Can I request a title change, maybe to "Stripe just booted us with 5 days notice". I'm not normally phased by the f-bomb but it's so distracting on the HN front page.
An even better title change would be "We just got booted from Stripe for violating their terms and likely a few federal laws".
It's crazy to me that someone running a business in the marijuana industry would not be aware of, and accept the risk that their business is not favored by banking services nor the Fed. You knew you were breaking, at the very least, Stripes ToS when you processed payments for drugs...
Regardless of your feeling about marijuana and the law... reality stands.
We don't process any payments for any drugs. It's software for reporting data to the State of Washington. No different than software for managing inventory for alcohol or pharma.
You are ignoring the fact that the laws in Washington State do not trump Federal laws. Your entire business was built in direct opposition to Federal Law.
You helped organize, manage, and facilitate drug trade as far as the Fed is concerned.
Stripe is in the banking industry -- heavily regulated by the Fed. They can't have customers knowingly violating Federal law, and potentially passing drug money (again, as far as the Fed is concerned) through their network. It's a huge risk to them.
You cannot blame Stripe for shutting you down.
It's irresponsible and downright ridiculous to blame Stripe for your business's dealings and/or shortsightedness.
You weren't "Fucked" by Stripe... you "Fucked" yourself.
Stripe's terms say that "Marijuana dispensaries and related businesses" are prohibited. You're certainly not a dispensary, but reporting software designed and advertised for one sounds like a "related business" to me.
Seems appropriate. If the merchant wants to refund their customer Stripe should help them, not tell them to f-off. Stripe really did something no one civilized would expect and left the company and company's customers in the lurch on this one.
