Balanced payments is shutting down • Hacker News Board

Re: Balanced payments is shutting down

#171

Post by pbreit » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 4:22 PM UTC

tim333 wrote: post #146

ianlevesque wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like PayPal all over again

I guess it's inherently a hard problem serving two sided markets as the Russian criminal types are straight away going to set up a shell companies pretending to be something respectable on one side and feed in stolen credit card numbers on the other. Still you'd think they could do something transparent like delaying sending the funds for a couple of weeks while they contact say 10 credit card owners to see if the tr…

But you typically need to freeze funds when doing that.

Re: Balanced payments is shutting down

#172

Post by pbreit » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 4:29 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #147

flangston wrote: post #53

Sorry to see Balanced go. They were definitely the most flexible platform available and always pushed the envelope. If you're not using Spreedly, I recommend it because it's a big help in this situation because it allows you to seamlessly switch services without losing any of your customer card data.

If you're not using Spreedly, I recommend it because it's a big help in this situation because it allows you to seamlessly switch services without losing any of your customer card data. Strongest possible +1 for this. I did a live migration from Paypal to Stripe in under 30 seconds once. Spreedly made this as easy as flipping a configuration switch. As far as I can tell, we didn't lose any business as a result of the…

I think it's generally better to code directly to one provider and in the very rare instance you need/decide to change, go ahead and do the relatively easy work.

Re: Balanced payments is shutting down

#173

Post by bbissoon » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 4:32 PM UTC

keithwhor wrote: post #32

pc wrote: post #12

Stripe cofounder here. I just wanted to tip our hats to the folks at Balanced. Stripe and Balanced have certainly competed against each other in the marketplace space for a few years, but we have a lot of respect for how Matin and his team executed with creatively and determination. While we're of course glad Balanced decided that migrating to Stripe was the best thing for their users, today is kinda bittersweet for…

Any plans for escrow services? That was the one pain point balanced tackled that Stripe has yet to provide a solution for.

It's not the same at all. There's a "Pending" balance and an "Available" balance.

If you were to initiate a transfer after a successful charge, you will get an error. You have to wait days for it to make it to your available balance and transfer then.

Re: Balanced payments is shutting down

#174

Post by kalu » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 4:52 PM UTC

What are the chances that Stripe paid Balanced to shut down? For Stripe, it seems like good business to "buy" your competitors when they are young. Plus, they would get a bundle of customers. And for Balanced, if the payment was high enough, a decision to wind down could make sense for the investors.

Competition is generally good for customers. In the short run it seems trivial... but in the long run it could matter in a big way.

Stripe: did you pay for Balanced's customers? If so, was it your idea to buy or did Balanced bring it up?

Re: Balanced payments is shutting down

#175

Post by itzmeank » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 5:49 PM UTC

santiagobasulto wrote: post #65

90 days doesn't seem enough time at all. We run a big system on balanced. We're fucked.

Sure we can help, alternatively you may consider https://sudopay.com as well ? Just trying to be helpful..

Re: Balanced payments is shutting down

#176

Post by itzmeank » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 5:52 PM UTC

daryn wrote: post #114

wow, this is a real bummer. Good luck guys. p.s. Classy move on the migration plan.

Migration Woes ? Sudopay once and then keep switching payment gateways easily... :)

Re: Balanced payments is shutting down

#177

Post by sumedh » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 6:16 PM UTC

kalu wrote: post #174

What are the chances that Stripe paid Balanced to shut down? For Stripe, it seems like good business to "buy" your competitors when they are young. Plus, they would get a bundle of customers. And for Balanced, if the payment was high enough, a decision to wind down could make sense for the investors. Competition is generally good for customers. In the short run it seems trivial... but in the long run it could matter…

I dont think Stripe paid Balanced to shut down because the both the parties would look bad.

Stripe could have just acquired Balance allowing the founders of Balanced save face and Stripe gets Balanced's customers very cheap.

Re: Balanced payments is shutting down

#178

Post by dirtyaura » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 7:10 PM UTC

bkrausz wrote: post #96

dirtyaura wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the reasons that you don't support Transfer API in Europe? We would need that but are forced to operate with a different model on a top of Braintree at the moment.

There are a lot of reasons, but the short answer is we're aware of the demand. Stay tuned :).

Awesome! Thanks!

Re: Balanced payments is shutting down

#179

Post by jordanthoms » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 10:00 PM UTC

jfoster wrote: post #163

jordanthoms wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not only did Google have no migration path, they emailed all our customers saying their subscription was cancelled with no explanation why, leading to panic.

Additionally, prior to the retirement they had advised that they wouldn't be communicating it to subscribers. The retirement was so poorly handled that it's changed the way I think about services that I allow my business to depend on. Aside from a slight bias against anything with a "Google" label, I now consider it a lot more important that a service I'm using is the core business of the company providing it.

Really, I hadn't seen them specifically say that they wouldn't email everyone (although if anyone had thought about it they'd realize it was a bad idea).

Yeah, we went with GWDG at the time primarily because it was one of the few good options for a NZ-based company, but it was always a bit strange and I always thought given the lack of maintenance it was likely to get killed. Switched to Stripe and much happier, although I do miss the awesome microtransaction pricing they had...

Re: Balanced payments is shutting down

#180

Post by jfoster » Sat, Mar 14, 2015, 10:53 PM UTC

jordanthoms wrote: post #179

jfoster wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Additionally, prior to the retirement they had advised that they wouldn't be communicating it to subscribers. The retirement was so poorly handled that it's changed the way I think about services that I allow my business to depend on. Aside from a slight bias against anything with a "Google" label, I now consider it a lot more important that a service I'm using is the core business of the company providing it.

Really, I hadn't seen them specifically say that they wouldn't email everyone (although if anyone had thought about it they'd realize it was a bad idea). Yeah, we went with GWDG at the time primarily because it was one of the few good options for a NZ-based company, but it was always a bit strange and I always thought given the lack of maintenance it was likely to get killed. Switched to Stripe and much happier, alth…

Very similar situation. AU-based, went with Stripe after, very happy with Stripe but also missing the micro transaction pricing.