Stripe refusing access to cards, have a contact so we can avoid a public post?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9027263

by bwb • 11 years ago

71 25 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Stripe is refusing to transfer credit cards to another merchant per their policy, anyone have a contact there before we post publicly about this?

bwb9• 11 years ago

Just to share a bit more info...

We use Chase, and just acquired a company using Stripe. Chase needs them to transfer over the cards in a specific way as not to violate the law, and Stripe is not willing to work with Chase. Despite law saying they have to give us the cards & a policy on their website saying they will.

We've been working on this for 6+ weeks I believe, and we had a group call today with Stripe, Chase and our team. And, Stripe didn't even show up.

Trying to reach out here and on linkedin and twitter to find someone in Stripe to head off us having to post publicly to get help.

Thanks, Ben

sfeng• 11 years ago

Just to clarify. You're looking for Stripe to transfer card numbers out of it's vault into Chase's. Stripe is willing, but Chase wants it done a specific way which Stripe finds objectionable?

vixen99• 11 years ago

its vault

proexploit• 11 years ago

This is the impression I got as well. Stripe's policy seems to agree to export the cards but that doesn't mean you can pick any format and requirements you want and they have to follow them.

Chase needs the cards in a specific way but without more information it's hard to make the claim that's the only way acceptable by law.

If Stripe is unwilling to do extra work with Chase to get cards exported, that doesn't seem to be "refusing to transfer credit cards to another merchant per their policy".

Can you provide some more information on what part of the transfer they object too?

dsr_• 11 years ago

I'm pretty sure you just posted in public.

bwb9• 11 years ago

This is Hacker News :), it is a small community and def different than the last straw which is a public shaming post on our blog which I would like to avoid.

I use Stripe for some side projects, as do many of our staff. And, I know for our team this is really frustrating to see what we thought was an amazing company be so unresponsive and unhelpful. Hopefully we will get it sorted now that we have a contact at a higher level.

bwb9• 11 years ago

my email is ben@wwwh.com

ted0• 11 years ago

Just curious - why would you use Chase over Stripe?

compwron2• 11 years ago

Probably for rates / specialized usage.

swalsh• 11 years ago

Not every business is a nimble startup. If they're buying companies... they probably aren't either.

Something like your payment system is so important it's not something you can just change on the spur of the moment. Doubly so when you're big, and have a reputation. Honestly i'd do the same thing if I was in their shoes, even though I personally would prefer the API of stripe. You gotta standardize on one system, and it makes sense to choose the path of most likely stability.

bwb9• 11 years ago

exactly :)

compwron2• 11 years ago

You could use braintree; they do imports/exports with stripe all the time :)

rexreed• 11 years ago

THIS is the right approach. Transfer to BrainTree as an intermediary and then from BrainTree to Chase, verifying first if BT can be used this way.

notwedtm• 11 years ago

Just curious, but why is this the right approach? It seems like you're just needlessly adding in a third party with their associated fees, headaches, and people.

matthewarkin• 11 years ago

I just forwarded this thread to some people I know at Stripe so hopefully they'll get back to you soon.

I know Stripe is normally quite comfortable transferring card data on the basis that the other side has the proper PCI compliance and that Stripe and the receiving party can agree upon a secure way to transfer the card holder data like through some sort of pgp encrypted file

bwb9• 11 years ago

Thank you Matthew!

briancollins• 11 years ago

Ben, I'm very sorry that I missed our call today. I've just sent my cell number through to you via email. You can call me any time.

We're always happy to export card data if people want us to. In Chase's case, there's a bunch of Chase-specific work that they mandate. This is not part of our normal procedure, but we'll figure out something that's workable.

Happy to chat next steps on the phone or via email.

bwb9• 11 years ago

Thanks Brian, email going out now.

From our understanding and I believe what they are telling us this isn't Chase stuff, but rather US law stuff :)

iso27002• 11 years ago

While missing a call is definitely not a good thing, I'm hesitant to think of it as a "refusal".

bwb9• 11 years ago

I def don't think of it as a refusal, but after 6 weeks of no help it certainly was frustrating and a bit of a light slap in the face when we spent so much time trying to get Chase and Stripe in the same room.

alphadevx• 11 years ago

So HN is now a support forum for Stripe? Sorry to be sarky, but why am I and many others ready this?

matheweis• 11 years ago

I'll bite. It's because the HN community is by and large composed of highly skilled individuals that often work way up the food chain in these tech companies. Even if they don't directly, they very likely know someone who does.

It's not just Stripe, it's Twitter, Facebook, Google.

... and if nothing else, because it works. Look at this thread, he's been working on this problem for 6 weeks. He posted here, and got semi-public apology and a direct cell no. for a person who can help in less than 2 hours.

I think it's amazing, and I really enjoy seeing threads like this.

bwb9• 11 years ago

Thank you everyone for your help! A friend helped me on LinkedIn to connect to Eric and Brian @ Stripe and I am hopeful we can get it all resolved.

And thanks for this thread as it helped us make some good connections to them too.

Gys• 11 years ago

Interesting they need HN to get actual help from a company like Stripe. It happened here before with other new, high profile companies. For some time already I am surprised how many of those billion dollar companies have very little to none person support: FAQ and forums is about it. Phone is for marketing and press. A form goes to a forum.

At best you get a community member to give some friendly advice. Amazing how they even get people to help them for free (to be part of other peoples adventure ?).

Its not that these companies cannot afford to have better support. Limiting personal contact seems an integral part of being able to scale.

Frustrating and hard to believe users just accept that. But I am also jealous at how they achieve this.

Stripe refusing access to cards, have a contact so we can avoid a public post?

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