Why am I getting double billed on my website plan?

[sartrowski]

Hello!

I have been working with your company for around four years, successfully building two websites for my own apparel brand, along with developing two more online stores in apparel for close acquaintances, and I am happy to recommend Shopify to anyone considering entering a business.

I am, however, stunted by a little apparent glitch that I can't seem to wrap my head around. I failed to deposit cash to my debit card during the past few days, mostly because of the immense string of national holidays in Romania, where I am based, so, naturally, my website was frozen for failing to pay the bill. I very frequently fail to check that my debit is updated before or around the 6th of the month when I am billed, so I am no stranger to the practice, nor does it bother me in any way. What is fair is fair.

I updated my debit this morning, I logged onto my mobile Shopify App and meant to proceed with the payment, but the grand total was set at around $73, wherein I knew I was only supposed to be billed $43. Indeed, I tried to tap the proper buttons and only pay the outstanding bill of $43, but I kept getting stuck in a loop where Paypal was my primary payment method and I had no way to switch to my card, except paying for the grand total. I kept trying to exit the loop with no success, so I turned to my desktop.

Upon entering, I get a screen telling me the store is frozen and I need to select a plan. Whichever I choose of the first two I have to pay an extra $29. Why is that? It is both frustrating and unnecessary. I had not renounced my plan, I had not been notified that I would have to pay what it seems like a month in advance.

Furthermore, when I saw this screen it became clear to me that the payment had gone through, even though I had in no way been notified of it. I checked my balance and, ta-da!, the cash had been collected. 

My question is - why am I required to select and pay for a plan at this point, when other than skipping a few days of payment, I had not done anything out of the ordinary. Second, why is it so hard to contact support? I tried your official platform, shopify.com/contact, but all I get is another series of glitches and unfortunate loops, with no information on how to contact you directly, either via email or via chat. I have to let you know, people signing up to your platform rely both on the exposure and on the sales for income and future projects. To us, contacting support and smooth functioning is essential to our livelihoods.

I expect an answer as soon as possible. I have no trouble paying the extra $29, I just need to understand how it is billed and where it is coming from. 

Thanks for your patience, attention, and help.

sartrowski

[sartrowski]

Alright, so as a small update. I did pay the second bill, which had clearly no reason to be there. My billing cycle had started on December 6th, to be due by January 6th. On January 6th, naturally, it expired, and upon paying that one only outstanding bill on the 8th of January, what do you know? Another billing cycle is generated on the 8th of January, due immediately. Not just $29 either, but those 29 plus an additional $10 something in sales commissions. 

So I pay that bill too, even though it is clearly an error because I need to open my store and continue generating revenue, right?

So now I have no way of contacting Shopify support directly, it seems. Absolutely no way. All they do is send me to forums and help pages, but I cannot directly contact support or billing or any other departments. I know we're in the middle of a pandemic and some restructuring was needed. But how can I keep confidence in a company that I cannot contact directly with issues?

Shopify support basically vanished overnight and if this does not seem problematic to you, I don't know what is. I would have rathered double the pay for your services each month than just have support vanish on me. 

Help.