Store was inactivated by shopify

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

A merchant attempted to create a second Shopify store but initially deactivated it before selecting a plan. When trying to reactivate, they created a new store instead, selected a plan, and began setup—only to have Shopify’s risk-operations team deactivate it days later.

Resolution timeline:

  • Initial contact with risk-operations: May 24th
  • Multiple follow-ups through chat support over several weeks with no response
  • Public forum post made after ~2 weeks of silence
  • Store finally reactivated nearly one month after initial contact, three days after Shopify staff acknowledged the forum post

Key frustrations:

  • Risk-operations team initially unresponsive to provided information
  • Chat support had limited ability to escalate or contact risk-operations directly
  • Merchant felt ignored by a system that replaced phone support with email/chat-only channels

Similar cases reported:

  • Another user experienced a 2-month wait for reactivation on a store with no content, just a purchased domain
  • Concerns raised about domains purchased through Shopify being inaccessible during deactivation, impacting businesses with printed merchandise

The discussion highlights frustration with Shopify’s current support structure and lengthy resolution times for account security reviews.

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

Hello,

We have a Shopify store. It is going well.

We wanted to open a second store with a different product line. We clicked on the “+ Create store” button and created the store. Shopify wanted us to pick a plan and we were not ready to do so. So we inactivated the store until we would be ready.

When we were ready, we went back to make it active and it was not clear how to do so.

So, we clicked “+ Create store” and created a new store, not thinking much of it. We selected a plan, put in our credit card and did a fair bit of set up on the back end with apps. Then a couple of days later when we were ready to import our products we went back to the store and it was inactivated by Shopify.

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We reached out to your chat support and got contacted by risk-operations.

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We sent a reply the same day, May 24th, with all of the information they requested.

We did not hear back after a week, so we contacted your chat support again. The person we chatted with told us they were talking with risk-operations and they had escalated our request. And that we should hear back shortly.

We still never heard back.

We contacted your chat support again. This person told us that they have no way to contact risk-operations except by sending them an email after we hang up. And that he would get back to us when he hears back. He never did.

We are eager to open our new store. We already have an existing store. We messed up by opening a store and inactivating it. But we did not know how to re-activate it. We apologize. We have provided all of the information that risk-operations requested. But they are not responding.

Can you please help us get this resolved? We are talking with Shopify Experts and Shopify Partners and they want to charge us a lot of money so they can chat with support to try to get this resolved. We are not sure that would make any difference. We are not sure they have any more access than we do to risk-operations.

Please let us know what we need to do to get this resolved.

2

Shopify, we would love to hear back from you. We are eager to start our business.

3

Hi @stevejohan ,

Thank you for reaching out to the Community.

I’m sorry to hear about this and would be happy to provide some guidance on how to proceed.

As your request has been escalated, you will want to continue following up with us directly. While I can understand how that may not be ideal, this will allow our support team to follow up on your open ticket as we’re unable to provide account-specific support via the Shopify Community. They will also be able to confirm the appropriate steps have been taken to ensure this gets resolved as quickly as possible.

To connect with us, you can:

  • Head over to our Contact Page.
  • Enter ‘Can’t log in’ into the chat box.
  • Select the ‘I still need help’ option
  • Select the ‘Account Support’ prompt to view our available support options.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.

4

Blair,

I have done this several times over the last several weeks. I feel like I am being ignored.

That is not a nice feeling. Your support used to be by phone and you would have one call and things would be resolved. Now, things just fester.

I will do what you suggested again. If you can help find a way to escalate this issue, I would appreciate it.

5

I have submitted an email message this time. Your help in getting it escalated would be really appreciated.

6

Blair, I have received a response from risk-operations with the same exact email as I told you I received above.

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I will respond to them now.

7

Blair,

This is the response I have submitted right now to risk-operations

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If you can help get this expedited, I would appreciate it. We have been dealing with this for about a month at this point.

Your help is appreciated.

8

It took nearly a month. And 12 days days since making a public post. And 3 days since it came on Shopify’s radar that this post existed.

It is sad that Shopify, that used to have such great support, has become a email/chat only support system that often fails to solve issues leaving people to get upset and have to spend time they should be spending building their business trying to figure out things that should be resolved by Shopify.

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Thank you Blair.

9

Same thing happened to me! It’s been 4 weeks now and multiple appeals submitted and chat tickets created. I hadn’t even put any content on the site at all simply bought a domain, and now I can’t use the domain or edit (start editing) the site. I already committed to the business name so I can’t just start a new site. It’s frustrating it’s taking so long, especially for a site that didn’t even have content on it to begin with. What could possibly be the issue?

1 Like
10

i think they just take our domain and shut it because if you purchased it from Shopify they they get to keep that money. They won’t release the domain either. Its so frustrating when all your merch is already printed with the domain. Shopify is not the platform for small businesses. I feel like they just sit down in front of a computer roll a die and decide which one to shut on a whim just to make themselves look like they are working

11

Reactivated after 2 months. An eternity… Shopify, do better.