Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 85 posts

Re: Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop

#11

Post by andrewstuart »

edwinwee wrote: post #2

I work at Stripe. Could you forward that email to me at edwin@stripe.com and I can investigate what happened? I'm really sorry for the trouble.

This should not be the outcome.

It should not be necessary for someone to come to an online forum and complain to get the customer support issue resolved.

Stripe customer support organisation should actually resolve customer issues.

Tech companies go on and on and on and ON about "culture", but one thing I can tell you truly needs to be built into culture is customer support. For example, everyone knows Google's culture of customer support - it's "avoid all human contact, send all support queries to a machine".

I think tech companies are super bad at customer support because the founders have rarely worked front line in customer support so they don't know how to build an organisation around great customer support thus it is not part of the culture/company DNA.

Seriously, Hacker News should have a "tech support" link at the top where people can post tech support queries for companies who can't manage to respond to and keep their customers supported and happy.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop

#12

Post by andrewstuart »

jppope wrote: post #10
edwinwee wrote: post #2

I work at Stripe. Could you forward that email to me at edwin@stripe.com and I can investigate what happened? I'm really sorry for the trouble.

y'all are on the customer service! Out of curiosity... is this automated or were you just kicking around on HN?

>> y'all are on the customer service!

This is not customer service.

This is the unfortunate trend in the industry where the only way to get issues resolved is to take to social media and shame the company such that some powerful insider at the company (who happens to hang out on HN) takes action to sidestep the failed customer support processes and get the issue resolved.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop

#13

Post by [deleted] »

andrewstuart wrote: post #11
edwinwee wrote: post #2

I work at Stripe. Could you forward that email to me at edwin@stripe.com and I can investigate what happened? I'm really sorry for the trouble.

This should not be the outcome. It should not be necessary for someone to come to an online forum and complain to get the customer support issue resolved. Stripe customer support organisation should actually resolve customer issues. Tech companies go on and on and on and ON about "culture", but one thing I can tell you truly needs to be built into culture is customer support. For example, everyone knows Google's cult…

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop

#14

Post by mattmanser »

jppope wrote: post #10
edwinwee wrote: post #2

I work at Stripe. Could you forward that email to me at edwin@stripe.com and I can investigate what happened? I'm really sorry for the trouble.

y'all are on the customer service! Out of curiosity... is this automated or were you just kicking around on HN?

I assume they monitor it, I got personally emailed to my profile email, as well as replied to, after making a post on HN about stripe.

Worked out well, happy with the support.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop

#15

Post by vira28 »

the_watcher wrote: post #6
lixtra wrote: post #3

Do you mind to add a little more timing information? How many hours/days have passed since you got the email and since your first answer to stripe?

Agreed, this information is extremely relevant to anyone looking to use this story in a decision. I'd also point out that within minutes, a Stripe employee chimed in here with an offer to help.

Talk this with a grain of salt: (not just for this case or company) Employees offering help after a case reached the first page of HN is worth nothing.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop

#16

Post by [deleted] »

andrewstuart wrote: post #12
jppope wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

y'all are on the customer service! Out of curiosity... is this automated or were you just kicking around on HN?

>> y'all are on the customer service! This is not customer service. This is the unfortunate trend in the industry where the only way to get issues resolved is to take to social media and shame the company such that some powerful insider at the company (who happens to hang out on HN) takes action to sidestep the failed customer support processes and get the issue resolved.

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop

#17

Post by vector_spaces »

My dad had a similar experience with his non-technical business. Basically there was a lien on his account, he cleared it up with the other party, but Stripe continued to hold his balance hostage. Customer support forms and process led to more black holes or repetitive automated responses. He didn't have access to his funds for several weeks. I was able to get him a direct contact at Stripe thru my network.

Horrible experience. I'll still use Stripe for the convenience and hoping that they improve the situation with these kinds of potentially life shattering account locks and provide more humane customer service

Re: Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop

#18

Post by the_watcher »

vira28 wrote: post #15
the_watcher wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, this information is extremely relevant to anyone looking to use this story in a decision. I'd also point out that within minutes, a Stripe employee chimed in here with an offer to help.

Talk this with a grain of salt: (not just for this case or company) Employees offering help after a case reached the first page of HN is worth nothing.

From what I can tell, it was the first response. Stripe employees also actively chime in on HN threads both positive and negative.

Re: Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop

#20

Post by codingdave »

andrewstuart wrote: post #11
edwinwee wrote: post #2

I work at Stripe. Could you forward that email to me at edwin@stripe.com and I can investigate what happened? I'm really sorry for the trouble.

This should not be the outcome. It should not be necessary for someone to come to an online forum and complain to get the customer support issue resolved. Stripe customer support organisation should actually resolve customer issues. Tech companies go on and on and on and ON about "culture", but one thing I can tell you truly needs to be built into culture is customer support. For example, everyone knows Google's cult…

The original post doesn't say that they even contacted customer service. We know that they got an email, poked around their dashboard, got some errors, and posted here. We do not know what else was done.

Your point may be valid, if customer service dropped the ball. But we don't know that just from the info posted here so far.

Post reply on HN