Chargeback Evidence Checklist: Gather Everything Before You Submit

The gap is almost always in the gathering, not the submitting

Most merchants who lose winnable disputes didn't fail at writing the response — they failed at assembly. They submitted what was easy to find, not what the issuer needed to see. Tracking was there; IP data wasn't. The delivery screenshot was there; the billing/shipping address match wasn't documented. The order existed; the authorization trail didn't.

Shopify Admin surfaces a lot of this automatically under Orders → [Order Number] → Timeline and the Fraud analysis panel — but it doesn't package it for dispute submission. That packaging is manual, and without a checklist, something always drops.

This template is organized by dispute category. Use the full checklist for the category that matches your reason code. Skip the others.

When to Run This Checklist

• Immediately after a dispute appears in Shopify Payments (Admin → Finances → Disputes)
• Before drafting any response letter
• Before deciding whether to fight or accept — evidence gaps often change the call
• After a loss, to identify what was missing (forensic use)

Response windows are typically 7–21 days depending on the card network and your processor — confirm with your processor. Running this checklist on day one preserves time to chase missing items (carrier confirmations, signed delivery records, customer email threads).

The Checklist Template

Section 1 — Order Baseline (Required for All Dispute Types)

Section 2 — Fraud Disputes (Reason Codes: Visa 10.4, Mastercard 4853/4863, Amex FR2, etc.)

These are the highest-volume dispute type. The issuer's question is whether the cardholder authorized the transaction. Your evidence needs to answer that directly — not just prove the order shipped.

Section 3 — Item Not Received (INR) Disputes

Section 4 — Item Not as Described / Quality Disputes

Filled Example — Fraud Dispute, $340 Apparel Order

The missing 3DS entry is the honest part of this checklist. That gap doesn't kill the case — the IP match, AVS, delivery confirmation, and email open log are strong — but it's documented as absent so the response letter doesn't imply coverage that wasn't there. Issuers notice when merchants overclaim.

One Operational Note on Timing

Carrier signature records and email open logs are the two items most likely to disappear or become inaccessible after 30 days. Pull them the same day the dispute appears. Everything else can usually be reconstructed — those two often can't.

DisputeDesk pulls Shopify order data, fraud signals, and fulfillment records automatically at dispute creation. The items that still require manual collection — carrier portals, help desk threads, email platform logs — are flagged in the checklist view so nothing sits uncollected until day 18 of a 21-day window.