Stripe/Shopify Payments telling me we can't sell Apple Watch straps WTF

#1

Post by uberhuman » Fri, Oct 16, 2015, 8:37 AM UTC

I keep seeing more and more about Stripe closing accounts and general weirdness, but this is just bizarre and lacks any reason.

I've been working on a luxury apple watch strap/band brand and figured I'd go with Shopify & Shopify Payments (which is just connecting a Stripe account basically) for ease/speed.

Well as we were about to go live yesterday, I had a message flash up in my dashboard that Stripe was on hold and I couldn't accept payments (and if I had, they would be held) - previously it was showing as all was OK.

Got a response today and I'm being told that "my product base presents a level of risk that our banking partners are not willing to support" ... WTF?

Since when are watch straps high risk? I queried this and was basically told tough luck, nothing we can do.

It's becoming increasingly clear that you can't rely on Stripe - there is just no rhyme or reason to their actions. This is a crying shame as the product is awesome, but really seems like they're turning in to PayPal...

Re: Stripe/Shopify Payments telling me we can't sell Apple Watch straps WTF

#2

Post by celticninja » Fri, Oct 16, 2015, 9:59 AM UTC

They all become paypal in the end, that is they engage in account holding, closing, freezing etc and the user can't penetrative their opaque decision making process to resolve it. It can be very damaging to a small business or startup to suddenly uddenly find their funds, which usually are required as operational capital, unavailable to them and a 60 day freeze and multiple hoops to jump through to get them released.

Re: Stripe/Shopify Payments telling me we can't sell Apple Watch straps WTF

#3

Post by tsanders » Sat, Oct 17, 2015, 4:00 PM UTC

What they are actually saying to you is that they can't verify that you are an authorized reseller of anything with the Apple brand and they are not willing to take the risk. They really should have just said this to you but this is what they mean. If you are not an authorized reseller, it is possible for Apple to sue them for processing transactions for products sold with the Apple brand without legal authorization from Apple. If you can prove you are an authorized reseller, they may allow you to continue to use the Stripe service. I hope something can be worked out. Third Party payment processors come with their own set of weirdness.