Contacted by Trust & Safety Team

[GP202]

I got contacted by a member of Shopify's Trust & Safety team because I am "selling branded or trademarked products" (fanart of anime) and they listed those items. They gave me a few options on what to do so that I don't get locked out of my account before the 2 days is up. They also said at the very end, "If you have any questions about this request, please reply directly to this email", which I did. 

Firstly I wasn't aware fanart is not allowed to sell considering most of the artists I follow on social media are selling them in their own shopify-run accounts, with actual names of the shows/movies being used in their title for their listings. Second, I did everything like taking the items of my listing and signing their "Attestation" form. Lastly, I emailed them a question about whether fanart is allowed at all to sell even when they are drawn by myself completely. Have they done the same thing to bigger shops on their platform who sell fanart, that are still running their business without issues like this?

It was 11 hours ago when I sent my first email inquiry. 6 hours later I sent them another one after not hearing back. For an urgent matter, (like giving me 2 days before my account may be locked out) this is being handled rather poorly and slowly. I just opened with Shopify a few days ago and I'm honestly already regretting going with this platform. Where do I get proper help?

[Don]

Hi there, @GP202!

Thanks for letting us know about this. 

For cases such as this where you have been contacted by our Trust and Safety team the only place you'll be able to get any further info or support on this topic will be directly via email reply from the team.

These contacts are handled in a separate way from our regular support contacts, so we are unable to even view these email threads with that specialist team.

As such our only advice available in the situation would be to refer you back to your existing contact with the Trust and Safety team.

It can take longer to hear back from our specialist escalated teams due to their workload and the secure nature of their communication, but that is the first and only place you'll be able to get an update on this topic.

All the best!

[GP202]

Hi Don,

Thanks for replying back. Turns out this is a fairly common issue that's been happening since 2021. There's a couple previous long Discussions made here about the same issue and these customers also did not get a reply back from that Specialized Team before getting locked out of their shop. After 30+ hours of still not getting a single reply I'm sure my account will also meet the same fate as several others.

So I'd like to know who I can contact, once I have no access, to cancel my subscription and ensure I don't get billed (which apparently still happened to some of them despite having no access to their shop) and get rid of my domain here.

Thank you!

[Don]

Hi again, @GP202!

In this case, I would refer you back to your existing email with the Trust and Safety team again, as we're not able to provide support for this issue outside of that team.

In terms of account support outside of this, if you find you have been billed in error for using Shopify you can reach out via our Help Centre again where we can take a look at your account info with you securely.

Should it prove necessary in the future we can see if a refund review might be possible for your most recent subscription invoice.

If you transferred your domain to be hosted by Shopify (rather than just pointing this domain to connect to your store) you can learn how to transfer your domain from Shopify to another host here.

Best of luck with everything!

[SheriScraps]

That's your response? How pitiful. I sent valid invoices (now for the third time) and still have heard nothing back in over 6 days. My site has been shutdown and I have contacted an attorney because I am not violating any policies. My suggestion for anyone who thinks Shopify is the way to go, you should run, fast, to WooCommerce. This platform is a sh*tshow.

[Alecmaze]

Thanks, thats where i will go!

[jorgehp1]

Hello, how did this end up?

[Alecmaze]

This so crappy lol!

[Alecmaze]

They are so Trash!

[Alecmaze]

Don? Why recommend something that you know your shopify doesn't use? Its apparent that no one is working...the trust & safety team has disabled my account after me sending them 81 emails? My account is now on the verge of being closed. You all need to change this system because it horrible!

[kameovintage]

Hello -

 Is it normal for the Shopify trust team to request $100 for a data breach? I have been using shopify for 2 years - I get this weird email, stating that my store will b closed if I do not respond to external breach of information.  In order to not have my store closed - the Shopfiy Trust team requested a collaboration code and $100 is this normal?

[Sophia]

Hi! I haven't heard of that request before. We would need to see the sender email address and contents of the email to determine whether it came from Shopify. I recommend reaching out to our team via the Help Center so we can confirm whether the request was sent from the Trust & Safety team. If it is determined that the email is spam, please forward it to safety@shopify.com so we can investigate. Thank you!

[Alecmaze]

You are so right! Did they ever solve your problem?