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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

#141

Post by ceejayoz »

polux33 wrote: post #131
ceejayoz wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Circle Confirms Freezing $100K in USDC at Law Enforcement's Request" https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2020/07/08/circle-confirms-...

Funny because you sound like a guy that could claim crypto is an unregulated far west full or scammers, while trying to prove that seizing 100K at law enforcement request is the same as randomly keeping 3K of your customers funds.

You seem to think "we can freeze your funds" isn't an appealing feature to scammers, which is odd.

https://www.circle.com/en/legal/usdc-terms

> If Circle suspects or determines that you or any of your authorized users or customers, as applicable, have violated this these Terms, including, but not limited to, attempting to transact or transacting with Blocked Addresses (as defined in Section 13) or attempting to engage or engaging in Restricted Activities or Prohibited Transactions, and you have a Circle Account, then Circle may be forced to terminate your Circle Account and you may forfeit any USD funds otherwise eligible for redemption.

The list of "Restricted Activities" this applies to is quite broad, including "provide false, inaccurate, or misleading information". The parent poster's claim this couldn't happen with USDC is readily proven false.

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

#142

Post by danpalmer »

stef25 wrote: post #116

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.

I built the Stripe integration for a medium sized online retailer, and our experience wasn't quite as good as this. Our COO could get them on the line to negotiate our contract, but our engineers struggled to get useful answers out of them via email and our account manager often took weeks and multiple pings to respond to product questions.

I have had amazing success chatting with their engineers on IRC, but it's fairly unofficial, they're limited in what they can do when things concern user data, and I don't think most customers should need to get on IRC for support.

As for competitors though, I've heard from a customer "Stripe treat taking payments as a business, $competitor treats taking payments as a hobby". On balance, while not perfect, I'd probably choose Stripe again, but I'd get an account manager ASAP and try to build a good relationship with them rather than treating it as a black-box SaaS product that I don't need to interact with humans to use.

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

#143

Post by AnonHP »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #118
thfuran wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Two words: cash flow.

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

#146

Post by viggity »

viggity wrote: post #139
metacritic12 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 carin…

didn't stripe (maybe it was a competitor, idk) go to a Paypal conference and took like 2000lb blocks of ice with dollar bills frozen in them and drop them off in front of the convention center? And then posted signs everywhere to the effect "tired of paypal freezing your money?"

apparently it wasn't stripe, it was WePay.

FWIW If you want to be able to quickly switch payment providers without stripe (or any provider) holding your customer's payment info hostage, you should consider using a PCI tokenization service like BasisTheory.com

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

#147

Post by mtlynch »

vxxzy wrote: post #50
leoff wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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?

Check out PastePay. Great service and a human touch! https://www.pastepay.com

Based on your other comment,[0] it sounds like you work for PastePay, which you should disclose if you're publicly endorsing them.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32263465

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

#148

Post by hacym »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #118
thfuran wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

That could be the difference between making a biweekly payroll and not for a low volume small business.

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

#149

Post by PeterisP »

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…

All the alternative entities will also sometimes freeze funds for incoming credit card payments due to some algo-decision flagging them. Both fraud and such anti-fraud measures are an unavoidable part of the credit card infrastructure.

The major difference is that some platforms offer more hand-holding support and some don't, but even those who will talk to you (e.g. your local bank) can and sometimes will refuse unblocking such funds for a prolonged time.

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