This Stripe behavior has become an epidemic these years...they have fully automated their infrastructure, especially now with AI and they false positively flag the wrong companies and then they complain that people label them as the "baddies".
I have wrote a public post on LinkedIn addressing this issue of yours and hopefully someone will get notified and help you out.
Now we wait...
Update: I'm in discussion with their Stripe Support department right now.
Update2: ..and now, we wait!
Final Update: They told me, if you have a LinkedIn account, go there and contact "Stripe" account and tell them your issue; "Stripe Support" account will contact you within 5 to 10 minutes and verify your business data so they can help you.
What to do next wait for the review to finish (or some longer timeframe has passed) if you are unhappy with the results then you can bring this to a lawyer.
Is it legal, yes it's in your terms? They are verifying its not a scam and not money laundering.
"If it takes longer it will affect our brand identity since it financially blocks us."
Look into additional payment providers you should at least have paypal checkout already on your site.
Only giving out a first name is entirely normal to protect staff from malicious activity, eg doxxing and harassment, and if you have recorded the times of your calls should be entirely enough to legally identify those staff members in court if required. (You are noting the times of your calls to them and their approximate content?)
At this stage with an unusual flow of money of that order into your account Stripe is likely obliged to consider Anti Money Laundering and similar investigations for a start, and delay to handing on the cash is likely its main risk reduction tool at this moment.
Yes, we have made evidence of the duration of each, location of call, name of Manager.
Alright. While I understand that, a quick or even complex review would show that our business is legitimate, clients legitimate in 1-2 hours tops if we are being honest, but its already breaking our cashflow and we are 3 days in with our account blocked.
Is there anything we can do to urgent this matter and unblock our account?, we really need to honour our hundreds of orders at a timely manner. This affects our image.
I would advise: reach out to your clients directly. Be happy that they chose to purchase from you, explain that delays are happening due to the rapid increase in popularity, thank them for this opportunity to learn about international business at scale.
Inform them that you will be expediting the shipment of these orders in the sequence which they were received as this is the only fair way to prioritize orders, instead of the 'larger' orders or 'more profitable' orders having priority.
Offer to cancel and refund any orders where the customer is not satisfied with this response to the delay which is out of your control. These customers will in the end be more difficulty than they are worth, and trimming them out of the production line ASAP will expedite those who are understanding and patient.
Be sure not to 'blame' your processing handler, this delay is simply standard due diligence against international money laundering and other nefarious situations. No amount of assurance from you that it is legal and lean absolves them of the requirement to confirm these facts independently. Stripe's compliance and legal department is doing exactly what they must do, it will take whatever time it takes to resolve, and if you truly are verifiable and above board this delay will quickly resolve.
The communication with customers will strengthen your relationship with the fraction of them who are good, steady, and likely to become both repeat customers and good referrals.
Even the ones who choose not to wait a bit for your best quality goods, will be able to tell people that you communicated clearly and gave them the opportunity to walk back their purchase with no hassle.
And in a few days time, you can get to work filling the sudden orders. I advise not withdrawing those funds all at once, or spooling up the scale of production as this will lead to quality control issues.
Take your time, work down the orders with the very process that made you become a viral success, and deliver your best quality with updates and clear communication. Turn this from a one time rush of massive orders into a steady, reliable, continual slope of growth building into a trusted provider of fine handmade products.
Withdraw those funds in small stages, only as much as is necessary to purchase materials and pay workers for productive time; no sudden raises or advances against work not finished. Take any 'earnings' only after all non-cancelled orders are shipped and delivered.
If payout is stuck for "2-3 business days," you still have account access, and you're still capable of accepting funds, you should probably just relax. Odds are that everything will be fine by Tues or Weds. If the transactions are legitimate and you can prove it, then the odds that they'll confiscate your money or hold onto it for an extended period of time are very, very low.
Not a bad idea to set up a secondary payment processor for growth, though!
Hopefully dear. The matter of confiscation is out of the subject, main issue would be delaying the review and holding our account for a longer period since we need cashflow for prime material, labour, supply, honouring our orders, etc.
Our main clientele has shifted to USA, so cant think of any good processors for Apple Pay, accepting America express. Paypal requires an account from the clients so it would make the process harder for potential clients, thereafter the rate of abandoning carts would ger higher.
If your revenue pattern grows quickly, money will be held for longer in expectation of chargebacks. If none happen during this period, and all checks pass it will be released. This happens because if they release the funds they will be on the hook for the 100k + charback fees, which depending on the size/number of your transactions, could be higher than your entire 100k.
You are doing it right. Publicly shaming them on HN is the only way to get a real customer service.
These things would be much easier if stripe were willing to actually explain what the issue is.
We can come up with all sorts of reasons - anti money laundering, concerns around charge back etc…
Why can’t stripe just say the reason?
This Stripe behavior has become an epidemic these years...they have fully automated their infrastructure, especially now with AI and they false positively flag the wrong companies and then they complain that people label them as the "baddies".
I have wrote a public post on LinkedIn addressing this issue of yours and hopefully someone will get notified and help you out.
Now we wait...
Update: I'm in discussion with their Stripe Support department right now.
Update2: ..and now, we wait!
Final Update: They told me, if you have a LinkedIn account, go there and contact "Stripe" account and tell them your issue; "Stripe Support" account will contact you within 5 to 10 minutes and verify your business data so they can help you.
Good luck!
Thank you very much for the indepth research and implication! Highly appreciate it! Thank you!
Will create a linkein account and contact them
What to do next wait for the review to finish (or some longer timeframe has passed) if you are unhappy with the results then you can bring this to a lawyer.
Is it legal, yes it's in your terms? They are verifying its not a scam and not money laundering.
"If it takes longer it will affect our brand identity since it financially blocks us."
Look into additional payment providers you should at least have paypal checkout already on your site.
Only giving out a first name is entirely normal to protect staff from malicious activity, eg doxxing and harassment, and if you have recorded the times of your calls should be entirely enough to legally identify those staff members in court if required. (You are noting the times of your calls to them and their approximate content?)
At this stage with an unusual flow of money of that order into your account Stripe is likely obliged to consider Anti Money Laundering and similar investigations for a start, and delay to handing on the cash is likely its main risk reduction tool at this moment.
Yes, we have made evidence of the duration of each, location of call, name of Manager.
Alright. While I understand that, a quick or even complex review would show that our business is legitimate, clients legitimate in 1-2 hours tops if we are being honest, but its already breaking our cashflow and we are 3 days in with our account blocked.
Is there anything we can do to urgent this matter and unblock our account?, we really need to honour our hundreds of orders at a timely manner. This affects our image.
I would advise: reach out to your clients directly. Be happy that they chose to purchase from you, explain that delays are happening due to the rapid increase in popularity, thank them for this opportunity to learn about international business at scale.
Inform them that you will be expediting the shipment of these orders in the sequence which they were received as this is the only fair way to prioritize orders, instead of the 'larger' orders or 'more profitable' orders having priority.
Offer to cancel and refund any orders where the customer is not satisfied with this response to the delay which is out of your control. These customers will in the end be more difficulty than they are worth, and trimming them out of the production line ASAP will expedite those who are understanding and patient.
Be sure not to 'blame' your processing handler, this delay is simply standard due diligence against international money laundering and other nefarious situations. No amount of assurance from you that it is legal and lean absolves them of the requirement to confirm these facts independently. Stripe's compliance and legal department is doing exactly what they must do, it will take whatever time it takes to resolve, and if you truly are verifiable and above board this delay will quickly resolve.
The communication with customers will strengthen your relationship with the fraction of them who are good, steady, and likely to become both repeat customers and good referrals.
Even the ones who choose not to wait a bit for your best quality goods, will be able to tell people that you communicated clearly and gave them the opportunity to walk back their purchase with no hassle.
And in a few days time, you can get to work filling the sudden orders. I advise not withdrawing those funds all at once, or spooling up the scale of production as this will lead to quality control issues.
Take your time, work down the orders with the very process that made you become a viral success, and deliver your best quality with updates and clear communication. Turn this from a one time rush of massive orders into a steady, reliable, continual slope of growth building into a trusted provider of fine handmade products.
Withdraw those funds in small stages, only as much as is necessary to purchase materials and pay workers for productive time; no sudden raises or advances against work not finished. Take any 'earnings' only after all non-cancelled orders are shipped and delivered.
/large_market_advice
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If payout is stuck for "2-3 business days," you still have account access, and you're still capable of accepting funds, you should probably just relax. Odds are that everything will be fine by Tues or Weds. If the transactions are legitimate and you can prove it, then the odds that they'll confiscate your money or hold onto it for an extended period of time are very, very low.
Not a bad idea to set up a secondary payment processor for growth, though!
Hopefully dear. The matter of confiscation is out of the subject, main issue would be delaying the review and holding our account for a longer period since we need cashflow for prime material, labour, supply, honouring our orders, etc.
Our main clientele has shifted to USA, so cant think of any good processors for Apple Pay, accepting America express. Paypal requires an account from the clients so it would make the process harder for potential clients, thereafter the rate of abandoning carts would ger higher.
Everyone has a paypal account in America fewer have Apple pay.
If your revenue pattern grows quickly, money will be held for longer in expectation of chargebacks. If none happen during this period, and all checks pass it will be released. This happens because if they release the funds they will be on the hook for the 100k + charback fees, which depending on the size/number of your transactions, could be higher than your entire 100k.
Their docs explain this.
> account payout is frozen
Frozen payouts are different than money being held for longer.
If that’s the reason, why don’t stripe say so when they block the account?
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