Payments are failing and you don't know why.
Payment failures have specific causes: card declines, webhook delivery failures, Stripe integration bugs, and checkout flow issues. Each has a specific fix. Building payment systems correctly requires handling the edge cases that your happy-path implementation ignored.
Payments are failing — either card declines, missing webhook events, incorrect billing amounts, or checkout errors — and revenue is being lost as a result
Payment failure root causes, in order of frequency:
Stripe webhook delivery failures. Your endpoint isn't responding correctly (returning non-200 status), isn't verifying the webhook signature, or is processing events slowly. Stripe retries failed webhooks, but if retries all fail, the event is lost. Your database gets out of sync with Stripe's state. Fix: idempotent webhook handler, correct signature verification, under 5-second processing time.
Missing webhook events. Your application creates a Stripe subscription but only handles checkout.session.completed. The subscription might get updated (customer.subscription.updated), cancelled (customer.subscription.deleted), or have a failed payment (invoice.payment_failed). If you're not handling all relevant events, state drift occurs. Fix: audit which events are being processed and add handlers for the missing ones.
Card decline handling. Stripe declines can be retried, updated with a new card, or are permanent (fraud). If your integration doesn't distinguish between these, you're probably emailing users about declines unnecessarily (or not emailing them when you should). Fix: implement Stripe's recommended decline handling flow.
Race conditions in checkout. Two checkout.session.completed events processed simultaneously (Stripe occasionally delivers duplicates). Without idempotency checks, users get double-provisioned or double-charged. Fix: idempotency keys and unique constraints.
3D Secure failures. European regulations require 3D Secure for many card transactions. An integration that doesn't handle 3DS redirect correctly fails silently for EU users. Fix: implement Stripe's Payment Intents with return URL handling.
Payment integration that handles declines correctly, processes webhooks reliably, and has visibility into failure rates — with Stripe's error handling patterns implemented correctly
Webhook audit
verify all relevant events are handled and processed correctly
Idempotent webhook handler
with signature verification
Decline handling flow
with retry prompts for soft declines
Stripe Dashboard alerting
for failed payments
Test coverage
for payment edge cases
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
Payment integration that handles declines correctly, processes webhooks reliably, and has visibility into failure rates — with Stripe's error handling patterns implemented correctly
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
Payment audit and fix is a defined scope. The audit identifies the problems; the fix addresses them.
Related engagements.
Stripe billing is more complex than the docs suggest. The edge cases are where revenue leaks.
Read more02Stripe webhooks are the nervous system of your billing. When they fail, things break silently.
Read more03Payment bugs are revenue leaks. Every failed checkout is money left on the table.
Read moreQuestions, answered.
Stripe Dashboard → Developers → Webhooks → Events shows all events and their delivery status. Failed events are clearly marked.
Yes. The audit is the first deliverable — a written report of what's broken and what the fixes are. The build phase implements the fixes at fixed price.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.