What are my legal rights as a Shopify store owner with Chinese fulfillment issues?

Shopify Apps
1

I am a Six Figure Shopify store owner primarily selling Print on Demand Products fullfilled in China.

I use 7 Companies that are all integrated with Shopify using apps from the Shopify App Store.

Two of the POD Companies I use have a monthly fee of between 20 and 30 USD.

I have Enterprise membership with one - (the highest tier.) The other has only one teir for all users.

I did adequately research the products and fullfillment times beforehand

Both of these paid apps are the subject of this letter.

I would like to establish what rights i have as a customer of both Shopify and these Fullfillment Suppliers. And where to turn if issues occur.

Company A announce their capabilities on their website and on the Shopify App store
150 employees
3 factories
A “team of customer service representatives providing dedicated support”
and “various communication channels” to connect with store owners and sellers.

Based on this information , some sampling and their presence within the Shopify App Store, i made the decision to use their Print on Demand Dropshipping Service.

Company B was/is a well established, leading POD supplier, used by 100s possibly 1000s of shopify store owners.

I designed and placed HUNDREDS of their products for sale in my shop.

I have spent over $50,000 on Marketing and I have on average 200-300 orders from customers visiting my store every month, which i have fullfilled by a number of Chinese Suppliers

I have 3 other primary Chinese suppliers, so fortunately my orders are spread around, as on more than one occasion, one or more of these companies have fallen significantly behind with fullfillment times

ONLY When fullfillment of my products became delayed and unstable, i discovered that their Legal Pages essentially states absolutely no liability or responsibility for any part of the service they provide to me. I have no basic rights as their customer, and none as a paying subscriber.

,. **Its l important that i highlight that im not referring to shipping times here, im talking about "In Production "delays. OF 30 DAYS

. I have some very basic and fundamental expectations that are not unreasonable as a paying customer

. 1 that my fullfillment services notify me if there is an issue significantly affecting delivery times, giving me the ability to make informed decisions about how to proceed.

  1. I expect That products are of reasonable quality - particularly as the companies have positioned themselves as B2B suppliers for resale

  2. That they will produce my orders within the time frames they outlined or thereabouts

  3. That the products will stay the same - and any core changes would be communicated to me, especially if i have those products for sale in my store.

Unfortunately

These companies have not met these basic expectations resulting in significant costs for me and also damage to my reputation and also jeapordised my contractual obligations with Afterpay and Laybuy.

Add in the Covid 19 shipping issues and its a Clusterfuck.

In summery
From where i stand, it would seem that i have no consumer rights to exercise across international borders.

I have No avenue of recourse and most importantly, there is no set of minimum standards issued by Shopify before said companies are listed on the App Store, and pushed to store owners as being legitimate.

If these exist, can someone please enlighten me.

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2

Hi @missfits

Thank you for reaching out to our community forums to share the feedback you have about some of the apps you have been using on your store. I understand that you feel that these apps are not fulfilling/processing orders within a reasonable amount of time and you want to know if there is any recourse for you as the merchant affected by this.

I would be asking the same questions were I in your shoes, and I know that finding this information is not very clear cut. I can’t speak directly to our policies around our partners and partner created apps, but I can provide you the next steps to ensure your feedback reaches the correct team.

Feedback surrounding apps is handled by an escalated team that only communicates through email. I would recommend emailing our support with the details you have, with as much proof and examples of the situation as you can provide, so that this can be escalated on your behalf. You can reply back to any of your billing emails or you can create a new ticket through our Help Center. To create a new support ticket please follow this link: Shopify Help Center - Contact Support, sign into your store account, search for your issue and use the contact support button at the bottom of the search results to see all our support options.

It may also be worthwhile to review our policy and user agreements for our partners to better understand our expectations of partner/merchant relationships:

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