We had spent six months building our process to migrate over to Shopify from our current website. We have been in business for 12 years and have never had an issue accepting payments.
We have been doing test after test on our process on Shopify for the last month. Today was the day we finally moved over, and guess what? 1 hour into the process, I got a message from Shopify saying your Shopify Payments had been suspended. No explanation, just a message on the site, with the only option being to contact customer service via chat.
So I do this while I have a team of programmers and employees standing around waiting to hear what to do.
After 15 minutes on the chat, I was told they had sent me an email, which is all they could do.
I located the email, and it says, " We found that your store, XXXXXX.myshopify.com, is selling items that we consider to be through an auction which is not supported on Shopify Payments, as outlined in section B(5) of our Shopify Payments Terms of Service.
Your Shopify Payments account has been disabled, and you can no longer accept payments through this gateway.
So I go to the Shopify Payment Terms of Service, and the only thing I can find about auctions is: “Gambling - Lotteries; bidding fee auctions;”
We are far from a bidding fee auction (penny auctions - charge a non-refundable fee for each bid).
There are multiple apps on Shopify that facilitate auctions. Many sites on Shopify are auction sites, so I assume that Shopify does not truly block all auction sites from using Shopify Payments. The only thing that makes sense to me is that someone somewhere in the world saw the word “auction” both in our name and in the Shopify Payments Terms of Service and “assumed” that every auction is a bidding fee auction or possibly they have heard from other people on the team that auctions are not allowed on Shopify Payments, ironically, they have not read the terms and did not see that only “bidding fee auctions” are not allowed.
So without any notice or opportunity to clarify, Shopify suspends the account.
We have set up alternate payment options on the site, and I have responded to the email explaining the situation. But honestly, Shopify, before you go and essentially pause someone’s business (250+ transactions a day), shouldn’t you be reasonably sure that you have things together and that the customer has a timely chance to “partner” with you, given that every website here on Shopify has made you a vital partner in their success.
Why can we not be given some level of respect as your customer?
Why should I completely revamp my business on our long anticipated launch day, with all of my employees and contractors on hold waiting to hear what is going on? Why should I have to deal with a flood of customers calling and saying why they can’t make a payment? Why do I need to wait what will likely be days or weeks, based on other customers’ comments, to have our Shopify Payments turned back on just because one person at Shopify seems to have no idea what they are doing?
Russ