How can I validate my theme license to avoid website shutdown?

[tesoribelli]

Please help,Beyond frustrated, it is height of our Holiday season! received email from shopify that my theme could be invalid or unlicensed, this could be because I hired an “expert” and they added the theme.  Getting my money back for the theme from expert is secondary right now..the shopify email directs me to rebuy the theme..when I do that it is just the template, All

my hard work is gone, how do I make this license thing right without having to redo my website? Also How do I know its actually from shopify and not a scam..Can someone tell me what to do to stop my website being shut down during this busy time? I have tried talking to chat, and the person was useless, there is no way to email or call shopify, this is unacceptable 

[Skye]

Hi, @tesoribelli 

Thanks for posting! I hope your day is going well despite the unfortunate situation.

While I can't confirm the email came from us, you can absolutely reach out to our live team via the Help Center for confirmation.

If the email is genuine, it sounds like the developer purchased the theme for one store, and is using it for many, which they can't do. Each third party theme needs to be purchased from the store in which it is being used on.

When you purchase the theme from the theme library it will be the basic, unedited version. That being said, once you have the theme downloaded, your original theme is now considered licensed. As such, you can delete the newly downloaded unedited theme as the license is now added to your Shopify account.

I hope that makes sense! 

[tesoribelli]

Ok thank you for your reply , So just to confirm , I first try to confirm this is an email from shopify, I buy the same theme again, I dont need to use the new blank theme, I go back to using the “unlicensed “ one? Just want to make sure. I feel so betrayed by this fake shopify expert. Ill probably never get my$380 back

[beauxbreaux]

Once you buy it you have the rights to it. You can just only have 1 of the themes published at a time. It doesn't matter which once. The license is attached to your account and not the theme itself. There are no unique identifiers between the copies of the same theme. They will share the same theme id. So nothing like a serial number for individual to each copy. 

[Christina3245]

Great information but how can we tell if the license is attached?

[Erin]

Hi, @Christina3245. You would need to have purchased the theme through the theme store (for your particular store) for it to have the license. If you imported a paid theme into your Shopify admin, without purchasing it directly through the theme store, you likely don't have the license. There are some steps we can take to transfer a theme license from one store to another, but you would need to speak to our support team for us to assist with that. If you're unsure if you have a theme license for your theme our support team should be able to look into this with you as well. You can reach out to our support team through the Help Center here and we'd be happy to help further. 

[Skye]

That's correct! 

Regarding the Expert, however, did you hire this individual through the official Experts Marketplace? If so, this is definitely something we will want to investigate. As such, please reach out to our live team so we can look into this individual. 

If you hired them through a third party service such as Fiverr, you can consider disputing the charge with your bank under fraud as they did not provide the service you paid them for. 

[tesoribelli]

through Fiverr, I am trying to dispute its not easy!

[bamamarr]

Are you able to tell us if a certain email address is legit from you guys or a scammer?

[Victoria]

Hi, @bamamarr.

While our Community Team is unable to investigate this information here, you can touch base with our authenticated Support via the Shopify Help Center. Our team should be able to take a more detailed look to confirm.