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Stripe is stealing over $50k from me

28 points by sfcoffeeguy ↗ HN
I run a coffee cart in SF. I am legally allowed to operate here and am not doing anything sketchy.

Recently Stripe froze my account and won't let me withdraw anything. My balance is over $50,000 - months of work.

What are my options? It seems like this happens a lot but nobody ever follows up.

Will they give my money back?

24 comments

[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 61.6 ms ] thread
I_am_tiberius
Do they give you a reason why this is happening?
pjc50
At this stage I think you have to consider suing them.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
codegeek
I am not directly helping with your question but in the US, stripe allows daily transfer to your bank. Why not use that instead of leaving money in the account ? Never leave your money with anyone if you don't need to.
sfcoffeeguy
Thought it was safe in Stripe? Is this really a solution
Reubachi
This is the most obvious, easy, legitimate solution that you should have been practicing from day 1.....why keep so much fluid funds in a non FDIC insured payment provider?

Why not do that immediately when they are based off your info, stealing from you?

I'm not in this field so forgive me if it's very obvious

more_corn
^ I’d advise this same thing. After they unlock your money you should get in the practice of regularly transferring funds out of your payment processor. I had this happen with another processor. Their fraud division activated for no known reason, they froze a huge payment. It took me months and dozens of calls. They never deigned to explain why the freeze happened. They never apologized. I am filled with a burning hatred for them so much so that I won’t even mention their name in order to disparage them.

They will eventually unlock your funds when it becomes clear that you’re not doing anything illegal. It will take a long time and a lot of patience.

sfcoffeeguy
I am not letting them keep me at home.

I am accepting cash and Venmo, by the huge blocks on JFK :) it's a beautiful sunrise - come get some coffee!

Still no word from Stripe.

abnercoimbre
As others are telling you the funds are still there. Stripe will very likely respond within a day. Try to breathe (and consider letting us know what they reply with!)
ryuhhnn
You most likely got caught in some sort of automated detection. Have you tried reaching out to their customer service?
sfcoffeeguy
Yes of course, no reply from them yet after several hours.
ryuhhnn
Their quickest publicly listed SLA is 6 hours. I realise $50k is a lot of money, but give it some time. Though frustrating, and wrong on their part, no money was stolen. You'll get it eventually.
sfcoffeeguy
Can I ask why my post was removed from the front page?

What rule does this violate???

Impossible to do anything

ryuhhnn
It sounds like you're just frustrated at being in an (understandably frustrating) situation. Your post wasn't removed, it probably was just outvoted. Breathe.
firefax
Maybe contact an attorney? This sum goes beyond small claims court.

You might find someone who will take the case on discovery -- being served would probably put a pep in their step.

inftech
The reality is you allowed them to do this when you accepted their terms of services.

If you don't know, stripe and virtually all tech companies have TOS that allowed them to do pretty much everything they want and since a TOS is considered a contract, good luck in the court where you will have to explain to the judge why your are complaining about the consequences of the contract nobody forced you to sign.

sfcoffeeguy
They flagged my post here and are selectively deleting some of my replies like a Reddit mod
ryuhhnn
You created your account today on a tech discussion board where you aired a personal grievance you have against a company that has a proven track record of operating above the board and accused them of "stealing" your money. Then you complained that your post got outvoted and was no longer on the front page. You are not the only person in the world that this has happened to and you should not expect the entire internet to bend to your desires to comfort you. Again, relax, breathe, wait for Stripe to reply. You will get your money.
theyknowitsxmas
If you're using the terminal 100% of the time and not manually entering cards then I have no idea what would get you. What is your dispute rate? Better off using one of those paid plan processors if you pay that much in fees anyway. "Dedicated merchant account"
iJohnDoe
Give them a chance to respond.

Breath.

Don't leave money in any payment processor. Someone there sees a large sum of money and takes notice. However, Stripe shouldn't care about $50k.

Hopefully Stripe doesn't get a PayPal reputation and will get this sorted out for you.