Laugh with me guys for an amazing New Year’s Eve short story with Shopify support! (2min read)

Topic summary

A merchant received a trademark violation notice from Shopify’s Trust & Safety team on December 30th, giving less than 24 hours (due to time zones) to provide documentation by December 31st.

Despite removing unlicensed products and explaining that parallel imports are legal in New Zealand with supporting government links, the merchant received no direct response. Instead, a new email thread demanded product removal by January 4th.

After voluntarily closing the store, the merchant received what appears to be a reversed/backwards text email from the same support representative, which when read normally states:

  • The store and payouts have been disabled
  • Account will close January 16, 2023 with 7 days to export data
  • Pending payouts transfer in 2-3 business days
  • Money stuck in payouts and remaining subscription months may not be refunded

The merchant had paid for a full year subscription upfront and expressed concern about:

  • Inability to retrieve costs of sold goods
  • Potential loss of prepaid subscription fees and add-ons
  • Poor customer service timing (New Year’s Eve, <24 hours)
  • Platform reliability for building customer loyalty programs

Another user reported experiencing identical issues with the same support representative.

Summarized with AI on November 13. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.

My store Paralleled imported officially licensed goods from China and I had some cheaper toys that came from a different source that drew Shopify’s attention and received this email (summerised):


Austin here from Shopify’s Trust & Safety team. We noticed that your store, happyhoarder.myshopify.com, is selling branded or trademarked products. For example:

If we don’t receive the requested documentation and completed attestation by Dec 31, 2022, we may disable your account.

Austin

Trust & Safety | Shopify


I was given notice on 30th Dec, because of the time difference I was given less than 24 hours on New years eve to provide receipts of purchase.

I removed all unlicensed products, but kept the Official trademarked products in store and gave a thoughtful and kind reply detailing Parallel import is legal in NZ and bullet pointed our government websites links in an organised explanation on the subject to keep my supplier’s information private (also just couldn’t be bothered because I had better things to do like celebrate with my family).

However I received no response in same thread. Instead sent a new email thread (summerised):


“Thank you for your response.

If you are unable to provide the requested documentation you will need to remove the branded or trademarked product(s) from your Shopify store and admin. We ask that this be completed no later than January 4, 2023 to prevent any further action on your account.

Thank you for your cooperation,

Austin

Trust & Safety | Shopify


I had paid for a Full year subscription and this is the 1st time I required Shopify support, thinking ahead if I run into issues after building a large client based on Loyalty programs this would put me in a terrible position.
I replied to the email detailing I have voluntarily closed my Shopify store.

Here is the response…


Austin here from Shopify’s Trust & Safety team.

We have reviewed your account and determined that it is in violation of Shopify’s Terms of Service. As a result, we are no longer able to host your store, happyhoarder.myshopify.com, or your custom domain, happyhoarder.myshopify.com, on our platform.

At this time, public access to your storefront has been disabled. You will continue to have access to your admin for 7 days if you wish to export your store data. On January 16, 2023, your account will be closed and you will have no further access to your store or its data. If you require assistance downloading your content, please contact support here.

Any pending payouts should be transferred to the bank account on file in 2-3 business days.

Shopify’s Terms of Service can be found here and our Acceptable Use Policy can be found here.

If you have any questions, please reply directly to this email.

Thank you,

Austin

Trust & Safety | Shopify


In summary:

I think E-commerce platforms have been life changing for lots of people and I feel it’s only one staff member that seems like it’s their last week on job has being leaving bad customer experiences, so hopefully those staying on the platform won’t run into such issues;

like.. given less than 24 hours on New years eve to sort and not actually reading any replies

But more importantly, your Shopify payouts and Shopify store could be closed in a day.

Meaning you would have to send the goods as the store is selling as normal for customers but you might not be able to get your Cost of goods sold back and all monies paid in advance for subscriptions and addons.

Hope you guys got a little heads up to navigate similar situations from this and enjoyed the read :smiley:

PS.

Does Shopify keep your money stuck in Payouts and refund any remaining months you have in paid Subscription and Addons?

1 Like

I’m dealing with the same thing from the same customer service rep.

Guess its time to jump ship!!

Shopify is no longer the ecommerce platform with the most users!! I wonder why.