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Why Stripe is the worst choice for your new startup business

21 points by herendin2 8y ago

blairanderson 8y ago
You're a Crypto business, there is no good payment processor for your startup.
- sadris 8y ago
  Stripe literally says in their tos that you can't use their service to buy crypto
  - herendin2 8y ago
    But the company is not selling that and their customers are not buying it. Then, does that Stripe TOS rule relate to this case?
ganeshkrishnan 8y ago
"Worst" choice? The reason Stripe exists is because PayPal is hard to trust. Don't even get started on Google Wallet/ Google pay.
sudhirj 8y ago
The article could also be called “Why selling crypto for real money tends to attract every card thief on earth and is the worst choice of business for your new startup”
- cotelletta 8y ago
  But also "why customer support has turned into a pointless exercise of copy pasting with zero understanding or decency".
- herendin2 8y ago
  Are you sure they sell CryptoCurrency? I thought they are only selling games, not crypto.
ukulele 8y ago
They created a crypto startup that allowed you to purchase with stripe, then had a bunch risky transactions come through, which they diligently told stripe about. So stripe closed the account because it was high risk. They were a magnet for fraudulent transactions and had a ton of support requests on how to block various things; I don't really blame stripe for not wanting to process them.
- tptacek 8y ago
  They probably don't even have the option of supporting them; their upstream banking partners have restrictions on these kinds of businesses.
  - herendin2 8y ago
    What do you mean by "these kinds of businesses?"
    - tptacek 8y ago
      Cryptocurrency companies. Banks ban them.
      - olsm 8y ago
        Keys4Coins is not a cryptocurrency company. We are an online shop for pc games. Your comment makes as much sense as it would saying Steam is a cryptocurrency company when they only accepted Bitcoin for payments.
        tptacek 8y ago
        Do you accept cryptocurrency in exchange for USD-denominated gift cards?
        herendin2 8y ago
        If you don't know the answer to this question, why are you making these bold declarations about the company?
briandear 8y ago
With a domain like “honest.cash” what’s not to love?
- briandear 8y ago
  This is being downvoted however the irony is clear: this business seems to be a magnet for fraudulent transactions, so “honest” is a bit funny to me. I have been with Stripe since 2010 and have processed thousands of transactions with only two or three fraudulent transactions during that time period, this company is open five minutes and has to go to pretty strict lengths to combat fraud. It seems like that is a type of business that Stripe is better off not serving. The higher costs for serving those types of businesses means higher costs for everyone else who aren’t working in high-risk areas. Perhaps Stripe could have a higher fee tier for higher risk businesses — such as a 10% fee, but given that payments are such a compliance nightmare, even that doesn’t seem like a good idea. However, thinking outside the box, it seems that the person who wrote the article might have stumbled on his next startup: Stripe for high risk startups. If the current market isn’t meeting defined needs, create a company to meet that need. If such a company doesn’t seem viable, then who could blame Stripe for not wanting to assume similar risk?
  - detaro 8y ago
    It's not their domain, it's a blogging platform they use.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
alphabettsy 8y ago
Your business is specifically of a restricted type according to their site. Why was this a surprise at all?
- herendin2 8y ago
  Why and how is their business of a restricted type?
edwinwee 8y ago
I help manage support at Stripe. While we can’t discuss an individual business’ situation publicly (feel free to write us at support@stripe.com), we agree that the emails here were confusing. I’ll look into what happened here and how we can fix any underlying issues.
- drcongo 8y ago
  Serious question: Is initial email support with Stripe handled by bots? Every time I've had an issue the replies from support@ have been so bad and so unrelated to the questions that I'm asking that I've resorted to calling it out publicly as a bot on Twitter. Only after I've done that do I start getting replies that are sane and relevant.
- olsm 8y ago
  You have our contact information and are more than welcome to look into this. We did send an email to support@stripe.com as you suggested and we asked for your attention but the response was: "I'm reaching out to let you know that in case you have questions or concerns, I can personally assist you since Edwin Wee is somewhat not familiar to me." The email continued like a copy paste with "do you have a question about" and listed 3 things and 3 links. When it was obvious why we contacted with a link to your comment here.

21 points by herendin2 8y ago

blairanderson 8y ago

You're a Crypto business, there is no good payment processor for your startup.

sadris 8y ago
Stripe literally says in their tos that you can't use their service to buy crypto
- herendin2 8y ago
  But the company is not selling that and their customers are not buying it. Then, does that Stripe TOS rule relate to this case?

ganeshkrishnan 8y ago

"Worst" choice? The reason Stripe exists is because PayPal is hard to trust. Don't even get started on Google Wallet/ Google pay.

sudhirj 8y ago

The article could also be called “Why selling crypto for real money tends to attract every card thief on earth and is the worst choice of business for your new startup”

cotelletta 8y ago
But also "why customer support has turned into a pointless exercise of copy pasting with zero understanding or decency".
herendin2 8y ago
Are you sure they sell CryptoCurrency? I thought they are only selling games, not crypto.

ukulele 8y ago

They created a crypto startup that allowed you to purchase with stripe, then had a bunch risky transactions come through, which they diligently told stripe about. So stripe closed the account because it was high risk. They were a magnet for fraudulent transactions and had a ton of support requests on how to block various things; I don't really blame stripe for not wanting to process them.

tptacek 8y ago
They probably don't even have the option of supporting them; their upstream banking partners have restrictions on these kinds of businesses.
- herendin2 8y ago
  What do you mean by "these kinds of businesses?"
  - tptacek 8y ago
    Cryptocurrency companies. Banks ban them.
    - olsm 8y ago
      Keys4Coins is not a cryptocurrency company. We are an online shop for pc games. Your comment makes as much sense as it would saying Steam is a cryptocurrency company when they only accepted Bitcoin for payments.
      - tptacek 8y ago
        Do you accept cryptocurrency in exchange for USD-denominated gift cards?
        herendin2 8y ago
        If you don't know the answer to this question, why are you making these bold declarations about the company?

briandear 8y ago

With a domain like “honest.cash” what’s not to love?

briandear 8y ago
This is being downvoted however the irony is clear: this business seems to be a magnet for fraudulent transactions, so “honest” is a bit funny to me. I have been with Stripe since 2010 and have processed thousands of transactions with only two or three fraudulent transactions during that time period, this company is open five minutes and has to go to pretty strict lengths to combat fraud. It seems like that is a type of business that Stripe is better off not serving. The higher costs for serving those types of businesses means higher costs for everyone else who aren’t working in high-risk areas. Perhaps Stripe could have a higher fee tier for higher risk businesses — such as a 10% fee, but given that payments are such a compliance nightmare, even that doesn’t seem like a good idea. However, thinking outside the box, it seems that the person who wrote the article might have stumbled on his next startup: Stripe for high risk startups. If the current market isn’t meeting defined needs, create a company to meet that need. If such a company doesn’t seem viable, then who could blame Stripe for not wanting to assume similar risk?
- detaro 8y ago
  It's not their domain, it's a blogging platform they use.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

alphabettsy 8y ago

Your business is specifically of a restricted type according to their site. Why was this a surprise at all?

herendin2 8y ago
Why and how is their business of a restricted type?

edwinwee 8y ago

I help manage support at Stripe. While we can’t discuss an individual business’ situation publicly (feel free to write us at support@stripe.com), we agree that the emails here were confusing. I’ll look into what happened here and how we can fix any underlying issues.

drcongo 8y ago
Serious question: Is initial email support with Stripe handled by bots? Every time I've had an issue the replies from support@ have been so bad and so unrelated to the questions that I'm asking that I've resorted to calling it out publicly as a bot on Twitter. Only after I've done that do I start getting replies that are sane and relevant.
olsm 8y ago
You have our contact information and are more than welcome to look into this. We did send an email to support@stripe.com as you suggested and we asked for your attention but the response was: "I'm reaching out to let you know that in case you have questions or concerns, I can personally assist you since Edwin Wee is somewhat not familiar to me." The email continued like a copy paste with "do you have a question about" and listed 3 things and 3 links. When it was obvious why we contacted with a link to your comment here.