I am having the exact same problem! To me this feels like sabotage.
1st of all these are things Shopify should have required when we first started to create our stores NOT AFTER customers have paid for items leaving us stuck with the cost out of our pockets to pay for the customers orders in order to process their items to get them shipped out.
This is absolutely poor management and software setup. This only leads to unhappy customers because they paid for their items and do not receive them for a very long time if we can't afford pay out of our own pockets. I was under the impression that the best thing about e-commerce is that we don't have to purchase our inventory in order to sell items. We are basically suppose to be a middleman. A promoter if you will. We add products that other companies are selling and we get a commission based on how much we increase the price to. This was the reason I chose to go with e-com.
This whole issue is 100% avoidable too.
The software should automatically pay the distributor when a customer pays for their items and the distributor should instantly be notified by Shopify so that they can quickly process the orders and get them shipped out asap. Then we should receive a payout at least once a month with our cut from every order processed through our website. NOT FORCE US TO PAY THE DISTRIBUTOR OUT OF OUR OWN POCKETS AND NOTIFY THE DISTRIBUTORS SO THEY CAN PROCESS THE ORDERS.
2nd the information that Shopify is requesting is non of their damn business. Accept proof that we are the owners. A phot of our drivers license or other photo ID and business papers to verify we own the store, such as proof of incorporation.
Where we live is non of their business but it's most likely on our drivers license/ID.
Proof of inventory!? Why should we need to prove our inventory when it's been bought from our store? The bought items are proof we have them listed on our stores website. The distributors should be the ones responsible for proving they truly have these items not us. We just offer a way to get the products in front of buyers. We don't generally actually have them in out possession. We simply add them from the distributors website on Oberlo.
Also the same goes for the tracking numbers!!! Why on earth do we need to create and add tracking numbers when we r not the ones who r shopping the items? That's is the responsibility of whomever is in charge of processing the shipments.
Placing our customers money on hold so we can not process their orders and get them shipped is ludacris! All it does is make us look like we are a scummy scammer website that takes peoples money and doesn't send the customer their items. So who does that leave for the customers to go to the better business bureau to report as being a shady company? Us, the people who have spent s lot of time and in my case, quite a bit of money to create a store i was proud of.
What happens when a bunch of angry people who paid money and didn't get what they bought complaining online to public scamm warning sites and posting legitimate complaints but pointed at the wrong people? We get less and less people buying from our stores and s bad reputation and we basically have to shut down our store and start over with some other e-com site if we dare to even risk signing up with another horrible company like Shopify who screws their customers, us business owners, out of our rightfully earned income and our customers out of their paid for items! Some of us may even have to deal with lawsuits from customers who got screwed and we get stuck with charge back fees of $25 or more from our bank when customers report their items as never received so our bank refunds them their money and charges ur a penalty for not doing business properly!!
I literally have anxiety over this bullsh*t.
On top of all this they r horrible at responding to my emails and my customer support messages telling them all of this stuff. It's wrong! Oh and yeah, like this post states, we also get banned from using Shopify's payment system! As if we did something wrong and can't be trusted anymore to be allowed to use it!!!
I think we all need to go in on a class action lawsuit here!!! Had anyone else out there experienced this crap as well? Please reply yes if u have so lawyers know who to contact when it's time to suit!!
Go on all your social media sites and post this story for everyone to read so we can warn others considering using Shopify for their own stores and customers who buy items and don't receive them or don't receive what they ordered.
