We’re writing about a problem encountered with @LeeandLie , @baovtuber , and @shxtou orders that were inherited from the previous company working on them. Please note that this does not affect any orders that were placed in 2024.
Since the beginning of this situation, we have been trying our best to assist with what we can. We know we haven’t been perfect with everything, as there were a lot more problems that were hidden beneath the surface that we had to untangle. Trying to work through disconnected systems that aren’t ours is extremely time consuming, and we could only do so much at once.
Still, at this point, we’ve been able to deal with the mass majority of problems, tracking them down little by little, one by one. It’s been a long and exhausting process.
But what we didn’t realize is that by taking over and helping with this process, every refund, every return, everything we were doing to help out was lowering our @Shopify Merchant Trust. By trying to do good, we were being penalized and punished.
As of the time of this writing, our payout accounts are frozen, including our main Vite Ramen Shopify, with about $60,000 held by Shopify for “safety”. These funds were to be held for 120 days, as were all other payouts from other stores we help manage, meaning funds that we’ve received from orders would not be in our bank account until November.
This is an extremely serious problem. Perhaps unsurprisingly, if we have to wait 120 days to receive money from an order, then we cannot function as a business.
This has not been communicated to us well at all, with @OnigiriEn_ Onimart somehow getting the email about it, when there has been only a total of 3 refunds TOTAL since Onimart began in 2022. We have not received any communication from Shopify otherwise about the other accounts affected, and the payouts are being held there as well. I’ve contacted @ShopifySupport many, many times, and have been told “it’s escalated and there’s nothing more we can do.”
Frustratingly, because of this, we are currently unable to provide refunds and additional support with old orders from the previous company. If we continue trying to help, then our account will presumably fall into further poor standing, with further penalties and problems levied on us. Even now, we’re struggling to figure out what we’re going to be doing with the payout holds and other restrictions.
We will be searching for other solutions and ways to help, but for the time being, we will be stuck. Shopify, if you’re seeing this, we would very much like to resolve the issue at hand. We’ve been very happy with Shopify as a platform thus far, but this situation is extremely upsetting, since we’re being punished and restricted for trying to do some good in the world.
I understand this is something that’s difficult to see with the systems that you have, and it’s an extremely unique and uncommon scenario. I’d like to request that we can be allowed to continue helping others without being penalized for it.
@miaraefit I was disappointed when this wasn’t an announcement of the invention of the Shrink Rae! I’ll just go stand in the corner and think about what I’ve done now 😂