MASSIVE change to shopify TOS - pay attention if you sell anything that contains batteries

[JPup]

around 80% of our catalog is either lithium batteries or electronics that have internal batteries. 

so it came as a shock to learn today that we are no longer allowed to use shopify shipping. regardless of the couriers rules not changing - shopify simply will not allow it. 

we did confirm with usps that we are still compliant, and that their rules have not changed. this is 100% shopifys issues.

i have a strong suspicion that this is not intended, and they simply want to enforce owners to follow the guidelines set out by those carriers (which we do - all shipments are properly labeled)... but the way this is now worded strictly prohibits any sales of lithium batteries to be processed through shopify shipping. 



i tried speaking with support, who confirmed that was the case and that any products (laptops, cell phones, wireless headphones or keyboards, etc) are no longer allowed to be processed through shopify shipping. they offered no plan, refund, or compensation.... so essentially, we have paid for years of service that we can no longer use as they changed their TOS. my last resort was asking for some sort of credit to allow us to use a third party shipping processor as what we paid shopify for, has now substantially changed - and was essentially told no.

this was a final nail in the coffin for us. we will be moving to a new platform.

[tealdye]

Thanks for flagging and posting this. It makes no sense and when I chatted with Shopify help they copy/pasted the USPS info, which I then replied "exactly, your requirements are different than USPS" please explain. They said it was a mistake and they are going to get back to me. Happy to keep you posted

[JPup]

glad to hear they are now admitting it is a mistake (as I previously assumed)... but its now been over a month, and its still there. 

[tealdye]

wanted to update you on what they said, but Essentially, their wording is confusing AF and what the popup is supposed to communicate is that we are agreeing that we aren't shipping items that are forbidden by USPS.   See below for their response to me:

" here from Shopify Support continuing the conversation with you! You are correct there on the wording and that you are agreeing to not shipping products that are on the USPS's Shipping Restrictions & HAZMAT list. Since you already communicated with USPS about what you are shipping,  and they have approved it then you are good to go. The pop-up is related to USPS's restrictions only, so if you check the agreement boxes in the popup, and USPS finds that you are shipping prohibited products, that is when then they may have us disable your ability to buy labels in the admin. Sounds like you are good to go there! 
 
Please let us know if you have any further questions! "

[JPup]

yep - and yet... the wording is still there... a full month later

[retroandrare]

I just got off a conversation with their support. I am launching my business in a week and have been building things for almost 5 months. The first stone that I had to set to build on was select my platform which was shopify. I just did a test order for a product (I am selling electronics that contain batteries), and encountered this error. They told me to use shipstation or try to work out a deal with the carriers directly. BOTH of these solutions proposed would cost drastically more than shopify and for shipstation and other third parties, they is a monthly fee as well. Should I go with someone else too, I then have to login and touch THREE separate companies and systems for every order placed, so NOTHING will streamline. I am about to have to file for bankruptcy before even launching the business I put my life savings into because of this company. 

No refund offered from shopify and I cant get refunded or have my developers all pivot to building things to integrate with a new platform. This literally just ended me.