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Beware of Stripe! I lost money and set...
Hi all,
In many years of online sales on this and others Lego platforms, this is the first time that happened to me. I will try to make a summary with all the events:
- This summer I receive an order for a 200 euros set and its payment via Stripe from a foreign user with 0 feedback
- I prepare the package and ship two days later, as usual.
- After two weeks the user tells me that the package has not arrived. I check the tracking code and see that it is stopped here in Italy at the postal sorting center
- I make various claims to the local post office
- After a month it finally arrives in the United States
- The user keeps saying not to receive the package and I try to make him understand that it is not up to me and that, probably, in this situation of health emergency, the times are longer.
- User opens a dispute on Stripe, which directly withdraws money from my bank account.
- I provide all the proofs of dispatch, payment receipt, tracking code that I had kept.
- After another month, the user writes me that the package has finally arrived and I point out that the money has been withdrawn because there is a dispute and Stripe is deciding who to agree with.
- Yesterday, after almost 3 months, Stripe gives me wrong and I lose the dispute. I immediately contact the user who has disappeared and don't answer to my message.
Moral: I lost my money and a 200 euro set.
I have already closed the connections with Stripe because it is a bad service that does not allow a real dialogue to explain the situation and, above all, does not allow updates on a dispute when it is in progress.
I kept all the documents, the conversations on Brickowl with the user (even the one where he tells me that the package has arrived), the receipts and the photos.
I honestly don't know what to do now but beware of this terrible service!
Alessio
In many years of online sales on this and others Lego platforms, this is the first time that happened to me. I will try to make a summary with all the events:
- This summer I receive an order for a 200 euros set and its payment via Stripe from a foreign user with 0 feedback
- I prepare the package and ship two days later, as usual.
- After two weeks the user tells me that the package has not arrived. I check the tracking code and see that it is stopped here in Italy at the postal sorting center
- I make various claims to the local post office
- After a month it finally arrives in the United States
- The user keeps saying not to receive the package and I try to make him understand that it is not up to me and that, probably, in this situation of health emergency, the times are longer.
- User opens a dispute on Stripe, which directly withdraws money from my bank account.
- I provide all the proofs of dispatch, payment receipt, tracking code that I had kept.
- After another month, the user writes me that the package has finally arrived and I point out that the money has been withdrawn because there is a dispute and Stripe is deciding who to agree with.
- Yesterday, after almost 3 months, Stripe gives me wrong and I lose the dispute. I immediately contact the user who has disappeared and don't answer to my message.
Moral: I lost my money and a 200 euro set.
I have already closed the connections with Stripe because it is a bad service that does not allow a real dialogue to explain the situation and, above all, does not allow updates on a dispute when it is in progress.
I kept all the documents, the conversations on Brickowl with the user (even the one where he tells me that the package has arrived), the receipts and the photos.
I honestly don't know what to do now but beware of this terrible service!
Alessio
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Comments
The usual "how did you like the service" etc. ?
And then maybe a second part, will look at the case again, and maybe favor in your win ?
That's what Stripe wrote in his email so i don't have the chance to explain or to inform the admin or who have the power of decision.
Really frustrating!
I personally don't think you'd get anywhere going after Stripe as you'll have given them permission to act the way they did when you signed up with them. However, big companies often tend not to challenge cases raised in the small claims court as the sums involved aren't worth their while, and in such a case you would win by default.
You may be able to get the US authorities to call on the buyer, who may then elect to pay to avoid an escalation and possible criminal record. Of course the authorities may also tell you they're not interested in pursuing it.
I might be tempted to chalk it up to experience, such occurrences are incredibly rare. But make no mistake, what happened on Stripe can happen just as easily on PayPal. Both are beholden to the credit card companies when a chargeback is initiated, and neither can actually intervene to prevent the credit card company from taking the cash back and refunding the buyer. And PayPal would have charged you a fee as well.
I don't know about you but it seems that more and more payments are coming via Stripe, and I may even ditch PayPal this December when they introduce a flat €15 charge for intervening in disputes.
And I would have contacted Stripe the moment the buyer said the order did arrive. It's a bit unclear how much time is between the arriving of the order and the Stripe outcome.
As the online platform with the 4 colored letters is no more Buyer/Seller friendly. I guess they have learned from the experience of claims at Paypal. And for sure, they want to earn the payment fee, themselves without sharing with anybody else.
Selling is always funny and has sometimes some risk. Most time if something get lost, it's most time more an ideal value than hard money.
At the moment i have actually gotten money back from a package that is lost in russia. But if ever i get it, i would never just keep it and pretend nothing.
In this case i dont understand how stripe can make that ending, when you have all that evidence.
I believe internet transactions are under Federal vs. local authority cognizance, so you'd need to contact the FBI on the US side - there may be a field office local to where you shipped the product to. While they may not be able to anything or they respectfully treat it as too small to pursue, a record on that person would be very helpful if this is part of a pattern from that individual. And that's something you can communicate electronically easily.
You should also consider leaving negative feedback on that user and blocking them from buying from you again.
I would also, as others have suggested, pursue stripe in EU small claims - they are technically facilitating theft when you have evidence otherwise to their decision, and it may actually get you a human being on the phone to explain it to (NO idea how they work, obviously). They have NO phone number at all? That boggles me.
I think you chances are far better under EU law to get your funds back vs. under US, though you can certainly try our small claims court system, as well (you'd almost certainly win, but I suspect the court fees, potential lawyer to rep you unless you intend to fly out here, and time would far outweigh what $$ you get back - then again, it may well be worth the point being made! Sadly I think people bank on this.
In the US, we can write legal fees, etc., off of our business taxes as an expense - hopefully you can do that in the EU too. And you can almost certainly write the loss off of your business taxes in the EU, I would think.
People suck, again, really sorry!! :-( On the plus side, this is wildly rare IMHO - the vast majority of people are honest and awesome to work with, but there's always that unrepentant, selfish person here or there that frankly increases the cost of everything for everyone else... :-(
As buyer, Stripe/Paypal or others are great platforms but ,as seller the first one is not ideal.
It could been very simple if i could wrote an update/a message or upload another photo of the customer's message , that told me that the package was arrived, during the dispute.
For 200 euros i don't think it's a great idea to contact the authorities from Italy to US...i think i'll waste my time for nothing.
Now i report an issue on BO but i don't know what's going on.
Thanks a lot for for your support!
Regards,
Alessio