Recent changes in the Shopify pricing structure have had unfortunate effects on a number Portland-area developers. And some of them, like Matt Beck of CouldBe Studios, are letting the Shopify team hear about it.

Beck voiced his displeasure on the What Could Be blog, highlighting the problems with the way that Ottawa-based JadedPixel, makers of Shopify, handled the pricing change.

The problem we had with the situation was not the new rates which are actually quite reasonable, but that the change was carried out in secrecy, which left us in a potentially sticky spot as we had bids out to potential clients which were based on their old pricing model, and even worse projects currently being developed that had their pricing model changed! How were we supposed to handle that? We’d quoted people based on their old pricing model, started working on the site and then had it change mid-way through.

No good deed goes unpunished. So, with his thoughtful comments, Beck has been rewarded with a position on the newly formed Shopify Advisory Council.

The Council is made up of a handful of Shopify users who are particularly passionate and active in the forums, and we will be bouncing ideas off of them concerning both how we communicate changes to our users and specific strategies for improving Shopify in general. This means that the Shopify team will be able to get user feedback on things before they are quite ready to be announced publicly, and we’ll then be able to balance our priorities and adjust our efforts accordingly.