Stripe, Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: there wasn't any unauthorized charge made on my account, if there were so why my customer had not complaint about it yet, stripe they have reserved all of my amount and never reply to my emails. I just want my funds to be released into my bank account.
they should give me the date for releasing my funds.
Sincerely,[redacted]

Below is Stripe's Response to the complaint submitted by Daniel[redacted] (herein referred to as the "Complainant") on March 26, 2018.Since last responding to the Complainant, two additional charges on the Complainant's account have been disputed as being fraudulent—leaving their balance at Stripe at -$480.10 and their dispute rate at 13.64%. As the Complainant already owes Stripe $480.10, Stripe will not allow them to refund further charges and create more of a loss to Stripe as Stripe's attempt to debit their account for these funds failed. As a result, there are no further funds being held in the Complainant's reserve as all of them have been charged back.For the reasons explained in detail above, Stripe acted in accordance with its terms of service in the handling of this merchant account and the Complainant's claim for damages is baseless.

To reiterate what was previously stated, we are not able to release the funds until the complainant is able to verify their ownership of the domain. In order to work with the complainant, Stripe has offered three distinct ways for the complainant to verify themselves as the owner of the domain:
1. Find the email that was sent to the email address that is on the complainant's website with a code, and respond to our emails with that code so that we can see that the complainant does in fact have ownership of that email. 
2. Change the contact email on their website to the email address that they use to log into their Stripe account to show that they can make edits to the site and therefore own the domain. 
3. Complete adding the email address that is listed on their website as a team member.
Despite giving these options to the complainant several times, they are still unable to complete this verification and refuse to work with us in order to verify their account. We are unable to release their funds until they do this. If the complainant wishes to complete one of the steps above, they are welcome to email us at [email protected] so that we can verify them.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/05) */
Stripe operates within a variety of constraints imposed by our banking partners, credit card networks and applicable law. As a result, Stripe must fully understand its users to ensure their businesses are consistent with Stripe's Terms of...

Service. All users agree to these terms when activating Stripe accounts, and the terms are posted here: https://stripe.com/terms
Since Stripe bears financial responsibility for all accounts using Stripe to accept payments, Stripe needs to have a high degree of confidence about their legitimacy, and their likelihood of delivering promised goods and services. Stripe periodically reviews accounts to verify that they meet these standards, and reaches out to merchants should any issues arise.
During a routine review, Stripe identified strong signals that the complainant's account was in violation of the Stripe Terms of Service. Stripe cannot process payments that appear to be unauthorized by the owner of the charged card. On July 7th, Stripe reached out to the complainant to advise them of our decision and the closing of the account. On August 3rd, we initiated a refund to the user mentioned by the complainant.
The closing of this account is in accordance with the following section of the Stripe Terms of Service. Our terms very clearly state that Stripe "may suspend your Stripe Account and your access to the Service and any funds in your Stripe Account, or terminate this Agreement, if we determine in our sole discretion that you are ineligible for the Service because of the risk associated with your Stripe Account, including without limitation significant credit or fraud risk, or for any other reason".
https://stripe.com/us/terms#termination
While we will not be able to continue processing transactions on the account, this does not preclude the complainant from signing into Stripe and accessing any of the account's existing data.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/10) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The owner of the card called the issuing bank and authorized the charge. This clearly showed it was from the owner of the card. Stripe completely ignored this information and never responded to me or followed up.
Additionally, stripe charged me $0.67 that caused a $35 nsf fee in my account. Because I have never processed a transaction, there was no reason for this $0.67 charge. The only time I heard from their customer service was to encourage me to change my account information so they could successfully take the $0.67. Again, their advertized service promises that they will not charge any fees for returned charges.
I want the $0.67 refunded as well as my $35 NSF fee.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/08/16) */
We recognize that review of Mr. [redacted]'s account and $517 charge took an inappropriate amount of time, and we're sorry for this and that we ultimately were unable to support his business. The charge was refunded on August 3rd, and we wrote to Mr. [redacted] regarding this refund on August 7th.
The 0.67 debit was the result of what appears to be an initial test charge made by Mr. [redacted] on June 10th for $1.00. This charge may be seen in the user's dashboard here:
https://dashboard.stripe.com/payments/[redacted]
After processing fees, the net total for this charge was $0.67, which we transferred to Mr. [redacted]'s bank account on June 17th in the following transfer:
https://dashboard.stripe.com/transfers/[redacted]
This charge was refunded, and the 0.67 debit to Mr. [redacted]'s bank account was an attempt to recover the amount refunded. No additional fees where charged - Stripe, per our Terms, refunded all processing fees. The 0.67 was therefore owed to Stripe. We have canceled out this owed balance, and no further debit attempts will be made, but since the funds were legitimately owed we will not cover any bank fees incurred by Mr. [redacted] in relation to the debit transfer.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
 
The client lies through their teeth. There is, was not and was never any incidence of fraudulent activity or charges in any shape or form. They unilaterally closed the account hoping to steal my existing balance. This business called Stripe have fabricated these reasons and are infact the fraudulent party.
Can they please provide bonafide official evidence of the fraudulent activity or charges they are referring too? This is a fabrication based on fantasy and their corpulent imaginations.
We have [redacted] outstanding in our account and they are seating on it and holding the funds hostage. Most likely so that they can benefit from banking interest in doing so. This is an old scam. As  mentioned earlier we not alone in experiencing this kind of illegal behavior from Stripe. Please follow the url and look at the enormity of complaints about Stripe's conduct here:
https://www.cardpaymentoptions.com/credit-card-processors/stripe/
 
Now, we are no longer interested in conducting business with Stripe in any shape or form as they have proven not to be a reputable and trustworthy business and should be avoided like the plague.
If we had seen the level of horrific reviews and complaints about them, both  online and from other small businesses then we would never have signed up with them in the first place. 
VERY IMPORTANT
There is only ONE thing we need now and that is the immediate release of the outstanding and available balance on our account to the tune of [redacted]. (See attachment).
Why is Stripe still seating on this money? Their system keeps updating and CONTINUALLY LOOPING by 1 day the exact time of arrival of the funds to our account. Pardon my French but Stripe are a bunch of amateurish ragamuffins. They are extremely sketchy and surreptitious. They are in fact rogues and we cannot wait to be part of a class action against them. Hopefully they will not be in business much longer especially with this level of non existent customer support and service
Where is the evidence of the  fraudulent charges and complaints? And most importantly why have you not paid out our outstanding application fees of [redacted].
To address this complaint the funds must be released immediately!
 
Regards
 
 
 
 
 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/10) */
Stripe operates within a variety of constraints imposed by our banking partners, credit card networks and applicable law. As a result, Stripe must fully understand its users to ensure their businesses are consistent with Stripe's Terms of...

Service. All users agree to these terms when activating Stripe accounts, and the terms are posted here: https://stripe.com/terms
Since Stripe bears financial responsibility for all accounts using Stripe to accept payments, Stripe needs to have a high degree of confidence about their legitimacy, and their likelihood of delivering promised goods and services. Stripe periodically reviews accounts to verify that they meet these standards, and reaches out to merchants should any issues arise.
During a routine review, Stripe identified strong signals that the complainant's account was in violation of the Stripe Terms of Service. Stripe cannot process payments that appear to be unauthorized by the owner of the charged card. Stripe reached out to the complainant to advise them of our decision and the closing of the account.
The closing of this account is in accordance with the following section of the Stripe Terms of Service. Our terms very clearly state that Stripe "may suspend your Stripe Account and your access to the Service and any funds in your Stripe Account, or terminate this Agreement, if we determine in our sole discretion that you are ineligible for the Service because of the risk associated with your Stripe Account, including without limitation significant credit or fraud risk, or for any other reason".
https://stripe.com/us/terms#termination
We will resolve this refund issue independent of the complainant.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/11) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
They emailed me saying "You can not issue a refund as your account has been closed down. During a routine review, Stripe identified strong signals that your was in violation of the stripe terms of service"
I replied to the email saying when should my customer expect the refund and to get his money back,
They haven't replied
My customer is very upset he placed an order July 23rd
I need stripe to issue a refund ASAP my customer is very upset and I don't know what to tell him anymore.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/08/19) */
Stripe operates within a variety of constraints imposed by our banking partners, credit card networks and applicable law. As a result, Stripe must fully understand its users to ensure their businesses are consistent with Stripe's Terms of Service. All users agree to these terms when activating Stripe accounts, and the terms are posted here: https://stripe.com/terms
Since Stripe bears financial responsibility for all accounts using Stripe to accept payments, Stripe needs to have a high degree of confidence about their legitimacy, and their likelihood of delivering promised goods and services. Stripe periodically reviews accounts to verify that they meet these standards, and reaches out to merchants should any issues arise.
During a routine review, Stripe identified strong signals that the complainant's account was in violation of the Stripe Terms of Service. Stripe cannot process payments that appear to be unauthorized by the owner of the charged card. On July 24th, 2015, Stripe reached out to the complainant to advise them of our decision and the closing of the account.
The closing of this account is in accordance with the following section of the Stripe Terms of Service. Our terms very clearly state that Stripe "may suspend your Stripe Account and your access to the Service and any funds in your Stripe Account, or terminate this Agreement, if we determine in our sole discretion that you are ineligible for the Service because of the risk associated with your Stripe Account, including without limitation significant credit or fraud risk, or for any other reason".
https://stripe.com/us/terms#termination
Due to an unexpected influx in queries, we failed to respond to the complainant in a prompt manner. On 10th August we acknowledged the request to refund a payment to the complainant's customer. This refund was initiated on 19th August and will be transferred to the customer's bank account soon.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/08/21) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
They emailed me saying they would send the refund and the customer should get it at th end of the week,
This will not be solved u till I know my customer has got his money back.

Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 9, 2015/06/10) */
Hi, the issue has been resolved. Stripe got back to me and release my fund.
Thank you very much for your help and put pressure on them?
Best wishes
[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/03) */
As mentioned in our email to the complainant on May 28th, 2015, Stripe can only support users with a low risk of customer disputesafter reviewing the complainant's submitted information and website, we found that their site presented a...

higher level of risk than we can currently support.
Stripe operates within a variety of constraints imposed by our banking partners, credit card networks and applicable law. As a result, Stripe must fully understand its users to ensure their businesses are consistent with Stripe's Terms of Service. All users agree to these terms when activating Stripe accounts, and the terms are posted here: https://stripe.com/terms
Since Stripe bears financial responsibility for all accounts using Stripe to accept payments, Stripe needs to have a high degree of confidence about their legitimacy, and their likelihood of delivering promised goods and services. Stripe periodically reviews accounts to verify that they meet these standards, and reaches out to merchants should any issues arise.
During a routine review, Stripe identified strong signals that the complainant's account was in violation of the Stripe Terms of Service.
The closing of this account is in accordance with the following section of the Stripe Terms of Service. Our terms very clearly state that Stripe "may suspend your Stripe Account and your access to the Service and any funds in your Stripe Account, or terminate this Agreement, if we determine in our sole discretion that you are ineligible for the Service because of the risk associated with your Stripe Account, including without limitation significant credit or fraud risk, or for any other reason".
https://stripe.com/us/terms#termination
While we will not be able to continue processing transactions on the account, this does not preclude the complainant from signing into Stripe and accessing any of the account's existing data.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/05) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Stripe dropped me for no reason, I personally asked them why they dropped me. They could not give me an answer besides I was just high risk.I asked them how so, they could not explain it to me. I have people in my business using stipe for the exact same purpose as I am but yet they have no problems so me being a high risk is a poor excuse and it's not true. This company is a scam and full of liars. They GUARANTEE apporval once signing up. Maybe it would be a smart idea for stripe to process their clients to make sure they are not a " high risk" before they let them process cards. intead of letting people process cards then a few days latter say sorry we have to drop you because of high risk and all the money we will hold onto instead of refunding the money and we will make it impossible to contact stripe to get the money back despite that fact they ruined my business. ( can you see how that is a problem.) They need to refund the card holders money and stop playing games before I settle with a lawsuit against stripe. If it has to come to that I will take this to the media and will sue them for not only the money they have of mine but everyone else's they have STOLEN. This is very unaccactple for any company to act like this and do this to their customers. These little young kids need to understand you cannot take people's money and hope they forget about it. And they need to have a conact phone number. It's pretty sad that I have to go through Revdex.com to get in conact of stirpe over a very simple issue that can be easily resolved over one phone call.
Just refund the money..it is not that difficult.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/08/07) */
Stripe operates within a variety of constraints imposed by our banking partners, credit card networks and applicable law. As a result, Stripe must fully understand its users to ensure their businesses are consistent with Stripe's Terms of Service. All users agree to these terms when activating Stripe accounts, and the terms are posted here: https://stripe.com/terms
Since Stripe bears financial responsibility for all accounts using Stripe to accept payments, Stripe needs to have a high degree of confidence about their legitimacy, and their likelihood of delivering promised goods and services. Stripe periodically reviews accounts to verify that they meet these standards, and reaches out to merchants should any issues arise.
During a routine review, Stripe identified strong signals that the complainant's account was in violation of the Stripe Terms of Service. Stripe cannot process payments that appear to be unauthorized by the owner of the charged card. On May 28th, 2015, Stripe reached out to the complainant to advise them of our decision and the closing of the account.
The closing of this account is in accordance with the following section of the Stripe Terms of Service. Our terms very clearly state that Stripe "may suspend your Stripe Account and your access to the Service and any funds in your Stripe Account, or terminate this Agreement, if we determine in our sole discretion that you are ineligible for the Service because of the risk associated with your Stripe Account, including without limitation significant credit or fraud risk, or for any other reason".
https://stripe.com/us/terms#termination
While we will not be able to continue processing transactions on the account, this does not preclude the complainant from signing into Stripe and accessing any of the account's existing data.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 11, 2015/08/13) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I'm not accepting this until the money is refined plain and simple

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/07/06) */
Stripe operates within a variety of constraints imposed by our banking partners, credit card networks and applicable law. As a result, Stripe must fully understand its users to ensure their businesses are consistent with Stripe's Terms of...

Service. All users agree to these terms when activating Stripe accounts, and the terms are posted here: https://stripe.com/terms
Since Stripe bears financial responsibility for all accounts using Stripe to accept payments, Stripe needs to have a high degree of confidence about their legitimacy, and their likelihood of delivering promised goods and services. Stripe periodically reviews accounts to verify that they meet these standards, and reaches out to merchants should any issues arise.
During a routine review, Stripe identified strong signals that the complainant's account was in violation of the Stripe Terms of Service. Stripe cannot process payments that appear to be unauthorized by the owner of the charged card. On June 29th, 2015, Stripe reached out to the complainant to advise them of our decision and the closing of the account. The $2,697.13 fee associated with the $92,994.20 payment was refunded, so the complainant was not charged for this.
The closing of this account is in accordance with the following section of the Stripe Terms of Service. Our terms very clearly state that Stripe "may suspend your Stripe Account and your access to the Service and any funds in your Stripe Account, or terminate this Agreement, if we determine in our sole discretion that you are ineligible for the Service because of the risk associated with your Stripe Account, including without limitation significant credit or fraud risk, or for any other reason".
https://stripe.com/us/terms#termination
While we will not be able to continue processing transactions on the account, this does not preclude the complainant from signing into Stripe and accessing any of the account's existing data.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/06/12) */
On May 29th, we reached out to the complainant requesting information to complete their identity verification. Stripe must verify all of our user's identities to stay in compliance with KYC, or Know Your Customer, regulations. The URL...

complainant originally provided for their website was incorrect, and we needed the additional info to finish the verification process. We allow our users to start processing before verification is complete, but will ask for more data or clarification in some cases. If the user doesn't respond within a few days of our message, we will disable their transfers until they are able to send over the requested information.
This was the case with the complainant. They got in touch with us on May 30th to say that they saw a notification in their dashboard related to the email we sent on the 29th, but could not find the email itself. After some back and forth, we were able to ask for an updated URL on June 2, and the complainant responded promptly with the right info. Unfortunately, we weren't able to complete verification and re-enable transfers until June 4th, after this complaint was filed. As of this writing, transfers are being sent regularly, and the complainant's flow of funds is working normally to the best of our knowledge.
We would like to sincerely apologize for the delay in releasing the complainant's transfers. The verification process is vital to our business, but in this case the time it took adversely effect our user's business. If the user has any issues or questions we can help with as they continue to process with Stripe, we will do everything possible to respond quickly.

First off, Stripe would like to apologize that the complainant's support experience has been less than phenomenal. We strive to answer our user's questions and concerns in an efficient and effective manner, but it appears as though we have clearly dropped the ball here. We understand...

that having access to phone support is very important to our users and this is something that we are actively working on. In the meantime, our users are more than welcome to reach out to us via email at [email protected]. 
With that being said, the complainant's claim that we have taken multiple days to respond to their emails is simply not true. On June 29, 2016, the complainant wrote in stating that they were having difficulty linking their bank account to receive funds. A Stripe Supporter responded within 12 hours to help with this issue. When the complainant wrote back in on [redacted], a Supporter followed up with the complainant within 11 hours with additional information.
On [redacted], Stripe proactively reached out to the complainant to assist them with their banking information so that these funds could be transferred out. In this message, information was included about what could be going wrong on the account. A Stripe Supporter then responded to the complainant within 4 hours with more information about how to get the complainant's funds into their bank account. The complainant wrote in once more 3 hours later. Despite this now being a holiday weekend, they received a response within 10 hours. During this last interaction, the complainant was asked to provide Stripe with a void check so that we could ensure that the correct banking information was on file and correct any discrepancies so money could be transferred to the complainant as soon as possible. The complainant did not respond.
We welcome the complainant to reach out to us at [email protected] with a void check so that we can ensure that we have the correct bank account information on file and transfer these funds to the complainant. At this point, we are unable to transfer funds to the complainant because every attempt to do so has resulted in a 'No account found' message from the complainant's bank, meaning the information was not entered correctly.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/01) */
Disputes can be a frustrating part of accepting credit card payments, and Stripe does everything possible to make sure our users have an advantage during the disputes process. That said, Stripe does not have the ability to resolve...

disputes for our users, or make decisions about who wins or loses. Stripe provides tools to our users for submitting evidence to their customers' card-issuer, but that the issuer is the entity who arbitrates the process, not Stripe.
The complainant ultimately bears the responsibility for preventing fraud and disputes on their account. This procedure is in accordance with the following sections of our Terms of Service, which can also be found at https://stripe.com/us/terms and more specifically https://stripe.com/us/terms#receiving-your-funds-from-card-transactions "You are responsible for refunds, returns, and liable for customer disputes (chargebacks)."
Additional relevant terms agreed to by the complainant:
https://stripe.com/us/terms#payment-methods
https://stripe.com/us/terms#chargebacks
Section C.6 of Stripes Terms of Service states:
"When a Chargeback is issued, you are immediately liable to Stripe for the full amount of the transaction related to the Chargeback plus any associated Fees, fines, expenses or penalties (including those assessed by the Card Networks or our payment processors). You agree that Stripe may recover these amounts by debiting your Bank Account, debiting the Reserve Account, or setting off any amounts owed to you by us. If we are unable to recover funds related to a Chargeback for which you are liable, you will pay us the full amount of the Chargeback immediately upon demand. Where such amounts are not immediately paid to us, you agree to pay all costs and expenses, including without limitation attorneys' fees and other legal expenses, incurred by or on behalf of us in connection with the collection of any unpaid Chargebacks unpaid by you."
We also pride ourselves on having as much documentation for our users as we possibly can. One area of focus is fraud and dispute prevention, and we clearly mention steps for our users to take in order to prevent this exact type of situation:
https://support.stripe.com/questions/avoiding-fraud-and-disputes#identifying-pot...⇄ /> While we understand the stress this situation has caused the complainant, our Terms of Service and documentation are very clear that the ultimate responsibility for preventing fraud falls on our users.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/01/08) */
The complainant signed up for a Stripe account on 12/06/2014. On December 12th, in the course of Stripe's standard review process, Stripe identified strong signals that the account was processing unauthorized transactions. At this time,...

it was determined that the complainant's account posed too high of a risk for Stripe to support. As a result, the complainant was notified that all payments that had not already been transferred to the complainant's bank account would be refunded to the appropriate cardholders. Stripe takes this precaution in the event that an overwhelming number of signals point to fraudulent or suspicious activity originating from the merchant. Information on Stripe's end indicates these refunds were successful, and Stripe did not communicate to the complainant that they were not. To the contrary, Stripe clearly communicated to the complainant that the charges would be refunded, and suggested getting in touch with customers to arrange an alternate means of payment.
The complainant can refer to the relevant part of our terms of service here:
https://stripe.com/us/terms#termination
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2015/01/12) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
THIS IS A LIE FROM THIS COMPANY! NONE OF THE CARDS WERE REFUNDED. I WENT TO THE GIFT CARD WEBSITE AND TYPE IN THE CARD NUMBERS AND THE SECURITY CODE THE CUSTOMERS GAVE ME AND IT SHOWS THE PAYMENT WAS TOOKEN OFF THE CARDS 12/10/2014, AND SHOWS NO REFUNDS. ALSO WHEN I JUST LOGGED INTO STRIPES NETWORK IT SHOWS I HAVE A BALANCE IN MY ACCOUNT OF $3,454.06 WAITING TO GO OUT AS A NEXT TRANSFER. AT THE TIME WHEN I RECEIVED THE EMAIL FROM STRIPE THEY HAD ALREADY SENT THE MONEY OUT TO MY H&R BLOCK ACCOUNT AT THE TIME, AND DID A REVERSAL THAT SAME DAY IT WENT IN, AND NOW THEY HAVE MY MONEY TIED UP BEING HELD. I WOULD LIKE STIRPE TO INVESTIGATE THIS AND TO RELEASE MY MONEY TO MY WELLS FARGO CHECKING ACCOUNT ON FILE. I HAVE ALREADY SOLD THESE ITEMS TO CLIENTS AND NOW IT'S OVER 30 DAYS AND AS STRIPE CAN SEE THERE HAS NOT BEEN ANY "FRAUDULENT ACTIVITY FOUND", NO CHARGE BACKS OR NOTHING. THIS HAS REALLY PUT A DENT ON MY BUSINESS AND ME TAKING CARD PAYMENTS AND SO ON. I NEED THIS SITUATION HANDLED. I DO NOT HAVE MY MONEY. AND AGAIN THE CARDS WERE NOT REFUNDED THAT IS WHY WHEN FROM THE BEGINNING I HAVE TRIED TO REFUND THE CARDS MYSELF I ALWAYS GOT AND STILL GETS THIS MESSAGE "This account is not currently able to refund charges. Please contact [redacted]@stripe.com for further information."! I AM CONVINCED STRIPE HAS STOLEN MY MONEY, BECAUSE THEIR'S NO LOG ENTRY IN MY DASHBOARD THAT STATES THE CARDS WERE REFUNDED. SOMEBODY FROM STRIPE NEEDS TO LOOK INTO THIS ONE ON ONE. I AM MISSING MY MONEY, AND MY CUSTOMERS PROVIDED ME ALL THE GIFT CARD NUMBERS AND SECURITY CODES SO I CAN CHECK MYSELF AND THEIRS NO TRANSACTION HISTORY THAT SHOWS A "REFUND"!!!!! IT'S BEEN 30+ DAYS AND I HAVE BEEN WITHOUT MY MONEY. I WOULD LIKE MY BALANCE TRANSFERRED TO MY WELLS FARGO CHECKING ACCOUNT ON FILE.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2015/01/27) */
As a Stripe representative explained in Stripe's original response, during the verification process of this Stripe's user's account, a Stripe representative identified suspicious activity on the complainant's account that is consistent with fraudulent behavior, specifically the running of charges without authorization from the original credit card holders. After observing this behavior, a Stripe representative terminated the complainant's account, and, as Stripe believes the complainant's account to be fraudulent, no additional funds will be transferred to the complainant's bank account. Again the relevant section of the Stripe Terms of Service can be found here: https://stripe.com/us/terms#a-idsectiondasection-d-license-termination-and-other...⇄ /> If cardholders have not yet received refunds and would like to receive them, their best course of action would be to contact their credit card companies to initiate disputes and receive their funds through that process.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 14, 2015/02/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Stripe is the company that is fraudulent! Stripe keeps saying that they think it was fraudulent transactions. Where are the FACTS? Have there been a dispute? My customers purchased gift cards and provided me the numbers to run there transactions. I have written permission from the customers, signed authorization slips giving me permission. This money was NEVER REFUNDED TO MY CUSTOMERS CARDS! && stripe knows what they are doing and are probably aware because there gift cards and it's been over 30 days, a dispute can not be claimed. SOMEBODY NEEDS TO PROVIDE A TELEPHONE NUMBER! This is really upsetting. There was no fraud activity. I was just trying to make a respectful online busines to further my horizon. Revdex.com please look into this I'm begging you. It can't be a coincidence for the last 2 years EVERYBODY IS COMPLAINING ABOUT STRIPE with the same situations. It shouldn't take for another company to be involved to have things resolved. It's not professional!!! I NEED MY MONEY AND WANT MY MONEY IN MY BANK ACCOUNT!! Stripe knows they did not refund the charges either. Because they would see if they went back or not. Till this day THE GIFT CARDS have a empty balance not full!!!!
I JUST WANT MY MONEY! Stripe responses are not getting to my point. They keep going around the situation giving general responces. I want a personal response for my situation. THIS REALY PUT A DENT ON MY BUSINESS.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/07) */
While Stripe never wants to turn away businesses, we did find that there was an elevated risk in processing payments for this business. To clarify, since Stripe bears financial responsibility for all accounts using Stripe to accept payments,...

Stripe needs to have a high degree of confidence about their likelihood of delivering promised goods and services. The complainant was asked to provide additional information so that we could verify their business through a working URL. This is because, to continue transferring funds and provide support to a business, we need to be able to verify what is being sold, and how customers can get in touch in case of issues.
As we didn't receive these details, we closed this account in accordance with the following section of the Stripe Terms of Service. Our terms very clearly state that Stripe "may suspend your Stripe Account and your access to the Service and any funds in your Stripe Account, or terminate this Agreement, if we determine in our sole discretion that you are ineligible for the Service because of the risk associated with your Stripe Account, including without limitation significant credit or fraud risk, or for any other reason".
https://stripe.com/us/terms#termination
That said, we do completely understand the frustration and confusion caused by the lack of response to your emails. Unfortunately, based on our ToS, we're unable to change the decision that has been made in closing this account. If you have any follow up questions about this, please feel free to contact [redacted]@stripe.com to discuss this in more detail.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/18) */
Stripe has processed payments for the complainant since August 26, 2014. The complainant first wrote in on September 3, 2015, letting us know about fraudulent transactions and asking us for help. On this same day, Stripe disabled transfers to...

the complainant's bank account to prevent fraudulent funds from getting sent to their account. On September 3rd, Stripe emailed the complainant with steps to stop the fraudulent transactions from continuing to come through. On September 4th, Stripe attempted to refund the transactions on the complainant's behalf, and communicated incorrect information regarding refunds of the fraudulent transactions.
Stripe received another message from the complainant on 9/8, at which point Stripe recognized that the refunds did not go through. After some discussion with the complainant, on 9/11, Stripe again refunded the fraudulent transactions on the complainant's account, but mistakenly refunded legitimate and fraudulent transactions, causing an attempted debit to the complainant's account.
To correct this, Stripe deposited the attempted debit amount in the complainant's bank account, and shortly afterward, that original deposit failed. This caused the complainant's account to reflect twice the amount of expected recent charges, which Stripe realized on 9/14 and communicated to the complainant via email.
Stripe exchanged several messages with the complainant on 9/14 and 9/15, and spoke with the complainant via phone on 9/16. After several days of processing, Stripe has been able to correct the complainant's bank account balance. Stripe is monitoring the complainant's account to ensure that the balance is resolved.

Below is Stripe's Response to the complaint submitted by [redacted](herein referred to as the "Complainant") on June 8, [redacted].
Stripe Overview
As background, Stripe provides a technology platform that allows merchants selling permissible goods or services online, or through a mobile device, to quickly and simply accept credit card payments.[1] Merchants register for an account by providing contact information, some information about their business and its principals, and bank account information. This information is submitted through an electronic application process and additional information, such as ID scans, may be requested by Stripe after submission.
 
Merchants have control over what information is provided to Stripe – for credit card charges, this must minimally contain the card number and expiration date. Most merchants also elect to provide the name, CVC, ZIP code as an anti-fraud measure, but are not required to. It is important to note that funds are briefly held in an aggregated clearing account at a bank before being deposited into the merchant's bank account.  It is important to note that merchants identify the account into which funds are ultimately deposited through the Stripe management interface. Merchants consent to Stripe’s Services Agreement when establishing their account. A current version of the Stripe Services Agreement is available at https://stripe.com/us/legal.
[1] https://stripe.com/us/payments
Stripe's Relationship to the Complainant
To clarify, Stripe is not the merchant. As Stripe is not the merchant, it is not held responsible for the customer service administrated by it's users. This is outlined in the Terms of Service:
"You know your Customers better than we do, and you are responsible for your relationship with them. Stripe is not responsible for the products or services you publicize or sell, or that your Customers purchase using the Services; or if you accept donations, for your communication to your Customers of the intended use of such donations. You affirm that you are solely responsible for the nature and quality of the products or services you provide, and for delivery, support, refunds, returns, and for any other ancillary services you provide to your Customers."
https://stripe.com/us/legal#your-relationship-with-your-customers
In order for the Complainant to get a refund or update on their purchase, they will need to contact the merchant. The Complainant stated that they made a purchase from [redacted], so they should contact this merchant at https://[redacted].com/pages/contact-us-1.
For the reasons explained in detail above, Stripe acted in accordance with its terms of service in the handling of this merchant account and the Complainant's claim for damages is baseless.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/28) */
As mentioned in our email on 13th July, Stripe can only support users with a low risk of customer disputes--after reviewing the complainant's submitted information and website, we found that their site presented a higher level of risk than we...

can currently support.
Stripe operates within a variety of constraints imposed by our banking partners, credit card networks and applicable law. As a result, Stripe must fully understand its users to ensure their businesses are consistent with Stripe's Terms of Service. All users agree to these terms when activating Stripe accounts, and the terms are posted here: https://stripe.com/terms
Since Stripe bears financial responsibility for all accounts using Stripe to accept payments, Stripe needs to have a high degree of confidence about their legitimacy, and their likelihood of delivering promised goods and services. Stripe periodically reviews accounts to verify that they meet these standards, and reaches out to merchants should any issues arise.
During a routine review, Stripe identified strong signals that the complainant's account was in violation of the Stripe Terms of Service.
The closing of this account is in accordance with the following section of the Stripe Terms of Service. Our terms very clearly state that Stripe "may suspend your Stripe Account and your access to the Service and any funds in your Stripe Account, or terminate this Agreement, if we determine in our sole discretion that you are ineligible for the Service because of the risk associated with your Stripe Account, including without limitation significant credit or fraud risk, or for any other reason".
https://stripe.com/us/terms#termination
While we will not be able to continue processing transactions on the account, this does not preclude the complainant from signing into Stripe and accessing any of the account's existing data.

We are sorry to hear that the complainant has had a negative experience with this business. To clarify, Stripe is not [redacted].com. Stripe is a payment processor, which means we process payments. It sounds like the complainant made a purchase with one of our users. We're unable to...

disclose any information about our users. However, if the complainant has concerns about the integrity about this business, they are welcome to write into [email protected] to articulate their concerns.

We have e-mailed the complainant directly, identifying our payout to their bank account.
 
The closing of this account is in accordance with the following section of the Stripe Terms of Service. Stripe's terms very clearly state that Stripe
"may suspend your Stripe Account and your access to the Service and any funds in your Stripe Account, or terminate this Agreement, if we determine in our sole discretion that you are ineligible for the Service because of the risk associated with your Stripe Account, including without limitation significant credit or fraud risk, or for any other reason" https://stripe.com/us/terms#termination
While Stripe is not be able to continue processing transactions on the account, this does not preclude the Complainant from signing into Stripe and accessing any of the account's existing data. For the reasons explained in detail above, Stripe acted in accordance with its terms of service in the handling of this merchant account and the Complainant's claim for damages is baseless.

Stripe has taken this opportunity to further review the state of this user's account. We found that the account was indeed closed due to a false positive by Stripe's fraud tooling.In light of our findings, in part due to this complaint, we have reinstated this account; the user is welcome to...

continue using Stripe and should find that their account will function normally. False positives like this are rare, and Stripe takes them very seriously. Stripe is reviewing this case to determine what led to the first decision and how situations like this can be prevented moving forward. In the meantime, we offer our apologies.