SHOPIFY, BRING THE PHONE SERVICE BACK

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A Shopify store owner is petitioning to restore phone support, arguing that chat support is time-consuming and inefficient. The main complaint centers on the inability to quickly communicate with a human voice, which would reduce back-and-forth messaging and misunderstandings that occur through text-based chat.

Key concerns raised:

  • Chat support requires hours of typing with limited results
  • Text communication leads to frequent misinterpretation of issues
  • Screenshots cannot replace real-time verbal clarification
  • The removal of phone support coincided with a monthly payment increase

Community response is divided:

  • One user defends chat support as excellent, preferring it over phone hold times when questions are well-written
  • Another strongly agrees with the petition, noting that Tier 1 chat agents vary widely in experience and effectiveness, often requiring escalation to Tier 2 support anyway

The discussion remains unresolved, with the petition seeking broader merchant support to pressure Shopify into reinstating phone service.

Summarized with AI on November 7. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

TO ALL SHOP OWNERS ON SHOPIFY,

I am Shahla Reynolds, a shop owneer, www.sonarta-com.myshopify.com.

Please join me in signing this petition asking Shopify to bring back the Phone Support.

No-one has time to spend hours typing on the Chat with no results.

PLEASE ASK SHOPIFY TO BRING THE PHONE SERVICE BACK.
Thank you.

1 Like
2

Write quality questions, you’ll receive quality answers. The Shopify help chat is an excellent resource and I prefer it waiting on hold. Cheers.

3

Well,
Good for you!
By the way,this is not about the support team members. It is about being able to talk to a Human being in the matter of minutes and communicate the issues without going back and forth. It is about hearing someone’s voice rather than looking at screenshots.

If Shopify was going to cut services then why did it increase our monthly payment?
Perhaps that is okay by you too!

I am glad that you have a lot of time to chat and you like doing it, but most of us have to squeeze every minute to pay for that increase Shopify just imposed on us and try to figure things out on our own.
I hope you don’t come across any major issues, until then,

1 Like
4

I had to laugh out loud at this. Every tier 1 support agent is hit or miss at Shopify. Sometimes you get someone who’s been working there seven years and understands the system, sometimes you get a new person who is just looking up helpfiles and doesn’t even know what Shopify does or does not support. Regardless of how well you word your questions in the chat, text is constantly a victim to misinterpretation. Speaking on the phone you are able to clear up misunderstandings by the person receiving your message in a second, vs waiting five minutes for them to get back to you with the incorrect understanding of what you are asking. When I have no choice but to seek help with the horrible chat system at Shopify I write my questions specifically geared towards tier 2 support and tell the agent I get to please copy and paste my exact question to that tier 2, since they will have to go them anyhow (because, like a tier 1 support person, I am also capable of reading helpfiles and forums).