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Paypal blocked our entire account because we sold a product called "La Aroma De Cuba", a cigar manufactured in nicaragua. No discussion would resolve it. We reg

Paypal blocked our entire account because we sold a product called "La Aroma De Cuba", a cigar manufactured in nicaragua. No discussion would resolve it. We regexed the product name on the payload to replace it with LADC and we were reinstated.

devmor 1y ago
I had a similar experience with a payment processor for a client that sold manufacturing accessories for a completely benign industry - but one morning they were suddenly cut off and forbidden from processing all transactions. The payment gateway would not tell us why, just that the account was permanently suspended for “service violations”. We had to quickly onboard them onto a new gateway, and while testing in their sandbox environment a rep saw the issue. Turned out one of their products ended up with an auto-generated part code that had the four-letter term for sexual assault in it. That was it.
- viraptor 1y ago
  I wonder how many rapeseed oil sellers ran into this. Scunthorpe problem strikes again.
- johnnyanmac 1y ago
  You'd think we'd be passsed basic word filters for major industries like this. I guess all grapevines (and wineries, by extension) are screwed as well. And people wonder why many are anxious about AI. Garbage in, garbage out. Automating the process amplifies that.
catlikesshrimp 1y ago
Is there any chance that "La aroma de Cuba" brand is associated to tobacco, while LDAC sounds more like a sound codec? Tobacco might be the issue in that case. I am in no way implying there is no Cuban embargo, nor Cuban censorship. By the way, why is the name "La aroma de Cuba" and not "El aroma de Cuba"?
- nailer 1y ago
  > Is there any chance that "La aroma de Cuba" brand is associated to tobacco The post you are replying to mentions it is a cigar.
  - Igrom 1y ago
    Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
    - calvinmorrison 1y ago
      a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke - Rudyard Kipling
- duskwuff 1y ago
  It was 100% because the name contained the word "Cuba". Source: had the exact same problem with PayPal about ten years ago, except the trigger word was the name of another sanctioned country.
- calvinmorrison 1y ago
  it was a tobacco retailer. we did plenty with PeePal
bell-cot 1y ago
At least in the US, tobacco products are generally subject to pretty strict state & local regulations and taxes. Might that have been the issue?
- stronglikedan 1y ago
  They sell tobacco products, so they would know that's not the issue.
  - calvinmorrison 1y ago
    actually it's a huge issue. we had to use a non-good tech stack credit card provider that constantly went down becuase they were the only ones who would take us because we sold tobacco. No braintree or auth.net just some janky stuff from the 90s because that was the only company that fit our risk profile. The amount of times we got paged because we coudlnt take cards was ridiculous, because we couldn't ever do anything about it.

devmor 1y ago

I had a similar experience with a payment processor for a client that sold manufacturing accessories for a completely benign industry - but one morning they were suddenly cut off and forbidden from processing all transactions. The payment gateway would not tell us why, just that the account was permanently suspended for “service violations”. We had to quickly onboard them onto a new gateway, and while testing in their sandbox environment a rep saw the issue. Turned out one of their products ended up with an auto-generated part code that had the four-letter term for sexual assault in it. That was it.

viraptor 1y ago
I wonder how many rapeseed oil sellers ran into this. Scunthorpe problem strikes again.
johnnyanmac 1y ago
You'd think we'd be passsed basic word filters for major industries like this. I guess all grapevines (and wineries, by extension) are screwed as well. And people wonder why many are anxious about AI. Garbage in, garbage out. Automating the process amplifies that.

catlikesshrimp 1y ago

Is there any chance that "La aroma de Cuba" brand is associated to tobacco, while LDAC sounds more like a sound codec? Tobacco might be the issue in that case. I am in no way implying there is no Cuban embargo, nor Cuban censorship. By the way, why is the name "La aroma de Cuba" and not "El aroma de Cuba"?

nailer 1y ago
> Is there any chance that "La aroma de Cuba" brand is associated to tobacco The post you are replying to mentions it is a cigar.
- Igrom 1y ago
  Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
  - calvinmorrison 1y ago
    a woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke - Rudyard Kipling
duskwuff 1y ago
It was 100% because the name contained the word "Cuba". Source: had the exact same problem with PayPal about ten years ago, except the trigger word was the name of another sanctioned country.
calvinmorrison 1y ago
it was a tobacco retailer. we did plenty with PeePal

bell-cot 1y ago

At least in the US, tobacco products are generally subject to pretty strict state & local regulations and taxes. Might that have been the issue?

stronglikedan 1y ago
They sell tobacco products, so they would know that's not the issue.
- calvinmorrison 1y ago
  actually it's a huge issue. we had to use a non-good tech stack credit card provider that constantly went down becuase they were the only ones who would take us because we sold tobacco. No braintree or auth.net just some janky stuff from the 90s because that was the only company that fit our risk profile. The amount of times we got paged because we coudlnt take cards was ridiculous, because we couldn't ever do anything about it.