My business is going under from Shopify payout freeze

Shopify Discussion
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I don’t know where to begin, I operate a large auto/engine Remanufacture business. We’ve been in business since 1997 since my father founded the company. He literally built this company from nothing. Now his children came in and we were trying to take this thing to the 21st century.

Earlier this year we decided we needed to update our payment processing system. We’ve been using PayPal for years and their fees and hold times for funds was just keeping us from expanding. So we opted for Shopify after much research. Everything was fine for a couple months, I confirmed my identity and sent in my ID’s and Tax info/business license, etc.

Business just exploded, my monthly sales turned quickly into weekly sales. And I think this is where things started to go off the rails. Shopify without warning or explanation froze my payouts. It was devastating. I need my funds for cash flow, buying product, paying employees, etc. Shopify as of this writing is holding north of $25,000. I’ve tried reaching out via chat, email and phone calls and I’ve got nowhere. The phone representative actually just hung up on me when I asked for a supervisor. No one in the company knows anything and no one can give me answers. The Risk assessment team who is impossible to contact, like a shadow department, finally emailed me after about 4 days saying this

Hello there,

Levi here from Shopify Risk Operations Team. I hope you’re well!

We have reached out to our banking partners to enquire about the hold on your Shopify Payments account. The hold should be removed once they review your account and if there’s anything else required on your end we’ll let you know via this email.

Thank you for your patience while we’re working on resolving the matter!

Kind regards,

Levi

Your ticket ID is 35804711

These people do not understand how businessworks. They act like it’s no big deal! I cannot just sit here and wait patiently while my business falls apart!! Why are my funds frozen? I’m a legitimate business owner with all the paperwork submitted as proof, I sell legal products, and I’m compliant. Is it because of the success? Am I being punished because I’m making a lot of sales? I’ve gotten NO EXPLANATION!

You say you’re trying to prevent fraud and Risk when in reality you’re causing the very thing to my customers!! If I can’t get product then I cannot fulfill my orders! If I cannot fulfill my orders my customers will charge back/ask for refunds. You’re killing my business over absolutely nothing.

This cannot stand! Change your policy about this sort of thing now! Before you hurt other small businesses! I have happy customers and I sell quality products. This is not how you treat your customers let alone our customers!

I NEED ANSWERS AND I NEED THEM NOW!

2 Likes
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Ever get this resolved? I am currently going through the same thing. Zero reason given, zero emails, had payouts go out prior without a problem, and now they are holding over $11k (most of which is from a LOCAL order, and its going to sink me. Regret invoicing through Shopify at all, should have stuck to Square.

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Yes, I did end up getting things resolved. Took about 2 weeks of calling,
chatting and emails with agents from foreign companies who had no clue what
to do to find out my money was on hold due to a random check Shopify wanted
to conduct. No warning and I still have no explanation why they put my
account on hold for. I know how you feel and I felt utterly devastated but
your money will be released soon. I’m not happy at all with Shopify and
their shady policies. I’m not happy with their customer service agents. If
I could rate the company they’d be in the toilet. Call your local bank,
open a business checking account and select their merchant services program
and cut out the middle man Shopify.

1 Like
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Hey,

If you don’t mind, what exactly did you to to resolve this. We are experiencing the same situation and Shopify is holding 30% of payouts, when we operate on a 10% margin.

thanks

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They have done the same thing to my business. They will nor provide a reason for why they are holding the funds and after emailing and calling they said they would review and ended up holding them for the 120 days. i was supposed to received my money on the 11th it is now the 12th and they stopped replying to emails and have not made my funds available to me. we should file a class action against them and report them to the FDIC.

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Hey, so how many days from when they told you that they removed the security check to when you actually got your money back? They told me yesterday that they removed the security check but it’ll take a few days to reflect on my account. Is this true or is it longer