Major Issues Transferring Customer Payment Data off Shopify Payments

[CandyCan]

Hi there,

I'm moving my subscription hosting off Shopify + Recharge to a different provider. I've spoken with Recharge support and they claim they can only export customer data, but no payment details/tokens because they don't store them and only tell the processor (Shopify Payments) to initiate a charge, so I'm needing to locate and initiate an encrypted secure transfer of the payment details/tokens to the new provider.

Shopify Payments is the payment processor that was in place when I started with Recharge and I've been told that Shopify Payment stores the secure customer data. As most know, Shopify Payments is a rebranded version of Stripe payment processing, so I'm trying to figure out where my data is stored (Stripe?) so I can use an encrypted transfer to transfer these payment details from Shopify Payments/Stripe to the new provider. 

After going back and forth with Shopify Support tickets for 10 days with no information besides "our developers are working on the request", I finally got an email today that read "I have discovered what you are requesting is not possible." That was the full explanation and "some good news is that we actually have a taskforce put together to implement this into our system for future use." I find it hard to believe that no Shopify merchant has ever switched platforms and needed the core piece of their business to continue processing rebill transactions. So now I'm back to square one and exhausting all possible avenue to make this happen.

Does anyone have any insights on how to make this seemingly simple process happen? My new subscription partner is sitting waiting to receive the data. Been driving me crazy - thanks!

[Skye]

Hi, @CandyCan.

Greetings, and thanks for posting to the Community Forums.

I definitely appreciate how frustrating this situation is, and how valuable this would be to your business moving forward. I apologize that you were given the run-around. However, unfortunately, the information you were provided is correct, that we are not able to transfer payment details.

Do you possibly know which version of ReCharge you are using? This is important, as if you are using the legacy checkout, this is a separate checkout from Shopify where the customer checks out directly through ReCharge for any subscription purchases. Thus, they should have your customer's payment details and tokens available to transfer.

Up until recently, subscription charges were processed in a third party checkout. Now, these checkouts are combined with Shopify for a simpler experience. As this is so new, there are definitely growing pains, and exporting customer contracts and payment details in situations like yours is one of them.

While I apologize that this is not currently an option, rest assured we do have a team in place that is building this out for future merchants. That being said, there is no set time frame for completion.

[CandyCan]

Hi Skye, we are using the Recharge Checkout on Shopify option, so all checkout happens on the Shopify platform.

Where is the data stored in this scenario?

-With Shopify's platform directly?

-With Stripe (who processes payments for Shopify Payments)?

[CandyCan]

Apologies, I realized I misspoke. We are using the Shopify Checkout Integration for Recharge, so using Shopify's API for checkout process.

[CandyCan]

bumping up to @Skye 😁

[Skye]

Hi, @CandyCan.

I apologize for the delay. I am currently reaching out to team members to determine where exactly this information is stored; Stripe, Shopify, or Recharge.

I will get back to you as soon as I am provided a direct response!

[Skye]

Hi, @CandyCan.

Thank you so much for your patience. I was able to narrow down an answer for you, and regarding the "new" integrated checkout with Recharge and Shopify Payments, the customer information is indeed stored in Shopify. 

However, as mentioned, there is currently no possible way of exporting that data to a new gateway. We will absolutely be taking this as a learning experience for us while we build out the ability to do so for future merchants. 

While not ideal, if you do change processors, the best option is to have your customers resubmit their payment details after the migration to your new platform. This can be done by sending out a mass email notification to customers.

I wish you the best of luck on your new platform!

[HalP1]

@Skye @CandyCan Bumping this up  to see if this was at all resolved in the almost a year since the last post.  We are in the exact same scenario as the original poster (formally Recharge on Shopify, trying to move to a new provider) and getting the exact same runaround.  It's extremely frustrating to find that Shopify refuses to work with payment providers to handle a secure exchange of payment information when I've done the exact same process with other major platforms before. Even more frustrating that we are trying to move to Stripe which powers Shopify checkout but Shopify to date refused to engage in any conversation.

[CandyCan]

Hey @HalP1 , to help you not waste any time on it, this was a complete dead-end and the most work I did for something that translated to no resolution for all of 2022. I chatted with Shopify, Recharge, Stripe, etc. I even combed through Shopify's legal docs/T's & C's regarding ownership of data to try to force it. 

Shopify gatekeeps this information to make it not worth your while to switch off Shopify Payments, which they benefit from directly by brokering all these merchant accounts to Stripe.

I'll send you a DM now and we can chat further on my experience. Very frustrating overall.

[mccallmixhers]

We are in the same situation here but the difference is they are FORCING us off of shopify payments because of the products we sell but not giving us any payment tokens. This will be detrimental to our business if not resolved. SHOPIFY PLEASE HELP

[NRDsubs]

Hi Skye, it looks like there are several of us still going through this same issue. Has there been any new progress in exporting Shopify Payment information/tokens to another payment processor to make it a seamless transition for our subscribers?

[CGFarm]

@Skye @CandyCan I am currently experiencing the same endless runaround. Has anyone gotten a resolution to this? Is this even legal?