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One year in #stripe

mattarkin.com

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Re: One year in #stripe

#2
I'm skeptical of the data backing the language popularity chart because there is no mention of Python. It seems unlikely that Python devs never come into the IRC support channel. Ranked by general usage rather than by number of support requests, I might guess that Python would be ranked similarly to Ruby.

Re: One year in #stripe

#3
Stripe may have a billion dollar valuation, but their support process is still very immature.

You have two choices: 1) go to IRC, where they only answer technical integration questions, or 2) firing an email into the black hole that is support@stripe.com, and crossing your fingers that someone will respond within 2-5 days.

We've been burned several times by how slow they are to fix payment problems. You send an email to support@stripe.com, and then the waiting begins.

For a service that is critical to the day-to-day functioning of a small business, their support process is unacceptable. When a critical payment issue arises, there is no phone number to call and no ticket escalation process to let you know that your issue is being worked on. We finally moved off Stripe because their support process added too much risk to our business.

I know Stripe gets a lot of love from this community. But these SV businesses need to learn that customer experience goes deeper than having a flashy UI and easy-to-read integration docs.

Re: One year in #stripe

#4
> 430 hours writing messages or about 11 work weeks. (Hey Stripe guys, where can I send an invoice?)

But really, someone at Stripe should cut him a check. I've always thought markin was part of the Stripe team. The IRC room is pretty much the closest thing to support that Stripe has (still no public phone number, ticket system?), and he's the lifeblood of it.

Re: One year in #stripe

#5

> 430 hours writing messages or about 11 work weeks. (Hey Stripe guys, where can I send an invoice?) But really, someone at Stripe should cut him a check. I've always thought markin was part of the Stripe team. The IRC room is pretty much the closest thing to support that Stripe has (still no public phone number, ticket system?), and he's the lifeblood of it.

> if each took on average 1 minute to compose

This is IRC though, so I guess the average message would take more like ~seconds to compose. Not counting "research" etc.

Re: One year in #stripe

#6

> 430 hours writing messages or about 11 work weeks. (Hey Stripe guys, where can I send an invoice?) But really, someone at Stripe should cut him a check. I've always thought markin was part of the Stripe team. The IRC room is pretty much the closest thing to support that Stripe has (still no public phone number, ticket system?), and he's the lifeblood of it.

> if each took on average 1 minute to compose This is IRC though, so I guess the average message would take more like ~seconds to compose. Not counting "research" etc.

Yeah, and want to guess how long you'd have to have someone on staff to hit 430 hours of IRC messaging? A lot longer than 11 weeks, that's for sure. "Research" is what takes time.

You sound like my grandparents. "What's hard about your work, you just type on the computer all day!" they say. The easy part is typing. The hard part is knowing which keys to press.

Re: One year in #stripe

#7
post #2

I'm skeptical of the data backing the language popularity chart because there is no mention of Python. It seems unlikely that Python devs never come into the IRC support channel. Ranked by general usage rather than by number of support requests, I might guess that Python would be ranked similarly to Ruby.

I found that very strange too.

Re: One year in #stripe

#8

Stripe may have a billion dollar valuation, but their support process is still very immature. You have two choices: 1) go to IRC, where they only answer technical integration questions, or 2) firing an email into the black hole that is support@stripe.com, and crossing your fingers that someone will respond within 2-5 days. We've been burned several times by how slow they are to fix payment problems. You send an email…

As along as enough customers are happy with the service as-is, their business will continue to do well.

Re: One year in #stripe

#9

Stripe may have a billion dollar valuation, but their support process is still very immature. You have two choices: 1) go to IRC, where they only answer technical integration questions, or 2) firing an email into the black hole that is support@stripe.com, and crossing your fingers that someone will respond within 2-5 days. We've been burned several times by how slow they are to fix payment problems. You send an email…

What kind of payment issues do you encounter?

Re: One year in #stripe

#10
post #2

I'm skeptical of the data backing the language popularity chart because there is no mention of Python. It seems unlikely that Python devs never come into the IRC support channel. Ranked by general usage rather than by number of support requests, I might guess that Python would be ranked similarly to Ruby.

Yeah, to my recollection I can't recall a single person joining the irc room with a python code base, I can't really say why or why not, but it should be noted that it is popularity in terms of support, not in terms of api requests.

The naive interpretation would be that people using stripe with a python codebase in general need less technical support with the integration.

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