What are Repeat Disputers?
Repeat Disputers are buyers — identified by email, phone, or address — who have filed multiple chargebacks against your store. A small group of buyers is often responsible for a disproportionate share of disputes, and blocking them helps prevent future chargebacks, recover lost goods, and protect your dispute ratio with card networks.
Note: Chargeflow Prevent is currently available for Shopify stores only.
An identifier is flagged as a Repeat Disputer once it has 3 or more disputes in your store.
What is the Repeat Disputers widget for?
It is a feature within Chargeflow Prevent designed to identify and rank high-frequency offenders—buyers with three or more chargebacks against your store, based on identifiers like email, phone, or address. Its function is to enable merchants to proactively block these individuals, which is a critical action for preventing future chargebacks, recovering lost goods, and protecting your store’s dispute ratio with card networks.
Where can I find it?
You can find the Repeat Disputers widget by going to your Prevent Dashboard and locating the Repeat Disputers widget. This widget displays your top repeat-dispute identifiers ranked by dispute count. For full details and management options, click Expand to open a comprehensive table where you can view dispute counts, last dispute dates, total loss amounts, and take bulk blocking actions.
Coming Soon: The Repeat Disputers widget is also located in the Insights tab. For Shopify stores, the widget will reflect the same information as the one in the Prevent tab, so you'll be able to access it from both your Prevent tab and Insights dashboard.
💡The widget is also visible on your Insights or main dashboard, but all management actions are performed within the Prevent tab.
How Blocking Works
When you block an identifier, here's what happens:
The identifier is added to your Repeat Disputers default list — this is the single source of truth for who is blocked.
A default Workflow Automation rule watches that list automatically. It's enabled out of the box.
When a new order comes in, Prevent checks the buyer's identifiers against the list.
If there's a match, the order is cancelled immediately and a full refund is initiated. There is no grace period.
The blocked buyer sees their order cancelled and refunded through your store — the same experience as any other cancellation. They are not notified that they were blocked.
You can see confirmation in the transaction drawer, which shows a log entry naming the action taken and the rule that triggered it.
Blocking only affects future orders. Existing or in-progress orders are not affected.
Important — Rule Order Matters: Your Workflow Automation rules run in order, and only the first matching rule applies. If a broader rule (such as "Proceed all low-risk orders") is placed above your Repeat Disputers rule, it may match the order first — causing the Repeat Disputers rule to be skipped, even if the buyer is blocked. To make sure blocked buyers are always caught, we recommend keeping the Repeat Disputers rule near the top of your rules list, above any general Proceed or Hold rules.
Common Questions
How to Block a Repeat Disputer
How to Block a Repeat Disputer
There are two ways — both do the same thing:
From the widget or expanded drawer: Select one or more identifiers and click Block (individually or in bulk).
From Prevent Settings → List Management → Repeat Disputers default list: Add identifiers manually or upload a CSV.
Add identifiers manually: Click ‘Repeat Disputers List’ then ‘Add identifier’. Select the type of identifier and enter the value.
Upload a CSV: To upload via CSV, download the template (identifier_type, identifier_value, notes), fill it in, and upload it on the Lists page (Import CSV button). The system validates each row and flags errors by line number. Duplicates are skipped.
Supported identifier types: Email, normalized email (for e.g. Gmail dot/alias variants are treated as the same address), phone, and address.
How to Unblock Someone
How to Unblock Someone
From the widget or drawer: Select the identifier and click Unblock (individually or in bulk).
From Prevent Settings → Lists → Repeat Disputers default list: Delete the row directly.
Once unblocked, future orders from that buyer are allowed again. Past cancellations are not reversed.
Can I block someone who isn't in the widget yet?
Can I block someone who isn't in the widget yet?
Yes. Go to Prevent Settings → Lists, open the Repeat Disputers default list, and add the identifier manually or via CSV. You don't need to wait for them to appear in the widget.
Managing Your Repeat Disputers List
Managing Your Repeat Disputers List
Your Repeat Disputers default list is created automatically — every Prevent account has exactly one. You can access and manage it at Prevent Settings → Lists.
From there you can add, edit, or remove identifier rows, search, filter by type, and upload CSVs. Note that the default list itself cannot be renamed or deleted, as the system relies on it to run the default blocking rule. You can however create additional custom lists for other use cases, and those can be renamed or deleted freely.
Workflow Automation and Rule Ordering
Workflow Automation and Rule Ordering
Blocking works through a default Workflow Automation rule that watches your Repeat Disputers list. One important thing to know: Workflow Automation evaluates rules top-to-bottom and stops at the first match. This means if a broader rule sitting above the Repeat Disputers rule matches an order first (for example, a "Proceed all orders with risk score ≤ 75" rule), the Repeat Disputers rule will never fire — even if the buyer is blocked.
Recommendation: Keep the default Repeat Disputers rule near the top of your rules list, above any broad Proceed or Hold rules.
You can also use the Repeat Disputers default list in your own custom rules. Under any Workflow Automation rule's IF conditions, reference "Transaction Data matches Repeat Disputers default list" and pair it with a different action — such as Hold or Verify — instead of Cancel.
Can I turn the default rule off?
Can I turn the default rule off?
Yes, you can toggle it off from your rules list. When it's off, blocking still writes to the list, but new orders will not be auto-cancelled. The widget and drawer will show a warning indicator to let you know blocking is currently inactive.
Can the list be shared across multiple stores?
Can the list be shared across multiple stores?
Not currently. Each Prevent account has its own Repeat Disputers list. Cross-store sharing is not available today.
Where can I see the disputes related to the identified repeat disputer?
Where can I see the disputes related to the identified repeat disputer?
Click the Expand button and locate then click the identifier to view associated disputes. The Dispute IDs column lists all related cases, including the date, amount, and customer details, which can be cross-referenced in your Disputes dashboard.
Widget FAQs
Why is my widget empty?
Why is my widget empty?
The widget only shows identifiers with 3 or more disputes. If you're a newer merchant or have had few disputes, the widget may be empty. It will populate automatically once enough data is collected — dispute data refreshes hourly.
How often is the data refreshed?
How often is the data refreshed?
Currently, the calculation of the number of disputes per identifier occurs twice a day. After you block or unblock an identifier, the table and future orders updates immediately to reflect the change.
Can I see buyers who have disputed other merchants on Chargeflow?
Can I see buyers who have disputed other merchants on Chargeflow?
Not yet — the widget is currently scoped to your own store's dispute history. Cross-merchant visibility is on the roadmap.
How accurate are the dispute counts?
How accurate are the dispute counts?
The count reflects disputes Chargeflow has ingested for that identifier. If a count looks off, reach out to our support team.
Need help?
Contact us via our 24/7 Live Chat or email our support team at support@chargeflow.io.