What's the solution for payment gateway issues due to 'pseudo-pharmaceuticals'?

[rmf90]

Not happy so far.....

I received an email from a bot stating my site is selling  ‘pseudo-pharmaceuticals’ and cannot use their payment gateway... I cannot see what product they are claiming as I own a supplement store and one of my distributors even use shopify for their site. 

I have emailed multiple avenues to try and get someone to tell me which product/s are not allowed to sell using this gateway however am just recieving multiple bot message replies now for the past week which has taken up half of my trial to get set up...

Can anyone on here help me or have an alternative to work through this as its quiet frustrating and the only thing stopping my site from going live and I am loosing money daily 

[Julie]

Hi, @rmf90.

Julie here from Shopify Support.

I'm glad to hear that you've been in touch with the Shopify Payments team about this matter; since this issue pertains to your Shopify Payments account, speaking directly with the appropriate team is your best course of action. Keep in mind that they are experiencing higher than usual queue volumes, so you may not receive an immediate response.

However, when you received the original email from them, they would likely have indicated that you're more than welcome to continue using Shopify; you'll just need to use a third-party gateway. Typically, they'll offer a few suggestions for alternative payment gateways. 

You can also browse the available third-party payment gateways in your region here. Since you're selling supplements, it's a good idea that you check in with the payment gateways directly to see if they'll support your products. You can generally find out whether this is the case by looking up their Terms of Service. For example, the Shopify Payments Terms of Service indicates exactly the types of businesses that are prohibited from using Shopify Payments.

To get your online store up and running as soon as possible, I suggest exploring a few third-party payment gateways to see which one will suit your business needs the best, then create an account directly with them. Once that's done, you'll be able to connect the gateway on Shopify's end, through Settings > Payments > Choose third-party provider. We also have information on how to configure third-party payment providers here.

I hope this helps clear things up. If you can let me know where you're located, I'd be happy to brainstorm a few payment options with you! 

[LenaWells]

My frustration to continue with this line of inquiry is that many supplement businesses are being classed as pseudo-pharmaceuticals

In your definition, this refers to supplements making health claims that are unverified. 

All NZ supplements are required to be TAPs approved and not make any unverified claims so all their descriptions are very carefully written with this in mind.

This means that these supplements cannot be classified as pseudo-pharmaceuticals as they are not making any unverified health claims so I feel this categorisation is rather unfair and incorrect. 

[latindan]

100% agree, same here with FDA & FTC overseeing.  I got the same message, yet all my health claims are conforming and Shopify failed to specify which health claims aren’t “supported”. There is basically no communication and clarity on the basis of their claim and no options to review content instead of changing gateway.

[Mssvazquez]

im having this same issues. i have a online Adult store on shopify an they saying i cant sell like male enhancements or certain lubes

[User1233123]

I am also facing the same issues and how can they be pseudo-pharmaceuticals

That word annoys me so much. 

[jwturner1865]

Did you solve this? I have the same problem

[NoahKotterman]

Having the same issue! Where you ever able to get it fixed and keep using shopify payments? I feel like all I have got is responses from bots so far!