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Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

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681–690 of 705 posts

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#681
post #653

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really sounds like you're biased since your YC affiliation means you're invested in Stripe, and your statement essentially reads as "the (YC company) is always right, and the customer must prove otherwise." This mentality is largely the reason people hate tech/SV in the first place.

I'm not making that claim. I'm pointing out that a customer saying "X locked my account" without the relevant information for HN readers to decide whether or not X acted improperly doesn't make for a good HN submission. If this company sells T-shirts or something, then Stripe may have acted improperly. If they sell cannabis, then Stripe would have acted as the law requires, as everyone in that industry knows perfectl…

> There are plenty of other places online for uninformed outrage bait.

There aren't though. People come to HN to complain about getting fucked over by YC companies because it's basically the only place people will get a response. I'm not saying all, or even most, complaints are valid. But your immediately siding with the YC company just shows your bias, which is expected since you're literally invested in the company.

Regardless of whether or not Stripe is legally in the right, their customer support is absolutely abysmal. And the problem is that this is clearly a trend with YC companies and the fact that people have to vent about it on HN so frequently, and with such fanfare, says a lot.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#682
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The overwhelming majority of stories I hear about paypal fucking over businesses are about benign transactions. I don't think your judgmental paranoia is founded.

I would agree with you, cwkoss, except for this: https://www.reddit.com/r/paypal/ and https://www.trustpilot.com/review/paypal.us and https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-03/paypal-cu... . (which was attempted as a class action lawsuit)

Are these supposed to be evidence that paypal doesn't fuck over businesses engaging in benign transactions? Because just seems to be evidence that paypal fucks a lot of businesses over.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#683

Three things become clear once again. We need laws making it illegal to fail to provide a detailed reason for serious actions like this. We also need a complete reworking of the system as it is.. and likely a new official means for payment transaction services in general. Finally, and particularly in the context of digital money, we need laws ensuring bank/CC/PP neutrality. Just like water, gas and power. Financial s…

Additionally, almost forgot to add. We need the government to stop treating financial institutions like they are law enforcement. I can't think of any other field, product or service where private or even semi-private actors are expected to actively play a roll in fighting crime, with actual legal stakes if they fail or don't play along.

Pharmacies and prescribers are required to play an active role if they want to be licensed to dispense controlled substances.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#684

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No hate here, brother. Only love. And perception. Your sarcasm is a fine enough shield, and you hold it well! I hope that it protects you until you can be honest with yourself. In the mean time, I'm happy to take your admission as a win, even if you'd like it to be insincere. Thanks for admitting your a privileged paranoid; that's the first step! I'm sorry you felt insulted by my assumptions about you. I honestly ass…

I apologize, you see I am a simple hillbilly from backwater America. I would speak this same way to my best friends, and I'm not joking. Making everything delicate like I'm speaking to an 8 year old child is not really my thing, if I think someone dun fucked up I'm going to say so. Perhaps certain more refined segments of America conider this anger, and you can self console yourself of your moral superiority.

Your apology is accepted. Thank you! I hope you feel better soon!

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#685
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a lot of experience seems to show that Stripe, Square and PayPal operate differently: they light up ANYONE, and then only underwrite when the account hits a critical threshold of revenue. Sounds similar to how subprime lenders doled out the mortgages without any due diligence. They skimmed their bit off the top in transaction commissions, but later dumped them before they became a compliance hassle.

It's also the exact same model that private health insurers used before Obamacare. Do minimal underwriting unless someone gets really sick, then scrutinize the hell out of it, even offer bonuses to employees based on how many claims they find reasons to deny.

Did "Obamacare" do anything to end this phenomenon? That hasn't been the experience of people I know.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#686
post #459

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making competition easier in this space is another way to solve it. If Stripe had 15 competitors all of whom were API compatible so you could switch in 5 minutes, any bad PR would drive customers away in droves. Government has made entry to this space hard which is why there aren't enough competitors, so they're really the source of the problem.

Government hasn't made entry to this space hard, the banks that Stripe partners with have. Because they don't want to deal with high-risk transactions. They are the gatekeepers here, and Stripe has to bend over backwards to make them happy. They'd much rather burn individual customers, than jeopardize their entire business.

Are we still pretending that USA government is a distinct entity from USA's large corporations? If the banks didn't like the regulations, the regulations would change. If some random elected official didn't like how the banks operated, after the next election she would be an ex-official.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also the exact same model that private health insurers used before Obamacare. Do minimal underwriting unless someone gets really sick, then scrutinize the hell out of it, even offer bonuses to employees based on how many claims they find reasons to deny.

Did "Obamacare" do anything to end this phenomenon? That hasn't been the experience of people I know.

Yes. Everything is guaranteed issue unless you go with one of those weird Christian health insurance things. Insurance companies can't deny coverage now because of a pre-existing condition, and they can't go back and deny claims because of something someone put on an application. No one gets their insurance dropped because they get bone cancer and THEN a claims adjuster went and poured over their original application.

https://www.kff.org/health-reform/issue-brief/pre-existing-c...

"Before private insurance market rules in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took effect in 2014, health insurance sold in the individual market in most states was medically underwritten.1 That means insurers evaluated the health status, health history, and other risk factors of applicants to determine whether and under what terms to issue coverage."

"Prior to the ACA’s coverage expansions, we estimated that 18% of individual market applications were denied. This is an underestimate of the impact of medical underwriting because many people with health conditions did not apply because they knew or were informed by an agent that they would not be accepted. Denial rates ranged from 0% in a handful of states with guaranteed issue to 33% in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Ohio. According to 2008 data from America’s Health Insurance Plans, denial rates ranged from about 5% for children to 29% for adults age 60-64 (again, not accounting for those who did not apply)."

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#690
post #451

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have personal knowledge of more than one instance where stripe totally screwed over small companies and simply decided to ignore any contact for more than half a year, withholding the money and putting everyone in limbo. yeah, im sure its a minority of accounts at stripe, but seriously, do not take the chance!

There is no way they ignored legal service. Op speaks of calling and emailing and reaching out … instead, pay your lawyer 30 minutes and have the letter hand delivered to their legal department. I can’t predict what will happen but it won’t be ignored.

yeah.. in the real world people cut their losses rather than sue the company a gazillion times larger than themselves, in foreign juristictions etc.

But I seriously ask anyone, how important is processing payments to you? what do you suspect the chances are? would you prefer to go through a bit more hoops upfront with a non-stripe alternative, or roll a 1/100 or even 1/10000 dice that one day you're just gonna be royally screwed over?

I have seen it happen very close, so I know my choice. It always "only" happens to other people... until it happens to you. Its easy to say "yeah.. they were doing shady things, I dont", but when the algorithmic gods determine you to be shady, no mere mortal, except perhaps a couple of very influential people lurking HN(cough edwin cough) will do anything. Will you catch his eye? is it worth the risk?

ANYTHING you depend on, spend serious serious time doing vetting, making sure its proper, and I would say, for the love of god, make it someone you could go visit physically.

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