DO YOU WORK FOR SHOPIFY?
DO YOU WORK FOR SHOPIFY?
If you or anyone you know works for Shopify, I would like to be in touch with you. I’m going to explain the situation here (with receipts!). If you read the whole thing (and the chat transcripts), bless you. Brevity was never my thing. 😂
On August 27th, my community was hit by the tragic and unnecessary school shooting at Annunciation Catholic School and Church. Two children died and one is still in critical condition. One of those children was Fletcher Merkel, my neighbor two houses over, and my son’s friend. I am a bereaved mother myself (under very different circumstances, but still), so I decided to do whatever I could, including coordinating volunteers to support the memorial that has sprung up at the site of the shooting.
Here’s a link to a news story about my efforts (which I also sent Shopify as additional proof, as it contains my full legal name).
There was an initial print run of pink “Our 🩵 Is With Annunciation” signs but that printer was initially only offering “some” of the proceeds as donations, which is so not the vibe. So I redesigned them slightly (with a QR code for direct donations to the official Annunciation Hope and Healing Fund) and put in a bulk order with an amazing printing partner who got the cost per sign down to maximize our donations.
I’ve been taking donations to my personal Venmo because we are very much building the plane while flying it right now. But I wanted to be more organized, so I set up a Shopify store at annunciationsigns.com to accept payments and process transactions more officially (with great built-in shipping integration in case I wanted to start sending signs out into the world).
That’s when the trouble started.
I filled out all of the verification information to start accepting Shopify Payments. On September 5th, I was asked to contact support to complete set-up, which I did at 6:36 p.m. (chat #1, all four support transcripts here). I’ve had a Shopify store before, and was never asked for this, but whatever. Even though this is a sudden tragedy and I wanted to work as quickly as possible to support our community, and even though I myself am grieving and hurting, I contacted support and provided all of my documentation again.
Meanwhile, on 9/5, I took possession of 1,500 yard signs from our amazing printing partner, who dropped everything to rush them into production and help because it’s the human thing to do! (My home address redacted from packing slip, time on slip is 9/5/25, 2:26 p.m. This is for 500 signs because we split it into two orders, one for 1,000 and one for 500. I’ve also redacted the printing company name as they have repeatedly refused to take credit for their work.)
Signs unloaded and ready to go help the community!
On September 6th, I received the following email from the official Shopify email address (screenshot timestamp 9/6, 11:53 a.m.). Shopify Payments is approved! Congratulations!
Great! It’s all coming together.
Except when I went back to my dashboard immediately after, it was still locked down and telling me to contact support AGAIN (screenshot timestamp 9/6, 11:54 a.m.):
So weird. Even though my energy was needed elsewhere, I chatted with support again (chat #2, all four support transcripts here).
I also got the following message from support:
But when I tried this, I got an error message (phone number redacted from screenshot), despite following their instructions. Really not feeling confident about the support I’m getting:
Despite my Shopify Payments not being set up, I made some test items and SOLD ONE, which was processed with … Shopify Payments. Somehow. And yes, they have frozen those funds. 🙃 (I have since removed all products from the store so this—whatever this is—doesn’t happen again.)
Now it’s September 7th, and I’m stressed out thinking about how I just desperately want to get organized with more efficient and official payment processing and how many potential donations I’ve missed out on. It’s also the day of my neighbor’s FUNERAL, which I attended. We’ve now distributed over 1,000 signs across the community, which has been logistically difficult because I haven’t had a central payment collection system. I’m still using my personal Venmo. While I was at a child’s (and my son’s friend’s) post-school-shooting funeral (2 to 5 p.m.), I get the following email from Shopify at 3:16 p.m.:
I understand wanting to establish trust for the stores on their platform. Obviously. There are a lot of scammers out there. But I’d already submitted my verification information twice and chatted with support twice. I’ve sent the news interview/article that features my legal name. My image matches my picture on my license.
Obviously, I immediately submitted an appeal around 6 p.m. (I got home around 5:30 p.m.) instead of taking some much-needed decompression time.
To follow up, I went back on with support as of 6:14 p.m. (chat #3, all four support transcripts here).
The rep tells me that even though the above came from the official Shopify email, my store is still up and running (not terminated), which apparently shouldn’t happen. He said: “Hmm, that was weird.”
He made me double-check that the termination email came from their server, and it had, but they didn’t see the termination on their end, and the store was still up. This is now starting to feel like a dystopian hellscape. This is the email metadata to validate that this was an official email (my email address redacted):
They said they’d escalate/connect with their team, etc. again, and I dropped it to go be with my family. There’s only so much one person (volunteer!) can take.
But even though my store was “terminated” and has never worked properly, they still made sure to charge me for my store’s $1 trial at 4:29 a.m. (after my three chats with them)!
This morning, September 8th, I had a bill and a broken store but still no traction on getting Shopify Payments set up. I got back on with support for one final appeal at 9:07 a.m. (chat #4, all four support transcripts here).
Despite some beautiful assurances and corporate-coded “empathy” (though Rae really was great in theory) it is now 6:55 p.m. on September 8th and there has been no approval or even response.
I am not trying to “put anyone on blast” but this is ridiculous. My goal was to make my life (as a volunteer and grieving community member) a tiny bit easier while supporting my neighbors and annunciation school and church in the wake of an unfathomable tragedy that has left two children dead and one more in critical condition. I tried my best, but I’m exhausted.
SHOPIFY COULD’VE BEEN ABSOLUTE HEROES, AND INSTEAD … THIS.
I’ve been online since 2009 (a Wordpress blog), have worked at a Silicon Valley mobile gaming start-up, have previously had a Shopify store with no issues, and have created fifteen Squarespace sites and one with Webflow. I know what I’m doing. I chose Shopify because I really liked their built-in shipping options, and how integrated it all is, as I was maybe planning to take the signs beyond the local community. And that was a big mistake, as it turns out.
At this point, this is ridiculous (including the official termination notification that nobody on their end seems to be able to find and the “congratulations” Shopify Payments email that was also incorrect).
if you or anyone you know is connected to shopify, please email me at annunciationsigns@gmail.com. otherwise, i think everyone should know that shopify was not only not a supportive partner after a school shooting ripped our neighborhood apart, but actually a headache and impediment.
If anyone wants to help me set up a store because you’re a real one, please reach out to the above email, too.
If you ever need an online store platform, watch out for Shopify and tell your friends. My appeals to their humanity, three submissions of verifying information, and many hours of my time spent in communication with them went absolutely nowhere. Thanks for nothing, Shopify. (I also ordered a card reader with expedited shipping in anticipation of making things easier, so that’s another $100 down the drain.)