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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 o

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.
- aikah 11y ago
  > I'm not making excuses for them Yes you are. If the OP story is true, you just don't yell at your customer. It doesn't make me want to try Shopify if they really use these kind of practices. Only shady pornsites do that stuff.
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    [deleted]
shostack 11y ago
Did you end up filing a chargeback?
- anotherview 11y ago
  I don't believe so. I think I found out that chargebacks can only go back 60 or 90 days, and I also found out that (shockingly) it's not illegal to charge an expired and cancelled credit card on a recurring basis, and I decided to devote my energy to something more useful.

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.
aikah 11y ago
> I'm not making excuses for them Yes you are. If the OP story is true, you just don't yell at your customer. It doesn't make me want to try Shopify if they really use these kind of practices. Only shady pornsites do that stuff.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]

shostack 11y ago

Did you end up filing a chargeback?

anotherview 11y ago
I don't believe so. I think I found out that chargebacks can only go back 60 or 90 days, and I also found out that (shockingly) it's not illegal to charge an expired and cancelled credit card on a recurring basis, and I decided to devote my energy to something more useful.