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Can we please do something about hacker news being used for customer support? It's getting tiresome to see these appearing on a regular basis

by mcgin 4y ago

JanSt 4y ago
It‘s interesting for HN because on this site are many potential customers. I have a finished Stripe integration in addition to app store sales but at this point I might need alternatives
LegitShady 4y ago
honestly I'd rather hear about stuff like this than not.
Nevermark 4y ago
If it allows someone to avoid an unjustified $250,000 loss each time … I hope they come here every time! EXCEPT, what I really wish is that large companies like STRIPE stopped treating gross account mismanagement cases as small frequency regrettable but acceptable outcomes. How can any of us sleep at night with these deaf capricious overlords managing our important information & services? It is getting dystopian. Welcome to Brazil (the movie).
cm2187 4y ago
The audience of HN is also the audience who will pick what payment provider they want for their new projects. Horror stories like this one are relevant to this audience (and why they get upvoted).
- Firmwarrior 4y ago
  yeah man, I'm going to avoid Stripe now that I've seen this (or at least I'll treat them the same way I'd treat Paypal or an angry venomous snake)
- blowski 4y ago
  I agree with the OP. Nobody should be choosing a critical dependency based on anecdotes like this, which tell only one side. If there were a post that aggregated such anecdotes with a more neutral stance, that might be more interesting.
  - cm2187 4y ago
    OK, but what is the better alternative then?
    - blowski 4y ago
      Alternative to what?
- themitigating 4y ago
  But it's anecdotal evidence at best and at worst this person is only telling their side of the story
  - JanSt 4y ago
    That is true, but we have heard many of these stories that could only be resolved by using HN. How many more stories are there, that we don't here about because the affected people don't know HN? At some point it becomes a pattern.
    - themitigating 4y ago
      So there's a pattern because of stories you don't know exist?
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
  - jjcon 4y ago
    It doesn’t matter that it is anecdotal in plenty of these HN support cases, the fact that this is possible at all is commonly what is atrocious (in other words, this should happen zero times). IE You can’t deflect a nuclear plant meltdown by saying we need to know how long it was running fine beforehand.
    - themitigating 4y ago
      You don't even know if he is telling the truth. He didn't even reveal the name of his business, why are you so sure it's true?
nikanj 4y ago
If you can suggest a better way to reach an actual human at Stripe / Google / etc, I’m all ears. Sometimes you get lucky and reach a helpdesk droid, but they’re not permitted to deviate from script. Posting to HN can put you in contact with someone who actually is able to do independent thinking, and take action too
tasuki 4y ago
Agreed. Do you have any ideas? HN could ban posts asking for support, but then people don't get support and companies have even less incentive to create sensible support systems. It's embarrassing for Stripe to have HN flooded with support requests, and that's a good thing.
andybak 4y ago
That's what the voting buttons are for.
smashah 4y ago
People should be encouraged to share these types of stories so we can hold these companies to account. Tiresome? Please refer to Tyler, the Creator's famous tweet if these posts are bothering you.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
maxbond 4y ago
As technologists we should bare witness to the consequences our way work has in the world and seek to blunt them. You can personally opt out by ignoring these stories.
lawn 4y ago
Maybe if HN made their funded companies actually provide any kind of competent support, desperate people wouldn't have to?
karlshea 4y ago
Well the Stripe founders read HN and still don’t care about getting their shit together. And I’m glad I keep seeing these—I have a client that wanted to add Stripe to their checkout and I’ll now be recommending against it.
lucas_adlp 4y ago
I'm also not fond of using HN for this sort of thing, but for a non-bootstrapped business, 250k isn't peanuts. As much as this is a request for acutal support from Stripe, I also do hope that readers who are in a business of taking online payments will become fully aware of the risk of using Stripe, since I weren't (and now I'm in a situation of possibly losing 250k).
- jacquesm 4y ago
  > I'm also not fond of using HN for this sort of thing Then don't.
yawnxyz 4y ago
Posts like these remind us that things can and do go wrong when working with these large companies.

Can we please do something about hacker news being used for customer support? It's getting tiresome to see these appearing on a regular basis

by mcgin 4y ago

Can we please do something about hacker news being used for customer support? It's getting tiresome to see these appearing on a regular basis

JanSt 4y ago

It‘s interesting for HN because on this site are many potential customers. I have a finished Stripe integration in addition to app store sales but at this point I might need alternatives

LegitShady 4y ago

honestly I'd rather hear about stuff like this than not.

Nevermark 4y ago

If it allows someone to avoid an unjustified $250,000 loss each time … I hope they come here every time! EXCEPT, what I really wish is that large companies like STRIPE stopped treating gross account mismanagement cases as small frequency regrettable but acceptable outcomes. How can any of us sleep at night with these deaf capricious overlords managing our important information & services? It is getting dystopian. Welcome to Brazil (the movie).

cm2187 4y ago

The audience of HN is also the audience who will pick what payment provider they want for their new projects. Horror stories like this one are relevant to this audience (and why they get upvoted).

Firmwarrior 4y ago
yeah man, I'm going to avoid Stripe now that I've seen this (or at least I'll treat them the same way I'd treat Paypal or an angry venomous snake)
blowski 4y ago
I agree with the OP. Nobody should be choosing a critical dependency based on anecdotes like this, which tell only one side. If there were a post that aggregated such anecdotes with a more neutral stance, that might be more interesting.
- cm2187 4y ago
  OK, but what is the better alternative then?
  - blowski 4y ago
    Alternative to what?
themitigating 4y ago
But it's anecdotal evidence at best and at worst this person is only telling their side of the story
- JanSt 4y ago
  That is true, but we have heard many of these stories that could only be resolved by using HN. How many more stories are there, that we don't here about because the affected people don't know HN? At some point it becomes a pattern.
  - themitigating 4y ago
    So there's a pattern because of stories you don't know exist?
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- jjcon 4y ago
  It doesn’t matter that it is anecdotal in plenty of these HN support cases, the fact that this is possible at all is commonly what is atrocious (in other words, this should happen zero times). IE You can’t deflect a nuclear plant meltdown by saying we need to know how long it was running fine beforehand.
  - themitigating 4y ago
    You don't even know if he is telling the truth. He didn't even reveal the name of his business, why are you so sure it's true?

nikanj 4y ago

If you can suggest a better way to reach an actual human at Stripe / Google / etc, I’m all ears. Sometimes you get lucky and reach a helpdesk droid, but they’re not permitted to deviate from script. Posting to HN can put you in contact with someone who actually is able to do independent thinking, and take action too

tasuki 4y ago

Agreed. Do you have any ideas? HN could ban posts asking for support, but then people don't get support and companies have even less incentive to create sensible support systems. It's embarrassing for Stripe to have HN flooded with support requests, and that's a good thing.

andybak 4y ago

That's what the voting buttons are for.

smashah 4y ago

People should be encouraged to share these types of stories so we can hold these companies to account. Tiresome? Please refer to Tyler, the Creator's famous tweet if these posts are bothering you.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

maxbond 4y ago

As technologists we should bare witness to the consequences our way work has in the world and seek to blunt them. You can personally opt out by ignoring these stories.

lawn 4y ago

Maybe if HN made their funded companies actually provide any kind of competent support, desperate people wouldn't have to?

karlshea 4y ago

Well the Stripe founders read HN and still don’t care about getting their shit together. And I’m glad I keep seeing these—I have a client that wanted to add Stripe to their checkout and I’ll now be recommending against it.

lucas_adlp 4y ago

I'm also not fond of using HN for this sort of thing, but for a non-bootstrapped business, 250k isn't peanuts. As much as this is a request for acutal support from Stripe, I also do hope that readers who are in a business of taking online payments will become fully aware of the risk of using Stripe, since I weren't (and now I'm in a situation of possibly losing 250k).

jacquesm 4y ago
> I'm also not fond of using HN for this sort of thing Then don't.

yawnxyz 4y ago

Posts like these remind us that things can and do go wrong when working with these large companies.