Why is it hard to reach real-time support on popular e-commerce platforms?

Why is it hard to reach real-time support on popular e-commerce platforms?

Joseph_Symond
Tourist
7 0 7

I find it both extremely disturbing and distressing, that after amassing millions of paying businesses, and taking on the responsibility for hosting their online presence, Shopify goes to great lengths to avoid paying customers from contacting them directly. The sales pitch clearly states that we will have 24/7 assistance via phone or chat, but once we're signed up, there is no such thing, and we are ultimately forced into an endless cycle of 'self help' and 'community' pages that do not provide the urgent answers needed. Really disappointing.

Thankfully, I have rarely had the need to contact Shopify for assistance, but whenever I do, it becomes a tremendously painful and stressful experience, as there is NO help to be had. What is the mentality behind Shopify blocking their paying customers from being assisted by 'real' people?

When Shopify offers a link that says 'contact Shopify Support', where exactly is that contact being made? Being deferred to link after link and page after page is not the definition of contact. Very disappointing Shopify. And honestly, quite asinine way to piss off your paying customers.

As big as Shopify is, someone better will eventually come along, and suddenly Shopify will be hastily answering the phone, clamoring to save their business far too late.

Tides always turn.

Replies 4 (4)

jessica0318
Pathfinder
95 0 17

Your sharing is awesome!

Ivy
Shopify Staff
1033 82 137

Hi, @Joseph_Symond.

Thank you so much for this feedback. I hear you when you say you have had a disturbing and distressing experience in trying to get to our live support. I want to reassure you that we absolutely do offer 24/7 live support to every single merchant, and I will be happy to walk you through the exact process to access this so you will never have this issue going forward. I never want you to feel "blocked out" from getting the support you need.

Our live support is reached via our support portal here. Simply type your query into the "ask about a topic" bar, then hit continue to support to access. You mentioned getting stuck in a loop of self-help docs and it sounds like this is happening possible because the typing into the topic bar step is being skipped. Here's a video showing the steps in action.

Following these steps, you will have access to a live Support Advisor. I hope this helps to clear up any confusion. If you want to share the problem, you were looking for support with here, I'd be happy to look into it and do my best to help you from here. 




Ivy | Social Care @ Shopify


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Joseph_Symond
Tourist
7 0 7

So let me get this straight. Shopify gladly offer a link that says ‘Contact Support’. Which logically means, if one were to click on that link, we can ‘contact support’.

 

But what your saying is, Shopify don’t want to simply offer an easy way for their customers to ‘contact support’ with such a link, but require us instead to use our ‘mind reading’ abilities, figure out there are several additional steps to take before reaching any semblance of a method to contact Shopify support directly? That must be, because nowhere does it say ‘to contact support directly, type in your query’. All that does is throw up a myriad of answers that still don’t solve the problem. And no way to contact support.

 

How do I know this? I tried what you advised. Multiple times. Nada. Stuck in the infinite loop. Had it worked, I would not have wasted further time writing this. 

Seriously, should we need a video tutorial or ANY guidance on how to contact support? Why make it so complicated?

 

Over 10,000 Shopify business owners agree with me.

 

MAKE IT SIMPLE!!!

Ivy
Shopify Staff
1033 82 137

If you are following the steps as outlined and you are still still "stuck in a loop" then this is not expected behaviour. Can you send me a screen recording of you attempting to access support please? I absolutely understand how important this is for you so want to get to the bottom of the issue for you ASAP. 

The expected behaviour is that it should be as easy as this video  - if this is not your experience, then troubleshooting is needed. I await your video to help get this resolved for you. 

 

Ivy | Social Care @ Shopify


Out Of Office

-Was my reply helpful? Click Like to let me know! 
 - Was your question answered? Mark it as an Accepted Solution
 - To learn more visit the Shopify Help Center or the Shopify Blog