You must be in a state where it’s a loan and you have milestones? I didn’t have any indications that I wasn’t “on schedule” except an email from a rep that said she just wanted to see how our business was doing. In Michigan, it’s classified as a Merchant Credit Advance, so there aren’t a set number of monthly payments.
What’s the most upsetting is how weirdly detached the support reps are. I have yet to receive an email that actually answers a question or provides a time to call. I feel as though the calling of the loan is a set in stone multi step process if your store doesn’t pay it back in 2 months and it doesn’t matter what I say, they just proceed with what they have to anyway. I reached out to one of the reps via LinkedIn after she stopped replying, to make sure my email went through, and the whole situation was weird. I had multiple emails in my inbox the next day from various Shopify departments scolding me for using social media. They have the time to write that, but can’t help a customer that has been with the site for years and did $100,000 in sales this year so far. So bizarre.
So far it has escalated into them locking the site, then refusing to call during my normal business hours, only wanted to call at night when I told her I wasn’t in the office. She turned the admin back on as a goodwill gesture and then sent an email stating they’ll settle for half, still sent a weird PayPal link to pay the remaining though. I don’t understand that. I really don’t get it because they would’ve gotten the full amount in less than 2 months with our Q4 sales. At this point, I can’t even trust Shopify if we were to ever settle on something. The irrational behavior of these reps, along with locking me out of my admin is inexcusable.
I did find, however, that they reported in their SEC filings that they have insurance on these capital loans. So, if someone were to commit a “bad act” they get an insurance payout. It seems they force slow moving accounts into committing “bad acts” and I’m guessing maybe insurance pays half and that’s why they try to settle for the other half?
He told me he could debit the amount out of my account on file. So I’m terrified of that now that i will wake up and my bank account be empty. Can they do that?!
I’m working with a reporter at the Ottawa Citizen regarding the abuse from Shopify surrounding the capital loans. We’ve set up a gmail account to collect stories and information. If you would like to follow up, please feel free to email shopinvestigate@gmail.com. It’s going to take a while to compile all of the information, especially with the holidays, but hoping to get a piece published in January and shed light into this deceptive practice.
ughh… I really wish I saw this before I got mine. I got contacted by Shopify to remove some items after I applied for the loan. So I removed the times from my store not realizing it was related to me being approved or not. Once they were removed they approved me. Problem is, what was getting me all my large sales were mostly the items that were the ones they had me remove.
I can say that many people meet issues now when getting a loan, perhaps it depends mostly on a loan provider. Recently I found an interesting site with reviews on such providers, and this one attracted my attention https://smalan-norge.com/folkia-logg-inn If you need some money, you can pay attention to Folkia, they don’t offer long-term loans, but their interests are rather affordable.
This makes more sense. The only logical reason why they would want anyone to pay just Half of the amount owed could be explained with the insurance they got on it. The whole thing is so scary. With my business growing so big so fast I need to think twice about keeping my store under Shopify. Let’s say it grows big then still I will be under the mercy of Shopify and their heartless Gurus?
I’m glad I saw this before accepting their second Loan. The first one will be paid in few weeks. So happy I saw these posts.
They can shut down your business for no reason or for some stupid reason? OMG that’s scary. It took a lot to build my business and these people act like this? hmmmmmmmmmm
Besides the “Shopify Capital” related problems that shopify creates for customers I also believe that the shopify is waiting for customers to file for a chargeback so that it can punish the merchants, and regardless of what the decision of the customer’s bank is, Shopify keeps the money and doesn’t return to retailers. I never gotten any contact information of the customer’s bank so that I can contact the bank directly. I would like to deal with the bank directly and not shopify. This is what they will say “The customer’s bank had decided on the favor of the customer.” Sorry you lost $2000. That’s it. Very deceptive practice from Shopify.
I think shopify should give the merchant the contact information of the bank and let them deal with it directly. How do I know customer’s bank decided on customer’s favor? because shopify said so?
Also such a big company like shopify doesn’t provide some core features such as “Credit” option instead of refund? Let’s say a customer buys from my shop and the minimum purchase for free shipping is $500. The customer wants a $200 refund for something and I issue a credit for $200, then he would have to spend $500 and then I can also add additional $200 credit amount worth of products in the shipment. With Gift card option I won’t be able to do that. With Giftcard option he would buy $300 and use $200 giftcard and will qualify for free shipping as they both add to $500. In summary “giftcard” is not same as issuing “store credit”. Shopify doesn’t have several other core features that the retailers need to improve their businesses. They will make retailers pay for several apps and all will act disjointedly? In the beginning shopify was fun to start the business and as the business has grown and is still growing I regret starting with shopify at times. now just stuck with it.
I will restrain myself from getting a shopify cash advance. Glad I paid the first one.
So far shopify never gave me any problems. I borrowed 38k once and paid it off, and now they are offering me again. To be honest it has been helpful for me to grow my business when I use their capital.
But little bit scary when I read the posts here. Little bit hesitant to take the next offer from them but I think I will end up taking it as I will be able to make a next leap and make my sale from $1000 per day to $2000 per day. It does make a difference to have money and to not have it when you do business. Money is the oxygen for business. when you run out or run short of it then it is a problem. Keeping the cash flow helps get back the money as well.
More unbelievable than any other story I read on this thread is:
We never applied or asked for any loan or capital. We are a high volume retailer.
They made a deposit in our bank of a very large amount. Immediately proceeded to take
thousands of dollars daily from our account. It was not discovered until month end reconcilliation.
They have taken over $30,000. and are are showing the balance due to be almost what they deposited.
So basically all the interest up front in one month.
Two days into this discovery we are only able to speak with customer service through the same frustrating communication protocal you are all familiar with. Only informed it is being looked into and insinuating that it looks like we did file for the funds. Upon internal investigation we found password change requests on the day of application and the day of accepting funding through our email spam file. In addition we are in a State that funding through Shopify Capital is not authorized to do business. We have lending laws that protect against predatory lending which is what these guys certainly qualify as.
Enormous problem with no resolution in site at this point.
Looks like fraud and possibly criminal activity, intentional or not we have yet to learn. Shopify platform has been terrific for us to sell from however it looks like a huge mistake has been made partnering with whatever group this is.
Anyone else get a loan without requesting or any contact?
The exact thing happened to us. We were going great, and just as business was starting to really pick up and we were making good money they shut our store down for 2 months. Told us that we could sell items but we were not allowed to touch any of the money made from the sales. So the money we invested for the items on top of the profit made for selling the items was Untouchable for 2 months. This happened shortly after we took out the large loan from Shopify. This seems like a dishonest, probably even an illegal business practice.
This is really shocking to me. I’ve done 4 advances without any issues. As a new business it’s helped me grow. I’m so sorry to hear some people have had so many problems.
Very shocking to hear as well. I’ve had 12 advances since being with Shopify and have never experienced any issues other than fails remittances in 2022 due to slower sales. But even still they’ve given my store grace. Maybe laws apply differently depending on location. I wish everyone a better experience but I think they’ve been great.