We're a small business that sells pre-booked appointments with homeowners to local contractors, billed per appointment that actually happens.
Our first client agreed to this on a recorded call and saved his card through a $1 Stripe payment link, which we planned to use for billing later. That $1 payment went through.
A few weeks later we invoiced him $1,500 for 3 completed appointments and charged the saved card. Stripe blocked the payment. Two days after that the account was closed with this wording: payments "don't appear to have been authorized by the customer."
What happened next:
- We appealed through the Dashboard with an appeal letter, our company documents and the invoice. It was rejected the next day as an "unacceptable level of risk."
- Support told us our "business model presents a level of risk we're unable to support" and that the decision is final.
- After a Stripe employee escalated it internally, we got a short email saying Stripe still won't accept payments for our business.
In all of this, nobody asked us for the call recording, our messages with the client, or a confirmation from the client himself. As far as we know, he never disputed anything, and he has told us he is paying by bank transfer outside Stripe.
I'm not saying our setup is perfect. It's a new account, the first real charge was large compared to the $1 test, and billing a saved card later is probably what looked wrong. If there's something specific we should fix, I'll fix it.
What I'm asking:
1. Is there anyone at Stripe who can look at this with the evidence, including getting the client on a call?
2. For people who've been through this: how would you structure per-appointment billing so it doesn't look unauthorized (an invoice with a link each time, an email confirmation before each charge, something else)?
I can share the account details, the call recording and the messages with anyone from Stripe who wants to look. Thanks for reading.
Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50510042
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