Stripe, Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/14) */
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 issuer is the entity who arbitrates the process, not Stripe.
The complainant wrote to Stripe on July 3rd, 2015:
"Very bad service. Horrible help in chargeback disputes. disgusting customer service. I cannot believe Stripe is used at all. I wish I didn't have to use this. You need a contact number for people to call when they need help. emails are never responded."
We responded to the complainant on July 3rd, 2015, asking them if there was anything specific that we could help them with. As of July 14th, 2015, Stripe has yet to receive a response from the complainant.
As a matter of further clarification, Stripe does not authorize charges for our users. Much like the disputes process, we pass [redacted] relevant information (including any CVC, street check, and ZIP checks the user mentions in his complaint) to the card-issuing bank, who then authorize or decline the charge.
While it appears that the complainant took reasonable steps to resolve the disputes in their favor, Stripe is not in a position to cover the cost of disputed funds for our users. Our terms explicitly state that users are "immediately liable to Stripe for the full amount of payment of the Chargeback plus any associated Fees, fines, expenses or penalties." Our terms further state that "Stripe may provide you with assistance including notifications and software to help you contest your Chargebacks. We do not assume any liability for our role or assistance in contesting Chargebacks." Our users accept these terms when they create their Stripe accounts. More information can be found in our terms of service, here: https://stripe.com/us/terms#chargebacks
Disputes are a reality of accepting credit card payments, especially online. In this case, there are no extenuating circumstances that warrant Stripe assuming liability for the disputed funds, though of course we will continue to support her as much as possible through any further disputes or chargebacks she receives.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/07/15) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I still do not see how this is fair. Of course you would say that you take no responsibilities. Of course it would say that we accepted terms when we create out stripe account. The problem is, I never wanted to have a stripe account. I was forced to open one in order to get my money from orders I get on storenvy. A very unfair payment method that was spawn onto thousands of storenvy users who did not sign up for this when they started their account on storenvy. I was happy with just paypal but when they added stripe as their main payment method, we had to agree to it or else we won't get as many sales or our account will be frozen if we decline stripe sales. It was like an obligation. I know how this ends and honestly, this is just awful service. Obviously stripe wins, they already got their money. It does not help my business at all when I feel like I need help. Super unreliable AND I never got a response from stripe although you claim to have messaged back. I emailed quite a few times earlier this month and late last month. NO RESPONSE until I report here. Super shady business. I will spread my word to others about stripe about their lack of communication and shady business ethics. Thanks anyways. Stripe does nothing to support my business when there are problems and from what I've read, for others as well.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/08/31) */
The complaint's email credentials were compromised and this lead to their Stripe account being accessed by someone else. On 12th August we contacted the user to resolve this issue. However, we notified them that we would be postponing the...

transfer of funds to their bank account for a while to ensure this compromise issue was fully resolved. In particular, we wanted to ensure we were not debiting their account for any fraudulent transactions.
Admittedly, we did not respond to the complainant's multiple emails asking for clarity on the delay. This was due to an unexpected influx in queries for the week. Also, our ticketing system recognized each email as "new" and this further delayed the response time for the complainant. Although we wish we could offer phone support to our users, we are not in the position to offer this facility just yet.
On 26th August, we cleared this compromise and transfer issue. We re-enabled transfers to the complainant's bank account and notified the complainant of this fact. These transfers hit the complainant's bank account on 27th August, 28th August and 31st August.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/12/11) */
To help clarify the dispute process a bit, Stripe doesn't make the determination of who gets to keep the funds in a chargeback dispute. Your customer's bank doesthey consider evidence and decide to settle a dispute either in your favor or...

your customer's. Stripe helps you with this process by providing a method for submitting evidence and getting updates on the dispute status.
Our US Terms of Service clearly state that users are responsible for any chargebacks on their payments: "When a Chargeback is issued, you are immediately liable to Stripe for the full amount of payment of the Chargeback plus any associated Fees, fines, expenses or penalties (including those assessed by the Card Networks or our payment processors)."
The relevant section of the Stripe Terms of Service can be found here: https://stripe.com/us/terms#chargebacks
Stripe's users are responsible for any chargebacks they may incur from the card networks' chargeback systems, but will be covering the complainant's chargeback in this particular edge case.
This is outlined in our US Terms of Service: "You or Stripe may elect to contest Chargebacks assessed to your account. Stripe may provide you with assistance including notifications and software to help contest your Chargebacks. We do not assume any liability for our role or assistance in contesting Chargebacks."
The relevant section of Stripe's Terms of Service can be found here:
https://stripe.com/us/terms#contesting-your-chargebacks
If we had any additional information to offer about this dispute, we would. Unfortunately, banks don't often surface information about why disputes were lost to Stripe, so we simply don't have that kind of information available to pass on to users.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 16, 2015/01/07) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Just like this response was generic, so is the responses I get in this case. To this day I haven't received any information to help aid me or my attorney in pursue of the person that ordered products, signed for them and then filed a dispute. This person has my product and my money and all I get is generic pre-typed responses.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 18, 2015/01/09) */
All of the information about this transaction is surfaced to your in your dashboard. Furthermore, the information that we received from a charge, is based entirely upon the information you collect on your website, from your customers. In this situation, the user accepted a payment from a customer, who provided the wrong zip code and street address at check out. Thus, while the payment was successfully, the user should have taken note that the payment might have been suspicious due to the fact the the billing address check had failed. Additionally, Stripe provides some fraud prevention tools, that had the user had active before this charge was made, would have prevented this transaction from passing through. Instead, the user only chose to activate the auto-decline failed AVS verification feature later - about a month after this particular transaction was made.
Additionally, if the user believes that we have some information about this potential fraudster that we aren't giving, that belief is misplaced. We're only able to view the card information (the same information that is viewable in a users dashboard). Thus, if the user would like - she can try and reach out to the customer, via the information provided in the charge. Alternatively, she can turn this information over to law enforcement. Keep in mind that if this is an instance of fraud, then it's very possible the the true card holder's information was compromised and that an unknown third party created the purchase. It's also could be that the true card holder is just unjustly saying they didn't authorize the purchase, even though they actually did. The point is that we don't know and can't confirm this information. What we can confirm is that the wrong zip code was provided with this charge, and that is generally cause for concern. The merchant shouldn't have shipped out any goods without verifying this first. As our terms of service will indicate, merchants are liable for the full purchase amount of disputed transactions. https://stripe.com/us/terms#chargebacks Additionally, Stripe isn't responsible for an of our merchants internal decision making as it relates to their own business (the decision to ship goods). We aren't a shipping company and we don't purport to offer those services to our merchants.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/03/10) */
Hi [redacted],
We are very sorry that you and your customer experienced these delays with your refund.
This refund appears to have been affected by a bug in one of our banking partners' refund systems that caused a small handful of...

refunds to initially fail. I'm terribly sorry about this we work hard to ensure that issues like this never occur in the first place. In this case, our efforts were unsuccessful.
Having said that, I can assure you that we have taken immediate action to remedy the underlying bug and ensure that it never happens again. Your customer should have already received their refund.
We consider any problems that affect your customers to be the very worst kind of issue. By causing confusion for your customer here, we failed to deliver on our most important aim. We are performing a full internal analysis of our processes and systems here to make sure that issues like this do not happen again.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 10, 2015/03/19) */
Hi there, thanks so much for your help in this matter. I would like to let you know that thankfully and unbelievably, the issue has been resolved

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/08) */
Stripe helps thousands of merchants accept payments online. We don't charge customers' cards directly and it's an unfortunate bug that sometimes our information shows up on cardholders' bank statements instead of the business's. The...

payment in question would have been made with one of the many online businesses using Stripe to accept payments, and would not have come from Stripe directly. If the complainant is unsure of how to contact the merchant they purchased from or who the merchant is, if they would like to write into us directly with information about this charge, we'd be happy to look up the charge information and let them know which of our merchants created the charge. They will then be able to follow up directly with the business that they purchased the flashlights from. Specifically, the following information would be useful:
last four digits of the card
expiration date
card type
name on the card
charge amount
charge date
If the complainant could provide the information they have already conveyed in the email as well, that would be useful as well.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/11/07) */
We are always happy to help answer any questions or resolve issues that our users have. I'm afraid we don't offer phone support at the moment, but we are happy to support our users and their customers via email through [redacted]@stripe.com....

We also support questions via Freenode at #stripe and provide channels for sales, general queries, and partnership opportunities, as seen on our contact page here: https://stripe.com/contact. That said, we would like to provide phone support, and hope to implement it in the future.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/13) */
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 6th, 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 [redacted] 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.
On July 10th, Stripe successfully transferred the remaining $1219.60 USD in the complainant's Stripe account to their bank account.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/07/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
They paid me my funds.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/10/15) */
The complainant created a Stripe account on October 1st, 2015 and accepted their first payment through Stripe on the same day. To stay in compliance with 'Know Your Customer' regulations, Stripe must verify some details about a user's...

business and identity before transferring payments to their bank account. As part of this process, we ask all of users to provide a link to a business website that includes information about the products they are selling and how customers can contact them. Unfortunately, the complainant provided a website that did not contain enough information to complete this verification process.
We reached out to the complainant on October 2nd, 2015, informing them that we would need additional information to complete verification. The complainant replied on October 9th, 2015 to inform Stripe that their payment from October 1st, 2015 had not yet been transferred to their bank account and the Stripe customer support team explained that the delay was due to the missing information. The complainant supplied the missing information on October 12th, 2015 and the payment was successfully transferred to their bank account on October 14th, 2015.
If this transfer has not yet been received, the complainant should contact [redacted]@stripe.com directly so we can investigate further.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2015/10/16) */
This issue was resolved, they finally released the funds.
Thank you!
[redacted]

Stripe is one of the worst merchant service providers I have ever come across.

As a merchant, you can be doing everything right, have not a single chargeback/refund request and yet they will still up and close your account with unjust and phony reasons. They will not give you the balance due on payments they took on your behalf nor will they refund your customers once they decide they are done with you. In essence, they steal from your customers and you as the merchant are left with a bad reputation because you never received your customers money Stripe decided to keep for themselves. Shameful!

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/03/21) */
Stripe has worked extensively with this complainant since they filed this complaint and an amicable resolution has been reached.
The complainant had been deceived into providing their bank information to a fraudulent person who was in...

debt to Stripe. It is ultimately up to each bank account owner to keep their information private and secure. If an unauthorized transfer is made to a bank account, it is best if the account holder's bank is able to reject the transfer.
Nonetheless, Stripe is returning these funds to the complainant as a show of good will and because their bank was unable to help as preferred.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/11) */
Stripe helps thousands of merchants accept payments online. We don't charge customers' cards directly and it's an unfortunate bug that sometimes our information shows up on cardholders' bank statements instead of the business's. The...

payment in question would have been made with one of the many online businesses using Stripe to accept payments, and would not have come from Stripe directly. If the complainant is unsure of how to contact the merchant they purchased from, if they would like to write into us directly with information about this charge, we'd be happy to look up the charge information to confirm who the merchant was that created the charge and forward their contact details. They will then be able to follow up directly with them. Specifically, the following information would be useful:
last four digits of the card
expiration date
card type
name on the card
charge amount
charge date
If the complainant could provide the information they have already conveyed in the email as well, that would be useful as well.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/08/26) */
Stripe does have the CVC and Zip failure checks on our end, and as mentioned, these checks not enabled by default because we wanted to allow business's to choose to utilize these additional checks if they wanted to. Our data show that for...

many businesses, having these checks would be detrimental to their business, as it's fairly common for cardholders to enter an incorrect billing ZIP.
As for Stripe authorizing the card, we actually did not authorize it at all -- the bank did. All one technically needs to run a charge past the bank is the card number and it's expiration date. While the other information like the cardholders name and the CVC and Zip code can be used to further legitimize and verify the card, it is not a requirement for the charge. As such, banks will have their own fraud checks that analyze charges in different ways. I can't speak for this particular bank itself, but in most cases it is usually a point-based weighted system, and having incorrect information isn't necessarily a reason to decline the charge by itself, as long as other factors of the charge don't reach a certain threshold. Some banks don't even check the CVC and Zip code for a matching status.
Also, while we highly encourage merchants to vigilantly review their orders, we cannot be held responsible for losses incurred in cases where a routine order review would have successfully prevented loss. We outline many merchant best practices on our Support center, though we are not able to ensure that all users be diligent in following them:
https://support.stripe.com/questions/avoiding-fraud-and-disputes
Having said that, the decision on the dispute cannot be reversed. There is no appeal or arbitration process once a dispute has been closed, and the card-issuing bank decided based on the evidence that the card holder wasn't responsible for the purchase. Because the business was not able to win the dispute, the user are liable for the funds involved. This is apart of our Terms of Service here:
https://stripe.com/terms#chargebacks
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/08/30) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
First of all, I appreciate that Stripe actually addressed the issue and didn't just give a canned copy/paste reply like I've seen with most of their Revdex.com responses. I will also say that their Customer Support people have all been polite throughout. However, that's all that I can say positive about this incident.
I am glad to hear that Stripe has actual data to support their decision to disable basic fraud protection. I would be interested to know the number of merchants sampled, the factors they measured, what the results showed, etc., because their conclusion contradicts every other merchant service provider I've contacted since this happened. I think all the other merchants who have been harmed by their decision would also like to see this "data" because it seems counter-intuitive. I can't imagine any small business that would rather risk losing hundreds of dollars to fraud instead of simply having a customer resubmit their charge because they made an error. That is just ridiculous.
I accept that the cardholder was not at fault - it has already been determined that their card number was stolen and used illegally. And I agree with Stripe that the bank was initially at fault: Whatever "system" the bank used to verify this charge is laughable - the person's NAME did not even match the cardholder, not to mention the failed address and CVC! It was actually my initial position that the bank was at fault and I asked Stripe to bring them into the discussion. However, Stripe vehemently protected the bank from any involvement, so the responsibility must now rest fully with them.
Stripe keeps saying that "a routine order review" by the merchant would have prevented the loss, but they still can't give a single example of anything that would have flagged this transaction. There was NOTHING out of the ordinary about it, nothing that violated their "merchant best practices," so their suggestion is irrelevant and totally useless in this case.
Stripe knows that disabling the security checks was a bad decision, as they have now finally changed that default setting. I'm sure this was in response to the many merchants that filed complaints on Revdex.com.org (not to mention many more that probably didn't bother to file a complaint). This chargeback was due to Stripe's negligence in a) disabling a primary fraud-prevention tool, and b) not informing new customers of the risk associated with that. When you see a doctor you have an expectation that he washes his hands between patients to prevent infection. When you have your brakes serviced you have an expectation that the parts are installed correctly to avoid an accident. And when you sign up with a merchant service provider you have an expectation that they will use the industry-standard tools available to prevent fraud. The other providers do; Stripe did not. I therefore hold them responsible for this loss and I want the disputed funds returned to my account.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/11) */
In response to feedback like the complainant's, Stripe now enables the CVC check failure auto-decline feature by default for all new Stripe accounts - users will now need to opt-out rather than opt-in. However, Zip check auto-declines are not enabled by default because we want users like the complainant to be able to accept payments from around the world. Zip checks are not available worldwide. If this auto-decline for Zip checks was the default setting, then many payments from around the world would be declined.
The complainant mentioned that Stripe was protecting the issuing bank which decided upon this dispute. It is not Stripe's policy to disclose the location and identity of the issuing banks involved in disputes. However, we are happy to assist with any legal investigations the complainant has requested in order to help resolve this matter, including legal requests for information in subpoena format.
Finally, the complainant mentioned that they abided by the best practices for fraud prevention and still were hit by fraud. Although the fraud in this case was difficult to detect, this could have been avoided if the complainant had enabled CVC or Zip auto-declines from the outset. The need for this is highlighted in the best practices documentation and on our Support site:
> https://support.stripe.com/questions/cvc-or-avs-failed-but-payment-succeeded
> https://support.stripe.com/questions/avoiding-fraud-and-disputes
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 17, 2015/09/25) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
In short, I do not accept Stripe's resolution to my complaint. They finally admitted their decision to disable CVC security checks was a poor choice and have now corrected this. That resolves the issue for all their new customers, but it does not repair the damage done to their existing customers. Their poor judgement caused financial harm to many merchants and they need to take responsibility for their actions. Revdex.com suggests that complainants offer a "middle ground" to help reach a resolution. Toward that end, I would accept a repayment of half the amount I lost in this transaction, or $578.83. I recognize that there is not much more Revdex.com can do if Stripe refuses to accept that, but there are more actions I can take and I will continue to pursue this.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/12/01) */
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. This type of review is sometimes necessary when a merchant processes an unusually large transaction, as the complainant did.
On November 18th, we sent an email to the complainant asking for confirmation they have ownership of their listed web domain. The complainant confirmed this on November 19th.
There was a delay between when the complainant confirmed their web domain and when we were able to review their account on November 27th. We would like to sincerely apologize for this delay in releasing the complainant's transfers.
Once we reviewed the complainant's account, we were able to resume their transfers. A transfer for $1941.70 was sent to the complainant's bank account on November 30th.
These precautionary measures are vital to our business, but in this case there was a delay in reviewing the complainant's information. If the complainant has any issues or questions we can help with as they continue to process with Stripe, we will do everything possible to respond quickly.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/05/19) */
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 April 22nd, 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.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 10, 2015/05/22) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Thank you for the response, which is more than 20 times the advertised response time on your contact website.
On april 22nd 2015 I got an email which I replied to as it was vague and got NO response at all until today, one month later and not through the original means of contact.
Your website gave no warning of potential closure, and I believe that there should at least be a warning that Stripe belives activity may be fraudulent. Obviously Stripe does not care about the potential other sides of the people which they are stealing from.
The funds in my account had been deposited in my bank, but then Stripe initiated a transfer for the amount which was deposited AFTER my account had been closed in contrast with the terms and services.
This case it about a fraudulent charge after my account was terminated, and the theft of those funds.
Signing into the account and accessing data does not allow for any action and does in relativity nothing for this case. That material is off topic and shows me personally that that is not an individualized response, but rather of a company that does not care for those people it has wronged.
I would like the transfer of the funds after my account(which is nowhere mentioned in the ToS) reversed back to my bank account of the charge put on my customer's card so that we may use another credit card processor which does not steal from small businesses.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 12, 2015/05/28) */
As mentioned in the previous response, during a routine review, Stripe identified strong signals that the complainant's account was related to multiple other accounts that had previously been terminated for activity which was in violation of the Stripe Terms of Service.
It is also in line with our duty to mitigate loss from potential chargebacks. Given the heightened risk present in this case, Stripe was forced to hold the funds in question pending the closure of the investigation.
We've completed the review of this account and have determined it safe to release the funds. The complainant can now log into the account and issue a refund directly from the dashboard.
Final Consumer Response /* (3000, 16, 2015/06/24) */
[redacted]Document Attached[redacted]
On 6/24/2015 I still cannot refund this payment and am very dissapointed that Stripe would claim that they have allowed me to. Attached is a screenshot of my dashboard which shows I am not allowed to refund it, although Stripe claims I can.

That is totally made up, I sent you all the info you need including images of proof of organisation of  the business and ids with in days. you are holding our funds for around two weeks since you received the information.  this is not acceptable and I will not accept that as a response, I want to know the funds will be in my bank account in full today! 
 
Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/11) */
On 1st July, Stripe notified the complainant that they violated our Terms of Service and we would have to close down their account. We explained why we would be placing this hold on funds for 90 days.
"While we hate to give you...

anything less than a great experience, it does seem that your business is in violation of our Terms of Service, section B.5 ("Prohibited Businesses"). Specifically, we are unable to accept payments for brand name goods resold without permission as mentioned here: https://stripe.com/terms#prohibited-businesses.
These regulations come from our banking partners, so we sadly have no flexibility with them. That said, we understand that there may be some work involved with moving your business away from Stripe, and we're happy to help out with this process by giving you 5 days to switch to a new provider. Because of the elevated dispute risk here, we do have to put your balance on reserve for the next 90 days, the industry-standard chargeback window. During this period, the funds [redacted] help cover any refunds or disputes that come in, and your remaining balance [redacted] transfer to your bank account when the window closes.
I'm very sorry that we have to turn away your business, and we wish you the best of luck moving forward.
Best,
[redacted]"
In terms of the disputed charge for $450, we were admittedly slow to respond to the complainant - we really apologize for this. The chargeback in question was made on 12th August. We responded with advice on how to dispute this on 26th August. In any event, we facilitated the complainant in providing evidence to dispute the chargeback.
As mentioned to the complainant, when a chargeback is made by a customer, the cardholder's bank opens a dispute and immediately withdraws the money they sent to Stripe. The complainant was notified about the dispute and that the customer's bank [redacted] remove the funds from his account. Stripe then debited the complainant's bank account for the chargeback amount immediately. This is agreed to and accepted by users in our Terms of Service: https://stripe.com/us/terms#chargebacks
Ultimately, the complainant lost this dispute of $450. Although we facilitate the provision of evidence to contest a chargeback, we do not have any decision-making power over the dispute process. The cardholder's bank reviews the evidence and makes a decision. In this instance, the cardholder's bank decided that a valid chargeback was made and did not return the money to the complainant.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/09/14) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The money was returned to the complainant so therefore in this instant I lost out on $450 from the buyer who received tracking and a signature requirement to a business on a product 2 months and 11 days after the purchase was made. As stated before the policy on protecting your business users are apparently nothing if one could wake up 2 months later and decide hm I've had a product for 2 months and signed for it now I'll dispute it so I'm out of $450 and a product worth more
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/09/21) */
While Stripe provides notifications and software to help users contest disputes, we ultimately have no control over the timing or outcome of these disputes.
Cardholders file a dispute with their bank at the time they notice an unexpected charge on their statement and their bank then has the authority to forcibly refund this charge. Disputes filed after the goods have already been shipped are a frustrating reality of accepting credit card payments online.
In this instance, Stripe notified the complainant that the cardholder had disputed a $450 payment as fraudulent on August 12th. The complainant uploaded receipt, delivery and customer communication evidence through the Stripe Dashboard. Stripe forwarded this evidence to the cardholder's bank, who ultimately decided that the evidence was not sufficient to find in the complainant's favor.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 13, 2015/09/22) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I don't think as a company after 2 months I should be penalized. Your company should protect the people who your actually benefiting from. If someone was to make a fraud purchase on most people cards it would not take 2 months 11 days later to see that a fraud purchase was made in terms show that people are trying to get over and with the help of your company even allowing something like this after 2 months 11 days that it's possible for anyone to do so

The inability to call and speak to someone over the phone for a customer service representative is ridiculous. Addressing complaints or discrepancy of funds over email, taking days to respond or resolve, is the worst idea of customer service I've ever seen.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/09/01) */
The complainant signed up for Stripe on August 15, 2014, with the intention of using Stripe to process payments for an online store selling designer and luxury fashion and accessories. It is worth noting that online luxury goods sales are...

particularly targeted for fraud, especially when the merchandise is so high-value.
On August 26, Stripe informed the complainant that a dispute had been filed for $884.93. The complainant responded asking about the protections provided by Stripe against fraudulent transactions, to which Stripe responded on the same day, beginning a dialog of seven emails over the next two days about this disputed charge as well as the other charges the complainant mentions.
It was explained by email that Stripe does not provide chargeback protection, and even if the charge passes [redacted] street and ZIP checks as well as Stripe's fraud scoring, it is never possible to be 100% certain that a charge is not fraudulent in online transactions. Since the liability for chargebacks falls to the seller, it is up to the seller to use their judgement to decide whether to honor a suspicious charge. It was further explained that when a seller chooses to ship to an address other than the verified billing address, banks will likely hold the seller responsible for any chargeback related to fraud because the seller is unable to prove they conducted business with the legitimate cardholder in most cases. The complainant was advised to mark as fraudulent and refund any further transactions that they believe to be illegitimate.
As a matter of clarification, Stripe is not responsible for fraudulent charges processed by users' accounts. We pass [redacted] relevant information (including the CVC, street check, and ZIP checks the the complainant mentions) to the card-issuing bank, who then authorize or decline the charge. We have many fraud prevention measures in place, including allowing users the ability to refund suspicious payments even if they are authorized by the bank, and we offer our users detailed information about avoiding fraud and disputes on our support site (https://support.stripe.com/questions/avoiding-fraud-and-disputes). These tools exist to help our users protect themselves.
Stripe is not in a position to cover the cost of disputed funds for our users. Our terms explicitly state that users are "immediately liable to Stripe for the full amount of payment of the Chargeback plus any associated Fees, fines, expenses or penalties." Our terms further state that "Stripe may provide you with assistance including notifications and software to help you contest your Chargebacks. We do not assume any liability for our role or assistance in contesting Chargebacks." Our users accept these terms when they create their Stripe accounts. More information can be found in our terms of service: https://stripe.com/us/terms#chargebacks
Disputes are a frustrating reality of accepting credit card payments, especially online. We try to give our users the best chance to avoid these situations, but ultimately Stripe will not accept responsibility for fraudulent payments. We are happy to help the complainant avoid future disputes, and can always be contacted at [redacted]@stripe.com.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 8, 2015/09/02) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
According to Stripe's policy, "You or Stripe may elect to contest Chargebacks assessed to your account. Stripe may provide you with assistance including notifications and software to help contest your Chargebacks," unfortunately all of the emails that have been sent by Stripe customer support were just general explanation about how hard is to detect fraud and that the company is not responsible for that, nothing in particular to help with the disputed charge.
After detecting all of the other possible fraudulent transactions, I sent multiple emails to the company asking them to check all of these transactions since they were coming from the same geographic area, and pointing directly to the transaction numbers, addresses, etc. Unfortunately, when responding directly to the same customer service representative that is aware of issue already, it seems that they are not getting my emails, so I have to contact Stripe customer support from their website every time explaining my issue again to the new customer service representative, and getting the same response on how to prevent fraud. Further, after all the possible fraudulent transactions have been detected and immediate email sent to the support team, Stripe was still depositing money to my bank account minus their fee. After being informed by customer service representative that if the transaction did not pass [redacted] and street check it is most likely fraudulent, I went and manually reported and refunded the particular transaction as fraudulent. Please note all of the other three transactions out of 4 passed [redacted] checks.
Once again, I have done everything correctly on my end, I received an order, checked the transaction, shipped the product, provided with tracking, customer received and signed. After the first transaction was disputed, I submitted all of the evidence (including tracking, billing and shipping information, as well as a proof of purchase and authenticity of my product shipped) in regards to that transaction the same day. Upon further investigation and detection of other possible fraudulent activities by me, the issue has been reported to stripe.
On September 2, 2015 Stripe informed me that they are not able to accept payments for sites selling brand name products without authorized reseller status, and that these restrictions come from their banking partners, so they have very little flexibility with them, and that they giving me 5 days to find another merchant service company. Unfortunately, my ecommerce website (Squarespace.com) doesn't provide with other merchant services rather than Stripe, and basically Stripe just shutting down my business and tons of work and money I put into my company, including building the website, paying for ecommerce services every month, promoting my website, sending flyers, business cards, and other promotional items to my customers. I won't be able to use my website with other merchant service since that is the only platform used and comparable with my e commerce provider, which is absolutely unfair also.
I replied to Stripe immediately explaining that my company has a legitimate status, and that we buy our inventory from big department stores as well as boutiques. We are selling online for over 4 years and advertise with all major reseller websites. We decided to launch our website last year and put tons of work and effort to do that. The company is registered as llc and has all of the needed documentation to do business and provide services to the customers. Our company does pay taxes on all of the products purchased as well as taxes at the end of the year on all of the profit. Also we sell pre-owned items and all of our items both new and pre-owned come with receipt, and we can guarantee authenticity of every single product. We currently have over 150 items in our inventory both new and pre-owned and we will be gladly to provide receipts to your banking partners.
Resolution seeking: I would like for the company to respond to the disputed transaction made on August 26, 2015 for $884.93 and provide with the specific solution on how to handle the disputed charge. Also if it's per company's policy not to handle the disputes, I would like the processing company to provide me with the customer's bank information so I can resolve this issue directly with them. Moreover, I would like for my processing company to reinstate my service since as a processing company and as per Stripe policy "we do not assume any liability for the products or services purchased using our Service," the company does not have any ground on questioning the legality of my business as I provided them with my business name, business bank, and my company's EIN number while registering with Stripe and have been approved on August 15, 2014. Please note that all of the necessary documents been provided and signed by me to the Florida Department of State, IRS, and my business bank while registering Miami Luxury Boutique as llc. However, I will be more than happy to provide all of the information, receipts and proofs of authenticity of my products, to Stripe's banking partners directly if requested.
Final Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2015/09/14) */
Stripe provided notifications and software to help the complainant contest this chargeback. The complainant was notified of a chargeback for $884.93 on August 26th and given the opportunity to upload evidence to support the legitimacy of this charge through the Stripe Dashboard. Evidence was uploaded by the complainant on August 26th and forwarded by Stripe to the cardholder's bank. The complainant doesn't need to take any further action to resolve this disputethe evidence is currently under review by the cardholder's bank and the deadline for their response is November 11th, 2015. If the cardholder's bank finds in favor of the complainant, Stripe will return the full value of the original charge along with the $15 dispute fee.
Stripe also provides a number of resources on how to prevent fraud and chargebacks. These resources include the guide to preventing fraud and disputes (https://support.stripe.com/questions/avoiding-fraud-and-disputes), which was shared with the complainant by email on August 27th, and the ability to mark payments as fraudulent in the Stripe Dashboard, which was used by the complainant on September 1st.
Stripe is unable to accept payments for sites selling brand name products without authorized reseller status, and these restrictions do come from our banking partners (you can view the complete list of business types prohibited by our banking partners in the United States at the following link: https://stripe.com/us/prohibited-businesses). To clarify: we have no reason to believe that the complainant's business is illegal, we are just prevented by our banking partners from processing payments for unauthorized resellers of brand name products. If the complainant has certificates to show that they are an authorized reseller for these brands, please share them with Stripe so we can reconsider this classification.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 18, 2015/09/28) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Chargebacks from customers keep coming in, by far every single payment coming through stripe was fraudulent. Company should take responsibilities themselves as I'm no longer using their services, stripe disconnected me, and I do not wish to further deal with this continuous fraud coming. I am 8 month pregnant and absolutely don't need this stress. On my end all of the times was shipped in a proper manner with signature conformation, addressees all signed for their parcels. So it is no longer up to me to investigate who used the disputed party credit cards. On my end I've done everything. I contacted my lawyer as well as my bank they are confirmed that there are no further actions required by me. The customers bank as well as Stripe should decide on that matter. I am a suffering party here and I am not willing to pay out of my pocket for someone's fraud and poor security services.

THE WORST COMPANY EVER!!!!! A CUSTOMER SCAMMED ME OUT OF $1,200!!!! I sell hair so I guess the person used someone else's card or something, RECIEVED the hair , then called their bank and said it was fraud. If you received the product how can you possibly do that?? So I contacted stripe and gave them ALL details, prove of shipping, prove of the customer receiving the package , the time and everything and all stripe said was sorry, you owe $1200. Now they harass me everyday about signing back into my account, so they can get $1200 from me that was STOLEN from me!!!! Why should I have to pay back the money that was stolen from me? I am now with PAYPAL, the way PayPal works , if you show prove of sending your item to the customer it is resolved in YOUR favor. EVER DO BUSINESS WITH STRIPE, THEY ARE SCAMMMERS!!!!!!!!!

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/07/01) */
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 25th, 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 "[redacted] 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, 2015/07/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The generic response from Stripe in no way explains why they won't transfer my last funds.
Stripe has given a generic response that I am sure is given to many other people when they have no explanation for holding funds. I do not care that they are closing my account... In fact only TWO out of my many customers used the Stripe option...
It's a shame I had to come through Revdex.com to get some sort of response from Stripe. I have sent them over 4 emails and I didn't even receive one reply from them.
I am guessing the "unauthorised" charge is in relation to the second customer, because the charges for the 1st customer was transferred successfuly to my account.The second customers payment is still being held by Stripe. Please remember these are the ONLY two customers who I accepted Stripe payments from. So it would not be hard to get down to the bottom if this. Stripe is clearly in the wrong and won't admit so.I also sent Stripe my passport [redacted] just a few hours before they shut down my account.
-Stripe : Transfer my last funds (which is very small might I add).
- I also want to know WHAT VIOLATION HAVE I COMMITTED?
Final Business Response /* (4000, 11, 2015/07/23) */
Stripe operates within a variety of constraints imposed by our banking partners, credit card networks and applicable law. All users agree to and must comply with our terms when activating Stripe accounts. Our Terms of Service are posted here: https://stripe.com/terms
Stripe identified strong signals that the complainant's account was in violation of the Stripe Terms of Service. In particular, we noticed numerous unauthorized charges made on cards. On June 25th, 2015, Stripe reached out to the complainant to advise them of our decision and the closing of the account.
Our terms very clearly state that Stripe "[redacted] 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 have reviewed this account again in light of this complaint and can confirm that this user was in clear violation of our Terms of Service.
Final Consumer Response /* (4200, 13, 2015/07/28) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
STRIPE, do not lie on me! You only responded to me 3 days ago telling me my emails to you have been lost!
You are a big liar! There was only 3 transactions on my Stripe account. Do not try and paint me in a bad light!
I asked you to refund the customer which I'm hoping you have done so, since you said you will.
You tell me one thing in a private email and apologise to me, and on here you try and paint me in a bad light Shame on you! You will say anything to divert the blame from yourselves. I attached pictures of proof of yoi holding my customers money. I did nothing wrong don't you dare blame me for anything. I will never use Stripe when buying from anyone and ill gladly never use you as a payment processor. Very bad people, you have a long way to go!