Shopify holding my funds because of falsely categorizing products as pharmeceuticals

Shopify Discussion
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Topic summary

A Shopify merchant is experiencing fund holds after the platform incorrectly classified over-the-counter lash serums and mascaras as pharmaceuticals. Despite providing proof of purchase from vendors and escalating the issue, the merchant received no resolution, with support citing weekend unavailability.

Current Status:

  • Shopify threatened store closure, forcing the merchant to draft the affected products
  • This impacts both online sales and brick-and-mortar operations, where items must now be manually rung up as custom sales
  • The merchant is actively seeking third-party payment processors as alternatives

Suggested Solutions:

  • Contact Shopify Payments support directly (rather than general support) for fund hold issues
  • Revise product descriptions to avoid automated trigger words
  • Consider alternative payment gateways like PayPal temporarily

The merchant notes that other online beauty retailers have faced similar issues, with some forced to completely migrate platforms, resulting in significant income loss. They’re now exploring alternative e-commerce platforms due to Shopify’s regulatory overreach into their physical retail inventory.

Summarized with AI on October 31. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
1

My Shopify Account Funds are being held because they want me to remove over the counter lash serums and mascaras calling them “pharmaceuticals.”

I have filed a claim- given proof of purchase from vendor etc.

They “escalated” which got me nowhere and now they say “they don’t do weekends.”

Really ridiculous since they sure can shut your money down on a weekend.

Anyone else have this experience?

2

This sounds incredibly frustrating, especially since lash serums and mascaras are not pharmaceuticals. Shopify’s automated system may have flagged them incorrectly, and while you’ve already escalated the issue, the best next step is to continue pushing for manual review. Try contacting Shopify Payments support directly instead of general support, as they handle fund holds. Additionally, if your products comply with Shopify’s terms, you might consider revising product descriptions to avoid trigger words that could cause automated flags. If this delay is impacting cash flow, setting up an alternative payment gateway (like PayPal or a third-party processor) could be a temporary solution. Hopefully, Shopify resolves this soon!

3

Unfortunately, they threatened to shut my store down so I had to put them on draft until I find a third party payment portal.

Really sad as this also shuts the item down in my retail store which we scan barcodes and now has to be rung up as a custom sale for all serums. Some online beauty retailers have had to completely shut down there stores and migrate losing a lot of income. Sad that Shopify is now regulating what I carry in my brick and mortar. Will be investigating other venues.