Issues after being Verified for extended time

[designed_lyfe]

I've had my online store verified for some time. The only changes I made recently was the theme used on Shopify. I switched to the Dawn theme. After that I got an alert that I had merchant issues on Pinterest.

1. Merchant's returns policy is unclear or unavailable : Designed Lyfe Return Policy 

2. Merchant's products are always on sale: Of 288 products, 30 are on sale. Only 1 price displays, no strike through pricing.

3.Merchant does not meet minimum website quality requirements: It keeps showing this yet, nothing is clear as to what is the minimum that our site fails at. I went through my code and made sure no extra code is there, I made sure the setup is clean, easily navigated, footer contains all important links to policies. There's no popups nor ads, nothing out of date, all images are clear, no broken links. 

I've tried reaching out to support but keep getting boilerplate responses. Which also doesn't explain how my store can be approved for so long and suddenly no longer approved.

If anyone can assist with this, I'd be grateful.

[bodymindmood]

@designed_lyfe 

Hi:

I read your post and I know it can be frustrating when you are trying to get Verified - I have visited your site and I will list below some of things that maybe the reason you received a notification from Pinterest "Merchant Issues" - I would encourage you to review all Verified Merchant Guidelines including Advertising | Product Guidelines.

1. Your Return Policy includes a lot of information - Consider separating Return Policy | Refund Policy | Shipping Policy instead of including everything on one page & include Contact Information on each of those pages. When I read them it was very confusing. Below is a Pinterest VMP Requirement:

"Merchants are also responsible for handling and responding to all purchases, deliveries, customer service questions, complaints, problems and disputes."

2. Create an " About Us" Page which is not an insert onto another page it must be separate page - Pinterest requires a dedicated About Us Page (see the Guidelines) Below is a Pinterest VMP Requirement:

"The merchant must have a dedicated “about us” page detailing their business offering or relevant social media links."

3. While I haven't gone through every product on your site - I would advise that if your applying to become a Verified Merchant that nothing on your site be On Sale or Out of Stock - if you have anything like this I would remove it and not try to reason it out.

"Have out of date content or out-of-stock products"

4. I would include a Privacy Policy & A Cookie Banner in addition to what you have.

I would suggest doing all of your policies at websitepolicies.com
This is a highly rated site that offers quality website policies at a reasonable price.

5. I noticed the following item is listed on your site please see the photo below for an explanation - I would definitely remove it.

VMP Product Guidelines

As a reminder below is what Pinterest can do if they choose what I am sharing below are General Merchant Guidelines - I highly suggest you read them I have linked to them above.

"While Pinterest is not involved in facilitating the purchase, sale or delivery of goods, we want people to have good experiences shopping for products they find on Pinterest. We want merchants to offer the best customer service possible, and that includes setting clear expectations about product quality, price, delivery times and return processes. And, of course, we want merchants to meet those expectations.

Merchants are responsible for making sure they follow all relevant laws, regulations and industry codes when they use our service. Merchants are also responsible for handling and responding to all purchases, deliveries, customer service questions, complaints, problems and disputes. 

We reserve the right to remove product Pins for violating these guidelines and to shut down feed access from any merchant based on poor third-party ratings or a record of complaints. We may remove anything for any reason, including Pins, boards or your access to Pinterest."

I wish you the best of luck on getting Verified.

Lisa

[designed_lyfe]

Thank you for replying. I'm finding it weird to have been verified for so long with the same setup, in fact a shortened return policy.

My return policy page does not include information about our shipping policy. It includes how to ship back a return. The shipping policy is a separate page, all found in the footer. Designed Lyfe Shipping Policy 

The privacy policy and terms and conditions are there.

You mentioned not reasoning with it, literally though, it would be reasoning since nothing changed except my theme from being verified originally. At this point, I've invested so much time in this process, yet after all these years, it's the only platform I haven't made a sell from. It's almost worth questioning is it ok to still put forth this much effort.

[miggondotcom]

can you please let me know how many products you have published so far on your site and how many of them are on sale before and now...

[bodymindmood]

@designed_lyfe 

Its generally good practice from what I have seen with other merchants to keep each policy on its own page (see below) when policies are sharing pages et al it appears that Pinterest doesn't like it.

About Us
Shipping Policy
Privacy Policy
Return Policy
Refund Policy

On the matter of a Shipping Pinterest states that it wants you to (see below) so you might want to consider how your handling shipping requests et al.
"Merchants are also responsible for handling and responding to all purchases, deliveries, customer service questions, complaints, problems and disputes."

As for this being worth it for your business - I've heard people have very good experiences with Pinterest as a go to platform for shopping but ultimately its down to you.

Lisa