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Stripe suspended our account without clear reason – need advice

10 points by markdoppler ↗ HN
Hi HN,

My co-founder and I have been building ArtificialStudio.ai since 2023, a SaaS platform similar to RunwayML and Krea.ai that allows marketers and agencies to easily use AI models for image and video generation.

Two days ago, our Stripe account was suspended without prior warning. We believe this might be due to 1 chargeback we received last month — not because of fraud, but because some users accidentally purchased an annual subscription instead of a monthly one. We refunded all of them and updated our checkout UX so the monthly plan is now the default option.

We comply with all of Stripe’s policies, and similar platforms in our industry (RunwayML, Krea.ai) operate on Stripe without issues.

We’ve contacted Stripe through email and the dashboard, but so far have only received automated responses. This is a critical moment for us, as our MRR has been growing fast and this freeze puts the business at risk.

Has anyone here been through a similar situation with Stripe? Any advice or contacts within Stripe that could help us escalate this?

Thanks for any help you can offer.

5 comments

[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 24.4 ms ] thread
ersshh
Have you tried tweeting at them publicly? I've found having it out on Twitter often makes brands act quicker. They look to have a dedicated support account on there
A_D_E_P_T
Dude you need to find a different payment processor now -- even PayPal, even just Sezzle. Just have something up as a fallback option so that Stripe Customer Service (practically nonexistent) doesn't run you out of business.

Back in the day, one of my companies was using Square. They hit us with weird and arbitrary restrictions from outta nowhere; we set up Stripe the same day and moved everything over. Our business kept moving along without a hitch.

switknee
>1 chargeback we received last month

>We refunded all of them

Was it a chargeback or a refund? It can't be both.

I'd assume one chargeback isn't enough to get your account banned though. There may be other factors, like one of your company officers sharing a name with a person the USA doesn't like.

I agree with the sentiment that you should have multiple payment processors set up in parallel so you don't lose any business due to this issue happening. Until you become big enough that they can't afford to do without your business, you'll be at risk of arbitrary suspension.

ergocoder
If Stripe doesn't tell you the reason, then it's related to financial crime. Your account might be flagged by the authority.

They aren't allowed to tell you anything.