Your payouts from Shopify Payments are on hold while we review your account.

[txbaron]

That was the message I received from SHOPIFY so I dropped everything and have to go get a PIN number to call support, this was my reply from support.. we are very sorry but you CAN NOT talk to anyone in the finance Dept and you can not email them either so basically I have NO WAY to speak to the people who are WITHHOLDING OUR MONEY from us for whatever reason. Does anyone have a magical way to speak to the finance division? The person whom I spoke with in support was very nice and I think was doing her best to escalate the issue to a resolution but there is no way to tell what the problem is or even if it is a real problem, maybe this is some kind of audit process in the middle of the Christmas season, If anyone has experienced this please inform me on how to proceed .

Thank you,

Mike

[Shay]

Hi @txbaron 

I definitely understand your concern. I want to assure you that all businesses using Shopify Payments as their gateway go through a standard review process. The review usually happens a few weeks after your first sale goes through, but sometimes it can happen later on. 

The review process being initiated is nothing to be concerned about and most times is resolved without any additional information being required by the store owner. Rest assured that if our financial team does require additional information from you they will let you know. Generally you will see an updated banner in your admin prompting you with the next steps. 

It also sounds like the live agent you chatted with has escalated this to our financial team as well. This will ensure that you are connected with them if they do need anything else. 

If there are no updates on the review process and no new banners in your admin prompting for next steps after 5 business days, please reach out to our live support once more for further information. 

[txbaron]

So why do they withhold payment if they are just reviewing? and how many days? This is Thousands of dollars and during our busiest time of the year.

[Shay]

The payout hold is put in place during the review process to help mitigate the chance of fraud or chargebacks to the payment gateway while the review is happening. I want to stress this is not a slight against your business, and the same process happens to all stores during the review. 

If, after the review, your business is deemed a good fit and doesn't have a high risk of customer claims through their bank then the funds will be released and deposited as per normal. It is important to note that all online payment gateways do have the ability to place a payout hold or payout reserve at any time to mitigate high risk orders. A payout reserve is where a portion of your sales are held for a set period of time. 

I recognize this is a very busy period of the year and I want to assure you that any frozen payouts will be processed. Our team who handles these reviews will let you know once the review is complete how long that will be. 

You can review the Shopify Payments and Merchant terms of service in our legal pages here: Shopify Legal.