I was charged $55.00 fees from Subtack and Stripe
Please inform yourself so this does not happen to me or other creators.
My blogs are usually about healthy foods and how to create your own health. I was working on a new blog all about protein on a vegan or vegetarian diet, which will be released soon when I am done writing it. However last week was interrupted by something that happened to me that ended up taking up a huge amount of my time and cost me $55.00. I would like to share with you what happened to help inform people, so this does not happen again to me or to other creators.
Picture is Nishime Vegetables with Sweet and Sour Sauce, Valentine’s Cooking Class, Wed. Feb. 7, details below.
It is a long narrative to describe what happened, so please bear with me as I explain it and at the end, I will make key points about what happened to summarize what to learn from this experience.
Stripe is the company that handles the money for Substack.
Sat. Jan. 27 - A supporter subscribed for $300.00 (full year) - I am notified through email ($300.00 is the most amount to pay for a yearly subscription, there are cheaper options)
Sun. Jan. 28 - Supporter unsubscribes - I am notified through email
Tues. Jan. 30 - I am notified through email I have a negative balance on my Stripe account - I am unaware at this time that Stripe has attempted to withdraw from my bank account $270.00, no notification that this was going to be deducted from my bank account - I do not have the funds to cover the $270.00 - Had this transaction been able to go through and I had outstanding checks coming to my bank, I would have had insufficient funds charged to my bank if the checks had bounced (thankfully this did not happen because I did not have $270.00 in my bank account)
Also on Tues. Jan. 30 - I call Stripe. I am on the phone for an hour attempting to understand what is happening. Here is what I was told: The supporter paid $300.00 - $259.11 is in transit to my bank account (I am going to round that up to $260.00 for the rest of the narrative) - I owe Stripe $270.00 because there is a $10.00 fee to them, Stripe - I explain I do not have $270.00 in my bank, that once the $260.00 is deposited I can send back $270.00 - I was never told they would just automatically withdraw the $270.00 when I had enough funds in my account, I was under the impression I had to call back to do the transaction
Wed. Jan. 31 - I am notified through email that a dispute from the supporters charge card account has been filed and I am being charged $15.00 dispute fee - And once again I get an email from Stripe saying I have a negative balance on Stripe - I think that I have called so they should know I will pay it when I have the funds - The $260.00 had not been deposited to my bank account yet
Thurs. Feb. 1 - I reach out through email to the supporter to explain I am being charged $25.00 for these transactions and ask if they made a mistake - The response from the supporter - they had signed up last year for a $300.00 yearly subscription to help support me, they were not notified and the subscription automatically renewed - they think I am in control of this, they use words such as ‘I charged them $300.00’, ‘I’ did not notify them of the automatic re-subscribe that happened, they refer to my Substack page as ‘my website’, they said they had signed up for my ‘newsletter’ (Substack is a blog, not a newsletter), unfortunately they believe I am in charge of all of this - the supporter says they sent me an email and called me - I did not receive an email from them - they did call and left a message on my answering machine, Mon. Jan. 29, at that time, I did not know what exactly was going on and thought the message may be a scam of someone trying to get money from me because all of these transactions I am not in control of, Substack and Stripe are in control of this - the phone message that was left said that ‘I’ had charged them $300.00 and they wanted ‘me’ to send the money back to them, that is why I thought maybe it was a scam - My response to the supporters email is to thank them for their support last year and to explain that I am not in control of all of this and that I am being charged $25.00 in fees
Also on Thurs. Feb. 1 - In the morning I go to my bank to deposit some checks and to check to see if the $260.00 had been deposited yet, it has been deposited - as soon as I get home I call Stripe to send them the $270.00 they want - I am informed that the $270.00 has already been withdrawn, without my consent and no notified this has happened - this is when I realize that they attempted this on Tues. and Wed. also - while on the phone with Stripe (again for an hour) I am informed I owe them another $40.00. WHAT? It takes a while for the lady to explain all of this because she kept just double talking - There is now a $30.00 fee from Substack that I am being charged also - that is where the original payment of $300.00 changed to $260.00 being sent to my bank account, the difference $30.00 plus the $10.00 Stripe fee - $300.00 - $40.00 = $260.00 (that was deposited in my bank) - I owe Substack this $30.00 - while on the phone I am told I can contact Substack and ask for the $30.00 to be refunded to me and I was given a phone number - that phone number is not working - Stripe sends me an email detailing the phone conversation I had with them - I respond to the email informing them the phone number they gave me for Substack does not work - Stripe gets back to me saying I have to send an email to get a hold of Substack - I proceed to have to type out the whole story in an email to Substack explaining what has happened and asking if they can give me a refund of the $30.00 so I do not have to pay it - A few emails sent back and forth from Substack (which took the better part of the day) and I am told the $30.00 had been refunded to me - IT HAS NOT!
Also on Thurs. Feb. 1 - I sent another email to the supporter explaining I am now being charged $55.00 in fees from Substack and Stripe - there is no response and there is still no response from them
Fri. Feb. 2 - $40.00 is taken out of my bank account to cover the $30.00 fee and the $15.00 charge card dispute fee (yes, I know that is $45.00, there was a $5.00 transaction in my Stripe account from another subscriber that had nothing to do with this situation, however that $5.00 was used to cover the fees, adding to the confusion)
Sat. Feb. 3 - Substack sends me an email to ask ‘How would I rate the support I received?’ I click ‘Bad. I am unsatisfied’. It then goes to a page to fill out why you are unsatisfied - I take the time to fill it out - there is no ‘submit’ button, no way to submit the unsatisfied review to them
Button Line: I was charged these fees:
$10.00 fee to Stripe
$15.00 fee to the supporter’s charge card for the dispute
$30.00 fee to Substack
Total $55.00
Takeaways from this:
If you subscribe to anyone on Substack, KNOW that your subscription will renew the next year.
If you plan to un- subscribe to a creator, do it before it renews.
Substack is a blog, an article of information that is sent to you, it is not a newsletter.
The creator of the Substack that you are supporting, has nothing to do with the money transactions (in fact they get a portion of the money taken out for fees when you become a paid subscriber)
If you subscribe to a Substack and then get an email from that creator, it is from Substack, not the creator, they are just using our names.
Substack is separate from us creators.
Substack has terrible customer service and the only way to communicate with them is through email.
I just do not want this to happen to myself or any other Substack creator. These charges should all be paid by either Stripe or Substack. Me, as the creator had nothing to do with this and I am being charged all the fees, $55.00.
I appreciate all who subscribe to my blog. I know that the person who subscribed and then un- subscribed is as innocent as myself in this matter.
Thank you to all who subscribe to my blog. Thank you for reading the narrative of what happened and I hope everyone learned something from this happening to me and me sharing it with the readers.
To sign up for my newsletter and all the information about my cooking classes, counseling sessions, how to buy my cookbooks, nutritional information about food and my recipe of the month, my website:
https://www.macroval.com/index.html
I was interviewed by Dr. Brian Hooker!!!
Recently I had many new subscribers, I believe it was from my interview on Children’s Health Defense Morning TV show, Doctors and Scientist. I was interviewed by the wonderful Dr. Brian Hooker. It was an honor to be on CHD TV and to meet Dr. Hooker. You can watch it here:
https://live.childrenshealthdefense.org/chd-tv/shows/good-morning-chd/you-are-what-you-eat/
The best way to learn about healthy whole foods is to attend a cooking class.
Valentine's Dinner - Kahsa Bowls with Pureed Vegetable Topping - Cooking Class
Wed. Feb. 7 - 6 to 8:30 PM (ET)
In Person $65.00 - Virtual $55.00
Learn how to make a fancy dinner for your sweetie. Recipes feature kasha, the signature whole grain for winter and it is gluten free.
Menu: Kasha Millet Bowls with Pureed Sweet Potato Parsnip Puree, Nishime style Vegetables with a Sweet and Sour Sauce and for dessert, and Sweets for your Sweetie, Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Brownies.
Red Sauce - No Tomatoes - Spaghetti Cooking Class
Thursday, Feb. 29 - 6:30 to 8:00 PM (ET)
Longer hour and a half class - Virtual $36.00
Tomatoes are nightshade vegetables that can cause joint pain and make arthritis worse. Learn how to make a Red Sauce that tastes just like tomato sauce but with no tomatoes. Plus you will learn how to make Spaghetti using the Red Sauce.
A preview of what I have been working on for the next blog, all about protein. Listen to my radio show, REAL FOOD with Chef Val, I talk about where you get protein on a vegan or vegetation diet.
https://www.blogtalkradio.com/macrovalrealfood/2024/01/31/real-food-with-chef-val
Get in the Kitchen and Cook Healthy!
Thank you all for your support. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to help support my work.