6 ms·

Hey Kylnew, I am the author of that post. Just wanted to say that i've had a phone call from Stripe 5 mins ago and this has been resolved. Not sure if you want

Hey Kylnew, I am the author of that post. Just wanted to say that i've had a phone call from Stripe 5 mins ago and this has been resolved. Not sure if you want to keep this post up or not.

gpjt 11y ago
Sounds like it's still an interesting cautionary tale. Looking forward to reading about what they told you!
forloop 11y ago
Presumably, because your post is on HN. It would probably be best to keep it up. It's still useful to know, IMO.
toomuchtodo 11y ago
You may want to put that as an update at the top of your blog post.
- calumallison 11y ago
  yes im doing that now.
jbob2000 11y ago
But how was it resolved? Don't leave us hanging man!
sbashyal 11y ago
Glad to hear! The question still remains why they didn't want your business in the first place and why are they changing their decision now. As a start up founder using Stripe, I would like to know.
mmatants 11y ago
If possible, please share what exactly made them change their minds. It is still concerning that this phone call did not happen right away (especially given the business-critical nature of the issue) - many new Web companies end up with a Kafkaesque customer experience despite seemingly fighting legacy corporate inertia and inefficiency.
- calumallison 11y ago
  I will write a new blog post this evening explaining it :)
  - mmatants 11y ago
    Thanks in advance! These things help.
- wofo 11y ago
  Kafkaesque... I like that word!
sosuke 11y ago
That is terribly frustrating, but consistent. I see many posts like yours, you tried many of the normal appropriate communication methods and got no real connection. Not until it is public, and a possible public relations issue, did you get an nearly instant human response.
ufmace 11y ago
That sounds even more disturbing - automated, robotic account cancellation and dismissal of all communications regarding it... until you get a little bit famous, and then you instantly get a human response. How does anybody think that this is an acceptable way to do business? The really sad thing is that I'd be more upset at Stripe if every other business you deal with starting an internet company didn't do the same thing over and over again. Never mind the ease of integration, are there any payment processing companies out there who make it easy speak to a human being in possession of common sense and the ability to make decisions if there is a dispute regarding your account, without having to get famous first?
- saganus 11y ago
  This is actually what I hate most about these stories. Fortunately for the guys involved, when they post something and it goes somewhat public then suddenly all companies are so eager to solve your problems. So what about us underdogs that really don't have anything remotely famous enough to get their attention? We are screwed basically. This really speaks loudly about Stripe that they kept sending canned responses until the threat of public shaming was looming over their heads. Then they suddenly are swift to solve the issue? even with a phone call? Not cool.
- joshstrange 11y ago
  It makes me sick when things like this happen and they have happened on a smaller scale to me. I've tried to go through proper channels for support and get either no response or no help (Form letters and the like) and with 1 tweet I'm talking with a real human. I have no problem using Twitter as a bitching/calling-out platform because it's apparently the only way to get some companies attention.
- genesem 11y ago
  totally agree!
kylnew 11y ago
I posted this because our company also uses Stripe and I wanted to get more community opinion on this matter. Hacker News has a way of always being relatively grounded on subjects.
joshstrange 11y ago
This post should most definatly stay up. You shouldn't have to get this much attention to get access to funds that are yours and access to your payment processor. You had PayPal as a backup (oh the irony) and so you were not affected as much but what if your company didn't write the payment code and outsourced it and/or didn't have a fallback? You would have 5 days to pick, setup, implement, and deploy a new payment processor which is ridiculous and would probably force you to stop accepting orders for some period of time. If you didn't have the funds to pay coders you might have to shut your doors for forever. You got lucky (and it looks like Stripe is going to reverse the decision) but this just points out how dangerous it is to rely on only 1 company for anything (hosting, payment, API, etc) AND how companies are using automated processes more and more and giving "customers" little to no recourse if there account is shut off. This is not a Stripe only issue, we see this wil tons of companies like Google/Paypal/Facebook/etc.
jwiley 11y ago
Can you go into details about why a financial organization requested this?

Hey Kylnew, I am the author of that post. Just wanted to say that i've had a phone call from Stripe 5 mins ago and this has been resolved. Not sure if you want to keep this post up or not.

gpjt 11y ago

Sounds like it's still an interesting cautionary tale. Looking forward to reading about what they told you!

forloop 11y ago

Presumably, because your post is on HN. It would probably be best to keep it up. It's still useful to know, IMO.

toomuchtodo 11y ago

You may want to put that as an update at the top of your blog post.

calumallison 11y ago
yes im doing that now.

jbob2000 11y ago

But how was it resolved? Don't leave us hanging man!

sbashyal 11y ago

Glad to hear! The question still remains why they didn't want your business in the first place and why are they changing their decision now. As a start up founder using Stripe, I would like to know.

mmatants 11y ago

If possible, please share what exactly made them change their minds. It is still concerning that this phone call did not happen right away (especially given the business-critical nature of the issue) - many new Web companies end up with a Kafkaesque customer experience despite seemingly fighting legacy corporate inertia and inefficiency.

calumallison 11y ago
I will write a new blog post this evening explaining it :)
- mmatants 11y ago
  Thanks in advance! These things help.
wofo 11y ago
Kafkaesque... I like that word!

sosuke 11y ago

That is terribly frustrating, but consistent. I see many posts like yours, you tried many of the normal appropriate communication methods and got no real connection. Not until it is public, and a possible public relations issue, did you get an nearly instant human response.

ufmace 11y ago

That sounds even more disturbing - automated, robotic account cancellation and dismissal of all communications regarding it... until you get a little bit famous, and then you instantly get a human response. How does anybody think that this is an acceptable way to do business? The really sad thing is that I'd be more upset at Stripe if every other business you deal with starting an internet company didn't do the same thing over and over again. Never mind the ease of integration, are there any payment processing companies out there who make it easy speak to a human being in possession of common sense and the ability to make decisions if there is a dispute regarding your account, without having to get famous first?

saganus 11y ago
This is actually what I hate most about these stories. Fortunately for the guys involved, when they post something and it goes somewhat public then suddenly all companies are so eager to solve your problems. So what about us underdogs that really don't have anything remotely famous enough to get their attention? We are screwed basically. This really speaks loudly about Stripe that they kept sending canned responses until the threat of public shaming was looming over their heads. Then they suddenly are swift to solve the issue? even with a phone call? Not cool.
joshstrange 11y ago
It makes me sick when things like this happen and they have happened on a smaller scale to me. I've tried to go through proper channels for support and get either no response or no help (Form letters and the like) and with 1 tweet I'm talking with a real human. I have no problem using Twitter as a bitching/calling-out platform because it's apparently the only way to get some companies attention.
genesem 11y ago
totally agree!

kylnew 11y ago

I posted this because our company also uses Stripe and I wanted to get more community opinion on this matter. Hacker News has a way of always being relatively grounded on subjects.

joshstrange 11y ago

This post should most definatly stay up. You shouldn't have to get this much attention to get access to funds that are yours and access to your payment processor. You had PayPal as a backup (oh the irony) and so you were not affected as much but what if your company didn't write the payment code and outsourced it and/or didn't have a fallback? You would have 5 days to pick, setup, implement, and deploy a new payment processor which is ridiculous and would probably force you to stop accepting orders for some period of time. If you didn't have the funds to pay coders you might have to shut your doors for forever. You got lucky (and it looks like Stripe is going to reverse the decision) but this just points out how dangerous it is to rely on only 1 company for anything (hosting, payment, API, etc) AND how companies are using automated processes more and more and giving "customers" little to no recourse if there account is shut off. This is not a Stripe only issue, we see this wil tons of companies like Google/Paypal/Facebook/etc.

jwiley 11y ago

Can you go into details about why a financial organization requested this?