Ask HN: How to Contact Stripe Directly?

[andrea28]

Hello, my Stripe account got banned almost 1 week ago, i posted it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37268953, and i tried to contact the support several times. Everytime they tell me that someone will contact me via email. I tried to contact also the email heretohelp@ but nothing. Does anyone know a way to get an answer? It seems as if they don't care

[zepton]

Post to HN and wait for a "could you email me at [e-mail] and we can dig into this more" comment.

[AussieWog93]

When I had issues like yours, I just walked away and switched provider. No regrets.

It's absolutely criminal that a company providing a critical service for small business has no way to get in contact with a real human being, and nobody should ever do business with Stripe.

If you're in Australia, I recommend Pin Payments any day of the week. There are probaby good local alternatives where you're from too (Ayden?).

[anakaine]

Hows their integration with common online platforms? What platforms do they support? Also, are the contactable via phone if/when required? Fellow Aussie asking.

[AussieWog93]

I use their (partner-developed) WooCommerce integration. Works great. Never tried calling them but always got a prompt response via email. Their head office is in Collins Street, so if shit really goes south they're only a train ride away. :)

[andrea28]

My business is based in HK. Ayden here request at least 5-10M in revenue as they told me

[max_]

Too many Stripe horror stories here.

The real question is, are their any better alternatives?

[bsuvc]

It depends on your business, but I seem to recall Authorize.net works better with some "high risk" business types.

There is a list of business types that Stripe doesn't like to have as customers, some obvious, but some not so obvious.

https://stripe.com/legal/restricted-businesses

[nickphx]

authorize.net is just a gateway.. you still need a merchant processing bank.

[AussieWog93]

In Australia, Pin Payments.

One click plugin, can bill cards from any country in any currency, great support when you need it.

[pxue]

Adyen is pretty legit

[robswc]

Had a similar experience with Discord.

Absolutely impossible to just get in touch with someone that can fix a problem.

Friend of mine had their account hacked and it was actively spreading the virus to other users. It has been 2 months an not a ounce of help.

If someone could have just looked at the account, it was so obviously hacked, it might have stopped the exponential spread of the virus.

[hbcondo714]

  Stripe Support <[e-mail]>[1]

That's the email address I communicated with when my SaaS[2] experienced fraudulent activity in the form of card testing[3]. I ended up open sourcing a web + mobile app (PWA)[4] due to this ordeal.

[1] https://github.com/hbcondo/revenut-app/blob/main/docs/assets...

[2] https://last10k.com

[3] https://stripe.com/docs/disputes/prevention/card-testing

[4] https://github.com/hbcondo/revenut-app

[rvz]

Yet another Stripe customer’s business about to get ruined and posts to HN customer support for a last ditch effort.

Tells you all you need to know about Stripe worsening customer support and them becoming the new PayPal, which isn’t a good thing.

[neximo64]

Maybe you did something dodgy. Stripe bans accounts for fraudulent activity. Its quite often from their banking partners

[PakG1]

False positive punishment is more common than one would think. It's fine to ban accounts for alleged fraudulent activity. The question is why isn't there a path for recourse when you're only a false positive?

And... can I please get my Uber account working again? Somebody? My wife's too please? We made a mistake sharing a credit card (I think that's what the issue was, they won't tell me). We won't do it again. It was a desperate measure in a new city in a new country during COVID-19 lockdowns. It was weird times and not our common behaviour. Pretty please?

[neximo64]

I've often seen posts on Hacker News along the lines of "Stripe has banned my account," and many of them seem to be dubious at best, especially when the original poster is unwilling to disclose specifics about their website. I do even remember the last one where it was clearly a way for the website's marketplace to launder funds.

If the case is genuinely unwarranted, it's relatively straightforward to garner public sympathy by providing a detailed account of the situation: the website in question, the products or services offered, what actions Stripe took, and what steps have already been taken to resolve the issue. This comprehensive information allows for a transparent evaluation of whether Stripe's actions were indeed unjustifiable.

If I were Stripe customer support reading posts on HN that would be the lowest bar to even look at it. The OPs post is in this bucket.

In instances where a post on Hacker News does convincingly argue that a Stripe ban is a false positive, I'm confident that the community would rally behind it. However, merely asking for a connection to Stripe support doesn't fit the ethos of Hacker News. Such posts are better served by sinking under the weight of flagged posts, as they don't contribute to the discourse that HN aims to foster. Hacker News isn't a shortcut to Stripe's customer service.

[andrea28]

Hey, I understand your comment, I am new to HN and my writing here is just my desperate attempt to get assistance. However I have no problem whatsoever with disclosing my business, I have nothing to hide. The business details are on my stores (babysleep.baby and facesofthespectrum.com)

[sofixa]

> The question is why isn't there a path for recourse when you're only a false positive?

Because it's hard to do that without making it easy for fraudsters/scammers/etc. to understand how they got caught and why, and improve. It's way easier to just not explain why the account suspension was triggered..

[andrea28]

I'm selling Digital Products, ebook. Nothing unusual, those accounts were also not processing in the last month

[kennethologist]

Twitter is probably going to be your best shot. They are quite responsive and they get you an answer pretty fast.

[andrea28]

I tried, but they got back to me after a few minutes and said the decision is final. They didn't even review the case....

[deely3]

Hey OP, surely you did nothing wrong and can post the name your business here?

[andrea28]

hey, of course. My company is Ecom Space Limited, based in HK. Stores connected to stripe are babysleep.baby and facesofthespectrum.com

[andrea28]

UPDATE: They refused the appeal for no reasons.