Since we're here talking about Shopify - nearly every small shop (1-10 person makers) I buy from who uses the platform could not (in the past 30 days):
(a) change the email address associated with an existing account with history, and
(b) could not delete or change or transfer the orders from the old account to the new
I'm working through an email change and have discovered the above via hundreds of my logins - Shopify by far is the largest defunct platform which locks your account in using an email address, neither the user nor admins can "fix" it. All shop owners indicate to me they've emailed Support and gotten no help, every solution has been "just make a new account".
Losing years worth of order history with that vendor? Having ghost accounts in a vendor database you can't delete, which has your previous order's PII (home address, etc.) tied to? The problem is not making a new account, it's appropriately dealing with the one containing personal information you're leaving behind.
Their account management is definitely poor. But you seem to make it a bigger deal than it is. You don’t have to lose the order history, even if you don’t have access to the email anymore nothing would prevent you from logging again with the user/pass.
And the order history is really the only valuable info... you can also save the email with your receipt. It’s not ideal but again, how much it actually impacts your life is about close to nothing. Request the account to be deleted under GDPR and then save the emails with your order history.
> You can’t change the email on existing accounts however you can definitely delete it.
I am an end user and cannot do anything other than email the shop support and hope. I am not a resident of EU or California, you might be surprised at the vast number of websites which tell you to go pound sand if you try and delete your account. As a user, you can do nothing but hope someone deletes something for you if they feel like it; not all shop owners bother to respond as well, adding another layer of consternation.
> But you seem to make it a bigger deal than it is.
You seem to lack empathy for how other people are sensitive to their PII (which in this case may and does include credit card purchase information, shipping addresses and other "I really don't want this floating around more than I need it to be" information about my life) being retained by Shopify based stores.
The GDPR you keep leaning on to support your reply means nothing to a vast majority of the world and many sites happily only perform the minimum required actions required by law for those to whom it does apply.
(a) change the email address associated with an existing account with history, and
(b) could not delete or change or transfer the orders from the old account to the new
I'm working through an email change and have discovered the above via hundreds of my logins - Shopify by far is the largest defunct platform which locks your account in using an email address, neither the user nor admins can "fix" it. All shop owners indicate to me they've emailed Support and gotten no help, every solution has been "just make a new account".