(I work at Stripe but don’t in any way speak for the company. This purely personal.)
I don’t mind them publishing this. It doesn’t feel unfair or dramatizing or in bad faith (etc.)
At the end of the day we build things to try and make other humans’ lives easier; to wrap the complexities of “global financial internet infrastructure” so business owners like the OP can focus on things that are not “collecting Canadian taxes”.
Whether Stripe ended up making the “right” changes in this case or not, we didn’t hit that bar.
And as “someone who works for Stripe but absolutely in no way speaks for Stripe”, it’s a productive reminder of the downstream effects of what we build. What we build has real world implications, ones people at Stripe take very seriously.
It hurts to read about the misses, but I would 10000% rather read about it on the front page of HN than us not know about it. And in this case, again, what they wrote doesn’t feel like it’s in bad faith, so it’s useful feedback.
> what they wrote doesn’t feel like it’s in bad faith
Not a stripe employee, but this is why I’m glad this was written and published, too.
Obviously the author is upset — I would be, too! — but even if I don’t totally agree with them, they presented their story in a very reasonable, non-inflammatory way, and suggested improvements.
That’s going above and beyond, as far “customer complaint” goes.
I work for a company about which people talk a lot publicly (and which I do not represent officially or speak for in any sense), and I tend to feel the same way.
Eighty times out of a hundred, it's solid signal of something.
Nineteen times out of a hundred, it's hilariously off base in a way that's good for a laugh.
It's only maybe that one percent that I wish someone had kept their rude/bad/ignorant/whatever opinion to themselves -- but the eighty percent are worth being 'put on blast' however many times, because that's how you stay focused on making things better. (And the nineteen remind you not to take it too seriously)
I don’t mind them publishing this. It doesn’t feel unfair or dramatizing or in bad faith (etc.)
At the end of the day we build things to try and make other humans’ lives easier; to wrap the complexities of “global financial internet infrastructure” so business owners like the OP can focus on things that are not “collecting Canadian taxes”.
Whether Stripe ended up making the “right” changes in this case or not, we didn’t hit that bar.
And as “someone who works for Stripe but absolutely in no way speaks for Stripe”, it’s a productive reminder of the downstream effects of what we build. What we build has real world implications, ones people at Stripe take very seriously.
It hurts to read about the misses, but I would 10000% rather read about it on the front page of HN than us not know about it. And in this case, again, what they wrote doesn’t feel like it’s in bad faith, so it’s useful feedback.