Shopify freezing payouts for an existing store

[SwitchCouture]

First off, let me preface this with the fact that I love using shopify as a platform and for my customers.  Shopify pay offers and extremely easy and flexible way for my clients to pay for goods and services and until recently, this has never been an issue. 

I am a manufacturer and retailer, I provide goods and services that are paid for in advance before they are produced as my customers purchase custom items from my store which have to be made to tailored to their individual needs.  There are lead times associated with these items, and most orders do not ship immediately, some with months before fulfillment can take place. 

Recently my payouts were frozen on my account.  What this means is that the products and supplies I purchase and list on my store can be sold, customers can continue to purchase from me, shopify will still collect their fees for processing my payments, but the actual money from those sales is not being deposited into my bank account.  For me this seems odd as I will simply no longer purchase items to sell retail in the future knowing my money is being held and this negatively impacts shopify in the form of lost revenue. 

My store is in good standing, I dont drop ship anything, I dont sell anything that is prohibited by shopify, but simply having unfulfilled orders without contacting me to to at least get the context for why that is and then freezing my payouts is only going to make me want to find another platform, or payment processor entirely, one with less draconian practices.. I trust shopify to handle my money, my sales, and while I understand they want people who purchase my goods to receive what they paid for, that is my responsibility and withholding my funds is going to stifle my ability to grow as a business as I will no longer purchase the goods to sell on my website if the money from those sales is being held hostage by shopify. 

I tried to find a phone number to an account manager or someone I could speak to who would be able to explain why this is happening but shopify refuses to let you speak to anyone.  They didnt even ask me to prove that I have paid for the items Ive sold on my site.  This is all very unsettling and I fear Ill need to find another place to do my business with less draconian means of providing a payment service. 

How does one get this resolved, Ive sent emails and was told to wait 3 days, and still no one has returned my emails or even looked into my business and the kind of work I do.   Very frustrating as a customer of shopify who makes them a considerable amount of money. 

[PhoneB]

I’m interested to know how you resolved this as I am experiencing the same problem. After months of marketing we’re finally starting to generate sales however our funds are being held up by Shopify which will make it hard for us to pay manufacturers for our custom made products .

[MagicHappens]

Hi SwitchCouture,

Were you able to resolve this issue? And how many days did it take to resolve it? We are having a similar issue where Shopify froze our accounts and has not responded to multiple emails and requests. Very Frustrating! 

Thanks,

Vivek