| Category Breakdown | |
|---|---|
| Sales & Marketing |  |
| Costs & Contract |  |
| Complaints & Service |  |
| BBB Rating | |
Overall Rating
Overview
Stripe Logo
Founded in 2010, Stripe (stripe.com) is a web application that allows merchants to accept credit card payments through their websites. The service is particularly tailored to merchants with access to web developers who want the ability to customize the application according to their specific desires. Stripe is similar to Braintree Payment Solutions in that it does not charge any setup fees, monthly fees or monthly minimum charges. Interestingly, the company has also received investment capital from the founders of another competitor, PayPal. Stripe was founded by brothers John and Patrick Collison, and Patrick currently serves as the company’s CEO. Stripe’s headquarters can be found at 3180 18th St Ste 100, San Francisco, California 94110-2042.
Video Introduction to Stripe
Sales & Marketing | B
| Key Points – Sales & Marketing | |
|---|---|
| Uses independent resellers? | No |
| Promotes deceptive rate quotes? | No |
| Discloses all important terms? | No |
Stripe appears to rely primarily on its website to market its services. The company specifically caters its advertising to web developers who would like to add a payment application to their websites. Stripe appears to quote its rates transparently and truthfully on its website. However, the Stripe website does not prominently list any explanations of its cash reserve and account cancellation policies, both of which appear to be responsible for merchant complaints on this site and elsewhere. Any merchant who is potentially considering doing business with Stripe is encouraged to read the company’s Terms of Service, located here, with special attention paid to section B, item 5 and section C, item 12.
Costs & Contract | C
| Key Points – Costs & Contract Terms | |
|---|---|
| Swiped rate: | N/A |
| Keyed-in rate: | 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Termination fee: | None |
| PCI compliance fee: | None |
| Equipment lease: | None |
Stripe’s costs and fees are fairly straightforward with the company charging a flat per-transaction fee of 2.9% + $0.30, regardless of card type or locality. The company does not charge an early termination fee, a PCI compliance fee, or a fee for refunds or failed payments; however, there is a $15 Chargeback fee per incident. Overall, Stripe’s pricing and business model resemble that of the mobile credit card processing company Square, but for online businesses.
Like Square, the company’s standard policies regarding fraud prevention and prohibited business activities appear to be cause for complaint among several merchants. Two specific problems have been consistently reported in the complaints shown below this review and on other consumer protection websites. In one scenario, merchants apply for processing with Stripe and are informed that they are approved and ready to go. After processing one or more transactions, these merchants find that their payments have been frozen and their accounts cancelled due to their business’s engagement in prohibited activities of some kind. These cancellations appear to take effect with little or no warning, and merchants report difficulty resolving the unprocessed payments in a satisfactory and efficient manner.
In the second case, merchants express confusion over their payments being held in a reserve account. This is a common fraud prevention practice that we don’t tend to penalize processors for, but it seems that Stripe does not effectively communicate its reserve policies to merchants or warn them when a reserve amount might be withheld. Merchants should be aware that Stripe reserves the right to “change the Payout Schedule or suspend payouts to your Bank Account should we determine it is necessary due to pending disputes, excessive or anticipated excessive Chargebacks or refunds, or other suspicious activity associated with your use of the Service or if required by law or court order,” according to its terms of service.
[Related: Get quotes from a provider with “A” rated contract terms]
Complaints & Service | B-
| Key Points – Complaints & Service | |
|---|---|
| Total complaints: | 30+ |
| Live customer support? | No |
| Most common complaint: | Fund holds |
As of this review, Stripe does not appear to have a dedicated customer phone support number, which could be a drawback for some merchants. The company does, however, have a help section on its website, a community forum, and email support. We are currently able to locate over 30 negative Stripe reviews on this and other consumer protection websites, some of which express concern that Stripe is a scam or a ripoff. This represents a steady increase in complaints since our last review. Common issues include sudden cancellation of merchant accounts, reserves being withheld without notice, and difficulty reaching customer support in a timely fashion. Complainants who have signed up with Stripe through Shopify also seem to have some trouble activating the “Authorize Only” fraud prevention setting, with both Stripe and Shopify blaming each other for this setting’s malfunction. Overall, Stripe still maintains a relatively low complaint volume, but the trend since our last update is a negative one.
BBB Report | B*
| Key Points – BBB Report | |
|---|---|
| Product/service: | 43 |
| Billing/collection: | 24 |
| Advertising/sales: | 2 |
| Guarantee/warranty: | 0 |
| Delivery: | 2 |
Stripe has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) since May 2013 and currently shows an “A” rating on its profile. The company has had 71 complaints filed against it since its account was opened in 2012, with 43 of those related to the product or service, 24 due to billing and collection, two having to do with delivery problems, and two related to advertising issues. All of these complaints were resolved with BBB assistance except four, which were not resolved despite what the BBB determined to be a good-faith effort by Stripe. Given the fact that Stripe has amassed over 70 complaints in the short time it has had a BBB profile, we have adjusted the BBB’s rating to a “B.” To better understand why we adjust BBB ratings, please see our rating criteria.
* Denotes CPO-adjusted BBB score
Bottom Line
Stripe Review
Rated out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Phillip Parker
Reviewed on 2015-01-01
Stripe rates as an average merchant services provider according to our standards. The company has seen an increase in complaints since our last update, but its overall complaint volume remains low. Stripe’s transparent pricing model appears to satisfy the majority of its clients, while its reserve policy, cancellation policy, and customer support are responsible for most of the company’s complaints. Merchants are encouraged to carefully read Stripe’s terms of service before signing up for credit card processing through this company.
This review was originally published on 7/17/12 and was last updated on 1/1/2015.
Leave your review of Stripe in the comment section below:
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Same thing- getting the you have 5 days until your account is closed blah blah blah Bulls*it with them- And on another account I haven’t even utilized- they said ‘We’ve noticed that you have processed charges that seem to be unauthorized–in order to make charges with credit and debit cards, the owner of the card must consent to the charge. Charges on your account do seem to lack this consent, which unfortunately means that we will no longer be able to offer service’
There hasn’t even been a charge to that account made yet!
It’s crazy- they are nothing but a fraud- they are also withholding funds that should have already been in the bank days ago before they pulled this stunt on me. I think it is safe to say ladies and gentlemen- we won’t see a penny.
They are quite happy to be moving along with Bitcoin and kickstarter and ApplePay though aren’t they- dump on the small business now is what it seems. Sad thing that companies like Stripe get away with that.
No communication
No phone number ( guess that should have been a red flag)
Doesn’t send funds
Makes up erroneous stories on why they all of a sudden can’t process your business when you have been with them for over a yr with over 10K processed per month.
Smells fishy to me….just saying….
God luck to everyone – I sincerely hopes someone goes after them to protect other hard working businesses like ours.
I received an email from Stripe last week telling me that I needed to update some information or I would no longer receive payment transfers. I responded to the email within 10 minutes with the required information. Since that time (6 days) I have received no transfers from Stripe. I have contacted the company on a daily basis through their email/messaging system and have never received a response.
After searching the ‘net for a customer service telephone number I came across this website. Obviously, this company has some serious problems with their customer service. I have used Paypal for the past 7 years (over 40,000 transactions) and have never had a problem. I have found Paypal’s customer service to be great, although I rarely need it.
Does anyone out there have any suggestions as to how I get my money? Is there any way to speak to an actual person at Stripe?
Thanks,
Mike
Since these types of websites seem to exist for hearing complaints, I do want to say that after using Stripe for well over 2 years, I haven’t had a single problem with them and prefer them to PayPal. Unless it is a weekend or holiday, my money is being deposited within 24 hours to my bank account. No customer complaints either which over the course of years I have had plenty of times about PayPal to the point that unless I offered another payment option I would have lost that customers business.
while you can count complaints to give a business a lousy score here, you aren’t being sure that you are getting reports from the happy and satisfied Stripe users. I think if you did you would see a much better representation of how people feel about Stripe.
My heart is sinking further and further as I read these comments. After 4 months of perfectly find business operations, using Stripe as our payment processor, out of no where they cancelled our account at 3:00pm on a Friday, telling us we had to find another payment processor in 5 days, which gave us until Tuesday. We emailed back requesting an explanation and told them we are more than willing to work with them in order to come in to compliance because, up until this point, we had really enjoyed working with them. No response. We worked all weekend and all day the following Monday to switch over our payment processor only to receive an email late Monday night letting us know they’ve changed their mind and have decided to allow us to stay. Hesitantly, we re-coded our website, once again, to use Stripe as our payment processor. Over the course of the next several days we received multiple emails from various Support persons at Stripe giving us completely conflicting information. One person said we were good to go, another said our attempts to be in compliance were essentially hopeless, and a third was instructing us on how to migrate our current client data over to our new processor. I finally started a while new Support ticket explaining the conflicting information and finally heard back from someone who confirmed we were in “good standing” and could conduct business as usual. Great. HOWEVER, they have not released our funds to us since January 30, 2015. We have no received a single transfer from Stripe since the beginning of this debacle. Two people have told me they are “looking in to it” and “will get back to me with answers” but we have not heard a single thing. We, like many of the people on here, are a small start up company, relying heavily on the funds we receive. I’m at a loss. They are so unresponsive, so disorganized, and so deceitful. They appear really helpful but completely leave you in the dark, instead. I am hoping they release our funds soon. It’s been almost a month!
I wish I looked this up to start with, joined free agent and they suggested that I join stripe so that people can pay through invoices, makes it easier for me as Im a carpenter and most people want to pay by card or cash but card is better so I don’t have to keep going to the bank to pay in money. Anyway I send the invoice through free agent then they click the link and pay. Had an email from stripe saying they can’t verify my website, 1. I joined to get paid through invoicing through free agent if they look they would realise this. 2. It’s taken them 4 days since the payment was made to decide to put my money on hold. I wonder how long it will take them to email me back.
Alex, it took them a week to respond to me… only to tell me they were refunding all my money to the credit cards that were charged.
I replied to that email five times and they never bothered to reply to me again. Closed my account and refunded the money. I had to manually contact my clients and ask them to re-submit payment through paypal. Even if they decide to unlock your account, I would get out as soon as I could. I went with Paypal, fees are ok… but most importantly it works and the customer service is phenomenal. I asked stripe for a phone number so I could call them, they told me they don’t handle customer service over the phone. This service is… well, not much of a service. Good luck to you!
Have you heard back from Stripe? We are experiencing an unexplained funds hold as well. They have not released funds to us since January 30th. We emailed on February 11th and have yet to get an explanation.
Yeah, they emailed yesterday apologising and saying the funds will be in my account within 7days. I’ve asked them to close my account once the funds are with me and ive moved over to world pay
This company sucks ive been waiting for over a month to get my money and all they make is excuses as to why the transfer didnt go through and then they urge you to contact your bank when the bank has nothing to do with it. Alot of peoples businesses have gone down the drain because of them and not to mention they ignore your emails and they randomly shut peoples accounts! its an awful company, I should have stuck to paypal.
I am fundraising through gofundme which uses Stripe to process payments. Mid way through my campaign, Stripe tell me that they are terminating my account because I pose a high risk. I have been given no explanation whatsoever about this supposed ‘high risk’ and I cannot use another provider on gofundme so will have to cancel my fundraising page. I am raising money to work with orphans in East Africa and this happens? I am totally shocked and sad about this.
They did exactly the same to me the other day and I’m desperately trying to open up some form of discussion with them. It’s absolute nonsense as we’re an online store selling massage products, nothing inherently risky about us at all.
Not easy to discuss anything with them WHEN THEY HAVE NO PHONE NUMBER AND DON’T ANSWER EMAILS!!! What kind of company doesn’t have a phone number? The kind that know they’ll have lots of angry people ringing them.
I am shocked, I received an email two weeks ago from STRIPE stating that they were refunding all processed funds to my customers because of (what appeared to be) unauthorized charges.
There was a days notice between them draining my account, refunding the money to my subscribers, and closing my account.
I provide an audio production service… nowhere in their terms does it state there is a problem with any such service. I scanned my STRIPE customer log and found nothing even remotely fraudulent.
Now, I have lost my lease money, my general expense fund and any glimpse of a profit that there might have been.
Now, in order to run my business I have to have my developer re-integrate a completely new credit card processing service….. and this is going to cost me.
During the past two weeks I have made several attempts to contact them and resolve whatever issue they have.
There is no phone number…. I have emailed four times in two weeks and have not heard back from them.
THIS IS CRAZY – How can a company like this just shut you down over assumed business practices?
If they would reply to my emails I could have navigated through my dashboard with them and shown them there is clearly no fraudulent activity happening.
#puzzled
#shocked
#stripebadbusinesspractices
I completely agree with Sierra. Sharing the same feeling. Stripe is killing lot of start up businesses. NEVER TRUST STRIPE FOR YOUR BUSINESS. STAY AWAY.
Stripe my customers. Infarct, since it is a startup , all the customers are loyal and had long term tala tigons with them
All of sudden stripe sent the below message and refunded all money. Scary thing, it’s unsure whether you customers really received refund.
Stripe mail.
Hi
Stripe provides a service between banks and our users. In order to provide service to our users we are urged by our banking partners to keep an eye on all accounts that sign up for our services. In the process of keeping an eye on your account, we’ve noticed that you’ve processed charges that seem to be unauthorized. In order to make charges with credit and debit cards the owner of the card must consent to the charge. Charges on your account do seem to lack this consent which unfortunately means that we will no longer be able to offer service to your website.
To guard against currently pending charges that may be unauthorized by the cardholder we will be refunding all charges that have yet to reach your bank. If you’d like to recollect these funds you will need to reach out to your users and arrange an alternative form of payment.
I do apologize that your Stripe service will be ending so abruptly but our hands are unfortunately tied.
Best,
Stripe
I had the exact same thing happen and it has cost both my clients and me time and money – I cannot say how disappointed I am in their abruptness and lack of customer service.
I’m a consumer who was warned by the retailer processing my payment through Stripe that although he does not save credit card information, Stripe does. Is that accurate and how can I prevent that from happening? I’d like to purchase the product.
Don’t have idea if Stripe are scammers or not …. but after I received 2 orders on my website and the payout were scheduled to be sent on July 9 , I received an email from Stripe saying : “we’ve noticed that you’ve processed charges that seem to be unauthorized. In order to make charges with credit and debit cards the owner of the card must consent to the charge” Anyone received the same email from them and after that the customers were refunded and stripe account closed ? Is really weird.
Has anyone been able to get a normal “bank” statement from Stripe like you receive from every other financial institution in the world? Why is this a foreign concept to provide a month end statement of activity? Am I missing something?
Thank you
@Sierra,
We are currently having the exact same issue with Stripe. They are claiming our company has duplicate accounts, that have received high numbers of chargebacks. Well, that 100% is not the case. We have only ever created one account so I have no idea where they get this cock and bull information from.
Luckily for us they cancelled our account after they’d sent us the clients money so apart from the fact that we are now unable to process with Stripe we haven’t lost any money.
All I can say, is good riddance to Stripe. We’ll be happily taking our business to another provider.
Be aware anyone considering using Stripe! They will lie and make things up just to be able to close your account. I’d be interested to see if they do actually refund those payments Sierra that they claimed to or whether they keep the fees etc.
Stay away from this company, definitely a FRAUD company.
They emailed which i pasted below, they have clearly allowed the my customers to get charged and now they are keeping my money and not receiving any response to any of my emails. If you are a starting business, never trust this company, or you will have a BIG BIG headache. Bunch of thieves!!!
Hi Jerome,
Thanks for using Stripe! We periodically review accounts and your account recently came up for review.
In reviewing your account, it looks like the payments you’ve processed with us so far have been entered manually through manage. Stripe isn’t a virtual terminal, so this isn’t its intended use; we can better serve you and your customers when your customers give you their credit card information via your website, or perhaps through one of the invoicing applications that integrate with us:https://stripe.com/docs/integrations.
Given that you are manually keying in transactions at this time, we will need to review invoices for the payments accepted to date. Would you mind sending along this documentation at your earliest convenience?
We will need to confirm this information before we can transfer payments to your bank account. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Sasha
Worst Customer service ever. No Phone number. Under no circumstances, you should use them. We were prompted to use them thru our on line store Big Commerce. Wost mistake EVER. They have accepted to credit card charges for a total of $1160.00 and for some reason, don’t have the ability to get our account set up.
TOTAL RIP OFF—–STAY AWAY FROM STRIPE
Refused to service our card business because they dont like weapons. We sell mace and pepper spray along with other self defense products. See e mail from them below…….
Thanks for signing up with Stripe!
Unfortunately, we will not be able to help out with payments for bodyguardsecurityproducts.com, as the site is in violation of our Terms of Service, section B.5 (“Prohibited Businesses”). Specifically, we are unable to accept payments for weapons — which includes pepper spray — as described here: https://stripe.com/terms#prohibited-businesses
These restrictions come from our banking partners, and so sadly we have no flexibility here. It’s frustrating for us to have to turn away businesses, but in this case our hands are tied.
I’m sorry we won’t be able to help beyond this point; please let me know if you have any questions.
Best,
Les
Do not I repeat do not sign up for Shopify Payments aka STRIPE. It is a scam as others are stating. Avoid at all costs. Use another credit card processor.
I was using North American Bancard as my processor for 15 years prior to starting a small subsidiary website @ shopify.com. I never had 1 problem in 15 years with NAB. My credit card payments were always deposited in a timely manner, and the correct amount was deposited and I never had my money held or had any charge-back issues, not once.
Well, after using STRIPE for 1 week, I have encountered 3 major problems that I never encountered with any prior processor going back to 1996.
1) my 2nd sale for $1100 is being held for 60 days, they are stating it is fraudulent. I have provided them with information stating it is not…so far I have not received any timely response concerning this matter.
2) my 2nd payout to my bank account was the incorrect payout amount, and was incorrectly itemized
in my Shopify “dashboard” which shows you everything related to your shopify.com hosted website including individual sales.
3) my 3rd and 4th sale occurred on 2/21 and 2/22, the money was deposited on 2/28 = 6-7 days later. This is not acceptable. This could be a big reason on its own not to sign up for STRIPE.
The customer service for Shopify and Stripe sucks to say the least. No one seems to know anything or is of any help. It’s always “someone else is working on it” or “so and so will get back to you” or “it’s been kicked up to another department for review” etc etc
I have provided Shopify with detailed information on all of the above issues and have not received any positive response or a solution, as of today 3/2/14
After 10 days I have deactivated STRIPE. I repeat to all who read this. Do not sign up for any of the 3 programs offered by Shopify and use STRIPE for your credit card processing. Pay the $79 for the Pro level and pay a 1% service fee or pay the $179 Unlimited fee and use another processor at 0% service fee, but do not sign up for STRIPE. I am saving you time, money and aggravation.
After I signed up to use Shopify as web host in early January I started using Paypal Payments Pro to handle my processing and that worked flawless, not one problem, 5 Star rating. You receive your money instantly in your account. You do not have to wait 1 week to receive your money as with STRIPE. I am switching back to Paypal Payments Pro or another processor like NAB to handle all my credit card sales at my Shopify website.
So far not too good. I glad I am testing my site before going live. There are server issues and no support.
I wish I had taken the time to read reviews before I agreed to using Stripe for my web based business. Good thing is I can still change providers.
Had 20,000 waiting in an account and stripe completely refunded all of my customers without even speaking to me! What kind of bs is that????
NEVER AGAIN WILL I USE STRIPE!!!!!!! it’s a scam!!!!!!!!!!!!
This company is FRAUD. This is my letter to them, I hope you will understand everything from it:
Stripe Team,
First of all, I’m very disappointed in your customer service. You do not stand behind your customers. You are not replying in time. You were lying about the status of my account by saying that you want to transfer me the money back.
Second,you closed out the dispute without even considering the documentation (Customer’s signature upon receiving my product). Nothing was explained to me.
Third, I consider your company as a Fraud and I’m not allow you to deal with my financial institution & my funds. I don’t owe you any money.
Forth, 80% of reviews that I have read about your company indicate that you are “fraud”. I’m going to post my reviews about your company and share my experience as well.
If you are not agree I will take a legal action against your company. I can easily proof that I’m right. My customer did received my product, signed upon receiving my goods, etc.
Thank you for understanding.
Very disappointed in Stripe’s customer service. They do not stand behind their customers but rather the consumer when it comes to disputed charges. They closed out the dispute without even considering the documentation (signature from UPS) Will be looking for a new gateway.
I’ve had a merchant account for years, with not so much as a single problem. I’m now trying to consolidate all my processing under one umbrella that will work with my main site as well as Shopify. Our processor of choice is taking a while to get going, so I decided to try Stripe as a stop-gap. It was easy enough to install, and the customer service folks assured me via email that we could authorize-only. I did a test-run, charging my own card for a small sale, and unfortunately, just as Sierra said, the sale was captured. I talked to Shopify support, and they verified that my settings are correct, but told me that Stripe had something set on the backend that they could see set to capture, and he (the Shopify rep) was quite concerned. I emailed Stripe and asked for help, but have heard nothing back after three follow-up attempts. Indeed, this feels quite ominous to me. Having just gone through a “real” merchant account application, this was too easy, and while I should pass with flying colors, the fact that they’re capturing when they assured me they wouldn’t, and now basically “not answering the phone” is highly concerning. y new store isn’t open yet, and I think I’ll keep it that way until the real processor is up and running. This isn’t worth the risk.
*****Before I even got to actually post this, I heard back from Stripe…. it seems they say that SHOPIFY does not support authorize only.. that’s right, they’re blaming the problem on Shopify. They told me:
“I’m afraid that doing this via Shopify would not be possible, as it is not currently supported by that platform.
It sounds like in your case you would want to go ahead and capture those funds before your work on the custom piece is completed, and then make sure that your customer is well informed of the timeframe that it will take for you to complete and ship the piece.”
Yup, Stripe encouraged me to circumvent Visa/MC rules. I also quite plainly TOLD Stripe that I was on Shopify when I asked them about authorize only in the first place, so this is really interesting. I forward this entire email to my support guy at Shopify – he was not amused. Well, I won’t be using Stripe. Too bad, they were a nice interim solution.
I am a single mother of 4 children that decided to use my last $2000 to start a business online. I am not able to get a job due to many factors, and I have a business with fantastic potential. Well, that all fell apart when I decided to try using Stripe, who took $450 of my $2000 and ruined my business before it could even get off the ground.
I was reluctant to try Stripe payment processing because of all of the negative reviews I have read. Let me tell you, if you are considering opening an account with Stripe, please believe that they will most likely rip you off, lie to you about account status, and take your money. This is a new company in the financial world that clearly is trying to lure customers in with promises of instant approval, only to take your money and close your account with no warning. And if you are an honest business person who ships orders quickly like me, then you will also be out for the cost of the product you shipped to your customers.
So here are the details of my story to back up my claims:
March 1, 2013 –
I sign up for Stripe and provide standard information. Confirm email address. Because of the bad reviews I have read I decide to wait a few days before implementing Stripe.
March 4, 2013 –
I send follow up email:
Hello there,
I signed up last week and I wanted to check to see if the account was fully active and ready to begin processing payments. Can you please tell me if I am fully approved? The account is under [email protected].
Stripe response from same day (from Naomi):
Your account is fully active from the time you activate it so you’re good to go with us :-)
All the best,
-Naomi
I reply the same day to double check because of the bad reviews I have read. I wanted to make certain that I could begin charging customers. I write:
Thanks but I thought there was an underwriting process..? I just want to make sure there will not be any issues once we start charging out customers because I have read some bad reviews and it spooked me a little bit. Thanks for the quick response by the way!
Stripe response same day (from Naomi):
No problem :-)
We reserve the right to review your account at any time, but you can take payments immediately once you activate your account:
https://support.stripe.com/questions/what-do-i-need-to-do-to-start-running-real-transactions
If you click the link you will also read Stripe claim:
It takes just a few minutes to activate your account by providing some basic information about you and your business. Once you’ve activated your account, you can begin running real charges immediately.
At this point I feel that enough time has gone by, with assurances from the staff that I can begin charging customers.
March 5, 2013 – First succesful order charged using Stripe. I notice that Stripe automatically charges the customer instead of ‘Authorizing’ and then later capturing the funds. I am ‘by the book’ and am concerned so I again reach out to Stripe:
I do have a question though because I see that the customer was charged right away. I double checked our shop setting in Shopify admin and we have the option checked to “Authorize Only”. We do not want to actually charge the customer until the product ships which is best practice. I do not see any settings in the Stripe admin to change this. Any ideas…?
Stripe response:
Stripe doesn’t actually allow authorizations so that setting in Shopify won’t work with us.
Hmmm, okay this sounds kind of strange and phishy to me…. I wonder why….
There would be two more orders to go through for a total of $450. I purchase the products from my suppliers to fulfill the orders. I am trusting at this point that I will see my money from Stripe in 7 days (as they promise).
March 5 & 6, 2013 – All 3 orders were shipped to customers and are in various stages of delivery. Customers are provided tracking numbers, everything seems good, until…
Received email from Stripe (from Lucy) –
Unfortunately we won’t be able to help out with payments for openboxsavings.com, as our banking partners prohibit us from helping with payments associated with a business we’ve had to reject previously.
Sadly we have no flexibility here. It’s frustrating for us to have to turn away businesses, but in this case our hands our tied.
Weird. I think that maybe they accidentally sent me this email or just made a mistake.
So I reply:
I never applied before, what do you mean?
Stripe reply (from Maria):
Thanks for your email and I am sorry about this situation.
Unfortunately, you account was associated with several we have previously had to reject in one or more ways. This might not be 100% accurate, but our banking partners require that we follow these security procedures. You will have to find another way in which to accept payments from your users.
All the best, good luck on your business,
I like the part where she says “This might not be 100% accurate” and how I am wished “All the best, good luck on your business”. I can’t help but think she is writing that in a sarcastic tone because she knows that luck is the only thing that can save me at this point.
My response (to Maria) –
What about the few charges that were made and the balance in the account? I have already paid for the goods and shipped the orders (I have tracking numbers if you need).
Response (from Maria) –
I am sorry for the trouble, but you will have to find alternative forms of payment from those customers. There is nothing we can do.
All the best,
Okay wonderful, so first you cancel my account after I made certain the account was okay to begin charging customers. I don’t have any alternative payment methods except if the customer mails me a check. I am sure they are going to get right on that (after they have already received their product). And wouldn’t that sound incredibly “scammy” for me to contact my customers and ask for a check? I give that about a 1:1000 chance of actually getting paid.
My reply:
What?! You mean you are keeping my money? You have got to be kidding me!!
Response (from Maria) –
Thank you for your email and sorry for the confusion.
We are not keeping your money. We are refunding each payment to your customers.
All the best, good luck on your business,
Wouldn’t it be a good idea to inform your clients in the first “our hands are tied” email to explain that the customers are being refunded? I mean, do I really need to inquire about this and dig up the information. At this point time is of the essence because if what Stripe says is true and they are refunding my customers, then I am now up against the clock to try and locate these shipments before they get delivered.
They also do not acknowledge the fact that I have tracking numbers, nor do they seem to care. I still have no idea how I am going to handle this situation and my choices are to either have the product delivered and beg for a check to be sent in the mail, or try to stop the shipment before delivery, then make arrangements to ship the product back to the supplier. In this case, the customer will not receive their merchandise, and unlike Stripe, I care. So I guess my only option is to let the product deliver and hope to get paid.
My response:
“So will they have already seen the refund on their statement? Because obviously they are not going to pay me with any other method if the charges are still showing on their statements. Do you have proof that the refunds have happened.
Your process is completely backwards and Stripe is causing unecessary problems. You should never tell someone that they are approved and good to start charging, wait until charges are made, and then cancel/refund orders when goods have already been shipped. Clearly it is an attempt to lure in honest business people with an ‘instant approval’ which really is not instant. I double checked before starting to charge customers with your company and was reassured.
Don’t tell vendors they are approved if they are not. You really have no clue on your side how much havoc this creates.”
Do I get a response? Nope.
So, if any others have a similar experience then I recommend writing about it. I am leaving my contact information for an attorney who is investigating a class action lawsuit against Stripe. These business practices are detrimental to small businesses like myself. As I mentioned in the beginning, I had only a couple thousand dollars to try and get this business going. I feel like it coould have provided enough money for my entire family to get by. But now, I have had 25% of this money taken from me, and have also spent 2 days trying to rectify this mess. I don’t know if my business will make it now, because I need to pay my supplier for the goods before I ship products out.
In my opinion the root cause of all of this is that Stripe is trying to gain business from Paypal. They are trying to streamline the setup proccess and make it faster than Paypal. In my case, Stripe is pre-integrated with Shopify and the setup process was very simple. But, this is a deceitful advertising and business practice that Stripe is doing. They are willing to wreak havoc after the fact and cancel customers if it means that they can quickly sign up thousands of unsuspecting new customers.
My final email to Stripe:
As I mentioned before I will be posting on the websites I mentioned and will certainly email you links once posted. I will also place comments on blogs with this same topic and attach myself to any civil or class action lawsuit (believe me it is coming if there isn’t one already). Shame on your company for poor business practices, you are truly showing that you are rookies in the world of financial business practices. As you can read, I am well spoken and will share my story with the world. I hope to pursuade as many people as I possibly can to not use your services and I truly hope that can translate into thousands of dollars in lost business for Stripe.
Thank you,
Stripe Enemy #1
If Stripe were a responsible business, then they would take your application, process it for however long it takes (3-5 days maybe?) and then give you a response. But because they are greedy and sneaky, they tell you that your account is “fully active from the time you activate”. For me this was March 1, 2013. I am just thankful that I was smart enough to trust the other reviewers out there to not jump in so fast. If I had starying charging my customers right away, then Stripe would have taken all $2000 from me and I would be completely broke and shut down for good.
If you are a lawyer who is considering legal action against Stripe, then please contact me at [email protected]. If this email address can not be posted, then reply to me in the comment section and I will find you.
I should also mention that the system we use (WHMCS) also has a type of anti-fraud plugin (MaxMind which is free), it helps block fraud which is very common now a days, PayPal, for example, has fraud prevention built in and was built for E-Bay when they first started and best for shipping goods like you do Harry… Stripe seems to be geared toward web businesses such as web hosting providers, membership sites, etc. … While we have very few problems with PayPal fraud, customers can still open PayPal disputes which we almost always loose because they require a shipping confirmation but since we deal in digital goods there is no shipping label.
It’s now been several months and Stripe is still doing great, no problems and payments still come in like clock work., always on the 6th day unless it falls on a Saturday or Sunday, in that case we get them on that Monday
Stripe is great, clients never leave the website, does single and recurring, they claim to send out payments every 7 days but I always get my payments a day early, very simple and very fair fees. My Auto DJ is a SHOUTcast and Web Hosting provider, so we don’t deal in shipping goods Harry, but I am so sorry about what happened, I have had nightmares with other processors so I have been there many times but so far Stripe is working out great! When clients get their credit card statements the charge is listed as MYAUTODJ, with other processors such as PayPal (who we also love :), the charge on their CC bill is listed as PAYPAL, somethins the client can forget what it was for and open a dispute — not the case with Strip! We use WHMCS as our client & billing manager, and use the Stripe gateway, check out the order process, https://shoutaccount.com/cart.php — works seamless!
First transaction on shopify. Payment received via stripe and I was told to ship. I validated my account and shipped my package. Then I received an email that stated that they could no longer do business with me because I’m reselling name brand electronics. Fair enough, I”m okay with that.
Then a few minutes later I get a message that they wont be able to transfer my funds because the successful transaction was likely done with a stolen credit card.
Okay…. well that’s interesting and there is insurance to protect the consumer so I assume I’ll be made whole as well. So I try emailing back to discuss with swipe….. nothing….. So, I go to their site and look for the customer service line….. nothing…. now I’m feeling like I’ve been scammed….
So…. I send another email to their only contact information available… nothing….
I would recommend going another route if your a small business.
We did not receive our scheduled transfer from Stripe.com today. To say the least, we are extremely concerned. This throws up red flags.
Hi Shari,
I would appreciate it if you keep us updated on the progress of your situation.