[tobinfekkes]

I use to love working with Stripe, but it turned from being an asset to a liability. Far too risky to have my payments infra stuck behind a company that will arbitrarily cut you off with no support, or worse, actively use "terms" and "our policy" to not support you

I moved all my clients off Stripe as a precautionary measure, and now in the process of moving our last Stripe account with 100+ Stripe Connect accounts away. It eventually just got to be comical how infuriating their ability to dodge responsibility became, or even just simply being helpful; i.e. "we can't unblock those payments or that account, it's just our policy because x,y, and z", or "we can't tell you what your transaction threshold is, or where you are at in it, and we can't increase it, or let you check via the API". IF YOU CAN'T DO ANY OF THAT FOR ME, WHY AM I PAYING YOU AND WHO DID YOU BUILD YOUR SYSTEM FOR? Answer: not you or me.

Stripe is a great way to get something quick and dirty off the ground, but you better have a plan or timeline from day one for replacing it.

Treat it like eating McDonalds. It's fine as a one-off to get you through a hard time, but as soon as you depend on it, you'll be in a world of hurt with no one else to blame.

[kurtbuilds]

What did you migrate your clients to?

[satvikpendem]

Yes, also interested to hear alternatives to Stripe Connect in particular, as someone looking to make a marketplace type product.

[tobinfekkes]

I chose Gravity Payments, mostly because of their support, but also because they are local to me.

I have 4 direct contacts with their cell phone numbers and also within an hour's drive of me.

I know that sounds crazy, and it isn't like I'm actually going to show up at their house or anything. That's not the important bit; what is important is that they get my business and the context I'm working in, and they get the context of all my clients, and they personally onboard each of my clients with me, and are the same contact month after month. If that sounds like old school and friction, you're right, it is. But it makes for a much smoother experience when anything abnormal (but legitimate, or authorized) happens down the road. For example, when a client has an unusually high transaction on Stripe, their mostly useless fraud detection blocks it, and also likely puts the whole account on hold. If you can even get a hold of support within a few days, after a few more days of automated responses, you have a different support agent on the end of each response. Now, not only do you get someone every few days, you also have to rehash the whole issue over and over again. After that, you have to go through endless hoops to prove who you are, your business legality, etc. Stripe is the arbiter of truth, and they hold your money until you've danced to their jig.

Contrast that with Gravity, where I'm usually one phone call away from direct support who is in my zip code and already knows all about me and my clients and their context, and if he's on vacation or busy, I have three backups. Plus their general support line, but I've never even needed that.

It's a refreshing concept from the "good ole days" when you actually personally knew the person responsible for making sure your payments work, and can fix it when they don't. It shouldn't have to be a concept though, or even rare. But it is, unfortunately.

Also, I don't work for gravity and never have, I've just been overly pleased with their gateway for 6+ years, as I've watched the Stripe train go from "can't do any wrong" to "whoa....watch out! Let that train pass..."

[theyknowitsxmas]

I identified businesses complaining on their Reddit and Discord over the years as precaution. Mostly dropshippers, malware markets, selling brand name clothes without approval. Never mind the guy with a $100,000 fine from MasterCard. All prohibited. If you're a prohib, don't use Stripe. They're an aggregator, so anyone poisoning the pool (their merchant account) with risk will be banned.

You want a merchant account from a bank + what ever processor they offer.

[aliswe]

Where did you go?