Escalating an issue beyond Risk Operations?

[cwerld]

After running a very successful presale for my project - Shopify Risk Operations contacted me for further information regarding the legitimacy of my business - I provided them with literally everything; my business model, wire transfer information showing payment to manufacturers, pictures of products being produced and assembled, etc. 

I realize this is necessary but now they are withholding a large amount of my funds until I can fulfill orders with tracking numbers citing ‘large lead times’ - everybody is experiencing large lead times, we’re still in a pandemic. Part of the money they are withholding is also my shipping funds so I’m not sure how I’m supposed to address that without taking out a large business loan just so I can get funds released.

On top of that there is nobody I can speak to as my Risk Operations agent has stopped responding to my email chain. Calling Shopify support and using chat is if no use as they just refer me back to the email chain. I’m at a loss how to proceed and this is now preventing me from doing R&D on future projects as well as pay for current ones that I have the money for but cannot access. I’m extremely hesitant to use this service in the future but for the time being I’m not sure what to do.

Considering the amount of money they are withholding this lack of transparency is pretty awful. Is there anybody you can escalate to beyond ‘Risk Management?’ 

[Nia]

Hi, @Cwerld!

I understand this situation is quite time sensitive and essential to the future of your business. Our Risk Operations team are the only team that are able to work directly with you on this.

Are you able to advise me of the last communication you had from a Risk Analyst please? The turnaround time for a response is generally up to 72 hours so it should not be taking any longer than this.

The email thread is indeed the only next best step in sorting this out as they have a specific process they go through.

[Beebug]

Nia,

72 hours response time is UNACCEPTABLE. There should be support 24 hours a day, especially in regard to situations that are causing hardship for the shop owners. I am having a similar situation. And the risk operations team is poorly responsive. It is so unprofessional to make people wait to resolve a very serious issue that needs to be addressed in a timely fashion. 72 hours is ridiculous, 24 hours is unacceptable. It should be within the day of business.

[myncboutique]

Hello Nia,

I am having the exact same issue as "Cwerld" and frankly speaking this is ridiculous. Even after sending loads of legal documents, evidence and etc, no one has reached out to me and its been over a week now. I am losing money, sales, clients and worst of them all, I need to ship orders out. My clients are constantly DM'ING me and messaging me on whyt he website is not accessible. I mean we pay Shopify thousands of dollars for them to keep us on pause for weeks, months and all we can do is beg for their replies. Please help me out with this matter because I have already reached out to support, 2-3 times and all they say is to wait. How can I wait when I have thousands of dollars that I am losing. Please help me out thanks 

[thesportzbox]

Did your issue ever got resolved? I am in same situation with Trust and Safety team. I provided them more documents but now they are not responding. They are not clear what they are looking for.