Customer paid by Pix but the order didn't go through: what to do

When a customer sends a payment receipt and the order is still “awaiting payment”, the first question is not who made the mistake but where the money went. Check your reconciliation; if the amount never reached your account, compare the recipient on the receipt with the charge your store issued. If the destination is different, treat it as a possible swap of the Pix QR code or copy-and-paste code (Pix is Brazil's instant payment system): guide the customer to dispute the payment with their own bank through the Special Return Mechanism (MED), keep the evidence and notify whoever needs to know.

1. Check reconciliation before drawing any conclusion

Many “I paid but it didn't go through” cases are integration failures, not fraud: the Pix arrived, but the payment provider's notification never reached the store or the order was not updated.

• Look up the charge by transaction ID, amount and time in your payment provider's dashboard or your account statement.
• Ask the customer for the full receipt: recipient name, institution, amount, date and time, and the transaction ID.
• If the money is in your account, the problem is internal. Release the order, tell the customer and fix the integration.

2. Compare the recipient on the receipt with your charge

If the amount does not show up in reconciliation, look at the recipient name and institution on the receipt. When they do not match your company, the payment went to another account, and there are three common causes:

• The payment page was tampered with. Malicious code loaded on the checkout, from a plugin, a third-party script or a breach, swaps the QR code on screen or the content of the copy button.
• The customer's computer is infected. In 2023, Kaspersky documented malware that watched the clipboard and swapped Pix codes copied during online purchases.
• The customer was not on your store. A fake site using your name generates a Pix charge for the scammer.

To tell these apart, ask for the website address, the device used and whether the customer scanned the QR code or used copy-and-paste. Then create a test charge on your own page, on a clean device, and compare what appears on screen with what your provider issued. If other customers report the same problem in the same period, suspicion about the page becomes much stronger.

3. Guide the customer to trigger the MED with their bank

The MED is the official route to try to recover a Pix payment diverted by fraud, and only the payer's bank can start it. The store cannot file on the customer's behalf, but it can help a lot.

• Where: since October 1, 2025, the dispute can be filed directly in the customer's banking app, without calling customer service.
• When: as soon as possible. Blocking only reaches the balance still sitting in the accounts involved. With the value recovery feature, mandatory since February 2, 2026, banks also trace money moved on to other accounts.
• Timeframes: after the dispute, the banks have up to seven days to analyze the case and, if fraud is confirmed, the refund should happen within eleven days.
• How to describe it: the Pix rules exclude disputes about the underlying deal from the MED. The customer should report paying a third-party account after the payment data was swapped, not that “the store didn't deliver”.

It helps to give the customer a short statement with your company's legal name, tax ID and receiving institution, the amount and time of the legitimate charge, and confirmation that the amount was not received. Also recommend filing a police report.

4. Keep evidence from the very first contact

Even if the case looks isolated, document everything. If the page was tampered with, this information shows when it started, who was affected and what needs fixing.

• The customer's receipt and the support conversation.
• ID, amount, time and details of the legitimate charge issued by your provider.
• Screenshots of the payment page and a list of scripts, plugins and changes published in the period.
• Time-stamped server and platform logs.

5. Notify whoever needs to know

• Your payment provider or bank: report the suspicion; they can help confirm whether the charge was altered.
• Your technical team or platform: review the payment page immediately and remove anything you don't recognize.
• Other customers: look for similar complaints and, if there is a pattern, warn those who paid in the same period.
• Data protection authority and data subjects: in Brazil, if the investigation confirms an incident involving personal data that may cause relevant risk or harm, the ANPD and affected people must be notified within three business days.

Checklist for the first 24 hours

1. Search reconciliation by transaction ID, amount and time.
2. Compare the recipient and institution on the receipt with your account.
3. Ask which site, device and payment method the customer used.
4. Create a test charge and check the QR code and copy-and-paste code shown.
5. Guide the customer to dispute in their banking app and hand over the store's statement.
6. Keep receipts, screenshots and logs.
7. Notify your provider, your technical team and, if applicable, the ANPD and data subjects.

To understand how the swap happens on the page and how to block it, see protection against the swapped Pix QR code scam.

The best way to handle this support case is to prevent it. Proteside checks, on the buyer's screen, that the QR code and copy-and-paste code shown are exactly the ones your store issued, blocks any swap before payment and alerts you with the evidence recorded. You can try it free for 14 days and see how it works on your store.