[thegyppo]

They don't understand the model where SaaS businesses use Shopify as a billing channel on top of their own subscription model, it's all or nothing - they assume that anything in the app store can only use Shopify billing if the user installs via Shopify, which is fair but their billing API has glaring issues:

- App Charges get added to clients bills, you're not getting paid right away (60+ days in some cases) vs getting paid instantly

- If someone doesn't pay their Shopify bill, tough shit you're not getting paid

- Got fraudulent accounts billing via Shopify? They can use your app then never pay anything - fun

- Want to do refunds? Too bad there's no way to do it via the API you have to manually email Shopify then they apply an App Credit (not even a refund) for the customer, then you email them back

- Uninstalling the Shopify App cancels billing, so you lose complete control of your normal downgrade process

- Payments come via PayPal bi monthly :(

There's plenty more, but you're basically losing all the upside of Stripe in exchange for the App Store promotion of your app.

[drsim]

Launch on BigCommerce, where you can use your own billing, and come back and tell us how that went.

Hint: poor conversion rate because merchants need to enter their CC details, and low volume. 20% on Shopify is a steal IMO.

[notdang]

Last time I checked, it was pretty complicated to publish on BigCommerce App store, they allow only pre-approved partners. Did it change?

[drsim]

There are some hoops and a fee to pay to join. It is effectively 'open' though.

[lnenad]

I mean shopify payments have a lot of drawbacks but not having refunds is not one of them [1]

[1] https://shopify.dev/docs/admin-api/rest/reference/orders/ref...

[imafish]

Correction: https://shopify.dev/docs/admin-api/rest/reference/billing/ap...

Also, I have no idea how that API works, because I, like grandparent, always email support when there is a refund request.

Why is this not a simple button in the partner admin page?

[throwaway93434]

In my experience the "ApplicationCredit" is virtually worthless. You can't apply a credit after a merchant has uninstalled your app since their Shopify API access token has been revoked. And in the vast majority of cases, refund requests happen after a merchant has uninstalled the app.

Why so many refund requests after a merchant has uninstalled your app you ask? Because Shopify inexplicable doesn't prorate app charges when a merchant uninstalls your app in the middle of their 30 day billing period. Even if a merchant uninstalls your app 1 day into their 30 day billing period then Shopify's billing system still charges them for the full 30 days and doesn't automatically refund them back the difference. So we're often inundated with refund requests from merchants. We then have to send an email to Shopify's billing team to have them refund the charge. It's absolutely nuts!

[Axsuul]

This is not a Shopify Billing refund but a refund for orders within a merchant's store.

[thegyppo]

This is a different API than for App Store billing afaik