Advice needed having Shopify/ Stripe payment issues

[ripski70]

Hi all, I'm hoping someone can give me some much needed advice.
We have been running our Shopify online store for about 10 months using paypal and stripe payments with no problems at all.
Yesterday an email from stripe payments informs us that as we sell pseudo pharmaceuticals they cannot support our payment gateway anymore!!! we sell 100% natural skincare but have the word brightening on one of our products that apparently we are making an unsupported medical claim. They won't let businesses sell teeth whitening, vitamins, etc.
Seriously, so we have contacted Shopify there reply 'contact Stripe' Stripe 'contact Shopify'
So my question is has anybody else had similar problems ? also which payment gateways do people recommend, We're looking at authorize.net, sagepay or worldpay.

 

[JamieM]

When you say Stripe, do you have an account with Stripe directly or is it Shopify Payments powered by Stripe?

 

[ripski70]

Shopify payments powered by Stripe.

 

[deniser]

The problem is that (last time I looked, I don't know if it has changed) the only gateway that supports 3DS is Sagepay Form but it is not properly integrated with Shopify in the same way that Paypal is so you have to do refunds etc. offsite. It works fine though and most of my customers use it rather than Paypal.

 

[ripski70]

Thank you but sorry what do you mean by 3DS ? we also use paypal which works fine.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Thank you but sorry what do you mean by 3DS ? we also use paypal which works fine.

3DS = 3D Secure (Verified by Visa, MasterCard SecureCode and if you have it AMEX SafeKey). We too have a Shopify integration similar to that of SagePay. The problem is Shopify will charge a merchant transaction fees (%) for using a 3rd party gateway even though they aren't processing the transactions!

 

[antropy]

using paypal and stripe payments with no problems at all.
Yesterday an email from stripe payments informs us that as we sell pseudo pharmaceuticals they cannot support our payment gateway anymore!!!

Just reply saying "Alright, we'll use PayPal then" and switch off Stripe.

 

[Nochexman]

We have been running our Shopify online store for about 10 months using paypal and stripe payments with no problems at all.
Yesterday an email from stripe payments informs us that as we sell pseudo pharmaceuticals they cannot support our payment gateway anymore!!! we sell 100% natural skincare but have the word brightening on one of our products that apparently we are making an unsupported medical claim. They won't let businesses sell teeth whitening, vitamins, etc.
Seriously, so we have contacted Shopify there reply 'contact Stripe' Stripe 'contact Shopify'

Probably worth taking on board that Shopify don't actually support "pseudo pharmaceuticals" either
https://www.shopify.ca/legal/terms-payments-us - item 44 on their prohibited businesses list.

 

[JamieM]

I doubt 3D Secure is a problem as he won't have been using it anyway.

The problem is Shopify will charge a merchant transaction fees (%) for using a 3rd party gateway even though they aren't processing the transactions!

This is the main problem. If you use Paypal only for example you're going to have an additional 2% transaction fee which is an unjustifiable charge in my opinion.

Is dropping the problem product a possibility?

 

[Steve T]

quickest option is to close down Stripe and just use Paypal for customers payments. If you wanted to go down the Sagepay route then you'll need a merchant account with their preferred merchant acquiring bank - Elavon and I'm 99% certain they will not accommodate pseudo pharma's but Worldpay may - give them a try

Hi
We may consider this and can provide a free merchant account which integrates with a Sage Gateway or own own gateway at £19.95. I would need to look at your website, the products and what (if any) claims you may be making i.e. Guaranteed weight loss, miracle cres etc. PM me with your details and I'll look into it for you - merchant rates under 1% for debit cards also
Steve T Worldpay

 

[deniser]

. If you wanted to go down the Sagepay route then you'll need a merchant account with their preferred merchant acquiring bank - Elavon

It's not compulsory to use Elavon; you can use any merchant account you like.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

That's why you should have your own website , eCommerce solution. I bet with you Shopify can simply shut you down by tomorrow, don't need a reason for it. If you selling products in a heavily unregulated sector you can expect such a response from them. They provide a service and allow you to use it with their terms. There are always high risk items payment providers won't seal with it and simply block it with no exception to be consistent with all customers.

 

[fisicx]

Even if they had their own website, it still wouldn't fix the stripe problem.

 

[Nico Albrecht]

I don't like stripe, to easy to setup and that's why people use them. They give you an account let you take payments and later they check up on you. It took me several days with WorldPay and months with Sage Pay to get my accoun. They asked the right question wanted proof, certificates, assurance that my products are good. Stripe you sign up and get an account right away. You chose convenience and now they have questions.

 

[Cind]

This has happened to me recently for one product (a face mist) and is incredibly frustrating. I'm considering PayPal as a gateway since there's a free option but can't tell if they allow for pseudo pharmaceuticals. Does anyone know?
I offered to take off the product but Shopify said they still can't allow me to continue with their gateway. I'm indignant now on keeping the product because something might as well come out of this pointless exercise.

 

[ECS]

Hello

Found this thread in a search as the same thing has just happened to us.

Anybody have any recommendations for an online payment processor ?

Stripe / Shopify have cut us off too with 36hrs notice over a weekend so everything has ground to a halt.

Our products are mainstream and make no wild claims. Nothing 'dodgy' about them at all.

 

[ECS]

We're quite new and low value goods so current turnover p/m is less than 5K.

Am planning to double / treble this though fairly fast with marketing and new product lines

Ave transaction value is £35

We sell optical accessories. Not prescription anything. Just over the counter things like contact lens solutions etc

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Have you had any chargebacks or large volume of declines recently? Have they advised why they have cut you off?

 

[ECS]

No, no chargebacks at all or nothing high vol (sadly !). Incidentally we use an additional company who further profile and guarantee us against chargebacks

Their reason is the same reason that they have given for cutting off a ton of merchants ... there's a lot of threads in the Shopify forums discussing this ( can't link here as haven't made enough posts), with talk of a Class Action Lawsuit.

Lots of disgruntled Shopify merchants.

Stripe do not approve of anything they consider 'risky' or making claims....so any cosmetics containing retinol, glycoloic / fruit acids, skin brighteners, vitamins etc. Even those selling wholly organic health & Beauty products have been affected.

In our case this happens to be some Fish Oil capsules ... these capsules are readily purchasable on the High St.

It's the more they way they have done it, rather than actual doing it. Next to no notice and not enough time to get an alternative in place.

 

[antropy]

In our case this happens to be some Fish Oil capsules ... these capsules are readily purchasable on the High St.

Ah but you said it was optical accessories earlier. So you are selling supplements online which is considered dodgy. What claims have you got on the page? Improves eye health?

 

[Nochexman]

Stripe / Shopify have cut us off too with 36hrs notice over a weekend so everything has ground to a halt.

Hi, did they give you any explanation that might explain what they think you did wrong?

 

[fisicx]

Stripe send out regular emails asking you to read the updated T&C. There is one line which is almost certainly the one you have fallen foul of:

"Prohibited Businesses: Pharmaceuticals and other products that make health claims that have not been approved or verified by the applicable local and/or national regulatory body"

Do you make any claims anywhere that the productds you sell are beneficial without the necessary certification?

 

[ECS]

Yes you are all correct - it is the Pharmaceutical / health claims of some of the products. Strope consider these all to be high risk.

As it happens the things we sell actually have undergone Random Controlled Trials in Government funded research, or by credible research institutions. However that's not really the point.

There are lots of business selling innocuous things that include a whole host of their 'high risk' ingredients such as night repair cream, well woman vitamins, Evening Primrose oil for PMT etc

We've had no issues with the payment processor on our other site which has been in existence for longer. Presumably Boots & Holland & Barrett's Payment Processor has no concerns either.

Even Stripe, as it happens, processes payments for these very same 'high risk' items when they are sold in large retailers. Its just the small ones who've been shafted.

The worst aspect by far however is how terribly they & Shodify have handled this.

I agree that they are well within their remit to stipulate that such items are in violation of their Terms of Service (and as it happens we've never had emails highlighting this) however the decent thing to do, would be to give a period of notice that allows retailers to get an alternative payment processor in place.

It's been terrible just being cut off. Apart from lost revenue, the poor impression it's given existing and any new customers who've tried to place an order and had umpteen error messages has been bad for our image and reputation.

 

[TotalWebSolutions]

Agreed there should be enough notice period to allow you to get something else in place. The problem is you are using a payment bureau service which doesn't require your own merchant account so policy changes for risk do tend to be more frequent and 'quick'.

With a merchant account should the acquirer decide they no longer want to support a particular product, sector or an individual account then they would usually give at least 14 days notice in writing before 'pulling the plug'. There might be cases where they need to pull it quicker but in our experience this is rare.

 

[Scott Hawksworth]

Sorry to hear you were having problems!

Depending on the business you're running, sometimes companies like Stripe can shut you down because they consider your business high risk. If you've built a whole rig around Stripe + Shopify that can be a huge challenge to overcome.

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