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Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

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Re: Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

#11

Post by tonystubblebine »

staunch wrote: post #7

Alternate headline: Stripe helps Postmates screw their customers out of $70 million > "By intelligently updating the credentials on saved cards that have expired or been replaced, CAU optimizes authorization rates to keep subscription payments recurring seamlessly." This is the shady practice of charging people's new credit card when their old one expires or they replace it to get rid of their subscription accounts.…

In one way, this is exactly the comment I came here to read. The article made my eyes glaze over it was so press-release-y and so I wanted to know what the actual plain language detail is. You delivered that, thank you.

However, in the specific case of Postmates, have they actually used this feature to screw people over? I get what you are saying in the case of a subscription like Netflix. But with Postmates, the user is making a concrete in-the-moment decision to spend money. This actually feels like a minor convenience in that the customer is hungry and can get the order in without having to fish out their credit card details again.

Re: Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

#12

Post by HaloZero »

staunch wrote: post #7

Alternate headline: Stripe helps Postmates screw their customers out of $70 million > "By intelligently updating the credentials on saved cards that have expired or been replaced, CAU optimizes authorization rates to keep subscription payments recurring seamlessly." This is the shady practice of charging people's new credit card when their old one expires or they replace it to get rid of their subscription accounts.…

Isn't replacing a card usually triggered b/c your card was lost or stolen? As a consumer it seems that I would want to keep my subscriptions ongoing if that happens vs having to type in my cards in all my services again.

I've rarely heard of people replacing a card b/c they want to cancel all their subscriptions.

Re: Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

#13

Post by snug »

mc10 wrote: post #10
staunch wrote: post #7

Alternate headline: Stripe helps Postmates screw their customers out of $70 million > "By intelligently updating the credentials on saved cards that have expired or been replaced, CAU optimizes authorization rates to keep subscription payments recurring seamlessly." This is the shady practice of charging people's new credit card when their old one expires or they replace it to get rid of their subscription accounts.…

> This is the shady practice of charging people's new credit card when their old one expires Is this really shady? I’d personally find this behavior super convenient.

Seems a bit shady if say I use a refillable gift card for certain services that are hard to cancel

Re: Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

#14

Post by gcmac »

tonystubblebine wrote: post #11
staunch wrote: post #7

Alternate headline: Stripe helps Postmates screw their customers out of $70 million > "By intelligently updating the credentials on saved cards that have expired or been replaced, CAU optimizes authorization rates to keep subscription payments recurring seamlessly." This is the shady practice of charging people's new credit card when their old one expires or they replace it to get rid of their subscription accounts.…

In one way, this is exactly the comment I came here to read. The article made my eyes glaze over it was so press-release-y and so I wanted to know what the actual plain language detail is. You delivered that, thank you. However, in the specific case of Postmates, have they actually used this feature to screw people over? I get what you are saying in the case of a subscription like Netflix. But with Postmates, the use…

Not sure how heavily used it is, but FWIW Postmates does offer a $10/month subscription service for reduced fees/free delivery like most other food delivery services do

Re: Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

#15

Post by sinsterizme »

staunch wrote: post #7

Alternate headline: Stripe helps Postmates screw their customers out of $70 million > "By intelligently updating the credentials on saved cards that have expired or been replaced, CAU optimizes authorization rates to keep subscription payments recurring seamlessly." This is the shady practice of charging people's new credit card when their old one expires or they replace it to get rid of their subscription accounts.…

You're just looking to complain here. It's super convenient and I would argue less surprising that an updated credit-card retains the subscriptions that were on my expired card. It's not going to follow you if you completely replace the credit-card

https://stripe.com/blog/smarter-saved-cards

Re: Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

#16

Post by staunch »

mc10 wrote: post #10
staunch wrote: post #7

Alternate headline: Stripe helps Postmates screw their customers out of $70 million > "By intelligently updating the credentials on saved cards that have expired or been replaced, CAU optimizes authorization rates to keep subscription payments recurring seamlessly." This is the shady practice of charging people's new credit card when their old one expires or they replace it to get rid of their subscription accounts.…

> This is the shady practice of charging people's new credit card when their old one expires Is this really shady? I’d personally find this behavior super convenient.

Imagine being a poor person that gets a replacement credit card expecting to ditch your subscriptions, to get your finances in order, and then getting billed anyway on your new card.

Re: Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

#17

Post by DizzyDoo »

How much better is the cost per payment for one of Stripe's big customers? It's 2.9% + $0.30 for most, but if a company is doing, like Postmates are, millions of dollars or tens of millions of dollars in sales volume, what sort of 'preferred' rates do they receive from Stripe?

Re: Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

#18

Post by wpietri »

As an aside, is anybody else getting spam from Postmates? I gave a tagged email address only to Plex in 2012. They sent me a compromise notice in 2015. It started getting used by spammers in late 2016, with ~4400 spam messages received since then. In the last month or so, Postmates, who I have never used, started spamming that address. I'm now receiving circa one thing from Postmates a day.

Re: Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

#19

Post by millzlane »

HaloZero wrote: post #12
staunch wrote: post #7

Alternate headline: Stripe helps Postmates screw their customers out of $70 million > "By intelligently updating the credentials on saved cards that have expired or been replaced, CAU optimizes authorization rates to keep subscription payments recurring seamlessly." This is the shady practice of charging people's new credit card when their old one expires or they replace it to get rid of their subscription accounts.…

Isn't replacing a card usually triggered b/c your card was lost or stolen? As a consumer it seems that I would want to keep my subscriptions ongoing if that happens vs having to type in my cards in all my services again. I've rarely heard of people replacing a card b/c they want to cancel all their subscriptions.

I've honestly come to like when services remind me that they couldn't charge my card. It reminds me of the services that I don't use still taking money.

Re: Postmates added $70M in revenue and saved $3M in network fees with Stripe

#20

Post by staunch »

sinsterizme wrote: post #15
staunch wrote: post #7

Alternate headline: Stripe helps Postmates screw their customers out of $70 million > "By intelligently updating the credentials on saved cards that have expired or been replaced, CAU optimizes authorization rates to keep subscription payments recurring seamlessly." This is the shady practice of charging people's new credit card when their old one expires or they replace it to get rid of their subscription accounts.…

You're just looking to complain here. It's super convenient and I would argue less surprising that an updated credit-card retains the subscriptions that were on my expired card. It's not going to follow you if you completely replace the credit-card https://stripe.com/blog/smarter-saved-cards

Wrong. I'm speaking from the personal experience of knowing poor people who have been hurt by this practice.

There's no reason this couldn't have been implemented by asking customers for consent. Consent isn't asked because it's not likely to be granted in many cases and they fucking know it.

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