I think we probably do disagree to some degree here. In particular, Stripe was actually my next choice as an example of how not to do transparent value-based pricing, precisely because its pricing used to be simple and clearly tied to the value in processing a transaction, but over time it has drifted away from that into something that I (running a long-time Stripe merchant) don't find natural or easy to remember.
Stripe now seems to have several distinct services, each with their own pricing. It's moved some functionality that used to be inclusive into those other services at extra charge. It's grandfathered, but not forever, some customers on different rates and different functionality shifts. It's stopped waiving some fees in cases of reversed transactions. There are different possible fees for international payments depending on locations, on top of any currency conversion fees and exchange rates. I could no longer tell you, without looking things up, what we're paying to Stripe for any given transaction now or how much of it Stripe would keep if for example we later decided to refund that transaction.
I do know that the added complexity has resulted in higher overall fees for us, and that has certainly had a deterrent effect within my own businesses and professional network. For example, while it wasn't the only factor in our decision, my new business has looked elsewhere for payment processing. A few years ago, all of the founders would probably have just assumed by default that we'd use Stripe, because we'd all had generally positive experiences with it before.
Stripe now seems to have several distinct services, each with their own pricing. It's moved some functionality that used to be inclusive into those other services at extra charge. It's grandfathered, but not forever, some customers on different rates and different functionality shifts. It's stopped waiving some fees in cases of reversed transactions. There are different possible fees for international payments depending on locations, on top of any currency conversion fees and exchange rates. I could no longer tell you, without looking things up, what we're paying to Stripe for any given transaction now or how much of it Stripe would keep if for example we later decided to refund that transaction.
I do know that the added complexity has resulted in higher overall fees for us, and that has certainly had a deterrent effect within my own businesses and professional network. For example, while it wasn't the only factor in our decision, my new business has looked elsewhere for payment processing. A few years ago, all of the founders would probably have just assumed by default that we'd use Stripe, because we'd all had generally positive experiences with it before.