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Stripe Chargeback Protection

(stripe.com)
341 points shedside | 5 comments | 03 Jun 19 11:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.37s | source
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jasonkester ◴[03 Jun 19 11:36 UTC] No.20082119[source]▶
But this isn't the product I want.

I don't want to ever fight chargebacks. Because my policy is to never take money from people who don't want to give it to me. I want to automatically refund every chargeback attempt without it affecting my ability to charge credit cards.

One of my businesses targets consumers, who have this amazing ability to "forget to cancel" or to have "cancelled 3 months ago, but for some reason we're still billing them" or to just plain decide that the last six months of charges were fraudulent and that their bank should get them reversed.

All of that is fine with me, and in fact every invoice I send out says as much: We'll happily refund every penny you ever paid us if you simply ask. But lots of people aren't comfortable asking for their money back. They are, however, plenty comfortable asking their bank to ask for their money back.

I just want a way to streamline that process that doesn't involve me having to handle fighting disputes that I'd prefer to lose. And of course to not have those lost "disputes" count against me.

Any ideas on how to do that, Stripe?

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1. peteretep ◴[03 Jun 19 12:04 UTC] No.20082263[source]▶
> to have "cancelled 3 months ago, but for some reason we're still billing them" or to just plain decide that the last six months of charges were fraudulent

I've had both of these things happen as a consumer. Coschedule kept billing me for six months after I cancelled (and my accounts administrator didn't know we'd cancelled), and I had Experian in the UK continue billing me for six months after they'd disabled my account but hadn't told me. In the former case, they refunded it straight away once I pointed it out, and in the latter I had to escalate a little, and start talking about a small claims court, but they refunded it in the end.

I guess my point is, both of these are valid consumer complaints, and waving them away as being stupid consumers probably isn't that useful for anyone. Further down, in another comment, you imply that this is deceit / fraud.

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2. jasonkester ◴[03 Jun 19 12:14 UTC] No.20082325[source]▶
I do have the occasional customer claim to have "cancelled 3 months ago" via email. We keep good records of such things, so we know him to be mistaken but I always make a point of apologizing and issuing an immediate refund.

I word my "Why did you open a chargeback" mails the same way, and offer to handle things via a refund (and to please close the dispute because it affects our business). But the people who use their credit card company instead of email or the prominent Cancel button on the website don't tend to ever respond to those mails.

It's frustrating, because so many people have had to deal with health clubs and Comcast that they just assume every business will fight against them if they want to cancel.

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3. peteretep ◴[03 Jun 19 12:29 UTC] No.20082425[source]▶
> We keep good records of such things, so we know him to be mistaken

I assume Coschedule also believe they keep good records of such things, and indeed when they checked those records, they found I had cancelled when I said I did, but they'd continued to bill me anyway. You are truly exceptional to run a business where mistakes never happen, and when they do, they are always the customer's fault.

4. michaelt ◴[03 Jun 19 12:49 UTC] No.20082546[source]▶

  But the people who use their credit
  card company instead of email or
  the prominent Cancel button on the
  website don't tend to ever respond
  to those mails.
What's the user experience for someone whose credit card details have been stolen and used to sign up for your service?

Presumably such a person wouldn't have the credentials, the e-mail, or the cancel button?

5. rattray ◴[03 Jun 19 13:08 UTC] No.20082694[source]▶
Perhaps the ethical thing to do in those situations is to fight the dispute? Acquiescing encourages bad actors.

Your current course of action is probably still best for your business and sanity, though. Hmm...

I assume you send an invoice/receipt email every month by default, to reduce the chance that a user forgot to cancel and to make it easier for those that wish to. (If not, I think Stripe Billing offers this, though I'm not sure...)

(disclaimer, I work at Stripe, though not on Radar or Billing, thoughts my own, etc)