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BEWARE! DO NOT TRUST shopify or their "Balance" accounts.
I had been actively on shopify for 2 years and randomly they decided to flag my store as high risk. I had ran an ad on tiktok and a few users created chargebacks. (Less than 6 chargebacks) Mind you - I have processed thousands of transactions on Shopify, completed thousands of dollars in Shopify Capital with no issues. Just a random incident - Alright. Okay, So they want me off the shopify payments platform. Fine. But to make matters worse, They actually took my shopify balance account *$6,900* funds that I have added from my personal bank, funds that I use to pay my state and sales tax, my irs bills, they TOOK it and are holding it for 180 days. This is NOT my payouts...This is my actual bank funds... DO NOT trust shopify. They WILL take your funds from your bank account at any time. They have absolutely ruined my business, my livelihood, I cant even pay my taxes because of Shopify. No where on the terms and service does it say that they will be doing this if they deem your store as high risk, I asked the team to send me the clause but they sent me a 404 error page. I really cannot believe they did this and It cannot be a legal thing. The losses Shopify has caused me is something that is going to have to be brought to light.
That sounds harsh, no legitimate merchant should experience that. Just know that it is happening on many payment processors, I would say Stripe is even worse. Whether you decide to continue using Shopify Pay or moving into a different payment processor I would recommend using a Chargeback alerts solution. We have one that gets notified before a dispute is being turned to a chargeback and automatically refund the customer. It costs $30 for an alert but is so worth it for the long term
⚡ Chargeflow is the best chargeback recovery software for Shopify brands. Free to start, 24/7 Live Chat Support, ROI-guarantee and the highest win-rates. Let us take care of your chargebacks. ⚡
Hi @Byebyea
Thank you for sharing your experience and your feedback here. I cannot speak to the reasons for the hold on your funds or the decision made in this case, but I wanted to ensure you were able to access your balance terms of service.
In your store admin under Finances > Balance > Settings you will find linked at the bottom of the page all applicable terms of service and agreements for your account. The one you will want to look for specifically is "Shopify Balance Account Agreement" (Section III-D.b). It will look like the sample below:
"Your use of Shopify Balance is described by the Shopify Balance Terms of Service, the Shopify Balance Account Agreement, and the Shopify Balance Card Agreement."
Each agreement is unique to the account it is connected to, so there is no one standard one that I can provide a link to. The URL for your agreement in your own admin should look like this:
admin.shopify.com/store/your-store-name/shopify-balance/terms/commercial
If for any reason you are not able to access that page in your admin due to the restrictions on your Balance account, please reply back to the email you received to let our support team know that. They will ensure you receive a copy of your agreement.
Shay | Social Care @ Shopify
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