Why is Shopify asking for business documents for a sole proprietor store?

[Qamarkhan1]

Hello!

           I recently made a Shopify store. Designed everything, bought a paid theme, attached my domain. But after paying for my first plan, my store got inactive. I received an email from Shopify legal team saying that: "In order to reconsider your account for eligibility to use Shopify we require some additional information with regards to your business model. "

They demanded some documents like: 

1: Proof of address - Utility bill .

2: Proof of business association (i.e. business license, business registration documents (with company number) or business tax filing record)

3: Proof of inventory.

4: Social media links.

I provided my PSEG utility bill as a proof of address. Provided invoice form my supplier for my inventory. Provided our facebook and insta links. 

My questions is that why is Shopify asking me for business documents when i have applied for the store as a Sole proprietor using my SSN?  ( I am from the US btw).

 I replied to that email providing everything above and explaining that i don't have business registeration documents since i plan to run this store as a Sole proprietor. 

But i have not gotten a reply from them. It has been over 2 days now.

My question is, has anyone else faced such issue? and will they accept my appeal about me wanting to run the store as a Sole proprietor using my SSN? also when can i expect a reply from them.

Regards.

[Greta]

Hi, @Qamarkhan1!

Thanks for reaching out. As long as you've responded to our legal team's email with that context, you will receive a response. I can't confirm what the outcome will be as that is determined by our legal team, however you should keep an eye on your email for more information. Responses aren't immediate due to the size of our queue, and can take several business days. 

Please let me know if you have any other questions! 

[jorgehp1]

Hello, could you please tell me if this has been solved? I have the same problem but they haven't answered me and it's been 10 days now

[Victor]

Hi @jorgehp1,

Did you receive an email from our team when you initially submitted the documents?

[jorgehp1]

Yes, and I sent the documentes inmediately, I'm looking to duplicate the store now that the legal team refuses to answer me...

[Victor]

Hi @jorgehp1,

Okay, I see. There can sometimes be a delay with a response if our team's queue is larger than usual. I would recommend giving it a few more days but if you have not heard back by next week you can get in touch via our Help Center and our team can check the status of your ticket for you.

[jorgehp1]

That's ok, I will wait until next Tuesday, then I will create the same store again and lose all the 1000 customers I had. great!!

[Qamarkhan1]

Yes it was solved after about 11 days. But now my Shopify payments are on hold as soon as i logged in. Now i am not getting a response from the verifications team again. So i am in the same loop again😂.

[jorgehp1]

Bruhhh, did you send follow up emails? I don't know what more I can do to fix this😭

[Qamarkhan1]

No but i did talk to the support team daily. I just received an email from the legal team saying that their banking partner is reviewing my payment account and they should be done in 2 to 3 days. I will advise you not to create another store on the same details, it will get shut down as well ( believe me i tried that). Just wait and talk to support daily to escalate your issue to the legal team. Actually this is happening to almost 80% of the newly created store and that it why their queue is so long and its taking a lot of time. So my advice would be to just wait.

[Karatellis]

Well I'm p!ssed.  And I know there are tons of people just like me.  Its been a week since I've heard from them and I personally refuse to wait a year to get access to my domain back.  

[Donald-Barlow]

The same exact email was sent to me but no actual explanation as to why my store was deactivated. I never even made any sales. Home address information I can understand, but asking for business information when I put Sole proprietor and provide them with my social security number doesn't make sense.  They are also asking for me for proof of inventory, but I'm a drop shipper so that doesn't make sense either.