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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

#331

Post by edwinwee »

joshstrange wrote: post #226

So this seems like a good time to tell my Stripe story. Let me preface this by saying I attempted to move to a different card processor late last year/early this year and despite 100+ hours of coding to fully integrate with them (and add features that were missing compared to our Stripe integration) I had to drop them due to what can only be described as lies about their rates (yes, I should have gotten this in writi…

I work at Stripe and I'm terribly sorry for what happened here. I have a Terminal test card that I use and that I know works. I can overnight it to you so you have it before your event. Could you let me know your address at edwin@stripe.com (or DM me on twitter at @edwinwee)?

We're investigating right now what happened here. I'd also like to dig into your other instances of shitty support—could you forward those to me?

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

#332

Post by creeble »

a2tech wrote: post #70
Aeolun wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My only consolation is that every other provider is just as terrible. My experience with Authorize.net support was really good. Their tech stack/api was absolutely archaic, but you could talk to real humans.

And the thing about their tech stack is its old..but absolutely workable. They have examples in pretty much every language, decent documentation, and support. And they are very slow to sunset things because their customers are slow moving traditional businesses. So code you write for a customer may work without tweaking for 4, 5, or even 10 years.

In my case, 20 years. No change in API calls in that time.

Very few errors, except in the early days. I hate them because of the complexity of the solution (I needed a relationship with a separate "payment processor" that has changed names/systems/owners five times in those 20 years) but I have had few problems with withholding etc.

But my monthly charges and individual charges are very consistent, and chargeback rate very low (but not zero).

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

#333

Post by joshstrange »

edwinwee wrote: post #331
joshstrange wrote: post #226

So this seems like a good time to tell my Stripe story. Let me preface this by saying I attempted to move to a different card processor late last year/early this year and despite 100+ hours of coding to fully integrate with them (and add features that were missing compared to our Stripe integration) I had to drop them due to what can only be described as lies about their rates (yes, I should have gotten this in writi…

I work at Stripe and I'm terribly sorry for what happened here. I have a Terminal test card that I use and that I know works. I can overnight it to you so you have it before your event. Could you let me know your address at edwin@stripe.com (or DM me on twitter at @edwinwee)? We're investigating right now what happened here. I'd also like to dig into your other instances of shitty support—could you forward those to m…

I'll forward all instances to you. I have 3 cards from support that I haven't tested yet but look like they have a different batch number so I'm hoping they will work. I won't need them now since all my testing is happening in live but I appreciate the offer.

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

#335

Post by mrweasel »

tothrowaway wrote: post #186

Putting my dang hat on. Related: Tell HN: Stripe brought my business to a dead stop - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21030633 - September 2019 Tell HN: Stripe shut down my 4-year business with no explanation - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28085706 - August 2021 Stripe banned us for payment disputes but we never had a single dispute - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28522784 - September 2021 Stripe…

If you process more than say $10,000 per year, you should have multiple payment providers.

It's doubtful that Stripe is worse than other payment processors, they just process more payments than most other. Payment processors universally suck, partly because they live in fear of VISA and MasterCard. They tend to overreact or have automated systems that will falsely flag account.

Most have okay support, but resolving issues can take time, especially if the credit card companies are involved. In the meantime, you're kinda screwed.

All the stories you linked share the naive assumption that they could just integrate with Stripe and that's payments sorted.

If you rely on just a single company to handle your payment I assume that what you're doing the a side-hustle and that you have another job that pays the bills. You need multiple payment processors and an easy way to switch between them, that is the sad reality of online payment processing. You may have a preferred processor, typically the cheapest provider, but you always have a backup. That also helps you when your primary processors inevitably have an outage.

You could argue that you have the same issue with using a single cloud provider, but their incentives are a little different. Being too heavy handed could cause customers to leave a given cloud provider, costing the provider money. If Stripe isn't heavy-handed enough, they could lose their integration to VISA, costing them their entire business.

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

#336

Post by quelltext »

pier25 wrote: post #241
ellieh wrote: post #84

Does anyone have any suggestions of what to use instead? Lots of "don't use Stripe", but I'd love to know what the alternatives are!

For a hobby project of mine I use Gumroad. The integration on my website is bad... But payments and payouts have been solid so far.

https://help.gumroad.com/article/260-your-payout-settings-pa...

Gumroad itself uses Stripe, it seems so if Stripe decides to hold funds it's likely Gumroad will just forward that experience to you.

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

#337

Post by kalkin »

antman wrote: post #318
patio11 wrote: post #177

(I work for Stripe, and since many of my colleagues are currently sleeping, taking the liberty of saying this on their behalf.) We are looking into things. As someone who ran businesses for a long time myself, it would be very alarming to me if customers felt they were being ignored while repeatedly talking to people who work for us. If that ever happens, please bring in literally anyone at Stripe, inclusive of other…

Customers are publicly asking for your answers for your what in their opinion is an ill conceived and/or villainous process. Not answering claiming that it violates your privacy process from which they specifically exempted themselves could also be considered even more ill conceived/villainous. They are waiting for your answers, it is a public matter as per your clients repeated requests, it affects more people, mone…

If I was a customer and Stripe (or any other company) started releasing private correspondence and financial details publicly because someone on the internet claiming to be me complained about the company, and the company took that as implicitly waiving any privacy obligations, I'd be pretty upset. If they said that the prurient interest of their other customers in the details was part of their decision I'd be even more upset!

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

#338

Post by albedoa »

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?

Your issue with the analogy is that it doesn't include an indefinite timeline for the eventual return of the property? You might be missing the forest here.

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

#339

Post by TekMol »

Crosseye_Jack wrote: post #250
TekMol wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the moment, pretty much nobody is able to send payments via the lightning network. My question is about "what if". Would there be downsides? If the upsides outweigh the downsides, LN could slowly find its way into retail. Maybe by starting with some special use cases where speed, low fees, privacy or immutability are especially important.

Customers like the ability to charge back if the product is faulty, not as advertised, or the retailer goes under. Heck its one of the advertised bonuses of using a credit card for purchases, You are spending the banks money so you are better protected against fraud/retailer bankruptcy. Customers with outstanding orders are often on the bottom of the list of creditors who get paid back when a company goes bust and ev…

They like it, but are they willing to pay for it?

The vendor needs to factor in the costs induced by Stripe. That's 3% fee plus the danger of your account being frozen. How much is that? Maybe another 1%?

So if the "price" to use Stripe is 4%, the vendor could offer their customers the same products for 2% less if they pay via lightning - and share the savings with their customers.

Sounds like a good deal. I have bought something with my CC hundreds of times and never ever did a chargeback.

On top of it, as a customer, I find credit cards annoying and scary. To get one, I have to get it physically delivered to my snail mail box. And everytime I pull that thing out, someone could photograph or memorize the numbers on it and cause me trouble.

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

#340

Post by [deleted] »

TekMol wrote: post #185
patio11 wrote: post #177

(I work for Stripe, and since many of my colleagues are currently sleeping, taking the liberty of saying this on their behalf.) We are looking into things. As someone who ran businesses for a long time myself, it would be very alarming to me if customers felt they were being ignored while repeatedly talking to people who work for us. If that ever happens, please bring in literally anyone at Stripe, inclusive of other…

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