In my store, we sell over the counter medical items. Like gauze, bandaids, medical kits etc.
“Hamish” from the “Trust and Safety” team emailed saying that -
“is selling items that we consider to be medical devices/equipment or prescription only products which are not supported on Shopify Payments, as outlined in section B(5) of our Shopify Payments Terms of Service.”
So the response that was sent was that we do not sell any medical devices as defined by the FDA (even provided a link to the FDA website that specifically mentions and defined them) and then we asked for the link to the exact section he was referring to - there was no direct link provided to any section he mentioned.
Hamish sent a follow-up email that was just a cut and paste.
We responded with the same information.
We sent another email that since we sell hemostatics that our Shopify payments were disabled.
We advised him again, that "Hemostatics are not prescription in any way, any shape, any form. Anyone can walk into any store in the entire US and buy them over the counter without any paperwork. "
Asking for a phone number to speak to his supervisor, and for his supervisor to email us instead of him.
His response was “I am sorry about this inconvenience but please know that this is not something we are going to be able to reverse. This decision has been brought forth by our banking partners who power Shopify Payments and we must respect their decision.”
This is utter fallacy, and a complete departure from anything ethical.
No supervisor escalation, no ability to appeal to anyone else, just a blanket statement causing a serious disruption to our business.
How can this type of thing be allowed?
Mind you, this isn’t the first day, week, month or year we have been selling these items, it’s been years. They aren’t illegal, prohibited, restricted or require any type of paperwork in any way. There is no appeals process and there’s nothing apperently that can be done.
Has anyone ever navigated this type of issue with the “trust and safety team” before? Can anyone help us get a resolution that doesn’t involve us having to eventually move our very profitable business away from this platform? This is extremely disconcerting that they can make such a determination out of the blue without any recourse and it being completely based on false context.
Any help would be extremely appreciated.