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Ask HN: Can Stripe Be Used for Crowdfunding Sites? Amazon Banned Me for Asking

5 points by wikiburner 13y ago

I'm working on a crowdfunding site (similar to Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but with a different model) and I'm wondering if Stripe's terms of service would allow it's use for crowdfunding? The reason I'm a bit reluctant to just ask their customer support is that I was just "permanently banned" from Amazon Payments for simply asking their customer support if it was an acceptable usage. Also, any other options out there? Last I heard Paypal doesn't allow donations or payments for a product or service that does not yet exist.

sharemywin 13y ago
Balanced focuses on marketplace payment processing
peacemaker 13y ago
Yes it can, see https://stripe.com/docs/connect https://stripe.com/docs/connect Amazon Payments can also be used which is what Kickstarter uses so I'm surprised you were banned just for asking. How exactly did you ask?
- wikiburner 13y ago
  Thanks for your help. Unfortunately I didn't think to copy my question - I was just typing into a help form, and they didn't copy it in their response. Basically something very vague about working on a crowdfunding site like kickstarter, and I asked what was the maximum allowable payment authorization window (for example, kickstarter doesn't actually bill for up to 60 days - I wanted to see how many months beyond that they would allow). I hadn't even applied to Amazon Payments yet, but I was signed in to my personal amazon account in order to access the help form. This was their response: Unfortunately, at this time, we are not able to approve your request for an Amazon Payments business account based on our review of your intended use of our payments service. As stated in our Acceptable Use Policy, the following product or services are prohibited from using Amazon Payments: • Donations and Charitable Solicitations - includes charities and non-profit organizations without a valid 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, charitable solicitations, commercial fundraisers (including crowd-funding businesses and commercial co-venturers), or any activity associated with the solicitation of donations. While we appreciate your interest, the blocking of your account is a permanent action. Please feel free to write to us for any questions that you may have.
livestyle 13y ago
This is what you are looking for :) https://www.trycelery.com/ https://www.trycelery.com/
- wikiburner 13y ago
  Thanks for that. This looks like it could be perfect.
gesman 13y ago
I think re:banning - you're not telling the whole story.
- wikiburner 13y ago
  Oh shit, you could be right. I had an Amazon store with some partners about six years ago that was shutdown because we had a shipping screw-up and got some packages to a handful of customers a couple of weeks late. We still had close to a five star rating though, so it seemed kind of capricious at the time. Why wouldn't they give that as the reason though? It honesty never occurred to me. Why would they give this detailed answer (copied in my comment above) citing their Acceptable Use Policy?

5 points by wikiburner 13y ago

sharemywin 13y ago

Balanced focuses on marketplace payment processing

peacemaker 13y ago

Yes it can, see https://stripe.com/docs/connect https://stripe.com/docs/connect Amazon Payments can also be used which is what Kickstarter uses so I'm surprised you were banned just for asking. How exactly did you ask?

wikiburner 13y ago
Thanks for your help. Unfortunately I didn't think to copy my question - I was just typing into a help form, and they didn't copy it in their response. Basically something very vague about working on a crowdfunding site like kickstarter, and I asked what was the maximum allowable payment authorization window (for example, kickstarter doesn't actually bill for up to 60 days - I wanted to see how many months beyond that they would allow). I hadn't even applied to Amazon Payments yet, but I was signed in to my personal amazon account in order to access the help form. This was their response: Unfortunately, at this time, we are not able to approve your request for an Amazon Payments business account based on our review of your intended use of our payments service. As stated in our Acceptable Use Policy, the following product or services are prohibited from using Amazon Payments: • Donations and Charitable Solicitations - includes charities and non-profit organizations without a valid 501(c)(3) tax exempt status, charitable solicitations, commercial fundraisers (including crowd-funding businesses and commercial co-venturers), or any activity associated with the solicitation of donations. While we appreciate your interest, the blocking of your account is a permanent action. Please feel free to write to us for any questions that you may have.

livestyle 13y ago

This is what you are looking for :) https://www.trycelery.com/ https://www.trycelery.com/

wikiburner 13y ago
Thanks for that. This looks like it could be perfect.

gesman 13y ago

I think re:banning - you're not telling the whole story.

wikiburner 13y ago
Oh shit, you could be right. I had an Amazon store with some partners about six years ago that was shutdown because we had a shipping screw-up and got some packages to a handful of customers a couple of weeks late. We still had close to a five star rating though, so it seemed kind of capricious at the time. Why wouldn't they give that as the reason though? It honesty never occurred to me. Why would they give this detailed answer (copied in my comment above) citing their Acceptable Use Policy?