Target Chargeback Codes Explained: What They Mean and How to Recover Lost Revenue

Learn what Target chargebacks codes like A030 mean and how RetailPath helps you recover lost revenue.

If you sell into Target, you’ve likely seen a chargeback code like A030 or A004 hit your remittance advice and wondered what happened.

Target issues chargeback (or deduction) codes whenever they short-pay an invoice — often for things like shortages, damages, or pricing discrepancies. Target allows you to dispute these chargebacks if you find that the chargeback is invalid.

At RetailPath, we help brands automatically identify and recover invalid chargebacks across retailers like Target, Walmart, and Ulta. Below, we’ve broken down the most common Target chargeback codes and how to dispute them effectively.

Common Target Chargeback Codes and Their Meanings

Code	Type	What It Means
A030	Carton Shortage	A manual chargeback is created when there’s a discrepancy between the invoiced amount and what Target’s system shows as received.
A032	Damaged / Defective	Target reports that goods arrived damaged or defective.
A034	Unit / Case Pack Shortage	Units or inner packs don’t match what Target’s system expected.
A036	Cost Difference	The invoiced cost doesn’t match Target’s PO or internal records.
A038	Substitution	Target received a different item than what was ordered.
A004	Allowance / Defective	A weekly consolidated chargeback covering all Target store locations for products that were returned — and in some cases disposed of — in accordance with Target’s return policy. This type of chargeback does not reference a specific purchase order or invoice.

How Long You Have to Dispute Target Chargebacks

Most Target chargebacks can be disputed for up to 12-18 months after the issue date.

However, compliance or performance fines — like On-Time, In-Full (OTIF) or ASN violations — often have shorter windows, sometimes as little as 90 days.

How RetailPath Recovers Chargebacks Automatically — With Intelligence

Most teams think of chargebacks as something to prevent, but that’s rarely the problem.

If you’re winning 90% of your claims, that tells you everything: you were never out of compliance — the issue isn’t your supply chain, it’s the system.

Target and other retailers issue thousands of invalid, system-generated chargebacks every month. They’re not a reflection of poor operations — they’re a byproduct of automation at scale. The real challenge is bandwidth: manually chasing PODs, digging through 3PL portals, and matching EDI data takes hours, so most brands simply write it off.

RetailPath fixes that — and then goes a step further.

Beyond automation, our proprietary Logistics Intelligence™ platform brings a layer of AI-driven decision-making to every claim. Built on years of retail operations expertise and our in-house Document X-Ray technology, it doesn’t just gather files — it makes judgment calls.

Logistics Intelligence cross-checks shipment data, carrier records, and EDI transactions against retailer claims, assembles the correct documentation package automatically, and generates precise reasoning on why the chargeback is invalid. It even re-disputes previously rejected claims with accuracy down to the unit level.

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