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clintonb parent
Posts on social media aren’t an indication that a company is ineffective via normal support channels. Rather, the customer is not satisfied, and feels broadcasting the issue is the best avenue of escalation. There is still a high percentage of cases closed satisfactorily you never hear about, or customers that never open a case because their needs are being fully met.
speakfreely
Except most of the "customer is not satisfied" stories here are Stripe completely ruining the person's business by shutting them out of their account without warning. I don't understand why they can't admit there's something wrong with their process that this seems to happen regularly with no avenue of appeal except a "Stripe ruined my life" post on HN to get some executive's attention.

You guys really seem to think that executives personally fixing these problems on HN makes you look responsive, but it really just makes your company seem broken.

lolinder
This. We've been Stripe customers for a decade, but my team is very nervous about using them for our next product after repeated HN threads about banned companies that end up left with no recourse.

We have had no major issues ourselves, but Stripe's image is tarnished and we can't be confident we can trust it with our business.

pxue
Imho this is bias as some commenters have pointed out. Most if not all public posts are complaints.
lolinder
I didn't say our discomfort was rational, and I didn't say we'll decide against Stripe in the end. I was agreeing with the other commenter that "yeah, sometimes our algorithms screw up and kill legitimate businesses, but you can always email the CEO directly when customer support refuses to help" is not a good look.
coupdejarnac
Don't let someone gaslight you into thinking you're being irrational. You're right to be concerned about a single point of failure for your business.
lolinder
Agreed! This discussion is not going to have an influence on our final decision. I do think it's possible that there's some selection bias going on and the risks aren't as bad as they look. But it's certainly enough to give us pause.
pastacacioepepe
> Most if not all public posts are complaints.

This is exactly the big striking issue. When people like a product they usually speak well about it, but I didn't see that happen for Stripe in a while.

When you see only customers complaining about a product then maybe it's time to look for an alternative.

cldellow
I agree with what you're saying.

At the same time, it feels weird that you work at Stripe, are responding to a question about Stripe, but are talking about companies generally while not disclosing that you work for Stripe.

imwillofficial
How is that weird. Somebody can have a view on a topic divorced from their employer.

It’s as if people are people or something

cldellow
Yeah, weird's an imprecise adjective. I'm not sure what the right one is -- I'm not assuming a nefarious motive, so I wanted a word that didn't have too much emotional baggage.

For me, it's about transparency. Definitely, a Stripe employee can have opinions about how support works. But for me, I feel it's still valuable to disclose your affiliation.

I'd feel similarly if it turned out that aliqot (the OP) worked for Paypal and didn't disclose that. Of course a Paypal employee can have an opinion about how customer service should work at their competitor, but it'd inform how I interpret the question.

gsich
I think it only matters when you work in a similar field, Stripe and Paypal yes. Stripe and Microsoft no. (just an example)
aliqot
I appreciated the frank response. Personally speaking, comment disclaimers in 2022 are overdone to the point where it immediately puts on a facade of "im not a company guy right now, but lemme be a company guy real quick under the guise of honesty"
nailer
what other avenues of escalation are there?

You can send evidence that the customer purchased the product and is using it to Stripe and they’ll still issue a refund. Google can delete your account and not say why. There’s no other way to escalate: support people will tell you they’ve done all they can and close any further tickets you open. Social media is the only other resort.

CharlesW
You could also email their CXOs. Many will appreciate direct (considerate) customer feedback that they may not be hearing from their teams. Claire Hughes Johnson, Stripe's Chief Operating Officer, who presumably oversees service/support, is at claire@stripe.com¹.

¹ FYI, this email was publicly discoverable via search engines and took a few seconds to find.

xyzzy_plugh
A quick Google shows she stepped down as COO over a year ago, so possibly not a great example.
CharlesW
Thanks for posting that. So does Stripe just not have a COO at the moment?
clintonb OP
I think escalation via social media is valid if you’ve exhausted all other avenues and have not been satisfied. I’ve done it personally with mixed results.

I do not think posts on social media are indicative of a complete failure of the customer support system.

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