6 ms·

I work at Stripe. Could you forward that email to me at edwin@stripe.com and I can investigate what happened? I'm really sorry for the trouble.

jppope 7y ago
y'all are on the customer service! Out of curiosity... is this automated or were you just kicking around on HN?
- andrewstuart 7y ago
  >> y'all are on the customer service! This is not customer service. This is the unfortunate trend in the industry where the only way to get issues resolved is to take to social media and shame the company such that some powerful insider at the company (who happens to hang out on HN) takes action to sidestep the failed customer support processes and get the issue resolved.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- mattmanser 7y ago
  I assume they monitor it, I got personally emailed to my profile email, as well as replied to, after making a post on HN about stripe. Worked out well, happy with the support.
- jsnell 7y ago
  I hope you also read the original poster's follow-up message elsewhere in the comments. Apparently the amazing support they could offer was a five day migration period before they cut off all payment processing, and also keeping 100% of the money hostage for three months. And of course not answering the central question of just what were these unauthorized payments, if there are no chargebacks. Do you still feel like commending them for amazing customer service?
andrewstuart 7y ago
This should not be the outcome. It should not be necessary for someone to come to an online forum and complain to get the customer support issue resolved. Stripe customer support organisation should actually resolve customer issues. Tech companies go on and on and on and ON about "culture", but one thing I can tell you truly needs to be built into culture is customer support. For example, everyone knows Google's culture of customer support - it's "avoid all human contact, send all support queries to a machine". I think tech companies are super bad at customer support because the founders have rarely worked front line in customer support so they don't know how to build an organisation around great customer support thus it is not part of the culture/company DNA. Seriously, Hacker News should have a "tech support" link at the top where people can post tech support queries for companies who can't manage to respond to and keep their customers supported and happy.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- codingdave 7y ago
  The original post doesn't say that they even contacted customer service. We know that they got an email, poked around their dashboard, got some errors, and posted here. We do not know what else was done. Your point may be valid, if customer service dropped the ball. But we don't know that just from the info posted here so far.
  - mynameisvlad 7y ago
    > & support doesn't respond to my numerous messages.
  - eindiran 7y ago
    From the post: "[S]upport doesn't respond to my numerous messages". I would say that pretty clearly indicates that OP did in fact contact customer service at Stripe.
- privateSFacct 7y ago
  I've called Amazon around AWS issues and I have to disagree with you. They even seem to step outside of support boundaries when troubleshooting things (which they shouldn't do). I pay for the lowest level of service I think - $100/month. Light user. We also only are getting one side of story. Not to knock on a gym - but I'd be interested in the membership plan rules - some of fitness memberships should be flat out illegal - auto renewal for a year, can't cancel to early, but have to cancel before end of membership (short cancellation windows) and big rigmarole.
Ididntdothis 7y ago
Why do companies only read social media and not their E-mails? It seems often the only way to get things resolved is by going public. Otherwise you are shown the finger.
SiVal 7y ago
Stripe is vulnerable, because there are always scammers working every angle they can. But a legitimate Stripe customer is even more vulnerable, because Stripe has many customers, but each customer probably has one payment processor. Stripe can err on the side of caution and put a customer out of business with little risk to itself. So, I'd like to see Stripe feel enough heat that they decide that any time they suspend service for a customer, that customer is (1) immediately entitled to talk to a live person at Stripe with the authority to undo the suspension (probably probationary and with limits while being appealed and investigated) and (2) guaranteed a quick resolution process that involves access to real people with authority. If Stripe's policies are that going with them means living with a Sword of Damocles forever hanging over your head, that should be well-advertised whenever they are discussed.
- YawningAngel 7y ago
  Eh. What private company can't decide to cease doing business with you without recourse? People just seem weirdly blind to counterparty risk in financial services.
joemi 7y ago
How does this happen? How is Stripe apparently on top of responding to HN posts, but not to actual support inquiries? Could this be by design?
southbaybox 7y ago
Thank you! I just sent you an email a short while ago.
southbaybox 7y ago
Edwin - I have emailed you twice and sent you a message on twitter but haven't heard back from you. Can you please response to my emails??

jppope 7y ago

y'all are on the customer service! Out of curiosity... is this automated or were you just kicking around on HN?

andrewstuart 7y ago
>> y'all are on the customer service! This is not customer service. This is the unfortunate trend in the industry where the only way to get issues resolved is to take to social media and shame the company such that some powerful insider at the company (who happens to hang out on HN) takes action to sidestep the failed customer support processes and get the issue resolved.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
mattmanser 7y ago
I assume they monitor it, I got personally emailed to my profile email, as well as replied to, after making a post on HN about stripe. Worked out well, happy with the support.
jsnell 7y ago
I hope you also read the original poster's follow-up message elsewhere in the comments. Apparently the amazing support they could offer was a five day migration period before they cut off all payment processing, and also keeping 100% of the money hostage for three months. And of course not answering the central question of just what were these unauthorized payments, if there are no chargebacks. Do you still feel like commending them for amazing customer service?

andrewstuart 7y ago

This should not be the outcome. It should not be necessary for someone to come to an online forum and complain to get the customer support issue resolved. Stripe customer support organisation should actually resolve customer issues. Tech companies go on and on and on and ON about "culture", but one thing I can tell you truly needs to be built into culture is customer support. For example, everyone knows Google's culture of customer support - it's "avoid all human contact, send all support queries to a machine". I think tech companies are super bad at customer support because the founders have rarely worked front line in customer support so they don't know how to build an organisation around great customer support thus it is not part of the culture/company DNA. Seriously, Hacker News should have a "tech support" link at the top where people can post tech support queries for companies who can't manage to respond to and keep their customers supported and happy.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
codingdave 7y ago
The original post doesn't say that they even contacted customer service. We know that they got an email, poked around their dashboard, got some errors, and posted here. We do not know what else was done. Your point may be valid, if customer service dropped the ball. But we don't know that just from the info posted here so far.
- mynameisvlad 7y ago
  > & support doesn't respond to my numerous messages.
- eindiran 7y ago
  From the post: "[S]upport doesn't respond to my numerous messages". I would say that pretty clearly indicates that OP did in fact contact customer service at Stripe.
privateSFacct 7y ago
I've called Amazon around AWS issues and I have to disagree with you. They even seem to step outside of support boundaries when troubleshooting things (which they shouldn't do). I pay for the lowest level of service I think - $100/month. Light user. We also only are getting one side of story. Not to knock on a gym - but I'd be interested in the membership plan rules - some of fitness memberships should be flat out illegal - auto renewal for a year, can't cancel to early, but have to cancel before end of membership (short cancellation windows) and big rigmarole.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

Why do companies only read social media and not their E-mails? It seems often the only way to get things resolved is by going public. Otherwise you are shown the finger.

SiVal 7y ago

Stripe is vulnerable, because there are always scammers working every angle they can. But a legitimate Stripe customer is even more vulnerable, because Stripe has many customers, but each customer probably has one payment processor. Stripe can err on the side of caution and put a customer out of business with little risk to itself. So, I'd like to see Stripe feel enough heat that they decide that any time they suspend service for a customer, that customer is (1) immediately entitled to talk to a live person at Stripe with the authority to undo the suspension (probably probationary and with limits while being appealed and investigated) and (2) guaranteed a quick resolution process that involves access to real people with authority. If Stripe's policies are that going with them means living with a Sword of Damocles forever hanging over your head, that should be well-advertised whenever they are discussed.

YawningAngel 7y ago
Eh. What private company can't decide to cease doing business with you without recourse? People just seem weirdly blind to counterparty risk in financial services.

joemi 7y ago

How does this happen? How is Stripe apparently on top of responding to HN posts, but not to actual support inquiries? Could this be by design?

southbaybox 7y ago

Thank you! I just sent you an email a short while ago.

southbaybox 7y ago

Edwin - I have emailed you twice and sent you a message on twitter but haven't heard back from you. Can you please response to my emails??