Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business • Hacker News Board

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#401

Post by vlod » Thu, Sep 15, 2022, 7:41 PM UTC

max51 wrote: post #328

orionint wrote: post #121

Used to work for a “high risk” payment processor, we inherited tons of accounts that were terminated by Stripe, Square, and PayPal. Here’s one small bit of inside info that may help the newer businesses out there: Most real payment processors (e.g. banks, merchant services companies) “underwrite” a company BEFORE allowing them to process. Underwriting means they look over the business model, financials, etc and make…

>It’s a very unethical practice because it ends up hitting businesses at the worst possible time, when the termination or suspension causes a huge financial hit. You forgot the part where Paypal get to keep your money when they close your account. And it's not like they only keep it temporarily in case of lawsuits/chargebacks, they just keep it forever. I still can't believe that crap is legal.

Are you saying you should empty your account constantly (nightly?) in case paypal gets shut down your account, for unknown and un-communicated reasons?

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#402

Post by Judgmentality » Thu, Sep 15, 2022, 7:41 PM UTC

tlb wrote: post #190

ianhawes wrote: post #40

I will take the OP's story at face value, but I think a common theme in these sort of posts is the "Stripe not happy with my business model" angle which typically does not actually include any details about the business model. For example, a few weeks ago the founder of Tailwind tweeted [0] about how Stripe had shut down their account when they were set to launch the Tailwind Job Board, despite many other job boards…

Yes, they almost always fail to mention it. Then it turns out they’re selling cannabis to Iran or something. And (rightly so) payment processors can’t tell us what the problem is. So I’m inclined to flag all such stories missing the obviously key information.

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.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#403

Post by jacobr1 » Thu, Sep 15, 2022, 7:42 PM UTC

illumin8 wrote: post #376

marcosdumay wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a rule, there's nothing wrong about a default to accepting making deals with strangers. And that's the only thing similar in here. The payment processors are not selling anything by fraudulent claiming they evaluated their quality. What they do have is a very bad customers service that is prone to a different kind of crime (withholding people's money) and create a very unique kind of risk they don't communicate to…

I'm pretty sure this would be considered a deceptive business practice by most courts of law. You can't just straight up lie about the terms of a business agreement - i.e. if you say you've evaluated a customer's creditworthiness but you really haven't I think there is a very good argument that any agreement was not made in good faith, however, Stripe's ToS probably requires mandatory arbitration, etc, so I'm not sur…

Arbitration doesn't mean no-recourse or bias toward to the provider.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#404

Post by q7xvh97o2pDhNrh » Thu, Sep 15, 2022, 7:43 PM UTC

humanistbot wrote: post #221

layer8 wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m curious what benefit you think publishing the comment as a blog post would provide over the existent HN comment (which also has its own URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32855106 ). Possibly better SEO?

I've literally never seen a link to an HN comment go viral on social media, such that my non-HN friends would read it. It happens for blog/medium/substack posts all the time.

> I've literally never seen a link to an HN comment go viral on social media

I've never thought about this, but now that you've pointed it out, I'm realizing this is genuinely a fantastic feature.

Sounds like yet another of the many perks of the spartan design here. All substance, with just a hint of (cascading) style.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#405

Post by mellavora » Thu, Sep 15, 2022, 7:44 PM UTC

phendrenad2 wrote: post #245

According to previous posts* this company sells something related to cannibis. I'd love to know why certain categories are always flagged or silently banned. Cannibis, sex toys, porn, crypto, etc. Payment processors seem to always give these categories the worst service and whenever a company is nuked like this, it's usually one of these categories. Why is that? It almost feels like there's some secret government org…

re: sex toys, potential felony in texas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_obscenity_statute

or google "texas six dildoes"

https://www.theregister.com/2016/12/13/us_purchase_governmen...

and https://onwardtexas.org/trending/is-it-illegal-to-own-more-t...

which was posted on HN about 3 months ago and flagged.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#406

Post by tough » Thu, Sep 15, 2022, 7:45 PM UTC

joecot wrote: post #360

tough wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the best solution here, is add a payments orchestration solution to your stack. There are others, I know of this spanish startup integrating with stripe. In this way,you can have both your bank TPV/ Payments and Stripe working alongside, if any fails just put the other, or the one giving better prices by default, etc https://monei.com/es/features/payments-orchestration/

If someone uses WooCommerce for their store, they have 79 different payment integrations, including Stripe, Paypal, Amazon Payments, along with merchant account gateways like Authorize.net. Some of them are paid extensions but rather cheap considering the use. https://woocommerce.com/product-category/woocommerce-extensi...

What Im talking about is to add another abstraction layer, so you can have both payment processors and decide which use on the fly, both integrated with any ecommerce framework you use

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#407

Post by ceejayoz » Thu, Sep 15, 2022, 7:48 PM UTC

JPL7 wrote: post #400

ceejayoz wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No; hair color is not what that legislation covers. It is entirely legal in the United States to discriminate against redheads, or people whose names start with B, or Hacker News users, or people who enjoy skiing.

https://www.fwlaw.com/insights/is-hair-a-protected-class#:~:... .

If you read that closely, it doesn't apply in the slightest to the example.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#408

Post by shadowgovt » Thu, Sep 15, 2022, 7:50 PM UTC

hn_user2 wrote: post #371

joecot wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is between the company having their own merchant account with a bank (which is what most large companies do) using an online payment gateway, and not having one and leveraging the processor's instead (which is what Stripe, Paypal, etc provide). When you apply for a merchant account you get that approval and underwriting, but with a hefty application fee for obvious reasons. If your payment gateway shut…

One thing that is almost impossible to do on your own is to get a merchant account that you will be using to process payments on behalf of others. So if that is your business model, you are almost certainly in for the fight of your life with banks and merchant providers, along with some stupidly high reserve funds. Stripe makes this super easy, but it is a house of cards based on stories like this one. So I agree, yo…

More specifically: if you're in the business of processing payments on behalf of others, you actually have "bank" as a core competency / requirement of your business model and need to make your plans accordingly (or carry the added risk of having your core business model outsourced).

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#409

Post by krisoft » Thu, Sep 15, 2022, 7:51 PM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #283

mgkimsal wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Next time I build something with Stripe I'm going to test it in production before launching I'm genuinely curious why you wouldn't have done that anyway? I pretty much always do, precisely so I can experience a full end to end user experience.

Buying your own products inflates revenue figures (and is therefore pretty much prohibited in listed companies). Many investors don't like it either. Sure, you can do it, but you'll have to forever have a note in your accounts package saying 'this revenue isn't actual revenue'. It really upsets those who want the accounts to match up to the cent at the end of the year...

I smell a made up problem. Do you really think the CEO of Chipotle can’t buy a burrito from one of their branches without accountants getting a heart attack?

They just walk in and buy one. They in their personal capacity end up richer by a burrito and some invaluable experience. The company ends up richer by the price of a burrito. If this kind of “revenue inflation” matters to anyone then either the CEO has a bad burrito addiction or the company wasn’t transacting enough anyway or both.

Re: Stripe has decided to nuke my entire business

#410

Post by protomyth » Thu, Sep 15, 2022, 7:51 PM UTC

I still want to see Congress pass a law requiring any internet company that accepts money or fees from you that bans you, must give the exact reason, evidence, and where on your contract / ToS you violated. Frankly, at a certain size (millions of customers), these companies are utilities.