What's going to happen with my money on a terminated account?

Shopify Discussion

Topic summary

Account closed for violating Shopify’s AUP (Acceptable Use Policy); Shopify Payments may hold all pending payouts per Terms of Service Section D.3. Original poster and many others ask when funds will be released and whether fulfilled orders will be refunded.

  • Official guidance: Forums can’t access accounts; only the Trust & Safety appeal form (linked in the termination email) can reach the internal team. The sending email is no‑reply.

  • Reported timelines: Merchants cite hold periods of 120–180 days. One received an email stating funds would be released after 120 days but saw no payout on the first business day after; others at ~124 days report no funds or email. No confirmed example of funds actually received yet.

  • Unresolved questions: Whether fulfilled orders are automatically refunded; exact payout timing after the hold; how to contact a live agent. One poster claims holding funds beyond 180 days is illegal; another mentions potential class action. A contributor suggests alternative processors (e.g., Durango, PayKings) that may require reserves but offer more control.

  • Status: Ongoing, no resolution. Actionable next steps are limited to submitting/awaiting the Trust & Safety appeal and hold expiry; timelines and refund handling remain unclear.

Summarized with AI on December 15. AI used: gpt-5.
2

Hi, @akurozeh .

Thanks for reaching out about this. I can understand how stressful this situation must be for you.

To set the proper expectations with you, our Community Forums team do not have any access to accounts or support tickets from our end, due to privacy and security reasons. Account-specific situations like yours would require a specialized internal team member to assist, which in your case looks to be the Trust & Safety team.

The email you received from our Trust & Safety team sounds like it includes a linked form. If this is the case, your best way forward here is to fill in the form with any further queries and concerns about the situation, and a Trust & Safety Analyst should receive your message.

I understand that my reply isn’t probably what you’d like to hear — in this situation however, the steps I laid out above will be your next best step as the team working on your case is best equipped to handle queries of this kind. The best way to reach them is by filling in the form that is linked within the email you received.