Shopify apps behaving badly and costing merchants money complaint Shopify
← ideas · all clusters · Brief as markdown
Three separate 1-star app reviews describe stale tracking data with ads, payouts held for 365 days, and unannounced transactions that got a card blocked. The lines cover different problems, so no single clear pain emerges. Costs are lost trust and tied-up money.
- 1-star review: the app shows ads that keep returning, the feedback button does nothing, and background tracking updates no longer work, leaving stale info. apple 2026-10-06
- One-star app review accusing the company of withholding the author's money for 365 days without reason and warning others to stay away. apple 2026-09-08
- 1-star app review: unannounced transactions by the app led to the author's card being blocked. apple 2026-09-30
App users with Shopify-linked orders or payouts. The lines don't say business size or role; one may be a seller, others may be shoppers.
What they do today- Open the carrier's tracking page directly to force the app to refresh
No price paid or wish to pay found. Only a complaint about money held for 365 days and a card blocked by unannounced transactions.
Pain ●●○○○
Pay ●●○○○
Gap ●●●○○
Build ●●●○○
A clean order-tracking page for Shopify stores that pulls live status straight from carriers, with no ads and reliable refresh, so customers stop checking carrier sites by hand.
Smallest version- Pull tracking status directly from major carrier pages by tracking number
- Branded tracking page that auto-refreshes on a schedule
- Simple email or link sharing for customers
Ad-free and refreshes reliably, automating the manual carrier-page workaround the reviewer already uses.
- AfterShip Ads keep returning, feedback button does nothing, background tracking updates stopped working so info goes stale
- Only one line supports the tracking idea; demand is unproven.
- Carrier data access may be restricted or need paid APIs.
- The other two lines are about payouts and billing, which this idea doesn't fix.
- Search Shopify app store reviews for tracking apps and count complaints about stale updates and ads.
- Post in Shopify merchant forums and subreddits asking how they handle tracking page reliability.
- Make a landing page for an ad-free reliable tracking page and see if store owners sign up.
Shopify merchants using third-party apps report withheld funds, unannounced charges, and broken features, and they want reliable, transparent apps that handle their money honestly and work as promised.
Numbers
- opens the carrier's tracking page directly to force the app to refresh
- held for 365 days
- AfterShip (1)
Posts per week
| Week of | Posts |
|---|---|
| 2026-10-05 | 1 |
| 2026-09-28 | 1 |
| 2026-09-07 | 1 |
Evidence
| Date | Role | Sev | Summary | Today / price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-06 | 4 | 1-star review: the app shows ads that keep returning, the feedback button does nothing, and background tracking updates no longer work, leaving stale info. AfterShip Scott👨💻 | opens the carrier's tracking page directly to force the app to refresh | apple | |
| 2026-09-08 | 4 | One-star app review accusing the company of withholding the author's money for 365 days without reason and warning others to stay away. Bruce Frank | held for 365 days | apple | |
| 2026-09-30 | 3 | 1-star app review: unannounced transactions by the app led to the author's card being blocked. женя202002 | apple |