Square Overall Rating
Review Updated: 5/9/2012
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Square Overview
Unlike most Square (squareup.com) reviews, this Square up review focuses primarily on the things that matter to merchants and business owners, instead of just focusing on the Square’s technology. Square is often called “Square up” or “Squareup” because of the domain that Square uses for its website; however, the official name is for the company is “Square.” The names will be used interchangeably in this review.
Founded in February of 2009 by Jack Dorsey who is also the founder of Twitter.com, Square has seen tremendous growth in a very short amount of time. Much of the company’s success can be attributed to the fact that Square has ingeniously broken the mold of traditional credit card processing by removing the traditional barriers to entry and bringing credit card acceptance to the individual. iPhone, iPad and Android users simply fill out a quick form, download the Square app, and then await the arrival of the Square up reader in the mail. The Square credit card reader simply plugs into the headphone jack of the phone making it a mobile credit card terminal. In fact, Square’s model has been so successful that it has attracted big name competitors such as Intuit (GoPayment) and North American Bancard (Pay Anywhere) to offer similar mobile processing services.
[Check out the top recommended mobile processors]
Square Sales and Marketing Tactics | A+
Another area where Square differs greatly is in how it markets and sells its service. Where most merchant account providers utilize poorly trained outside independent agents who are focused on setting high fees for big commissions, Square relies mostly on online marketing and partnerships with retailers and cell phone service providers. Nearly all of Squares customers sign up directly through the homepage of the company’s website or by purchasing a reader a store with a 100% mail-in rebate. Square has also enjoyed resounding online buzz and word of mouth promotion. With the removal of sales agents and middlemen, Square avoids the “hidden fee” problem of which the credit card processing industry is notorious. Square’s pricing is also straight forward and easy to understand and will be covered later in this review.
Square Up Cost, Fees and Contract Terms | C-
The Good
One of the most appealing aspects of Square is that, unlike nearly every other processor, Square credit card processing has only one fee: the processing fee of a transaction. There are no other fees that are typical of credit card processing, such as activation fees, monthly fees, gateway fees, downgrade fees and early termination fees. Square has no additional monthly fees whatsoever and no monthly minimum processing fees.
No matter the card type, merchants pay a single flat rate of 2.75% for swiped transactions, or 3.5% + $0.15 per typed transaction (as of this review). Although the transaction rate is higher than the “Qualified” rate of most traditional merchant accounts, it is comparable to the “Mid-Qualified” and “Non-Qualified” downgrade surcharges that about 80% of most transactions experience in a traditional merchant account setup. The rate is, however, much more expensive than the Interchange Pass-through rate pricing model. Given that most merchants do not have Interchange Pass-through, the fact that Square has no monthly fees and no time commitment makes it one of the most affordable credit processing options in the market. Nevertheless, Square does have some drawbacks.
The Not-So-Good
Square does not verify the credit history of its customers (a benefit for some) so it sets a few limitations to avoid potential losses to fraud. Square states that there is no limit to the amount of money that can be accepted per transaction or per month, which is a half truth at best. Instead of denying large transactions or high volumes of sales at the time of transaction, the company relies on two methods to limit possible fraud.
The first method is the most transparent and can be found with a little research in Square’s help section, but the company does a poor job of disclosing it before merchants run into a problem. Square will place holds on funds of card-not-present sales for 30 days if more than $1,000 is charged within any rolling seven day period. This means that if a merchant keys-in $1,100 in sales within a seven day period (either in a single transaction or multiple), instead of swiping the card through the card reader, the extra $100 will be held by Square for 30 days. This policy applies to any amount over $1,000 in any seven day time period. Merchants who regularly process more than $1,000 in seven days in card-not-present sales have two options to circumvent the deposit hold. With the first option, Square periodically reviews accounts and will raise the limit automatically for merchants that regularly process over the $1000 in card-not-present sales, have few refunds and very few to no chargebacks. With the second option, merchants can request a form by emailing Square Support to request a raise the deposit limit.
The second method Square uses to limit fraud is much less transparent and the reason for the company’s low score in this section. Merchants are reporting in great numbers that Square has randomly and without explanation, or notification, placed lengthy holds on their funds – even with swiped transactions. Square appears to rely on undisclosed algorithmic “risk factors” to place automatic holds on transactions or amounts that it deems suspicious. It many cases it appears to flag a high number of legitimate transactions without notifying the merchant of the hold, or the reason for it. Square’s policies regarding these types of holds are murky at best and make the service highly undesirable for higher volume merchants. It appears that the company needs to do a much better job of educating merchants about the types of transactions the have a risk of being held, notifying merchants when transactions have been held, and communicating with the merchant through the hold process. Since fund holding can greatly impact a merchant’s operations, the grade for this section will remain low until Square improve the system.
[$1000 card-not-present hold a problem? Find a mobile provider that doesn't have it]
Square Customer Service, Complaints & Dispute Resolution | F
Another area that Square comes up short in this review is in its customer service. For a company that has only been around for about two year, Square is racking up a lot of complaints. The majority of the complaints fall on three areas: Practically non-existent merchant phone support, misunderstanding and non-disclosure of the $1,000+ card-not-present deposit hold policy, and complaints of random fund holding with no explanation or communication.
The company appears to rely too heavily on customer service provided by email, a Twitter support page, and a support blog. This can pose a big drawback for many, especially for merchants who are not willing to wait for an email response. The company does, in fact, have a phone number ((415) 375-3176) but it appears to go to a voicemail system for the majority of callers. Additionally, many merchant are reporting wait times of several days before getting a response from Square regardless of how they contacted the company. For many, it seems inexcusable for a financial services company to not have a readily available 800-number helpline.
Square could greatly improve its rating in this section by adding a dedicated customer support number and better communicating its hold policies.
[Need a mobile processor with a dedicated customer support line? Check out GoPayment]
Square Better Business Bureau Report | F
As of this update, Square is not showing as accredited on the Better Business Bureau website and the BBB is reporting a “No Rating“ stating that the report is under review – which had an “F” rating during our last check A total of 105 complaints have been filed in the last 36 months which is up from 44 complaints as of the last update of this review. Of the complaints 55 are regarding problems with service, 38 with billing and collection, eight with delivery and four in advertising and sales. It should also be noted that Square has been in business for less than the 36 month reporting period.
Based on the volume type of complaints, and that the last updated report had an “F” rating, we will hold the rating to an “F” until the BBB updates its report.
Bottom Line
Square is definitely on the right track with providing an easy credit card processing solution with no long-term commitments and no monthly fees. The service is proving to have some major drawbacks for higher volume merchants because of murky fund holding policies and poor customer support. It appears that Square is best suited for individuals who have an occasional need to accept a credit card, and merchants with small ticket and low volume credit card sales.
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492 comments
Sid Smith
April 26, 2012 at 10:58 am (UTC -7)
Overall I have had a good experience with Square up, until recently. If you get a payment over $1,000 they will hold the amount over $1,000 for 30 days. This I did not know until I had to figure out why our funds were not fully deposited in our account.
Why would any business hold funds for 30 days? This is a bad business practice and I am not new to Square up. We sure wish they would give our money back.
Sid Smith
gregg ricca
April 25, 2012 at 3:02 pm (UTC -7)
i can assure you , you willk not be satisfied with square . you will NEVER get a human on the phone EVER and email response is poor at best . You will be sorry you did if you do signup . STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS .YOUR SANITY IS WORTH MORE .
Mary Liebhold
April 25, 2012 at 9:23 am (UTC -7)
I did a test charge of $11.00. No problem. I SWIPED two charge on April 20. One for $4000.00 and one for $25,000. On Friday night I was asked (via email) for a number of supporting documents for the $25,000. Scanned and sent them Monday AM. Today is Wednesday and I got another email asking for one of the ones I sent Monday. Cannot talk to any one. Neither payment is deposited. My reply today to look again at mondays documents received another “you are important and we will get back in 24 hours” They did not get back in 24 hours on Monday and I can’t find why they have not deposited my funds. The cards were swiped. nothing in their promos or agreements indicate that they will ask for copies of contracts, tax forms or business licenses, copies of my print ads and my website address. That could have been set up ahead of time to avoid these delays that are going to last who knows how long.
The phone # doesn’t even allow a message. says to send info via email.
No wonder they have a lot of money. Its mine.
Laura
May 3, 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -7)
Don’t Look for your funds anytime soon….I am going through the same thing and they finally told me they would hold almost 40k for 120 days…Sent them all docs as well!
Ben
April 25, 2012 at 8:40 am (UTC -7)
Square up is not all it’s cracked up to be. When things don’t go well, tell your customer you’ll get back with them in 24 hrs after square up is in touch with you! See how that goes over. It didn’t work on my android, as they claimed, even though it’s listed as. Kudos to those that claim it works well for them. I’ll seek a better, effective alternative.
Michelle
April 24, 2012 at 1:13 pm (UTC -7)
Just notice a transaction was’nt put in my account
From April 7th a it’s now AprIl 24th.
No way to contact these people.
Matt
April 24, 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -7)
CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER (415)375-3176…….Wait for the shpeal and then it’ll prompt you to press #? for this, and # for that….Just press 7 and you’ll either geta LIVE PERSON or a voicemail directing you to leave a message……If you get the voicemail just keep calling back and with a little luck you’ll get a person but no matter what happens they will not be able to assist you and will simply read their script for complaints which goes……………..”I strongly recommend that you contact account services by email and provide the documentation that was request”…….>EVEN IF YOU GAVE THEM WHAT THEY REQUESTED…….This service sucks!
Mike
April 23, 2012 at 12:39 pm (UTC -7)
Not sure why, but they have sold or just gave out my email address. This is my finnancial email, I don’t give it out to ANYONE, but since I signed with Square, I get almost 100 junk/spam/phishing emails A DAY! What a waste of my time.
F- = Get a paypal reader, they may charge a larger fee, but they don’t waste your time!
TRUTH
April 24, 2012 at 6:11 am (UTC -7)
****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****
DON’T NOT USE SQUARE for large transactions!!!!
$1000.00 MAX per week!!!!
I use them on my small transactional retail business and they are great.
So I decided to use them on my larger transportation business, that requires larger payments. They ARE NOT MEANT to be used for LARGE transactions. They have been holding my money (an amount well over $5000.00) for almost 2 weeks. I have sent all their requests for documentation, with NO RELEASE of funds. I understand their need for safety with fraudulent transactions. However, they assured me that once they recieved the documents they would release the funds. I’m STILL WAITING.
SQUARE has a good concept, and is great for small transactional type business. Hopefully they will rectify these larger issues and become and even greater company.
However USE CAUTION ON LARGE TRANSACTIONS OVER $1000.00.
I’m glad I use them for small transactions, or I would think they are a scam.
Truth is, they are not. I don’t like their customer support reaction time on the larger issues, but they have served me well on the smaller transactional business.
IM PISSED!!!!!
But I understand.
SQUARE, PLEASE FIX THIS ISSUE. You’re a good company!
David
April 24, 2012 at 12:54 pm (UTC -7)
If you would like to call them on their 415 number, the extension is 202 and I got a hold of someone. I’m currently on the phone with them right now trying to sort out the bs they put me thru.
Happy with Square
April 22, 2012 at 11:12 pm (UTC -7)
i hve used Square for several months and have had no problems. In Florida we have seasonal sales from November thru April. With the old companies we had to pay fees each month we were not doing business that amounted to about $70 per month for a wireless terminal. By the time we paid wireless access fees, batch fees, non-qualified card rates, high rates for American Express, etc; we were paying much more than the quoted rate of 1.69%. The 2.75% across the board rate for swiped transactions from Square computes as a better deal and since we sell at Craft Shows it is much more convienient than carrying a bulky wireless machine. Also, since the customer is right in front of us swiping a card is not a problem. We also get our money deposited so it is normally available the next buisiness day for transactions done before 3 pm est.
I am very happy with Square for the volume of buisiness I normally run through on swiped charges is about $1,000 to $1,500 per week during “season” and we do no charges that are card not present.
M
April 23, 2012 at 1:52 pm (UTC -7)
DO NOT USE SQUARE !!!!
We have used them for a few times only but they are very bad.
They have several of our payments for over 20 days. It was a $300 and a $500 charge. They do not respond to emails and never return voice mail messages. Their only response was a generic email. I sent them a letter from my customer that they are happy with my services and they want the money to be released to them or to us. Nothing happening.
Never ever use them!! I used other merchant services and never had this problem, I will tell to everybody to stay away from a company which is irresponsible. Everything can be worked out with good communication, it is frightening that they are in business and nobody stops them. Now it seems like I have to take them to court to get my money. I am in business for much longer than they are, our corporation was founded in 2001, never one complaint against us. Why Californian tech. companies think that they are so HIP, that they are above the law?!?!
JG
April 21, 2012 at 8:25 pm (UTC -7)
AWFUL COMPANY! This is a great company for garage sales but NOT for a real business. They suck when it comes to fighting charge-backs too. They only correspond through email which is insane! Do not make the same mistake as me! Use a solid bank merchant service NOT SQUARE
ed
April 19, 2012 at 5:30 pm (UTC -7)
Foolishly, i was just swept into the $1000 non-swiped limit, and they are now holding over $2600 of mine.
Considering this seems to be a massive problem for everyone, AND Jack Dorsey of Twitter is the founder; the greatest pressure that can come to bare on Square can be social media. It is time to saturate all outlets, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., and especially Twitter alerting everyone of this shameful business and their unethical practices. ACT NOW MY FRIENDS! THIS IS WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA WAS DESIGNED FOR!!!
robin varian
April 21, 2012 at 11:22 am (UTC -7)
I use square to my frustration. they have not made one deposit yet. i expected 24 hour deposit. they requested company documents to verify our government authenticity. we supplied it in one day. THEY DO NOT CARE. THEY WILL KEEP YOUR MONEY FOR AS LONG AS THEY CAN. It is frustrating that we can not speak to then EVER! Please tell every one that you know. Post it on all websites. Square is a scam. I have accepted small dollar card transactions and still not one cent has been deposited. they do not reply to emails. I have requested a phone call from them. They have not responded. Has anyone started a class action suit against them? Robin
Kelli
April 24, 2012 at 11:08 pm (UTC -7)
Ed,
I did a Twitter blast abt (hashtag) #SquareUp & #JackDorsey…I was sure 2 make note their BBB rating is an F….the only reason it’s better other places is because of the manipulative sales tactics they use. We found the cust srv number here…THANK GOODNESS! And after 2 VM & another call that was rerouted many times until my husband just guessed an extension…And when they answered they were obviously surprised to have a consumer on the line! But after 2 wks of steadily keeping after them thru phone calls & SOCIAL MEDIA our funds were released!!! These are things that HAVE to be brought to social media’s attn…that’s what it’s for; and I firmly believe you reap what you sow in all facets of life! Thanks to this outlet and review from Philip Parker or I would still be ill-informed!
DO NOT USE SQUARE!
April 19, 2012 at 4:29 pm (UTC -7)
Used square a few times and they suck! It has taken me weeks to get any kind of reply, other than an auto reply, to find out where my deposits are. THEY HAVE AN -F- RATING WITH THE BBB!!!!! And for very good reason. After finally finding a phone number online for them someone had posted I called and left multiple voice mails with NO, yes NO return call or email. FINALLY heard from someone after randomly guessing extension numbers, which starts at ext 200 if anyone needs them moving forward, only to be hung up on! So after calling literally time after time after time after time until someone answered they then told they needed to hold my $5,700 for 180 days to make sure it wasn’t a scam???? I have been in business 5 years longer than square has been, or will be if we are all lucky, I have an A+ rating with BBB, unlike square, and they STILL wanted to hold my funds even though I could provide 50 times the prior transactions through another very reliable company that I never should have left. THIS IS THE BIGGEST SCAM that should be illegal!!
Beach bldr
April 18, 2012 at 4:10 pm (UTC -7)
Square is holding $7000.00 from us for 30 days. This should be illegal,they have all the documentation they need and have charged my customers credit card in full. They don’t have a customer service department to even ask if I can refund and recharge my customer after I swipe their card. I will never use this again
nick
April 18, 2012 at 11:46 am (UTC -7)
If a costomer’s credit card is invalid or has no money in it, will it go through and notify me later or will the transaction be denied immediately?
Siobhan Boudreau
April 18, 2012 at 5:53 am (UTC -7)
I am fet up with Square. First use and a deposit of $1,200, seven days later still not in my account. All I get are emails from them saying they are looking into it. As a small business starting out, I have paid workers based on this income and now overdraft fees because of it. No offense but paypal is way more reliable.
Jenny Hurst
April 16, 2012 at 8:43 pm (UTC -7)
We picked up a Square reader at our local Wal-Mart to use with our small company. Generally an online store, we sometimes needed a card reader for walk-ins. We signed up to use it, and started taking credit card orders through Square. There were issues with the money being transitioned into our account. After sending emails inquiring about the issue, with no replies for 3 days, I began looking at Square reviews online. What I found were horror stories. I was very nervous, and couldn’t afford to lose the money that was suspended indefinitely in a cloud. I started emailed Square every hour. After doing this for several hours, they returned all the money. Not ONE personal reply, no acknowledgment of my frustration, no explanation……. The worst customer service, and a very sketchy way to take credit cards.
BUYER BEWARE.
Carol
April 16, 2012 at 9:53 am (UTC -7)
I am extremely disappointed with their customer service (they don’t seem to have one), We have been trying to resolve a charge back issue for several months now and we have only gotten 2 emails that you can’t even respond back to because it comes back as “delivery failure notice.”
What can we do to get a live person to respond????
Very Very Angry
April 16, 2012 at 9:34 am (UTC -7)
7 days ago Square received a payment from my customer of $12,000.00 This being my first transaction with them I was hopeful for a quick turn around as promised in all of their marketing. The idea of starting to take credit cards was to increase cash flow and broaden our customer base. This is not the case. It is not until you are wondering where your money is that you find out their real business plan. I have not seen any account activity, I have been unable to contact anyone via their phone # that you have to track down or their auto reply BS from Michale K. They have basically taken my $12,000 dollars and disappeared leaving my company in a big mess. If I do not hear back from them today my lawyer and I are going to file a police report in San Francisco. This is not good business, it is thievery.
Luca
April 22, 2012 at 12:01 pm (UTC -7)
Did u fixing your problem with them? U can see your 12k on your square account?
Its a week they been keeping 10k from me, and 5 days trying to get in contact with somebody with no
Answer
Not happy
April 14, 2012 at 8:17 am (UTC -7)
I am wait for 2000+. Emailed with no reply. I had 2 chargebacks and they pulled the money out in January. No problem but they still have not released the money to the card holder. I guess the are drawing interest on it I don’t know. They will not release my money going on 3 weeks! I switched to gopayment and see if they are better.
Something needs to be done about square.
Roseann Harrington
April 14, 2012 at 7:16 am (UTC -7)
This product has awful customer service. They say they offer 24 hours service yet there is absolutely no way to contact them. My bank showed verification of my accounts, but Square is not showing it and will not let me proceed. I have searched the site and topics and there is no answer even close to my issue and no way to contact Square. Please someone develop a product to compete with this company so I have an option!!!
JJ
April 18, 2012 at 12:21 pm (UTC -7)
your best option is gopayment.com. It’s intuit company and has real merchant account. it took me 15 min to open an account with them and they have real live support and way better and more trustworthy company.
Walter Freeman
April 13, 2012 at 11:10 pm (UTC -7)
Square is okay but I have had it with no customer service. I had an email placing my charges on hold where square wanted me to show proof of the charges. They requested that I reply to the email with the proof of documents. When i sent over the documents to the corresponding email, I kept receiving an error message saying that the email was failed to send. The email address was not valid.
No phone number to call, no main address, no main email address. I have had it, and now I cannot tell my customers that I have to recharge their credit card because square did not release their funds to my account. This is Bullsh..
EJAZ
April 14, 2012 at 8:00 pm (UTC -7)
I drive cab and have been using square since launch. Initially they did freeze my account, but i gave them all the documents. It took 2-3 business days, so please be patient. Its a great company if you use charges from $5-$100. funds are transferred by 3 am in my account
JC
April 13, 2012 at 7:10 pm (UTC -7)
Don’t use Square credit card payment. Your money maybe delayed without any reason, Square will hold your money without telling you. They holding hundreds dollars from our company for more than one week. We tried to call Customer Service but they don’t have any phone number you can call. Very poor services, we are so disappointed.
Square Inc should know your company are not the only one provided mobile credit card payment.
JC
04/13/2012
Honolulu Airport Express, LLC
Kelli Athas
April 13, 2012 at 4:12 pm (UTC -7)
I’m beginning to feel like my husband & I have been scammed. We are a small intervention company and we recently purchased SquareUp at Target to use to accept payments from our clients. We work with people all over the country and it sounded like a great alternative to the high fees we paid through other services. We only work with 1 family per week & the deposits are all made over the phone or through another service. After waiting for 4 days for our 2nd payment to go through I decided to research and now I’m floored that all this information about “card-not-present” transactions was not available to me…as well as the toll free number. So now we are going to have a negative bank account because of Square. BUT more frustrating than anything is the lack of communication or even care & concern. Our client even offered to email them to let them know that they okayed the transaction…I understand holding off a few days if the card isn’t able to be scanned BUT 30 days is completely unacceptable. Shame on Jack Dorsey & Square for making tough times even tougher on small business owners! I can’t afford to wait on $1000. Has anyone had a good experience with customer service…like received an answer to a question or anything other than a “standard response” email? It is also confusing that our 1st “card-not-present” transaction went directly through…why would we feel there would be an issue with the 2nd payment. Is this misleading for a reason?
Deceived & Peeved Customer
Kelli Athas
April 13, 2012 at 11:48 pm (UTC -7)
I just saw that SquareUp in NOT accredited with the Better Business Bureau but complaints have been filed through them. So would I be correct in assuming filing a complaint through the BBB is the best & quickest way to get a resolution to our problem? Since it is glaringly obvious that the actual company has no regard for their customers & clients.
KHILL
April 13, 2012 at 12:08 pm (UTC -7)
Are you able to print receipts, and how do you handle adding tips? I run a barber shop so adding the tip after the customer signs is our normal routine.
Ejaz
April 14, 2012 at 8:06 pm (UTC -7)
many people like electronic receipt which can be sent via SMS or e-mail. However i recommend that you get blank CC slips & and a imprinter for people that want paper receipt. You don’t need their signature twice, just put date of service & authorization number that can be found in the sales section of the app & in your email that comes right after sales. I use android phone with gmail & the email comes instantly. i hand over the customer the phone where they have option to add tip in %age amount & than let e know to enter either their SMS or email themselves as many people are scared of privacy. its not that hard just takes practice.
Matthew
April 13, 2012 at 12:26 am (UTC -7)
I have had nothing but problems with Squareup. In the last 2 weeks I have tried to process over $18,000 through their service. I am closing my account and will be using a different service. I can not afford to wait 8 days for a deposit!
Ejaz
April 14, 2012 at 8:10 pm (UTC -7)
Did you tell that you are processing such a huge amount. That will alarm their fraud alert, who knows what you are selling. I know a drug dealer that uses sqaure for his dealings, but he was smart & emailed sqaure that he is door to door salesman for some direct sales company & emailed the paper work to them, When i started using them for taxi paymemt. I emailed them my chauffeur licence & also amount of my each sale. They replied in 3 business days & all was sqaured away. Trust me i have used other services & they are so freaking horrible.
Mosier painting
April 12, 2012 at 5:13 pm (UTC -7)
Does anybody know how to get the account unlocked. I changed the password snd every time I go to use it says I have tried too many times and to wait ten minutes. I have been waiting about 8 hours with no luck. Sent email but no response.
Cavin
April 12, 2012 at 2:00 pm (UTC -7)
The lack of customer service is extremely frustrating. I have sent three emails and still not got any response. I paid my contractor with his square and it was charged to my credit card 5 days ago but it has still not showed up in his account. I will not be using this service again
Sara
April 11, 2012 at 12:46 pm (UTC -7)
Has anyone had any problem with Square stealing money from your bank account? I’m probably being paranoid, but just in case it’s merited I’d like to know. Someone email me and tell me if this has happened! Please!
Chad T
April 12, 2012 at 12:21 am (UTC -7)
I have been using Square for about 9 or 10 months now and I have not had a single reason to even think of dialing the customer service number much less something crazy like unauthorized withdraws from my account.
I run a roadside assistance company providing light roadside assistance like Unlocks, Jump starts, Flat Tire Changes and Fuel Deliveries. Aside from the OCCASIONAL card that wont swipe properly and I have to retry a couple times I am so happy with my square service. My customers like it too being able to see that I am just swiping the card and not writing the number down on a piece of paper (invoice) that could entice theft or misuse later on.
For the low volume of transactions and my base rate of $24 each 24 hours a day I could not even begin to afford to use another processor with all their fee’s.
jane
April 14, 2012 at 11:01 am (UTC -7)
Chad,
There are many other options out there similar to square including Paypal Here, Intuit GoPayment, and PayAnywhere. There fees are competitively priced and their customer service has a much higher rating. The reason why Square is so user friendly is because they don’t collect enough information to know who their users are. It is a security issue they are frantically addressing.
Terry
April 10, 2012 at 3:58 pm (UTC -7)
Square is a total ripoff and a joke. You swipe the card and then it does not go through so you have to manually put the card information in the reader. Once you manually enter the card information these jackasses say that they will allow me up to $5000.00 per week. After the $5000.00 finally goes into my account the last $4000.00 is held for 30 days. If they allowed $5000.00 last week the difference should be put in the following week, but guess what you are screwed for 30 days. I am filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau which already has over 70 complaints on file.
karl joyce
April 10, 2012 at 3:02 pm (UTC -7)
This is the worst $1 billion company I’ve ever worked with – sorry – tried to work with – I try to call 415-375-3176 and leave emails but I’ve never received a response.
THIS IS VERY BAD and some sort of a movement should be done because this may be a scam of sorts.
What company like this can’t afford to offer an 800 number.
Richard Reichle
April 10, 2012 at 9:50 am (UTC -7)
Is it legal for Square Up to hold payments for 180 days, or for any additional time beyond what is stated in the policy statement? Has anyone else had a problem with this or with deposits not being made per the policy statement? Square Up may have a great idea and a concept, but the customer service and the handling of attempts to contact them are unprofessional.
Rick
April 10, 2012 at 10:20 am (UTC -7)
You’re being too kind, calling their handling “unprofessional”, Richard.
I don’t know about the legality of how they do things, but holding customer funds for 180 (half a year!) for completely arbitrary reasons WITHOUT appeal process and no way to actually speak to a human being seems the worst way for ANY business to handle customers. It’s a miracle to me that they’re still in business.
Guess it’s great for small time merchants who have small payments, and not a whole lot of them. As soon as payments get a bit bigger than a few dollars, it seems many merchants are are experiencing problems.
There are other players in this field that have rates just as low as Square, and way better customer service.
Troy
April 9, 2012 at 11:23 pm (UTC -7)
Square is holding over $1700. I just purchased a business 1 month ago and now I have no money to pay my bills. I sent in requested documentation of the validity of my business, but today I recieved e-mail stating they are holding my money for 180 day and that I cannot run any more transactions. I have several clients scheduled this week, but will not be able to collect payment. I don’t know what to do! This company has made it impossible to run my business. If anyone is reading – please advise!!!
Phillip Parker
April 10, 2012 at 9:35 am (UTC -7)
Hi Troy, there may not be anything you can do about the hold but you might want to checkout GoPayment to replace Square. The service scored well in my review and seems to be scoring well with merchants that use it.
Laura
April 9, 2012 at 8:50 am (UTC -7)
Square is holding over 35 thousand dollars on our Company account, they say for 90 days. Who knows if we will EVER get it.
There have been 70 complaints file with the San Francisco BBB alone in the past 12 months.
YES, use this company if you can AFFORD to HAVE YOUR FUNDS HELD INDEFINITELY AT THEIR WHIM.
They just assume this is O.K. No problem, we don’t need the 35k that we worked so hard for to pay our bills. PLEASE! I have heard from MANY customers who have experienced the same thing.
If you are reading this, chances are you too have had a problem. Report them to the Following: States Attorney General in California AND your own State (do both), and the BBB.
They need to be STOPPED!
Laurence M. Nuelle
April 7, 2012 at 6:15 am (UTC -7)
I have had two problems with Square. One was at an exhibition where a customer charged a $10 item with American Express. The sale went through with no problem. The customer then decided to buy another identical item for the same price, just a few seconds after purchasing the first item. The sale was declined. He then used a Visa card. For the rest of the exhibition, all American Express cards were declined.
Just yesterday (April 5, 2010), a customer tried to make a $1,000 purchase with a MasterCard. The card was declined by Square. I then took him to the physical location of the business, and the sale went through with no problem using the wired terminal in the shop with the same credit card that Square declined.
Square seems to be unreliable in processing cards and a person could potentially loose sales by using square. I am thinking of going back to the wireless remote terminal (Hpercom) that Ihad used previously to Square.
Bill
April 6, 2012 at 3:28 pm (UTC -7)
Square has frozen my account and although I have sent them ample documentation regarding the validity of my business- they have not responded and you have NO ability to speak to someone. They have failed to reply to 10 emails and two messages.
They have over $1500 of my funds and will not deposit them. Is this a scam????
Kevin
April 6, 2012 at 6:04 am (UTC -7)
I have been using square since it was in beta. Previously I used a company called Approval Payment Solutions which proceeded to jack my rate up after I told them (after having just 3 months left) that I would no longer need their services once my contract was over. Square is great for a small business and unless you run credit cards without swiping or you process large transactions $1000 and up per transaction. However since I run small $40-$50 transactions here and there this has worked great! I have been running my own small business for 5 years now and using square for about 3 years without any problems.
Cassandra
April 9, 2012 at 12:13 pm (UTC -7)
thank you for this feedback. i am considering using Square for $25 – $100 priced services.
kelly
April 10, 2012 at 9:02 am (UTC -7)
Thanks Kevin
I too have recevied the reader. I have only used it once (myself to test) and it worked perfectly. Your review helped because I am a small organization (football team) and my transactions are normally cash, but always in small denomination.
thanks
John McDonald
April 12, 2012 at 5:03 pm (UTC -7)
I have been using Square since last July for selling my teaching CD’s etc.
When I first started it took about 3 – days for monies to appear in my bank, but now
they are usually there within 48 hours. When I started the reader did not work on
Android 3 which my Samsung Galaxy was, but now the reader works. I have
processed over $1500 with the largest payment being $160.
I love it, just want to see them develop the ability for internet transactions.
rick
April 4, 2012 at 12:34 pm (UTC -7)
I’ve been using Square for about 18 months. As a company that sells primarily through our network of dealers, we only process about $1500 or so per month as credit cards. Every couple of quarters I check to make sure I wouldn’t be better off returning to a traditional merchant service. Not so far. I never pay more than 3.6% (the 3.5% percent keyed-in rate–not 3.15% as erroneously noted in the article–and the $0.15 per-transaction charge). Compare that to my previous payments of, at best, 6.5% of revenues and on up to as much as 40%, when including the panoply of fees the merchant service charged every month. I agree it’s frustrating having to deal only through messages to Square, and sometimes not receiving a response, but so far this is the best cc processing method I’ve found.
Rick
April 8, 2012 at 3:46 pm (UTC -7)
I did have one other issue with the company, which is that they will not process credit cards from holders outside of the U.S., including Canada. I had to find a third party to process it for me. They said at the time they were thinking of adding Canada, but so far, as far as I know, it’s only a thought.
AuctionWally
April 3, 2012 at 6:53 pm (UTC -7)
I am in the middle of a huge mess with this company. It involves a chargeback that was made against me by mistake. The customer who make the chargeback has voluntarily reversed it. Square says it still is going to take up to 60 business days to get my money back!
It seems very much like they are working a scam involving float money being held. The customer support, by the way is terrible.
I’ve documented customer support communication and plan on turning it into an article on Examiner.com watch for it soon. Feel free to leave your comments there when I do. I’ll post a followup here when that article is live. Perhaps we can get some movement if we join together.
Phillip Parker
April 3, 2012 at 6:56 pm (UTC -7)
Hi AuctionWally,
How about publishing a guest post on this website instead of Examiner?
greg mackenzie
April 19, 2012 at 8:06 am (UTC -7)
Same thing is happening to me. Jan.2012 a customer did a chargeback after a misunderstanding . The customer contacted the issuer and did a reversal. I recieved the chargeback notice after the reversal date.Sent all documention to Square (signed reciept from customer and reference number for issuer). Still 4 months later still no money. The customer has been charge and my account still show the balance owed. Square will not answer my e-mail and have left many voice mail. Not sure why they would want to treat me this way, just make no sense. You can have the Examiner contact me. If there is a lawyer out there looking to make a few bucks this woukd be a good class action .
Carol
April 23, 2012 at 2:01 pm (UTC -7)
We are also experiencing a similar situation. It is very frustrating. It’s been going on for a few months and we have not gotten any resolution except for a couple of what looks like automated responses saying that it will be another 30 days or so….
Very disappointed in their service.
John
April 3, 2012 at 9:42 am (UTC -7)
HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. If they decide not to release funds, they tell you they will get back to you within 24 hrs. B.S. They have my money, haven’t released it and it has been five days since this mess began. NO ONE EVER GETS BACK TO YOU and NO phone number!!!!
HORRIBLE!!!
When it comes to my had earned money, I need to know when it is available. NOT worth the tiny savings to have to worry about my money and if they are ever going to get back to you… Get a company that has decent customer service! Pay the extra fees, it is worth it.
Laura
April 2, 2012 at 6:29 am (UTC -7)
This Company is some kind of a SCAM.
I am so sorry I signed up for this during the height of our season.
They are holding over 50K of our Companies funds and some payments have been held for over two months. Can not speak to a human and the only e-mail response I got was that they were investigating Suspicious activity. We rent vacation homes and do transactions of $5000 ~ 10,000 each. All of my customers say their credit card was charged long ago and some have even paid their bills. Why is my money being held?
i just home I get my funds before they go out of business!
BUYER BEWARE! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY.
John
April 3, 2012 at 10:26 am (UTC -7)
Did you contact them immediately or were your funds being held for a while before contacting them?
What responses did they give you?
Bill
April 6, 2012 at 3:32 pm (UTC -7)
This is exactly what they are doing to me. I think it is some kind of scam to make float on your money.
Damian De Leon
March 31, 2012 at 1:53 pm (UTC -7)
After running transactions in the past couple days i was wondering why i was only seeing very small amounts of money coming in my business account it was a huge surprise to learn that Square has placed a 30 day hold on the funds that was collected its totally up to well over $6,000.00 which I would need that to cover bills, rent payroll. So Square has single handlily mananged to put my company in financial trouble with their shady policy. Granted they have already taken out their fees from the transaction before placing a hold on the funds im due.
They can sure expect a legal letter, they have not clearly displayed this fact and as a result
Have been decepitve the reason why they would hold the funds when getting paid is totally suspicious.
Its no wonder they dont offer a direct customer service line to have things addressed.
Aaron Kalmar
April 16, 2012 at 8:02 am (UTC -7)
I’am sick after reading all the emails of how horrible the square is. We are a small landscaping company and they are holding our funds for over 10days $2,000.00 I WISH I had done my homework and this would have never had this happened. They are messing up are funds as well now insted of getting a head we are behind Thanks to the Square DON”T EVER USE this devise for your business it S____
Aaron
mike123
March 31, 2012 at 7:01 am (UTC -7)
Would like to use square for $1.00 transaction for soccer games(about 1500 transactions per game). Square would cost .03(.0275 rounded up) cents per $1, debit cards predominantly used. Does Square pay the .22 cent fee required by federal legislation for debit? If so, Square would pay .22 cents to the bank that issued the debit card ? Our account would cost Square $285.00 (1500 transactions per game x .19cents). Why would Square do this ?
Phillip Parker
March 31, 2012 at 1:20 pm (UTC -7)
The 22 cent fee is the maximum of which banks are allowed to charge, not the fee they are required to charge. Therefore, Square has probably worked out a deal to pay a percentage fee that allows them to make a profit on micro transactions.
mike123
April 6, 2012 at 7:40 pm (UTC -7)
Phillip, thank you for your fourm, but I disagree – Below are the interchange rates for Visa
Were does it say they are the max ? What bank/ISO would agree to a .22 cent risk on a small ticket item ?
Please double check your facts !
http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/visa-usa-interchange-reimbursement-fees-october2011.pdf
Phillip Parker
April 6, 2012 at 11:32 pm (UTC -7)
Hi Mike,
You may disagree, but it is indeed a fact. The link you posted is prior to the passing of the Durbin Amendment, which is part of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The Amendment caps Debit Interchange Swipe fees at 21 cents plus a 1 cent “Fraud Prevention” fee and a 0.05% ad valorem tax, so roughly 22 cents. This cap only applies to processing banks. Therefore, ISOs are still allowed add a profit margin on top of the cap and may collect a much larger fee depending on a merchant’s rate pricing plan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodd%E2%80%93Frank_Wall_Street_Reform_and_Consumer_Protection_Act
Marques
April 7, 2012 at 11:19 am (UTC -7)
Hi Mike,
In a case like this, you would get charged $0.0275 if you were only charging $1.00 transactions. If you ran a $100 trans you would be charged $2.75 if swiped. If the savings is passed on to the merchant which it is not you would get charged less than $0.23 for the same $100 trans. Since you are on a fixed rate with square, the debit interchange fee of .05%+$0.21 applies only to visa not to square. So square does not pass the savings on to the merchant. And if I am wrong I challenge anyone to show me a statement that shows me otherwise.
mike123
April 16, 2012 at 6:03 am (UTC -7)
Mike;
Here is the updated Visa April 2012 interchange from their web site. It clearly states .21 cents plus .01 cent for fraud and .0005 discount. Are you saying that each Visa/Mastercard ISO can negotiate around interchange?
http://usa.visa.com/merchants/operations/interchange_rates.html
Phillip Parker
April 16, 2012 at 7:05 pm (UTC -7)
Think of Interchange as the wholesale cost of credit card processing. In order for ISOs to make a profit, they have to markup the cost by building on their own rates and fees.
John
March 30, 2012 at 2:09 pm (UTC -7)
I use Square for low number of relatively small (up to several hundred dollars) transactions.
Works well for me. I had one issue come up and after several times back and forth by email I got frustrated and asked them to call me. The customer service rep called me the following day and we resolved the issue in 5 minutes. And I now know how to avoid that issue in the future.
Will continue using Square. It works for my needs.
rodney
March 30, 2012 at 9:00 pm (UTC -7)
This is the worst company do not use this if you want to keep your hard. Earned money they owe me 9600 dollars will not reply to emails no number to call someone email me a good number to talk to a person jrdrywall2000@yahoo.com
Jason
April 2, 2012 at 3:19 pm (UTC -7)
Their 800# is listed in this article jr.
I have used Square for over 1 year now and have only had 1 issue, which was my doing. It was resolved quickly and have not had any more issues. I like that there is new competition in the market place, everyone should like that. If you don’t like square go somewhere else, but don’t blame square for your ignorance.
Read this article…..it explains how to avoid the “card not present” situations being described….if it confused you then read it again. It’s quite simple if you are processing more than 1K in “card not present” transactions per 7 days then provide them with more company information in order to increase the limit or start swiping the cards in the customer’s presence.
Square helped our small “made in America” business get off the ground with low cost, mobile credit card processing, when my bank wanted to charge me 2.4%+monthly fee+setup fee+plus .29/trans fee. Square saved us thousands. It gets an A+ from me.
Paul Mulryan
March 30, 2012 at 5:47 am (UTC -7)
Our company used Square, which turned out to be a monumental mistake. The company offers terrible customer service…actually it offers zero customer service. Trying to connect with a human being is virtually impossible. Our company held a fund raiser for a family that recently lost a loved one. This caused a lot of activity on our Square card reader. Square’s risk department stated that because their was so much activity, they were classifying our company to be “high risk”, shut down our account and froze our funds for 30 days, (it has been 30 days and or funds, over $400.00 are still being held) They profit by fees, that are not returned and interest while they hold your money. This is not a company that I would recommend. GoPayment is much more professional and has a much better rating. Our company provided our neighbor that lost their loved one with a check for the amount received from the fund raiser, Square has yet to provide our company with what is ours. Mind you, we were using Square as it is intended to be used, no complaints were lodged against our company and we did nothing wrong or illegal, they simply choose to deny us what was rightfully ours, with absolutely no justification and no due process! Beware of Square.
diane
March 29, 2012 at 3:26 pm (UTC -7)
I wonder if this is appropriate for high volume (150/mo), low dollar (<$30-60 per transaction sales. Is there a better option? The multi-day hold is big, but not insurmountable.
EJAZ
April 14, 2012 at 8:16 pm (UTC -7)
you will be fine.
Jayjay
March 28, 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -7)
A company contacted me recently to use their swipe machine instead of Square.I told them the good reasons why I chose Square but they told me that Square sends its customers 1099 form at the end of tax year while they dont.Is this true?
Phillip Parker
March 28, 2012 at 11:28 am (UTC -7)
Starting in 2012, all merchant account providers are now required to issue 1099-K forms to their merchant customers and to report credit card processing earnings to the IRS. If someone is telling you that they do not do this, then they would be in violation of the new IRS requirements and could possibly put you in violation as well.
jessy
March 31, 2012 at 2:14 am (UTC -7)
I assume this also includes PayPal?
Phillip Parker
March 31, 2012 at 1:33 pm (UTC -7)
A PayPal account isn’t a merchant account. They do offer a “merchant services” account for larger volume needs but it’s unclear if it’s considered a traditional merchant account that falls within the IRS reporting requirements. I recommend inquiring with PayPal if this is a concern.
Rick
April 10, 2012 at 3:32 pm (UTC -7)
Phillip:
wondering why none of my comments over the last couple of months have made it on to this forum? Something offensive I said??
Phillip Parker
April 10, 2012 at 5:12 pm (UTC -7)
Hi Rick,
I show three comments published under the name “Rick” this month. You may want to click “refresh” when you are on this page as your browser may have cached an older version of it. If any of your comments are missing, they may have been filtered as spam if they contained at link. Otherwise, I would have published them if they don’t violate my comment policy, which can be found above the comment form. Another common reason that comments get denied is if someone is trying to leave numerous comments simply to “bad mouth” a company. I do not allow this because it is unhelpful to other readers. I’m not saying that you are doing any of these things, but those are the most common reasons. If you type “crtl + F” on your keyboard and then type “rick” while on the review page, you should be able to find the comments that have been approved.
Rick
April 10, 2012 at 11:57 pm (UTC -7)
Hi Phillip,
I think you’re responding to the wrong Rick. My two comments were posted as submitted.
By the way, thanks for your service. At first I was leery of your site; it appeared potentially slanted toward firms that may have been advertisers or sponsors. As I continue to follow the conversations, I can understand some of your rankings. I do question whether Square is actually holding funds from some accounts for 180 days, though.
Also, in my case I’m charged a discount rate of 3.5% for card-not-present transactions, and not the 3.15% rate you state. I believe that’s the universal card-not-present rate.
Best regards,
Rick
Phillip Parker
April 11, 2012 at 9:24 am (UTC -7)
Not sure where things are going wrong with the other Rick’s comments, but thanks for letting me know.
I can understand how you might have initial concerns about my site. Most other sites that cover this industry are heavily biased by advertisers or run by providers themselves. My goal with CPO is to add a level of unbiased transparency that currently doesn’t exist with this industry. In order to cover costs I do accept advertising, but only from providers that have already scored well in a review. I never let advertising or bribes of any kind influence my reviews or ratings.
I believe that Square is holding some merchants funds for 180 days as this is a standard practice throughout the industry. In most cases, however, they only do it if a high level of risk of Chargebacks or potential fraud has been identified, which is usually based on the type of business the merchant is running. As for Square’s card-not-present rate, it was 3.15% when I originally wrote this review but it looks like they have recently raised it to 3.5%. I have updated the article to reflect the new pricing. Thanks for your feedback!
Resting Rock Farm, Inc.
March 27, 2012 at 10:59 am (UTC -7)
Here’s my experience and recommendations.
Do your dilligence before signing up for any merchant services.
Asked face to face, other merchants that were already using credit card devices of all kinds.
Square is probably best suited for transactions under $1,000.
Fees are perfect if you have low volume.
Reading the terms and conditions, answered a lot of my questions.
Check with your bank to make sure they don’t charge a fee for incoming funds.
I recommend setting up a bank account just for Square transactions.
Device received within a week of completing my order online.
While waiting for the device, complete the bank verification.
The app downloaded in about a minute on my iphone.
Practice first. It’s easy.
The money shows in Square account online within minutes and in my bank account that night.
If device doesn’t work, order another one online. Takes less than 5 minutes. Better than waiting on hold or wasting anymore time.
Personally I love it and recommend it to all my clients who’s business fit into this Square.
Lee
March 27, 2012 at 9:52 am (UTC -7)
How do you delete Square from your account??
Ron
March 27, 2012 at 8:18 am (UTC -7)
Subscribed to squareup. Used it once! Would not scan customers card, so had to enter number manually, which takes time, aggravates the customer, and nets squareup bigger fees. Bought another scanner, same problem. There is NO customer service. Cannot resolve problem, company is unresponsive and many, many unhappy customers out there. Is this any way to run a financial services company?
Disgusted in Texas
louie
April 11, 2012 at 9:13 am (UTC -7)
That is one of the problems they have besides the cutomer service,I have the same problem with the card reader,most of my customers are in remote locations and swiping it does not work,I have to key it in and get charge a higher % and then pray that I will get me money…….not good……. looking into gopayments sounds like they maybe a better company.
ejaz
April 14, 2012 at 8:21 pm (UTC -7)
go payments scanner has same issue. Try running square card with the square part away from you & run the CC with magnetic strip facing you. I find that almost 99% of cards scan right away.
peric
March 26, 2012 at 5:46 pm (UTC -7)
the first two transactions i made two weeks ago has not been deposited in my account and the sad news is that i dont have any contact phone number for square. i am afraid
Keith R. H.
March 25, 2012 at 6:25 pm (UTC -7)
I had posted an informative comment back on November 22, 2011 about this subject. (feel free to scroll down and to the next page for it).
I am only posting this because I have seen an increase in advertisements and use of this “gadget” and unsurprisingly seen more and more aggravating complaints.
According to the above article, Square’s Sales and Marketing tactics receive the highest marks. For example; I just today saw another Square advertisement on Facebook. Thats wonderful for the company, but think about this, McDonalds is also the best in Sales and Marketing, but how do you rate their product?
The article also gives high marks to the Cost and Contract Terms, but it seems that Square’s contract terms outweigh (in their favor) the less expensive cost.
Customer Service reputation should always be the key to any business’ success. Square obviously does not do well at all in this category.
Think about it. If you were to run a business with hard to reach, poor service, how long would you actually last? (especially in the financial transaction confidence. People greatly fear the lack of credit card security and it takes just one slight falter to set off that alarm in their mind)
I personally have a seasonal small business (just celebrated 19 years) with no storefront (I sell a craft shows and website sales). I have my own merchant account, which consists a wireless credit card machine that gets immediate authorizations, provides physical paper receipts (signed by customer), flawless 48 hour deposits and several 1-800 CS numbers (with live people 7 days a week). For the few months that I dont conduct much business, the cost runs me roughly $50/month (and that ALSO INCLUDES an Authorized.net account for my website). I can absolutely say that in over 10 yrs, i have NEVER had an issue. LOL
What I’m trying to point out is that in this fast paced “New, Now, Next” world, how do you want your customers to perceive your company and its service? A short fused firecracker? or an eternal flame?
Remember, it takes months to attract a repeat customer and only seconds to lose one. (especially in financial transaction confidence)
*Please note that I am not affiliated with anyone or any company. I am just a regular independent professional with a common sense approach towards business. I will give suggestions only when asked. Again, scroll for my November 22nd post.
Thank you and good luck out there!
KRH
Stephania
March 27, 2012 at 11:54 am (UTC -7)
Fantastic post and GREAT perspective for a new business owner. Thanks!
Stephania
Think Pink Vintage
Ferndale, MI
Rebecca R
March 28, 2012 at 6:02 pm (UTC -7)
Can you tell me what you use??? I am looking for something dependable…
Phillip Parker
March 29, 2012 at 10:42 am (UTC -7)
Hi Rebecca, you can find a list of recommendations here: http://www.cardpaymentoptions.com/find-a-provider/
Matt
March 25, 2012 at 6:46 am (UTC -7)
I will no longer accept Amex cards using Square. (I’ve been using Square for a year now, with mostly good results.) Amex’s fraud protection sniffer basically thinks all Square transactions must be suspect and declines them on behalf of their member. I’m all for good fraud protection but they’re making my life miserable. These are all SWIPED transactions and yet they still get declined for no reason than Amex thinking they must be suspicious.
Since I, as a vendor, cannot call Amex and get certified in any way, or even speak to them on behalf of my customer, I can only do the next best thing and ask my customers for a Visa or Mastercard, which always go through on the first try.
Marco dol
March 22, 2012 at 11:00 pm (UTC -7)
I recently had a transaction with square and amount was $75.00.guess what I was waiting 5 days to for them to deposit amount to my bank account.it didn’t happend,finally I e-mail them and I got respond e-mail next day,they told me their customer services will respond me in 24 hours,after a day I didnt got a respond.then I send second e-mail,just got respond;they canceled my account due to high security risk,what the h*** is this.when I sign up I was approved!!!where is my deposit deseppear?guys stay away from square,as other said they don’t even have a real customer service phone number to talk!!!
selim
March 24, 2012 at 1:15 pm (UTC -7)
How were you able to sent them an e-mail? I have been trying for the last hour and haven’t been able to.
lou
March 27, 2012 at 11:34 am (UTC -7)
hey! Marco, you are not alone.They are holding $1,150 for over 3 weeks.I collecting signature to take to BBB and also talking to a Lawyer next week in NYC. Here is my E-mail address for anyone that is getting SCum with this fake Company(SQUARE UP) a billion dollar company with no customer service. louvaresecl@aol.com
Tom
March 22, 2012 at 3:24 pm (UTC -7)
Square says that there is no limit to how much you can process when swiping the card through the reader. In reality, there are limits but they just don’t tell you what they are. Instead of being upfront about it, they determine if they should hold your funds based on secret “risk factors”. After experiencing four long and random holds on transactions that seemed legitimate in every way, and receiving absolutely no communication on what was happening with my money, I had enough. I signed up for GoPayment, which is basically the same type of service as Square, based on the recommendation from this site and couldn’t be happier. They are upfront about the limits and actually have a number where actual customer service people answer calls. Just thought I would share since I’m sure there are other business owners/Square users that have the same problems that I had.
mike
March 21, 2012 at 1:30 am (UTC -7)
Just had an American express card approved and the guy signed and everything yet money was not sent and no record of it anywhere….just emailed them and waiting to hear back
Robert Noeske
March 20, 2012 at 6:06 pm (UTC -7)
WARNING***********FRAUD *****ALERT********WARNING*********> Who knew that this company whom is able to sell its product at Target Stores and have banking relationships with JP Morgan Chase Bank is a fraud. If you think I am kidding, go to their website. There is no phone number!, Anywhere. The ” Contact Us” tab gives you a auto reply that someone will cont you with in 24-48 hours. They never do. I sent over 30 email requests from Feb 28th through March 20th. I have made several calls through my bank to one of Squares internal ph#’s listed. It just goes to a Voice recording with options. You can’t speak to a live operator. I used Square w/o a problem for a few weeks. Without warning and without response as to why, they have been holding $462.00 in transactions since Feb. 25th. Now, multiply that tiny amount by thousands of small businesses and the interest earned on that tiny amount. Process at your own risk people. A company w/o a ph#? how is that possible?
Ron
March 27, 2012 at 8:30 am (UTC -7)
Robt. -
Same problems I’ve had. No resolution, no way to contact the company and the “Online Help Center” is nothing more than a users manual. Don’t know how they can launch a half-baked product and get to a $1b threshold so quickly. My guess is they ‘re a shell company and will file CH11 when the heat is turned up, leaving us to stand in line with a paltry claim that will be settled for pennies on the dollar.
John
April 13, 2012 at 2:19 pm (UTC -7)
I am having the same problem with them. They are holding $7800.00 of my business money. After processing 3 credit card payments I received an email from them stating that they have “suspended” deposits going into my account until I provide them with a bunch of documentation. I have provided them with the documents and got the famous message about them replying in 24 hours. I still have not received anything from them and they will not answer any emails. I still do not know why my account was suspended and have no idea when it will be opened back up. In the meantime, I have unhappy customers who want product and money tied up with SquareUp. They either need to release the money or refund the customers cards back so we do something different.
I have filed a complaint with the CA AG and the BBB
amy
March 20, 2012 at 11:56 am (UTC -7)
I have heard about paypal releasing something similar very soon….think I will wait and see how that works out. I’m not willing to have Square keep MY money!
Sean
March 19, 2012 at 9:08 pm (UTC -7)
Look elsewhere for payment processing.
Their customer service is barely in existence.
They will hold your funds indefinitely.
Very unprofessional.
Cute logo and reader is all they have going for them.
Phone number is useless.
Contacting BBB in SF.
Christina
March 19, 2012 at 6:37 am (UTC -7)
I recently signed up for the Square but have yet to use it for business transactions. I wish I would have read these reviews prior to signing up. I can’t believe they do not have a customer service number.
I am a mobile nail technician and signed up for the Square to provide my clients with the convenience and ease of accepting credit card payments anytime and anywhere. I currently sell gift certificates for services but wanted to switch to selling gift cards to clients that can be purchased in any amount. I would like to know if I can use the Square to pre-load the gift cards when purchased with whatever amount the client chooses? I would also like to know if I would be charged a fee when the client redeems their gift card?
I couldn’t find anything on the Square website and I called and left a voice message on their “customer service” number but am not so sure I will receive a call back. Based on the previous reviews, I won’t hold my breath. Any information anyone has to offer would be great! Thank you!
mishka
March 15, 2012 at 6:16 pm (UTC -7)
It’s been a great asset to my small business! I process about 200-700 a day, and I’ve been extremely satisfied with the service. I do however you MiFi (wireless motem) to keep secure incripted safe transactions.
I do think they should have a better customer service, but I haven’t had to use it and am just going by the article above. I sent an email and was responded to within 48 hours.
damara
March 20, 2012 at 5:43 am (UTC -7)
How were you able to sent them an e-mail? I have been trying for the last hour and haven’t been able to.
Jim
March 14, 2012 at 5:15 pm (UTC -7)
Square doesnt return emails or calls. Service has been out. No communications not even on my site account. Book! Bad business when you need cash to work with!!!
Sarah Rudy
March 12, 2012 at 9:19 pm (UTC -7)
Hate hate hate hate hate this company.
What a runaround. No way to contact them and they flat out LIE on their site. It states you will find a link to contact support in each article and there is no link. In addition, no articles actually relate to my problem.
I had a photography client scam me. I shot the wedding. They got a divorce. They disputed the charge 90 days after having received their portraits.
So why did Square refund the money? Because the client said they did not recognize the charge. When I finally threatened to take the client to court by sending them a collections letter.. what did they say? They did not recognize the charge because it came through from the vendor NAMED SQUARE. Now, why in the hell did Square refund based on the fact that the vendor named SQUARE was unrecognized??? Completely ridiculous.
They pulled $1000 out of my bank account then gave me the runaround for 90 days as I tried to contact them and dispute this.
In the end, I’m left with a negative Square balance to the tune of $984 that I have to come up with. I’d like to pay them.. but oh, I can’t call them to set up payment.
Kevin Gibbs
March 13, 2012 at 11:28 am (UTC -7)
Odd. I too am a photographer and when statements show up to the client’s bank they say “KEVIN GIBBS – SQUARE”. Both names in the account statement.. I’ve never had one problem with the company.
Martina
March 13, 2012 at 10:34 pm (UTC -7)
I am excited to start my new business and decided to use Square. I have a iPhone 3G phone and was able to download the Square application and apply for the card reader. I notice that the reader is compatable with 1Phone 4S, 4G. Do you think I will still be able to use the reader on my iPhone 3G??
ejaz waheed
March 14, 2012 at 8:46 am (UTC -7)
square works with any android OR iphone. dont worry & just go for it, make sure that you use business name instead of the personal name, set a nice logo & do a couple of trial transactions. Good luck & don’t listen to the negative comments here
Kevin
March 14, 2012 at 8:50 am (UTC -7)
The square reader should work on your iPhone 3g without any problems.
John
March 17, 2012 at 11:46 am (UTC -7)
Never had an issue. As a small independent contractor, it has been a life saver, A++++. Use on Andriod, no problem, I get all the readers I ask for….
Denise
March 10, 2012 at 12:40 pm (UTC -7)
I recently spoke to 2 business owners who had their accounts closed by Square for no valid reason. Then this company told the one business owner ( via email) that they would hold the funds in his account for 180 days before they would release them. They wrote in their email that the decision was final to close the account. How is this even legal? If you terminate someone’s account, then you return their funds in a timely fashion. You say this company has made over 1 billion, why would it hold someone’s business profits for 6 months? The credit card transactions were already approved by the customers who provided the card. I don’t understand the poor customer service by a billion dollar company.
Lou
March 24, 2012 at 3:25 pm (UTC -7)
I have the same problem, my bank account was link to automatic payment that they didn’t go thru because this Company(SQUAREUP) don’t want to release the funds which they are holding for over 2 weeks. I say we should get signatures and take them to Court for fraud. I have a great Lawyer in NYC.
Maty
March 9, 2012 at 5:04 pm (UTC -7)
Square. Huh, where do I begin? First of all their payout schedule kept changing so I was not able to manage the business finances with ease. Simply put, as a business owner when you’re depending on large sums of money to be deposited by a certain time and Square changes the deposit dates over and over again, it becomes difficult to not to feel the strain financially. Secondly, they have a serious lack of customer service skills. Sending e-mails to them gets you an automatic response of someone will respond within 24 hours, which is a complete and total lie. I have sent e-mail after e-mail and what I received was nada. Oh, and God forbid you have a customer try to do a charge back and you attempt to fight it. That’s what they tell you. What I really think they do is sit at a desk and laugh at all off the people who fell for their gimmick. Yes, I had a customer accuse me of falsely charging her card and when I contacted that customer and told them that I had proof that service was rendered, suddenly she admitted to using the service but said she wasn’t aware of the costs (yah right) . What did Square do for me? Square has held my funds since then, gave her the full amount of the refund even though she admitted that service was fine and received and won’t return my e-mails. This entire nightmare prompted me to investigate further into my account and what I discovered was that refunds and charge backs were given in favor to the customer, not one time but multiple times for one transaction for services received. Ex., you want $100 back for not using the service and you do a charge back, Square puts it through against the merchant account not once but twice and now you’ve just refunded/reimbursed $200 for service that was one way. Is the customer really putting through 2 charge backs or is Square pocketing a $100 of my money? I found this it be true several times and listen people, if you are smart enough to read this and know that I wouldn’t have wasted 15 minutes of my precious time writing this comment, then you will consider as what I am saying as true and NOT USE SQUARE.COM. For the luckier folks who haven’t had any problems YET, well my friends, cross your fingers and toes and light a sage stick every time you process a payment because you’re going to need it. Eventually you will be on the side that I am on. That side is pissed off, frustrated, owed money and ready to file a class action lawsuit against these bogus people. Reply whatever you would like. Just do me a favor please, before read up on others negative experiences and ask yourself, is this a coincidence? Nope! Have a great day. I will have a great day when I get my money!!!
Felicia
March 28, 2012 at 7:26 am (UTC -7)
I agree with you. This same mess just happened to me. I had a customer do a chargeback square took it out 2 times leaving my bank account in the negative now i have funds in squre that they havent released to my bank yet. Ive emailed them and received no response as of yet. Im really getting frustrated because i need to put in an order
Lorenzo Cricchio
March 9, 2012 at 9:45 am (UTC -7)
I bought something from someone using SQUARE as their CC processing company. The cost was substantial, about $2100.00 They authorized the account, and the payment posted to th vendor, and he received the money the next day. I was angry to learn that the authorization, which holds the money, was NOT RELEASED within the same amount of time. I understand authorizations, and charges, and postings, however, when they rec’d the funds, the authorization should have been dropped also, so in effect, they posted the original charge of $2100, AND HELD AND ADDITIONAL $2100, totally 4200!! Multiple calls to them from the vendor went either unanswered, or he was told my card (AMEX) has control over the authorization WHICH IS TOTALLY FALSE! I called them myself and was met with an answering machine and no call back. Here, a week later, and I still do not have access to that additional $2100 THEY HAVE LOCKED UP!
Their customer service is horrendous, and their outright lies make this company some cheap CC company with no regard for the end purchaser OR the vendor whom I purchased from.
If they think they are going to tie up more of MY MONEY through this vendor, they are NUTS and the vendor is looking for another CC company to do business with as the release time on the authorization is absolutely unacceptable.
francis howell
March 6, 2012 at 11:35 am (UTC -7)
I have sent for one by mail, never got it, I bought one can get it to down load because my e-mail has been used before by me trying to get the first devise, because my email and passwords have never worked together. I can’t talk to you, this is the first time I a have even found anyway in which to make some sort of contact. It seemed like a great idea, my friends device work, but no matter what I do, just can’t seem to get anywhere. So what’s a person to do?????? Got any ideas??? Or would it be better that I just return the device to the store??? Francis Howell
francis howell
March 6, 2012 at 11:19 am (UTC -7)
I have been trying and trying to get a phone number, and to get in contact with the Square Up Company. I found nothing to even help me on line either. I have found no way in which to get in contact with any kind of verbal support. How are you to trust a product, or find out anything, when there is no one to talk to. I am taking this purchase back to the store, Good luck for the next person!!!! Francis Howell
Sarah Clark
March 5, 2012 at 12:59 pm (UTC -7)
I love using Square and I haven’t had any problems getting my money until now. I recently had a chargeback issue. Three months after a purchase I had a customer file a chargeback with their credit card company. The sale was a little over $100. Square claims the customer’s signature didn’t come through. Because of Square’s poor customer service response I had a very diffucult time getting through to anyone. They don’t have a published phone number and when you do call you often have to leave a message. They did respond to me at first but kept telling me to email them. Well their email wasn’t working. I spent hours trying to get a hold of them. Finally back in November 2011 I was told the dispute would take 30 to 60 days. I waited 4 months, emailed them twice in the last week, didn’t hear anything from them. I called today, March 5th, 2012 and was able to speak to someone. After this I finally received an email that they weren’t able to resolve the case in my favor but they had told me 4 months ago that they would tell me if this happened. Their customer service SUCKS! Although I still prefer using square to my old expensive clunky credit card machine. I am going to try Gopayment instead and see how that goes.
The lesson I learned here if you’re going to use Square make sure you get all of your customer’s contact information and a copy of their signature. I now require customers to sign a handwritten receipt as well.
Kevin Gibbs
March 13, 2012 at 11:32 am (UTC -7)
Sarah, you don’t need to have them sign a paer receipt.. Simply send yourself a copy of the receipt from your app. It has the signature in the attached receipt.
Laurel Redd
March 4, 2012 at 3:50 pm (UTC -7)
Hiya all,
Just an update from my corner of the world. The following are my reasons that I rabidly support Square:
I have been using Square since it came out and have never had a problem.
I get my deposits within days just as promised, the deposit is always initiated within 24 business hours (weekends are not business days).
My deposits show up from my weekend sales usually on Tuesday which allows for the transfer time from Square to the bank.
I’ve had no issues with the $1000 limit on non-swiped cards because I take almost no card-not present transactions.
I always have my customers send them selves a receipt and have never once had a charge back.
The one refund that I had to do went trough within a week which is better than most credit card refunds which can take from 30-60 days to return to the card.
I am pleased with the lack of additional fees such as statement fees, batch fees, and I like the fact that ALL cards are the same rate whereas with most merchant services it costs far higher percentage to take Amex, Discover or any rewards cards.
As long as I have signal between my iPhone and my hotspot (different carrier than my phone in case of poor coverage) I have not had issues with transaction not completing.
My customers love the fact that I have this product and get a huge kick out of signing on the screen.
A couple of notes: As added protection I require a photo ID on all transactions (for my clients protection).
If I have a larger transaction (over $100 I also have a CC manual slammer that I use to ensure that I have a paper copy with the clients actual signature, phone number and address as well as CVV code in order to protect myself from fraud. Also if I am taking credit cards in an out of state function I let the client know upfront that the charge will look like it originates from MN and that no they have not traveled to MN nor has their card been stolen, it simply is where my business is from.
Thanks!
Dan
March 3, 2012 at 9:49 pm (UTC -7)
Stay away from this company! I was trying to sign up with their app, and got a phone call while signing up. The phone call lasted about 15 minutes. When I was done with the call I tried to finish filling out the sign up form, and it said it timed out and that I’m penalized for not filling it out fast enough. They are making me write them a letter and then wait 3 days to see if I’m approved again. Don’t let a business that is supposed to be providing YOU a service treat you like a criminal for not filling out a form fast enough, and not even giving you a warning that you have only 10 minutes to fill it out. I do not support being treated like this, and I not only want my $10 back, I think Square owes me a written apology at the very least. No company should treat you like you’re a prisoner or a criminal and they are the police, that just isn’t right at all. I hope this company goes out of business tomorrow, because being treated this way is a horrible feeling.
Kevin
March 14, 2012 at 9:01 am (UTC -7)
Im sorry that you had problems setting your account up. Unfortunately they do not tell you but most websites that deal with personal information – like your online banking, paypal, or square which has you enter your personal information in to setup an account, only keep an inactive page active for so many minutes until they time out. This is actually a security measure that is common. They do this to protect your information and make it difficult for someone to mess with your financial information. Just know that if you did have an account – its not going to be as easy for someone to hack into your account and mess with your money! Everyone is getting smarter about trying to prevent identity theft. There is security and convenience – I would rather be inconvenienced and have my data secured that a company be careless in securing my financial information. I have been using this company since they were in beta and love it. Since I set my account up a couple years ago – I have had 0 problems and I love it.
Charles
March 3, 2012 at 7:25 pm (UTC -7)
I am considering using Square in during art fairs that I participate in during the summer. When I asked another vendor about the service they were using she said I should choose one that is PCI compliant, not sure what all that entails but from what I gathered it has to do with certain security measures that have to be met. That does concern me. Are the transactions encrypted, how safe are the transactions from interception? Thanks
Mary
March 4, 2012 at 9:20 pm (UTC -7)
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of requirements designed to ensure that ALL companies that process, store or transmit credit card information maintain a secure environment. Square is PCI compliant. Therefore you (as the merchant) are PCI compliant. Here is the website page that directly discusses PCI compliance (both ways).
https://squareup.com/security/levels
Much of the negative reviews I read are based on old information, or hearsay. If you check out the Squareup.com site you can find many of the answers your looking for. I have used this company with great success, for our sports boosters. I am actually considering getting rid of my old merchant account with my business. I find that the deposits from my business merchant account are taking anywhere from 2-4 days. When I call the company they tell me it is my bank, but the same bank that hosts the boosters is my business bank. So that is not accurate. Plus the fees they charge are becoming outrageous.
Tricey
March 2, 2012 at 9:32 pm (UTC -7)
I am thinking about getting Square. I plan to do shows on weekends and maybe once a month.
1. Is this the product for me?
2. Do I need WiFi to make it work?
3. Does it work over 3G? I have an iPhone4.
Dennis keeling
February 28, 2012 at 10:18 pm (UTC -7)
Square.com is something i was hoping to be able to brag up, but im sorry to say when you go over the thousand a week limit for manually entered transactions, its been since 20 feb 12 and my funds are tied up and the card owners card is tied up for a total of aprox. 6000 dollers. When requesting refund it took less then 6hrs to take money out of my account heads up if you hit the refund button, you get no funds till it clears even if you slide card
Mary
February 27, 2012 at 7:39 pm (UTC -7)
I have had them for about 6 months now and had NO PROBLEMS at all! I have it for our booster club for my child’s sports team. We just had our annual fundraiser and we collected a HUGE amount of money- about $20,000.00 at one event. Many credit card charges were over $1000.00 (I mean like 6) as we have a silent auction, where items had to be paid before we gave them to the winners. We had no problem at all with making the large credit card purchases. Our event was held on a Saturday, and the funds were ALL in the bank by Tuesday evening. The deposit from Square is done every evening (except Saturday and Sunday) so the funds could not be deposited into the bank until Monday evening. But I checked Tuesday evening and sure enough the deposit was there. I had to issue a refund, and it was done on the spot, and I am told that they credited it to the account in just a few days. I am sorry for everyones problems on this blog. I guess I am a lucky one. I have had to reach them on occasion, once I emailed and was given a direct number to call. I was able to reach someone, but I did have to make an appointment to call them. I do know that if you make $1000.00 in “card not present” charges they will hold the funds for up to 30 days. It is more of a security issue as anyone can open a Square account so they have to protect themselves, many people out there are capable of running fly by the night businesses that take money from clients and run. That is costly to a business like Square, that $1000. no card present clause was the contract. But all of our charges were swiped through the square reader. So, I can’t speak to that side of the deal. Anyway, that is my 2 cents. I hope everyone gets the money they deserve in their bank accounts!!
Nancy
February 27, 2012 at 5:03 pm (UTC -7)
I have been using Square for 1 year now. I am an accountnt and have looked at many credit card processing systems. I do tax prepartion and thier are months with no credit card processing so monmthly fees just kill me. The price is very fair. It works well and if you are going to porcess more than $1000 per week you can work with them to get your limit increased. My only problem is the few times I have a credit card to scan I have trouble on my Ipad
Tom
February 27, 2012 at 2:15 pm (UTC -7)
There is no way to contact anyone at Square. They missed deposits into our account and we cannot get a hold of anyone. It take 6 months to cancle the thing. DO NOT USE THIS. The swiper wouldn’t work. Good luck if you use it, but we are so out of here.
Kipp
February 25, 2012 at 6:52 pm (UTC -7)
I have been using Square for a bit less than a year and have NO complaints. I have been a mobile merchant for over 20 years and had the usual set-up through the major credit card processing companies. I can’t tell you how much those companies cost me over the years with their hidden fees, changing fees, price of a processing machine, etc. etc. In addition, calling on the phone for help often was difficult and made more difficult by trying to explain to someone in a far-away country that I was doing a show in the middle of a field and needed help – they just kept telling me to go to a phone line and download an update.
The couple of times I had issues with my Square processor (which always turned out to be something stupid that I did or didn’t do), I used the e-mail and got a reply within a few hours. My deposits go in to my bank account withIN 24hours without fail. I have had no disputes from customers because in the “description” section, I type in the name of the show rather than the item they purchased. The only negative feedback from customers is that they are leary of my sending them their receipt by e-mail because they think I will use their e-mail for advertising or to sell a customer list (it is actually hidden from me, I get no record of their e-mail).
I am tickled pink with the Square, which I use with my iPhone – I’ll stick with it. It works for me!
Kathy
February 25, 2012 at 1:42 pm (UTC -7)
I received a text message stating: “You paid Marshall $200.00. Receipt: squareup.com/r/rpedpmsrkwqodd_at5ro. Reply w/APP to get a free Square Card Reader.
Well, of course I did NOT reply but checked my bank account and there was a $200.00 debit on my account!!! as follows:
CHECK CRD PURCHASE 02/23 SQ *MARSHALL CROSB Stockbridge GA 473702XXXXXX6923 282054636688362 ?MCC=7230
I have closed this account…and there is NO phone number on the transaction to follow up!
FRAUD FRAUD FRAUD FRAUD!!!!!!!!
ken
February 23, 2012 at 12:45 pm (UTC -7)
They are holding a large amount of my money for 3 weeks now. Do not use this app.
Amy
March 11, 2012 at 9:35 am (UTC -7)
The money they are holding, is it from “no card present” sales”? Where they from several transactions or one or two large transactions? I’m trying to do my homework and figure out how this company works. Thank you…and I’m sorry for all the problems!
Michelle
February 23, 2012 at 8:01 am (UTC -7)
I was very happy when i first got square about 6-7 months ago. I’ve only done 3 transactions using cc most of my business is done with cash. I’ve never had a problem until 2 days ago I recieved an email stating a withdraw was made and to contact customer support which is almost impossible after emailing them to find out why I was charged i received an email stating they will contact within 24 hours well 36 hours later and no response. Ive called the number and got a voicemail and emailed them again with no response. Ive contacted my bank to dispute this and when I get this situation taken care of I will be deleting my account. Square has no customer sevice so beware if theres a problem you will see NO results. And I do have proof as i have copied the emails ive sent. You’ve been warned.
Vicente
February 20, 2012 at 4:12 am (UTC -7)
Im a craftter I never had a problem until the last 2 weekends, the processing time was not working, taking too long and having to retry forever. The message said that Square was having trouble. It was terrible for 2 weekends Square was totally unreliable. I learned that I need a back up. What is happening?
Mary
February 19, 2012 at 9:02 am (UTC -7)
We signed up our high school booster club with the square payment option to accept credit card payments at our annual fundraiser. We had a great experience collecting over $5,000,00 in credit card payments in one day. We believe that our collections doubled from previous years because we offered the credit card option. We had our money deposited in the bank the Tuesday after our event ( it clearly states that deposits are made each business evening, except Saturdays). Our event was on a Friday evening, we did not close out until almost midnight, that meant our deposit would not be placed until Monday night. Which seemed reasonable to us. Sure enough, on Tuesday morning the treasure received confirmation of the deposit from our bank! The service has a learning curve, especially for those that are not tech savvy, or who shy away from new technologies, but within 15 minutes even they were comfortable to use the app! Great experience and this app has helped our boosters increase our donations in some very difficult times! The only negative that I can think of is the inability to include names on each individual charge, or view the email receipt. I am sure this is some sort of security measure. But we use the app instead of writing up receipts and cross referencing names and payments would be nice.
Kevin
March 14, 2012 at 4:45 pm (UTC -7)
Why don’t you just type the persons name in the description before you type?
Like
Candy Bars – John Doe
Chris tiffany
February 18, 2012 at 4:14 pm (UTC -7)
We have been using square since it’s inception – first on a trial basis now as our primary CC acceptance units (I own 2 computer/cell phone stores, and have techs who travel the midwest with onsite work) We were using Chase bank, but they (like most CC companies) hold high dollar transactions as well, and we had to run a min. of $3,000/month through to meet the min fees, plus a monthly service and gateway fee, with square it is cheaper since half our transactions are in the field, and half are at the stores – We initially did have to wait a couple of weeks for some $$$ when we took over $1000 in within 7days, but that was clearly state in the ToS from DAY 1! so no surprise (READ, READ, READ), no issues yet, we can get new card readers whenever we need them (right on their site in your account), we run about 10,000 through a month regularly, most transactions are about $400. All money is in the next day – we do run refunds as well – most are done within 3 days, out of over 50 refunds in the last 6months only 2 took more than 4days to go back to the customers account.
most complaints I see here must be coming from people who’ve never had a normal merchant account…… and the stupid ones who think they should make interest make me laugh!! For those who have/had normal accounts square is great!
We usually replace every reader once a year or sometimes faster if they break – but we use a lot of them, occasionally some issues with swiping, but most are phone related.
Oh and if a customer disputes a charge they NEED to pull the money from your account and hold onto it – it’s the law folks!
Just my $0.02!
Good job Square!! – now allow us to resell them! We’ll sell hundreds a year! :)
Kipp
February 25, 2012 at 6:57 pm (UTC -7)
YES – I would love to be able to get a referral fee – I’ve turned on a number of other quilt show merchants to Square and they LOVE it.
Brenda
April 9, 2012 at 9:45 am (UTC -7)
I have a question about the $1K hold limit: is this per transaction that’s over $1K, or if you take multiple small transactions that add up to $1K? Where can you find this info on the Square site?
Square=NoSupport
February 18, 2012 at 11:40 am (UTC -7)
Signed up with Square a year ago, or so. Did not make first charge until last month. ($225)
My customer did not recognize the charge on his statement and disputed the charge. I contact customer and he then acknowledge the charge was legitimate. He called his bank to withdraw the charge.
I opened a support ticket with Square 12 days ago and have YET to hear back ANYTHING. Just a generic “thanks for your ticket; we’ll get back to you in 24 hours”… that’s it. Left a few messages on their non-toll free number, but no on has called back.
Needless to say, their little swipe thingie is already in the trash.
I’ve mentioned their site and service to quite a few fellow small business owners over the last year., now I wish I hadn’t. I’ll be sure to recommend others to stay AWAY from Square, because when things go wrong, you can not count on them.
Ramesh Anand
February 18, 2012 at 7:33 am (UTC -7)
I signed up with Square for a nonprofit I am associated with.
Received the swiper within a week.
Have used it couple of times for amounts lesser than $1000. Amazed by the effeciency. The swipe worked exceptionally well. We requested an additional swipe that we received within a week.
I see concerns from other users for transactions not swiped for $1000+ – thanks for the red flag.
As of now, I see myself using the Square for all our transactions.
Thanks!!
Sherman
February 17, 2012 at 4:43 pm (UTC -7)
I LOVE Squre! I’ve only been a member for a short time but so far so good!! Such a pleasure not to have any hassels espeically with some Merchant Service Companys.
Keep up the good work….also…try to figure out a phone number for some questions if needed.
Sherman
Marques
February 16, 2012 at 6:31 pm (UTC -7)
I do mostly debit transactions for my business, will I get the same 2.75% also?
Judy
February 14, 2012 at 7:43 am (UTC -7)
We used Square for about the last 4 months of 2011. We had no trouble with it at all. I know a lot of people want a phone # to call, but I can tell you 2 things;
Square responds right away to the e-mails.
2nd…I have another visa company we used before getting Square and I would spend no less than 30 minutes “on hold” every time I had to call. Now that’s frustrating!
If Square has to add personal to field phone calls….expect the rates to UP!
LAMAC
February 11, 2012 at 4:22 pm (UTC -7)
Can’t risk it. I’ll pass. One can not risk a reputation especially when you are dealing with refunding someone’s money. Customer service is so critical especially in this tight economy.
Jack Shelton
February 11, 2012 at 3:33 pm (UTC -7)
I have been reading a lot of stuff on this site and do have something to say about it. I have been using Square for about 1.5 years now. It has been really not to bad. I use them primarily for AMEX because of the rate I get with Square and the fact that they deposit it overnight instead of 7 days. I do have a problem with them on a charge back that has been resolved that has been taken care of. It was because a customer saw my name on his statement and not my company name. We resolved it with AMEX and I have a letter from them stating that its fixed. I have e-mailed the contract with my customer and the resolved papers from AMEX. It has been 4 months now and still they have $325.00 of my money. This is not breaking me. I would like to get it off my books. For the most part I am good with how it works but like many in here there customer service is absolutely awful. I guess I don’t understand how a company that is worth over one billion dollars can live like this.
I guess if a class action suit was brought against them it might change their way of thinking. It seems to me there is enough BS on this site that it might be worth investigating. Just saying.
Sean Hoffman
February 11, 2012 at 11:27 am (UTC -7)
I will never do business with Square again. In fact, at this point I will do whatever it takes to make sure no one does. Sure, it’s convenient, but there are other companies offering the same convenience and they couldn’t possibly have the utterly dismal customer service that Square has.
I’m dealing with a chargeback from a customer who apparently had been a victim of fraud and disputed my legitimate charge along with the fraudulent ones on accident. Square asked for documentation and withdrew the funds from my bank account. I submitted all the evidence anyone could possibly hope for, including the customer’s signature on an invoice. I even called the customer who then assured me he’d cancelled the chargeback of our transaction with his bank.
That was SIX MONTHS AGO and I still have not received a resolution to the chargeback. In that whole time I’ve had many dozens, maybe hundreds, of emails and phone calls ignored. Only once have I received an email reply from Square which was over three months ago when an employee named Jessica replied to one of my MANY emails assuring me that the chargeback would be resolved within seven days. Since then, I’ve resorted to calling and emailing DAILY. No one ever answers the phone or responds to messages or emails.
One time someone at Square accidentally answered the phone and had to deal with my complaint directly. Guess what they did…put me on hold for 15 minutes then came back to say that someone would call me back shortly. What is shortly to Square? It’s been weeks.
Forget these clowns. Go with a company that actually wants your business and shows it.
Square has the absolute worst customer service of any company I’ve ever dealt with in my entire life. Avoid them at all costs since there are now viable alternatives. I couldn’t possible be more pissed and if anything remotely unusual happen with your money and Square, you will be pissed too.
Square does not publish their phone number because they don’t want to help their customers but here it is: 415-375-3176. I found it on one of the many Square complaint websites.
Lynn M
February 10, 2012 at 1:52 pm (UTC -7)
I am a stylist that booth rents. I thought it would make my life easier but it has been nothing but a headache ever since. I keep being told that my checking account hasn’t linked up yet they have deposited money into my account. To this day I still cannot accept credit cards and all I keep being told (when they bother to answer an email) is they don’t know why. I have since signed up with intuit-go Which is what I should have done in the first place!
anthony franklin
February 9, 2012 at 8:14 pm (UTC -7)
square is holding 1000.00 of my money. after we were told there were numerous chargeback on our account. we asked for proof. they sent one chargeback to us email. we sent them back invoices and proof and the customers signiture. this was not good enough. after many failed attemps to get info on other chargebacks. i emailed them 6 times. they never produced any other evidence. finally i received a email saying we are high risk. we will hold your funds for 180 days. until this is sorted out . and whatever is left we will send it to u. this is crazy. never experienced such a unprofessional company.
Kira Scott
February 9, 2012 at 1:41 pm (UTC -7)
kira scott
a few seconds ago
I purchased this square device and linked my bank account as required, I even did a test transaction for a nominal amount just to confirm this was a legit operation. Everything went well even the $10′s they issue for signing up went through. I went out of town to condct business and on 2/8/2012 had eight purchases that totaled around $1,800 and it was prior to 12pm PST. The following day I had one transaction for $800 and was made prior to 12 pm PST. again. Mind you EVERY transaction was made with a physical card swipe (I see it notes transactions without a card swipe than run over 1,000/ per week or during the intial 30 days will be subject to a thrity day hold. My transactions did not fall under this catagory) So day three (rather 36 hrs. plus) still no funds deposited. I went to the website…..then realized theres no phone number for the company…..so sent an email as they requested, no response as expected. I then searched for message boards and found tons of consumer complaints about how horrible the company is and how they hold your money to throw in short term investment accounts to profit off of the interest. I also found a phone number which I called from 9-6 EVERY HOUR to get a hold of the same woman DEBBIE every time I call. Only to be told they only allow you to speak with “technical support” and that account services only responds to emails and voice mails (which will still be responded via email) I spoke with DEBBIE over 4x’s which she continued to transfer me to voicemail even when I asked to speak with her manager. So in short they have my money and I have nothing! They try to make it seem as if its a major company yet their all sitting there in the same suite 104…..901 Mission Street San Francisco, CA. Morese when do you ever call a customer service or tech support line and get the same person every time. Most important since when can a “bank” or processing agency hold your money, not give any reason as to why, and then not allow you to contact them…..”dont call us, we’ll call you” So in short I got robbed via SQUARE DOWN!
Lynne Ralph
February 9, 2012 at 7:16 am (UTC -7)
I have recommended Square Up to several people because I have had great success with it. It is frustrating, however, when I can’t get an internet connection and have to manually enter the card number later. That is not Square Up’s fault.
Kevin Cornelsen
February 6, 2012 at 12:21 pm (UTC -7)
As a contractor, I have large payments regularly. I thought the concept of the mobility of square was a great idea so I signed up. Bad idea. If you take payments larger than $1000 regularly, they will hold the payments. I had one transaction of $1400 that deposited within 24 hrs and then a transaction of $7500 from the same client thats been held for over a week now. It took me emailing for someone to even contact me to tell me that the account has had “suspicious activity”. Two transactions cannot show enough of a pattern to see ANYTHING suspicious. Now that I have been reading through reviews and the BBB, I will not be using Square once these last couple transactions post.
My wife uses square for our coffee stand and it works great with lots of small transactions.
Also, the fact that square has no phone number on the website is the biggest red flag to me. It took me an hour to find their phone number (415.375.3176). The first time I got through to Erik, and he transferred me to another “department”. I kept calling and havent been able to get to anyone else. Their initial disclosures are dishonest and their customer service is NON EXISTENT.
RATING – D
carlr
February 4, 2012 at 4:05 pm (UTC -7)
square up, two thumbs up, are you a low volume business and in need of cc solution? If the answer is yes then square is right for you. Square can be used anywhere, I Drive a taxi, I use square often and other taxi drivers I know also. The only time the reader does not work is when there has been a problem with the card, I can’t thank Square enough and very happy to be able to use Square.
I recommend square for anyone in a low volume business needing a cc solution.
and remember, two thumbs up for Square up.
KATH
February 3, 2012 at 3:25 pm (UTC -7)
I have found Square a great relief from high fees that were sucking me dry but I have recently been contacted by someone who identifies them self as a rep of Square asking for detailed info “by email” about my company and my customers and that if I don’t comply they will continue to hold funds. First off I don’t think any of the funds have been withheld? And secondly I am not giving detail to anyone by email that cannot guarantee me that they ARE from Square….it could be someone trying to defraud me or my customers…..this goes to security.
I would like to thank you for the phone no of Square….hopefully they WILL call me back…..if not then I will cancel my acct and just get my client to mail me checks.
I can only hope that they come thru.
Thanks for your article and wish me luck!
Kath
Phillip Parker
February 3, 2012 at 4:04 pm (UTC -7)
Hi Kath, good move on calling Square to verify that they are indeed the ones contacting you. Thank you for the kind words and I’m glad that the review was able to help you!
Bryan D'orazio
February 2, 2012 at 10:50 am (UTC -7)
I’m so sorry I signed up for this service! A recent chargeback was resolved quickly on the part of myself and my client as it was a simple case of the client’s accounting dept not recognizing the charge. Square withdrew over $9000 from my account without so much as asking for proof of service and then re-deposited the funds 24 hours later only to withdraw them AGAIN the next day!! So far I’ve written two emails and left one message and they still have MY money!
What I do not understand is how a company valued at $1 billion does not offer live customer support!!
The CEO should be arrested!
Bryan
s l
February 2, 2012 at 10:15 am (UTC -7)
Got a payment from a customer who then days later complained. We agreed to give a partial payment back. They contacted SQUARE who WITHOUT SPEAKING TO US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Refunded the full amount, $1775.00
We are leaving this poorly run company if I don’t hear from them TODAY. If somethings seems to good to be true, it usually is.
Try another card who appreciates THEIR clients
Jordan
January 31, 2012 at 12:49 pm (UTC -7)
Reader does not work and there is no phone number to contact. This company is not a legitimate business.
ejaz
February 27, 2012 at 4:23 pm (UTC -7)
the reader works, actually if you use it backwards & swipe from the left it works great. I do 8000$ as a cab driver on square & money comes by midnight except for saturday which is cool.
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