Got a notification early this morning that my payouts from Shopify Payments are on hold for a standard review of my account. I thought this was odd, as almost all of my orders have been fulfilled with tracking numbers added, and my time to fulfillment is only a day and a half, so there really isn't a reason for any sort of hold. Also funny how this hold came on a weekend of one of the busiest times of the year, leaving thousands of dollars frozen in my Shopify Payments account, but that's beside the point.
I immediately reached out to customer support via chat (because for some reason they got rid of phone and email support), and they told me to respond to the email that was sent to me at the time of the hold. I immediately checked my inbox and spam of email account on file - no such email exists. Support essentially told me that they had no power to do anything except for escalate the support ticket (not the actual payout hold ticket), and that responding to the email sent to me was my best option (even though I never received an email in the first place). They also claimed that they would urge the Trust & Safety team to resend the email sent to me, and that they would respond "as soon as possible". It has been over 13 hours since the hold was placed on 11/18 at around 5AM EST, over 7 hours since my conversation with support on 11/18 at around 10:30AM EST, and I have still yet to receive a single email about this hold and what to do about it. I do not have a single piece of information that I can use to get this hold lifted. I presented proof of my timely order fulfillment and tracking information to customer support, but they told me they could not do anything.
I understand that it has not been a full 24 hours since the hold was placed, and I am trying to be as patient and as cooperative as possible. However, this is hard to do since I have no information about the hold and have received no contact from Shopify at all. It's the week before Black Friday, and my store was doing about $8k-$10k per day in revenue up until I had to stop advertising due to this hold. As a solo entrepreneur who relies on this business for my primary income (rent, groceries, gas, cost of living, etc.), it is unacceptable and truly disheartening to see Shopify treating its merchants in this manner. I have been using Shopify for over 3 years now, and never have I ever witnessed such terrible support, such little recourse for merchants in this situation, and such inaccurate and random account holds. It honestly seems that Shopify has just given up on caring about their merchants and will do anything to make starting and maintaining a business near impossible.
If anyone from Shopify could respond to this thread with an immediate solution (something more than telling me to respond to the email I never received), that would be much appreciated. Also, if anyone else in the community is struggling with the same issue, respond to this thread, and hopefully together we can get Shopify to notice that us as merchants are unhappy with the way we are being treated, and that this is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately.
My tips for Shopify:
1. For the love of God, BRING BACK PHONE & EMAIL SUPPORT. The support chat is pretty much only good for general questions, and I could probably make a more helpful AI chat bot than what you have set up. If I was able to talk on the phone to a real person and explain this situation, I guarantee this would have been taken care of within a half hour, which would be easier and less work for both parties. I honestly have no idea why you got rid of this in the first place - a multi-billion-dollar company should have more support than an FAQ section and a robot.
2. Instead of placing holds on Shopify Payment accounts at random, put a brief hold on the account as a standard review when it is first set up. This will save time for both parties, as Shopify support will not have to get involved, and the merchant can get reviewed and verified within 24 hours of creating their Shopify Payments account. If this was the case in my situation, I would not have to stress about thousands of dollars being held up over the busiest time of the year for ecommerce stores.
3. Get the Trust & Safety Team in line. I don't know what they're doing over there, but whatever it is, it sure ain't working. As I said, I've been a Shopify client for about 3 and a half years now, and I have yet to have a positive interaction with the Trust & Safety team, and so far, this has been the worst I've witnessed. No emails, no communication, no information, nothing.
Hope you all enjoyed my rant, and if someone from Shopify sees this, please respond to this thread with some helpful information. I really would like to be as cooperative as possible, but I can't cooperate with you if I don't have any information about why this hold happened and what I can do to lift it.
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