The theme was purchased (or so I thought) from Shopify’s Showcase Theme and was running it on the production site as is.
Then, a few months later, the site was shut down.
Strictly speaking, the site lost its selling privileges, making it impossible to view the site or customise it in any way theme-related.
Before I go any further, I’d like to conclude that it’s easier to purchase a Shopify theme licence for the site you plan to operate as much as possible.
The specifics are written here, but as we were in a hurry, we didn’t utilise them this time.
You’re violating our terms of service, email.
The following email was received. By this time, the e-commerce site was already unavailable for viewing.
It says, roughly, ‘We have restricted your selling privileges because you are in breach of the platform’s terms of use’.
In practice, the emails are sent in stages, so it is best to take action before this email arrives. (Make sure you have properly purchased the licence in the first place.)
Dear Merchant,
We have limited your selling privileges on our platform due to actions that violate our platform’s Terms of Service.
This action was taken because our records indicate multiple violations of our platform’s TOS associated with your Shopify account.
If this issue is not resolved before our next account review, you will permanently lose your Shopify account, along with any funds in the account, and you will be restricted from creating new accounts.
To fully reinstate your account and resolve these issues, kindly contact our support team at https://t.me/shopifymerchantsystem to have a live chat.
Sincerely,
Shopify Support Team
151 O’Connor Street, Ground Floor, Ottawa, ON, K2P 2L8
Have restrictions lifted.
If a customer’s website is shut down, it is a major opportunity loss.
Therefore, we took urgent action while sweating our feelings.
First, we re-purchased the same theme on Showcase.
At this time, be careful to check that the store is the production site at the time of purchase. Make sure to check.
Then, go to https://help.shopify.com/en.
The first chat is a bot, so ask to be connected to a Support Advisor. Wait a little while and they will connect you.
There are three things you need to tell them.
The URL of the site you are running.
That you have purchased a theme licence.
That you have purchased a theme licence.
It seems that there is an in-house verification team, which eventually checked and lifted the restriction immediately.
Summary
The shopify help centre chat is quite good.
In my case, I only had to wait for five minutes before I was connected to an operator and the problem was solved in 20 minutes.
Themes purchased through Shopify’s Show case are only licensed for the store where they were purchased. This is particularly easy to err on the side of caution if you are running multiple stores.
