Too Hot to Shop... ify
Yesterday morning (February 5th, 2025) started with finding out why Shopify Payments, the Shopify service for processing credit card purchases, wasn’t functioning on NJohnstonArt.com.
It turns out that after using Shopify on the very basic $7.00/month plan since January 2024, the company now has issues with three art pieces. One posted a month ago, and two pieces that have been around since the early days of the site, and have been archived for months. Conveniently, for Shopify that is, this is after I paid to upgrade to the annual plan for which they have a policy of no refunds.
The offending art is purportedly running afoul of Shopify’s “no nudity policy”, likely inherited from the credit card companies who are notorious conservative in regard to adult themes in art, lumping it in with pornography. Seems the argument of “he’s in a jockstrap” doesn’t wash. Nor does the fact that I’d already self-censored/tastefully redacted the remaining pieces in question.
Over the past year I had played with other web store hosting options. Namely SquareSpace, Square and Etsy, but in these politically tumultuous times I didn’t want to support an American company. Shopify remained the only Canadian option that just barely fit my needs.
With an eye to unifying all traffic to NJohnstonArt.com, I wanted newsletter management, blogging, and a membership area. Shopify offer’s a solid online store, blogging, newsletter, and marketing components in the package are rudimentary, and bolted on feeling. A members only area is nowhere to be seen. So Shopify is a distinctly middling product, sold for a premium price.
My first response was to back down, and remover the art.
So I did.
Then on further consideration and consultation, I reinstated the images. For one, the naughty bits were covered... by self-censorship, or clothing - a jock strap is clothing right?
Shopify didn’t find these pieces distasteful for the past year, I’ll be fucked if I back down without getting a refund, since they changed the level of tawdry-acceptance, after getting my payment. And without warning that my site was in any kind of violation over the past year of sales and operations.
Whether it is or not, that feels like a money grab. Especially given their no-Refund policy, which violates 10-day mandatory refund consumer protection laws in both BC (location of the purchase), and Ontario (the jurisdiction of operations).
In the meantime, I have a dilemma. I wanted to put Rubbout 2025 posters, art prints, and digital wallpaper packages up for sale. That is at risk with Shopify, so I need to find another provider.