About 30% of our Stripe payments suddenly started failing at 3D Secure authentication, and support insisted it was not possible.
At first, we assumed it was just a coincidence. But after a couple of days, the pattern became impossible to ignore:
- Mostly European and UK customers
- Most failures occurred during 3D Secure authentication
- Some customers trying 3, 4, even 6 times
- A few ending up with two failed orders
In six years of running this business, we’ve had a spotless record. No disputes, clean history, refunds handled properly. Payment errors were rare — maybe around 1%.
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Stripe payments started failing dramatically: almost always at the 3D Secure step
From everything I knew, 3D Secure is handled by the issuing bank. So either something massive was failing across multiple banks… or there was a serious issue on Stripe’s side… or what we were seeing simply didn’t make sense.
I searched online. Nothing. Asked around in communities. Still nothing.
It seemed like it was just us.
So I contacted Stripe support.
First-level support (likely AI-assisted) wasn’t very helpful. No real explanation — just a suggestion to move to a more expensive plan, without any clarity or guarantee.
I asked to speak with a human.
We went through the same conversation loop for more than an hour!
Me: We’re seeing a sudden spike in 3D Secure failures
Support: Could you provide some payment IDs?
Me: Here’s one: XXXX…
Support: Let me check…
(5–10 minutes pass)
Support: Nothing wrong on our side. That’s not possible.
Me: I’m losing customers — they’re leaving. I can’t just tell them to contact their bank.
Support: Your customers should contact their bank
Me: But it started suddenly, something changed
Support: Let me check again…
(5–10 minutes pass)
Support: Yes, I’ve checked. This isn’t possible
After more than an hour, I asked:
Me: Are you an AI?
Support: No, I’m a real person
Me: Could you escalate this to someone else?
Eventually, it was escalated.
I explained everything again to Tier 2 support. I provided the payment IDs again. They said they would investigate and follow up by email. At that point, I wasn’t expecting much.
Two days later, I got the solution.
They confirmed that something on their side had affected our account — what seemed to be some kind of internal fraud prevention or “sandbox” state.
This is the exact response I received by email:
“I am pleased to inform you that your Stripe account is now fully active and ready to process payments and transfers. The previous issues were due to a temporary review of your account, which has now been resolved.”
Stripe support email
Despite our six-year clean history.
To their credit, once identified, the issue was resolved quickly. From that moment on, 3D Secure errors went back to normal levels, and everything behaved normally again.
I’m ultimately happy with Stripe support. Unlike a small company like ours, they’re a very large company, and I understand that support has to work that way. They solved it quickly, and that’s what matters.
Why I’m sharing this
First, because some customers couldn’t complete their purchases and left frustrated — they deserve an explanation.
But also because this kind of situation is easy to dismiss. When you’re told something is “impossible”, the natural reaction is to doubt yourself.
In this case, that would have been a mistake.
Sometimes the bug is real.
What did I learn from this experience?
- Always keep an eye on any error that appears.
- Never dismiss something that seems impossible if you don’t have a better explanation.
- Don’t be afraid to ask “stupid” questions. Be persistent, even if it gets annoying.
