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Not the sexiest stock but as someone who has built their company off Shopify I cant say I have worked with a better product/ company in my life. The way they ha

by oisino 11y ago

Not the sexiest stock but as someone who has built their company off Shopify I cant say I have worked with a better product/ company in my life. The way they handle third party developers, designers, and stores is exceptional. They really get what it takes to build a platform. I have no doubt thats Tobi vision of building the platform for all commerce will come true. As a developer building off Shopify excited to see what they do next.

anotherview 11y ago
I had a different experience. I played with Shopify, and canceled my account. They kept charging me for years. I eventually noticed, and asked for a refund on the completely empty, completely unused account which was being charged to an expired and canceled card (something I didn't even know was possible until this incident). Support said no, and offered a discount if I wanted to use Shopify in the future. I said I'd have to resort to a chargeback and I'd let my credit card company see if they agreed with my interpretation of the situation or not. The head of support literally yelled at me the moment I used the word chargeback, revoked his previous offer, and said they had no need to return my money, even though they hadn't earned it. I wound up in touch with their VP Revenue who agreed that he didn't want to take any money they hadn't earned. But instead of refunding my money, he just dropped contact with me and never responded again. If they were to respond to this publicly, they'd say I was angry with them. And that's true. I became angry after their head of support yelled at me. I still can't believe that happened, it was the worst customer service experience of my life. My blood pressure goes up a little just remembering how I was treated. So basically, I'm glad you're happy with them, but they stole a couple hundred bucks from me and lied about their intention to give it back. My experience makes me believe that anybody who had good experiences is, almost certainly, just lucky. That or I'm in the .001% of supremely bad luck. If I'm truly in the .001%, their vp revenue can circle back and give me the money he promised (I'd be easy to identify on their side, since if they never yell at customers, and never lie to customers, then it should be super-easy to remember a time that they yelled at and then lied to a customer).
- freejack 11y ago
  I'm aware that they are going through an overhaul of their customer service systems, process and probably the people. Its tough to grow as fast as they are, especially in this area. It is exceptionally hard to find great people, maintain culture and values while still providing great support. I'm not making excuses for them, except to say that I am certain they are aware of the issues they have had had in this area and are working on getting better.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - anotherview 11y ago
    I'm simply sharing my experience, which involved their head of customer service yelling at me, and their vp of revenue flat out lying to me. If I'm truly an outlier, I'd welcome outreach from them (in the form of the refund they promised me long ago). But I don't expect it. Running a startup is crazy hard... but establishing cultural norms like 'don't yell at customers' and 'don't lie to customers' isn't hard. That's easy. And either I had a wicked outlier experience, or they failed to do that.
    - mtrimpe 11y ago
      Were you 'transferred' to the head (or even VP)? Transferring to a colleague pretending to be a supervisor is a common hack support reps use. If that was the case the chances are this 'cultural norm' might've been limited to two neighbouring support reps going off book.
      - anotherview 11y ago
        This wasn't a transfer game. There were bidirectional emails and phone calls. (e.g. vp of revenue calling me in response to an email sent directly to his email.) The whole situation made me wonder how much revenue would Shopify lose if they stopped charging expired credit cards. It must be material if they're willing to engage in a billing practice that essentially no upstanding SaaS company engages in. Or at least it must've been material at the time.
jasonbarone 11y ago
I've used Shopify for my clients a bunch of times, and now I primarily and almost exclusively use Squarespace, which I would say is the largest Shopify competitor that no one ever mentions. I'm a Squarespace power user and one of the biggest designer/developer advocates outside the company. I can say without a doubt that Shopify has one of the most amazing developer communities and initiatives that I've ever seen. I could only wish that other products/services, including Squarespace, would do something similar. So I agree wholeheartedly that Shopify simply gets it. The way they promote designer and developer usage is off the charts. I could go on and on. They nail it on all levels. Congratulations to Shopify.

by oisino 11y ago

anotherview 11y ago

I had a different experience. I played with Shopify, and canceled my account. They kept charging me for years. I eventually noticed, and asked for a refund on the completely empty, completely unused account which was being charged to an expired and canceled card (something I didn't even know was possible until this incident). Support said no, and offered a discount if I wanted to use Shopify in the future. I said I'd have to resort to a chargeback and I'd let my credit card company see if they agreed with my interpretation of the situation or not. The head of support literally yelled at me the moment I used the word chargeback, revoked his previous offer, and said they had no need to return my money, even though they hadn't earned it. I wound up in touch with their VP Revenue who agreed that he didn't want to take any money they hadn't earned. But instead of refunding my money, he just dropped contact with me and never responded again. If they were to respond to this publicly, they'd say I was angry with them. And that's true. I became angry after their head of support yelled at me. I still can't believe that happened, it was the worst customer service experience of my life. My blood pressure goes up a little just remembering how I was treated. So basically, I'm glad you're happy with them, but they stole a couple hundred bucks from me and lied about their intention to give it back. My experience makes me believe that anybody who had good experiences is, almost certainly, just lucky. That or I'm in the .001% of supremely bad luck. If I'm truly in the .001%, their vp revenue can circle back and give me the money he promised (I'd be easy to identify on their side, since if they never yell at customers, and never lie to customers, then it should be super-easy to remember a time that they yelled at and then lied to a customer).

freejack 11y ago
I'm aware that they are going through an overhaul of their customer service systems, process and probably the people. Its tough to grow as fast as they are, especially in this area. It is exceptionally hard to find great people, maintain culture and values while still providing great support. I'm not making excuses for them, except to say that I am certain they are aware of the issues they have had had in this area and are working on getting better.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- anotherview 11y ago
  I'm simply sharing my experience, which involved their head of customer service yelling at me, and their vp of revenue flat out lying to me. If I'm truly an outlier, I'd welcome outreach from them (in the form of the refund they promised me long ago). But I don't expect it. Running a startup is crazy hard... but establishing cultural norms like 'don't yell at customers' and 'don't lie to customers' isn't hard. That's easy. And either I had a wicked outlier experience, or they failed to do that.
  - mtrimpe 11y ago
    Were you 'transferred' to the head (or even VP)? Transferring to a colleague pretending to be a supervisor is a common hack support reps use. If that was the case the chances are this 'cultural norm' might've been limited to two neighbouring support reps going off book.
    - anotherview 11y ago
      This wasn't a transfer game. There were bidirectional emails and phone calls. (e.g. vp of revenue calling me in response to an email sent directly to his email.) The whole situation made me wonder how much revenue would Shopify lose if they stopped charging expired credit cards. It must be material if they're willing to engage in a billing practice that essentially no upstanding SaaS company engages in. Or at least it must've been material at the time.

jasonbarone 11y ago

I've used Shopify for my clients a bunch of times, and now I primarily and almost exclusively use Squarespace, which I would say is the largest Shopify competitor that no one ever mentions. I'm a Squarespace power user and one of the biggest designer/developer advocates outside the company. I can say without a doubt that Shopify has one of the most amazing developer communities and initiatives that I've ever seen. I could only wish that other products/services, including Squarespace, would do something similar. So I agree wholeheartedly that Shopify simply gets it. The way they promote designer and developer usage is off the charts. I could go on and on. They nail it on all levels. Congratulations to Shopify.