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TIFU by using Stripe as a payment processor for my small business

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Re: TIFU by using Stripe as a payment processor for my small business

#111

Post by metacritic12 »

vemv wrote: post #11

If it was, say, a $30000 charge I could give Stripe the benefit of doubt, but $3300 is a pretty ordinary amount for any retailer. Could be e.g. a laptop sale, or three phones? When I see Stripe's apology here it will not be enough for me - not at least without a detailed blog post / postmortem. Until/if that moment happens, I'll regard Stripe as an untrustworthy entity and will recommend doing the same to do anyone I…

What's the OP/your alternative?

Oh Paypal? Look up the horror stories there. Or directly work with a legacy provider like FirstData? They will also freeze your account and won't even accept you if you just have just $3k of sales.

Isn't it interesting that credit card processors really like to give crappy customer support and enjoy freezing accounts? Is it because they just attract misanthropic people? If only a caring company that didn't freeze accounts and gave wonderful support could enter, the field would be better. /s

Actually, the problem is super structural:

- Due to payment processing regulations, there is a fixed overhead from taking a small merchant on. (KYC, AML, ensuring you're not selling drugs). This makes tiny merchants incredibly unprofitable to begin with. Legacy providers like FirstData will reject you outright or make you pay fees to onboard. They will also make you fill out pages of paper forms and put the time cost on you to verify you're a legit business.

We as a society have said the gatekeeping features of finance are more important that making sure tiny businesses have access to payment infrastructure. We should change this parameter if we truly cared about this. I suspect we don't.

- Merchants simply race to the CC provider that is easiest to set up or have lowest fees. If you were OK paying a couple of hundred dollars of setup fees to, you know, properly reimburse your vendor for vetting you, or pay 5% fees for a high risk (read: tiny merchant) specialty account, you probably wouldn't have been frozen like this, at least without them calling you.

This is exactly the problem with Google services. Are you paying Google a bunch of money? If you are a high level enterprise account where the fully-burdened cost of a 1-hour customer support call (~$100) is a small part of your yearly net margin to Google, I bet they would take your call.

Re: TIFU by using Stripe as a payment processor for my small business

#112

Post by thfuran »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #72
lma21 wrote: post #33

Yet another story of Stripe holding big sums (yes 3k can be huge for small businesses) with no proper support structure. Consumers must rely on social networks to get some form of reaction.A $74 billion company has no proper support structure. Just wow.

I'm sympathetic that 3k can be huge for small businesses, but if you can't tolerate a loss of 3k, isn't your business practically doomed?

If someone broke into my house and stole my tv and laptop, I'd be pissed even though I can afford to replace them tomorrow.

Re: TIFU by using Stripe as a payment processor for my small business

#113

Post by tc313 »

leoff wrote: post #20
vemv wrote: post #11

If it was, say, a $30000 charge I could give Stripe the benefit of doubt, but $3300 is a pretty ordinary amount for any retailer. Could be e.g. a laptop sale, or three phones? When I see Stripe's apology here it will not be enough for me - not at least without a detailed blog post / postmortem. Until/if that moment happens, I'll regard Stripe as an untrustworthy entity and will recommend doing the same to do anyone I…

> When I see Stripe's apology here it will not be enough for me I'm actually just starting a business using Stripe for handling payments, and this makes me very concerned. Is there an alternative service one could use? Is there a way not to give these shady companies power to steal all my money?

Just as a counter-anecdote, my one-person SAAS has used Stripe since 2017 and I’ve had an excellent experience with them, including personal customer support. Of course, YMMV.

Re: TIFU by using Stripe as a payment processor for my small business

#114

Post by Crosseye_Jack »

wonderbore wrote: post #29
sys42590 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, fixing this specific case does not equal to fixing the issue in general. The morale of the story is that you should not behave like Google if you aren't as big as Google...

> you should not behave like Google I’d end it there.

Yup, how many times have we seen it here on HN alone where someone has posted “Google nuked us from the Play store and won’t talk to us about it” only to be returned after the post hit the front page?

People shouldn’t have to go viral on social media to get decent customer service just because “computer says no.”

Re: TIFU by using Stripe as a payment processor for my small business

#115

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

moralestapia wrote: post #94
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sympathetic that 3k can be huge for small businesses, but if you can't tolerate a loss of 3k, isn't your business practically doomed?

What is this, really? Is this meant to defend Stripe? What a weird way of looking at things.

A single instance of holding 3k doesn't seem like (or shouldn't be) a significant amount for a small business.

Re: TIFU by using Stripe as a payment processor for my small business

#116

Post by stef25 »

FWIW it's totally possible to talk to someone at Stripe. We got someone on the line and successfully negotiated their fees.

We're now using a 2nd payment processor that handles a type of payment unavailable at Stripe and they're just garbage compared to Stripe's backend / control panel system, which is phenomenally.

Excellent company as far as I'm concerned.

Re: TIFU by using Stripe as a payment processor for my small business

#118

Post by xyzzy_plugh »

thfuran wrote: post #112
xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sympathetic that 3k can be huge for small businesses, but if you can't tolerate a loss of 3k, isn't your business practically doomed?

If someone broke into my house and stole my tv and laptop, I'd be pissed even though I can afford to replace them tomorrow.

But this isn't theft? The funds are being held, they are likely to be returned _at some point_. Inconvenient, sure. But theft?

Re: TIFU by using Stripe as a payment processor for my small business

#120

Post by davidkuennen »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #115
moralestapia wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is this, really? Is this meant to defend Stripe? What a weird way of looking at things.

A single instance of holding 3k doesn't seem like (or shouldn't be) a significant amount for a small business.

If you're self employed and your monthly income is 5k$ from your business, 3k is a lot and can mean that you're unable to pay bills or food for this month.
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