At the end of December, I was looking at my Shopify account & noticed a pop-up saying that my payments were on hold. I got in touch with Shopify support and was assured that it was a standard review because my free trial was ending. The support agent told me that it would only be a 24-72 hour process and that there should not be any problems and that she did not see any flags on my account. I woke up to this message on January 1st:
Amy here from Shopify's Risk Operations Team.
I'm afraid that after reviewing your information and website we believe that your business presents a level of risk that we will be unable to support with Shopify and we will transfer your existing payouts to the bank account on file after 120 days. For security and privacy reasons we are unable to provide any further information regarding the investigation and decision making process, however, per Shopify's Terms Of Service | Section 5 , we do state that: "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time". Once an account has been declined the decision is final.
We won't be able to help with your business but I do wish you the best of luck going forward.
After I reached out to them in total shock Amy asked for information on one transaction, which I gave her. I have not had anyone from Shopify reach out to me since January 3rd. I have reached out on several occasions the last month and I have been getting the same run-around from all the support agents. "Rest assured that we are taking care of this matter." "I will escalate your issue with the risk operations team" "Risk Operations will reach out to you" "Just wait" 120 days ended on May 1st, 2023. It is May 12, 2023, and my Shopify balance has yet to be released. On May 1st I was told it would be released May 2nd. Now they are saying it is pending to be released today, however, since it is Friday it won't actually be released until May 15, 2023 now. The only way I have been able to get any answers is by starting new support chats. One agent told me that I am causing confusion. I think that is pathetic because when I open the chat where all of this started, no one EVER responds, and it's been months.
Does anyone know of anything I can do to help with this situation? The shop that they closed down is my livelihood.
