holdback's email gives them that reason. For a claim, the words you type are shown to the customer on the order and in the email, so write them for the customer: what happened, and what the estimate covers.
Tell them before you charge, if you can
A message the same day — "the marquee came back with a tear in the roof panel, here are the photos, the repair is £120, I'm sending you the estimate to approve" — turns most disputes into a conversation. Customers dispute charges they didn't expect.
Charge from Holdback, never from "Collect payment"
Shopify's order page has a Collect payment button, sitting right beside the balance. It works — and it is the worst way to collect anything on a hire.
| Charging in Holdback | Shopify's Collect payment | |
|---|---|---|
| Amount | At most the agreed late fee, and never more than the deposit your customer agreed | The whole remaining balance |
| Reason | Required, and shown to the customer on the order | None recorded |
| Your customer | Emailed the amount and the reason | Told nothing |
| Evidence pack | The charge, the reason and the photos in one PDF | The charge isn't in it |
A charge a customer didn't expect, with no reason attached and no email, is the exact case a bank reverses — and you will have nothing to send them. Holdback releases a deposit the day before its date if no problem has been recorded, so it shouldn't come to that. If you ever do use it, because Holdback has refused for a reason you can't clear, tell your customer yourself, in writing, the same day, and keep that message with your photos.
Charge quickly, and never past the deadline
Charge within a few days of the return, while the customer remembers the hire. Finish every rental before its deadline (Holdback releases a deposit the day before it when the whole hire fee was paid at checkout and no problem has been recorded; otherwise press It's back): after it, Shopify marks the order overdue and the full deposit can be collected from the order page with no reason and no email, which is exactly the charge a bank will reverse.
What Holdback does for you
- Your customer ticks to agree to the deposit terms, and Holdback keeps the exact words and when they ticked. They're in the evidence PDF and on any claim page under "What you agreed at checkout".
- Eligible late days and non-return keeps stay within the agreed deposit. Extension fees use a separate payment link; damage on a saved-card hire needs the customer to approve and pay a claim.
- Every charge and release emails the customer an itemised explanation, in their language, at the address on the order, and logs whether it was sent.
- The evidence pack collects all of it, with the photos, in one PDF.
If a chargeback happens anyway
- Respond inside Shopify's deadline — you lose an unanswered chargeback.
- Attach the evidence PDF, plus the repair invoice or replacement receipt.
- Say plainly what the deposit was for, that the customer agreed to it at checkout, and what the charge covered.
- Keep the tone factual. The bank is reading documents, not feelings.