Collab request to merchants store "...declined by merchant..."

Hello,

When trying to request access to a merchants store, I am seeing the notice below and I am unable to submit the request. Any ideas why this is happening and how to resolve?

Thanks

As it says on the screenshot, you’ll need to reach out to Partner Support so they can authenticate your account to look into it.

Thanks for the reply. I tend to avoid Partner Support where possible due to the AI support layer and long turnaround times, so I usually try here first.

Unfortunately they won’t be able to help with this here as your partner account will need authenticating so you’ll need to go through partner support.