Square Credit Card Reader 2023: Reviews & Complaints

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Square Rating
3.5/5
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Company Overview

This article is focused on credit card processing using Square for established businesses and industries, such as retail, food service, and ecommerce. The article provides an in-depth review of Square’s point of sale options and card readers, as well as an analysis of user reviews. It also examines common complaints and fees associated with Square’s credit card processing, comparing them to traditional merchant services companies.

Square’s Card Reader and POS

We will also provide an analysis of Square’s card readers and point-of-sale options, including the Square Reader for contactless and chip as well the company’s retail and restaurant POS. These hardware options are compatible with a range of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, making them an attractive option for businesses that require a portable payment processing solution.

Square’s Additional Features and Services

Additionally, we will cover various services provided by Square, such as its Kitchen Display System, Square Terminal, and Integrated Reservation and Waitlist Management. Readers who are interested in Square’s specific services can find more detailed reviews through links provided in the article.

Square User Reviews

User reviews are a crucial factor to consider when choosing a credit card processing provider. This article provides an analysis of user reviews, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of Square’s services as reported by actual customers. We also cover common complaints about Square’s services, such as issues with customer support, funding holds, and account stability. By highlighting these complaints, we aim to help business owners understand potential pain points and make informed decisions about whether Square is the right provider for them.

Square’s Fees

Fees are an essential consideration when choosing a credit card processing provider. This article provides an analysis of Square’s fees, including transaction fees, chargeback fees, and hardware costs. We’ll compare Square’s fees to those of traditional merchant services companies, providing businesses with a valuable benchmark for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of Square’s services.

Square Review Video Summary

Is Square Holding Your Funds Right Now?

Before we get started, thousands of merchants have reported payments frozen by Square. If you’re one of the business owners that are using Square, then you might find the following resources helpful:

Started By The Original Twitter Founder

Square was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey who also founded Twitter before it was bought by Elon Musk. The company grew rapidly and Square became a public company in 2015 under the “SQ” ticker. The Square corporation rebranded to “Block Inc” in 2021 but continues to operate it’s payment processing services under the Square brand. Much of the company’s success can be attributed to its then unique take on smartphone credit card processing (See: Best Mobile Credit Card Processing Apps) and by being the first to market such technology to small businesses owners as well as everyday people.

Quick Sign-up and Intuitive Design

Signing up for Square’s payment processing is simple: users simply visit Square’s website to fill out a short form and await approval, which typically happens instantly. Once approved, users can choose from hardware options such as a card reader that connects to a phone or tablet via Bluetooth, or a from dedicated point-of-sale devices that can be used on a countertop or taken to the customer. Square has been so successful in the mobile credit card processing industry that it has inspired numerous competitors.

square for retails transaction rates
Square For Retail offers 3 tiers of fixed pricing.

Payment Processing Designed for Specific Industries

Square has placed particular attention on common industries with predictable sales patterns and low risk of fraud and chargebacks. Below are the business types that Square targets with its marketing.

Square for Restaurants and Bars

Square offers an extensive suite of services and products for the food and beverage industry, catering to various business types. Below, we explore Square’s specialized features and solutions for quick-service restaurants, full-service restaurants, bars, food trucks, bakeries, and catering services. First we’ll cover features that are found with all the industry specific POS options.

Staffing and Scheduling

Square’s software solutions provide bars and restaurants with tools to manage their unique staffing needs more effectively. Time tracking and role-based permissions are two features that can help businesses manage their workforce more efficiently. Time tracking allows businesses to accurately track employee hours, manage payroll, and ensure compliance with labor laws. Role-based permissions allow businesses to assign different levels of access to employees based on their job responsibilities, ensuring that sensitive information is only accessible to those who need it.

Offline Payment Processing for Uninterrupted Operations

Square’s offline mode is a valuable feature that ensures seamless payment processing even without an internet connection. This feature is particularly useful for businesses that operate in areas with limited connectivity or are prone to internet outages. With offline mode, businesses can continue to process transactions and accept payments without any interruption, reducing the risk of lost sales or dissatisfied customers. When an internet connection becomes available, Square will automatically sync all offline transactions and update the business’s records. This feature provides businesses with peace of mind, knowing that they can continue to operate even in challenging environments. Overall, Square’s offline mode is a useful tool that provides businesses with flexibility, reliability, and seamless payment processing.

Insights into Product Performance and Customer Preferences

Square’s software solutions provide valuable reporting tools that can help restaurants gain insights into their product performance and customer preferences. By tracking sales data, restaurants can identify which menu items are most popular, track inventory levels, and make informed decisions about restocking and pricing strategies. This can help restaurants reduce waste, optimize their menu offerings, and improve their profitability.

In addition, Square’s reporting features can provide restaurants with insights into customer preferences and purchasing behaviors. By analyzing sales data, restaurants can identify trends and patterns in customer behavior, such as peak ordering times or popular menu items. This can help restaurants tailor their offerings to better meet the needs of their customers and improve their overall dining experience.

Customizable Menu Options for Diverse Products

Square’s software solutions offer customizable menu options and item modifiers that provide restaurant owners with the flexibility to manage a wide range of products with ease. These features allow restaurants to modify, add, or remove menu items quickly and efficiently, making it easy to keep menus up to date and to accommodate customer requests. With item modifiers, restaurants can add specific instructions or preferences to menu items, such as cooking preferences or dietary restrictions, improving the dining experience for customers.

Next, we’ll cover features for specific food and beverage businesses.

Quick-Service Restaurants and Cafes:

Speedy Transactions for Fast-Paced Operations

Square Terminal and contactless payments are tools that can be beneficial for quick-service restaurants and cafes. Square Terminal is an all-in-one device that can process transactions, refunds, and print receipts. This device can help businesses save costs and streamline their checkout process. Contactless payments allow customers to pay quickly and securely without exchanging physical cards or handling cash. This not only speeds up the transaction process but also enhances the overall customer experience. Additionally, contactless payments can improve security and protect against fraud as sensitive payment information is encrypted and securely transmitted during the transaction process.

Mobile Ordering and Pickup Options

Square Online provides an option for quick-service restaurants and cafes to offer mobile ordering and pickup to their customers. This feature caters to the on-the-go nature of customers who want to quickly and easily order their food without having to wait in line or be physically present at the location. With Square Online, customers can place their orders remotely, and then pick up their orders at their convenience. This feature provides greater flexibility and convenience to customers, improving their overall experience with the business. For quick-service restaurants and cafes, this feature can help increase sales, reduce wait times, and improve operational efficiency.

Order Management with Kitchen Display System

The Square Kitchen Display System (KDS) is a tool that aims to help quick-service restaurants manage orders efficiently and provide fast service to customers. With the Square KDS, orders are displayed on a digital screen, allowing kitchen staff to prioritize and manage them in real-time. This helps to reduce wait times, increase order accuracy, and improve overall customer satisfaction. The Square KDS also provides features such as order tracking and timers, which can help staff manage their workload and ensure that orders are prepared and delivered in a timely manner. By streamlining the order management process, the Square KDS can help quick-service restaurants improve their operational efficiency, reduce errors, and provide a better experience for their customers.

Square Kitchen Display Example

Full-Service Restaurants:

Table and Floor Plan Management

Square provides a range of features and tools that enable quick-service restaurants to manage their dine-in services more efficiently. One of the key features of Square for restaurants is its comprehensive table and floor plan management tools. With these tools, restaurants can create and manage floor plans, assign tables to servers, and monitor table status in real-time. This allows staff to coordinate their services more effectively, ensuring that tables are assigned to servers efficiently and orders are taken and delivered promptly.

Pay-at-the-Table Functionality

Square Terminal’s pay-at-the-table functionality allows customers to pay for their meals directly at the table with their credit cards. This feature reduces wait times and provides a more secure transaction process.

Integrated Reservation and Waitlist Management

Square’s Integrated Reservation and Waitlist Management system provides quick-service restaurants with a useful tool to manage their reservation and waitlist processes. With this system, restaurants can manage their reservations and waitlists in one place, simplifying the process and reducing errors. Customers can easily make reservations online, and restaurants can manage them with real-time updates, reducing the risk of overbooking or other scheduling conflicts.

Bars and Nightclubs:

Inventory Management Features

Square’s inventory management tools enable bars an nightclubs to track their alcohol and ingredient stock levels. This feature helps businesses monitor their inventory in real-time and ensures that they have enough supplies. Additionally, Square’s inventory management tools provide insights into which items are popular and which ones need to be restocked, allowing bar owners to make informed decisions about their inventory management strategies.

Tab Management for Accurate Billing

Square’s payment system simplifies opening and closing tabs, reducing billing errors and ensuring accurate charges. With features like tab management and easy payment processing, customers can quickly and easily start and close tabs without confusion or mistakes. This improves the customer experience and helps businesses avoid costly billing errors.

Food Trucks and Mobile Vendors:

Compact and Portable Hardware Solutions

Square Terminal offers a compact, portable solution for quick setup and teardown in mobile food and beverage businesses.

Location-Based Services

Integrate location-based services with Square Online to help customers find and order from mobile vendors.

Catering and Event Services:

Scheduling and Management with Square Appointments

Square Appointments simplifies scheduling and managing events and bookings for catering services.

Efficient Invoicing and Estimates Features

Square’s invoicing and estimates features streamline billing and payment management for catering clients.

Square Restaurant POS Example

Learn more about Square’s food and beverage POS here.

Square Credit Card Processing for Retail Businesses

Square offers a wide range of services and products tailored to the retail industry, accommodating various retail business types. Below, we delve into Square’s specialized features and solutions for brick-and-mortar stores, online retailers, pop-up shops, and specialty retailers.

Brick-and-Mortar Retail Stores

Point-of-Sale System for In-Store Sales

Square for Retail offers a comprehensive POS system with inventory management, customer profiles, and employee management tools, streamlining in-store sales and operations.

Integrated Hardware Solutions

Square Register and Square Terminal provide seamless hardware integration, simplifying transactions and enhancing customer experience.

Advanced Reporting and Analytics

Square’s reporting and analytics features deliver actionable insights into sales trends, inventory management, and customer behavior.

Online Retailers

Easy-to-Use E-commerce Platform

Square Online provides a user-friendly platform for creating customizable, professional online stores that integrate seamlessly with the Square POS system.

Shipping and Pickup Options

Square offer customers a variety of shipping and pickup options, including in-store pickup, curbside pickup, and shipping integration with major carriers.

Secure Payment Processing for Online Transactions

Square’s focus on providing a secure payment processing system ensures safe and reliable online transactions for customers.

Learn more about Square’s retail POS options here.

Other Square Services

Since the launch of the Square card reader and mobile app, the company has rolled out several other services for both business owners and personal use. Below are links to our specific Square reviews for these services.

  • Square Register is a point-of-sale (POS) device that is intended as an all-in-one payment terminal for retail businesses. The company has options tailored for retail POS, restaurant POS, food truck POS, coffee shop POS, as well as a few others.
  • Square Online Store is an Square’s online store builder for selling products over the internet.  The platform is simple to use and quick to set up. The service has no monthly fees and the only cost is the card transaction fees from your sales.
  • Square for Retail is Square’s point-of-sale system specifically designed for brick-and-mortar retailers. The service is similar to Square Register but includes a revamped checkout process as well as additional features such as enhanced inventory management, employee accounts, cost of goods sold, purchase orders, vendor lists, and more.
  • Square Cash is a direct peer-to-peer cash transfer service that is linked to a user’s debit card. Cash sends payments via email and smartphone and allows for free transfers of funds between users. The service is not targeted at business owners, but they may use it to make payments outside of a business setting.
  • Square Capital is a Square’s business loan program that can be activated from the dashboard in the Square Register. Square Capital allows merchants to receive a large upfront cash amount and then pay that total back over time with a fixed percentage of their daily credit card sales, similar to a merchant cash advance.
  • The company has also recently launched several other service including a virtual terminal that can be used on any device, an self-serve orders app called “Square Order,” an online invoicing feature called “Square Invoices,” an online scheduler called “Square Appointments,” and an offline processing mode that enables merchants to capture payments even when their internet is down.

Industries Square Does Not Serve: Prohibited Businesses

While Square offers an extensive suite of services and products catering to a wide range of industries, there are certain businesses that it does not serve due to legal, regulatory, or compliance reasons. This short section highlights industries and business types that are prohibited according to Square’s list of restricted industries. Attempting to process payments with Square in the following business types will result in your funds being withheld and the termination of your account.

Regulated Products and Services

Square does not support businesses that deal in the sale or distribution of regulated products and services, such as narcotics, marijuana, drug paraphernalia, e-cigarettes, firearms, ammunition, and explosives. The company does, however, provide payment processing for CBD businesses (See: Best CBD Payment Processors)

Adult Content and Services

Businesses involved in adult entertainment, products, or services—including but not limited to pornography, escort services, and adult live chat features—are not supported by Square (See: Best Adult Industry Payment Processors).

Square does not cater to businesses offering certain financial and legal services, such as investment and credit services, bankruptcy attorneys, collection agencies, and payday loans (See: Best High-RIsk Merchant Account Providers).

Gambling and Betting

Businesses involved in gambling, lottery, or betting activities, including online gambling sites, sports forecasting, and odds-making, are not supported by Square (See: Best Merchant Accounts for Gambling Businesses).

Illicit or Unethical Activities

Square prohibits any business involved in illicit or unethical activities, including those that promote hate speech, harassment, discrimination, or that violate intellectual property rights.

High-Risk Products and Services

Businesses dealing with high-risk products or services, such as telecommunications equipment, prepaid phone cards, phone unlocking services, or those that pose a high risk of fraud or chargebacks, are not supported by Square (See: Best High Risk Payment Processors).

Square Customer Reviews

Here's What Their Clients Say

Customer Reviews Summary
Item Result
Total Online Complaints 2,300+
Live Customer Support Active Merchants Only
Most Common Complaint Fund Holds
Lawsuits Yes

Square Alternatives

We recommend Helcim as the top alternative to Square. Both services offer an easy to use mobile payment processing device that works with most mobile devices and tablets. Helcim offers a month-to-month contract, no monthly or annual fees, customer support phone line, next-day funding, extremely low processing fees, and QuickBooks integration. Helcim has also been consistently reviewed as one of our top-rated processors since we first reviewed it almost ten years ago. We feel that the company provides all the functionality that Square offers with a much smoother customer experience. For more information please read our full Helcim Review. If you operate a “high-risk” business, please out list of high-risk credit card processors.

Where Square Falls Short

Another area that Square comes up short in this review is its customer service. Square has racked up a lot of complaints (more than 2,300 just in our comment section below). The majority of reviews complaint of virtually nonexistent phone support and funding holds. Additionally, the company has not been active in attempting to resolve online complaints.

Square / Block Lawsuits

The company has defended against several lawsuits:

  • In 2018, Square settled a class-action lawsuit filed against its food delivery service “Caviar”. The company was alleged to have withheld money from delivery workers left by customers as gratuities from 2012 to 2015 and agreed to pay $2.2 million dollars under the settlement.
  • We have found evidence of multiple other lawsuits from the last few years. In 2019 Square was accused of mishandling the way it dealt with information concerning payments for medical procedures. The suit was dismissed with prejudice later that year.
  • In another class-action suit, Square faces charges of holding large amounts of funds from merchant accounts that it deemed high risk. Square has received numerous complaints relating to these charges over the years, and this case is ongoing.
  • A 2021 class-action suit has been brought against Square and other major credit card processing companies over what the complainants call price-fixing over the use of the interchange fee.
  • A potentially major suit was brought against Square CEO Jack Dorsey in 2021, in which a Twitter shareholder claims that Twitter gives “broad access” to user data to advertisers and that Square, Dorsey’s other company, has “benefitted wildly from this disregard for privacy.” The suit has wide-ranging implications for Square if it succeeds, as it seeks to remove Dorsey from Twitter and force both companies to undergo major reforms.

Square Customer Support Options

The company appears to rely too heavily on customer service provided by email, its support forum, and social media. The company does have a customer support phone number that operates from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PDT (see How to Contact Square), but merchants and business owners must request and receive a code from the Square website in order to actually reach a representative.

Only Active Accounts Get Real-time Help

Phone support codes are only provided to active Square merchants, meaning that deactivated accounts will be unable to reach support. It is our position that deactivated accounts are the businesses who have the greatest need for phone support. Business owners who prefer to have access to full-time, in-house support staff are better off choosing a conventional merchant account provider.

Long Wait Times

Merchants are waiting up to several days for a response from Square, by phone or email. Many users also report that Square has not satisfactorily responded to their support requests. Many Square reviews report disbelief that a company as large as Square lacks direct phone support.

Beware Square Phishing Scams

At the time of a previous update, numerous non-Square users claimed to receive emails from Square regarding non-existent accounts. These emails stated that Square was having trouble depositing sales into the user’s account. It went on to instruct the to supply account details to receive their payment. These emails are very likely to be Square phishing scams. Such scams are designed to trick users into providing personal information. They do not have any connection to the actual company Square. If you receive a suspicious email regarding your Square account, forward it to [email protected].

Square Online Ratings

Here's How They Rate Online

Online Ratings Summary
Item Result
Product & Service Complaints 3,626
Billing & Collection Complaints 1,115
Advertising & Sales Complaints 65
Guarantee & Warranty Complaints 18
Delivery Complaints 199

Note: We have adjusted this company’s BBB rating according to our own standards. To better understand why we adjust BBB ratings, please see our Rating Criteria.

Square’s BBB Complaints on the Rise

As of this update, the Better Business Bureau is reporting an “A+” rating for Square despite 5,023 complaints filed in the last 36 months. Square complaints have skyrocketed since we first published this review in April of 2011.

How the Complaints Break Down

Of the 5,023 total complaints, 3,626 are regarding problems with service, 1,115 with billing and collection, 199 with delivery problems, 65 with advertising and sales issues, and 18 due to guarantee or warranty issues. The BBB previously added a note stating that it has received many complaints regarding Square’s fund-withholding procedures. Square responded by quoting its Terms of Use policies and referring to the help section of its website. It does not seem to have made any tangible change to its fund-holding policy in response to this notice. Square has resolved 1,773 complaints while the remaining 3,250 either were resolved. It should be noted that fewer complaint appear to be getting resolved compared to previous updates.

What Merchants Say

Square has also received 381 informal reviews to its BBB profile, with only 6 positive in tone and 375 negative. The most recent review describes potentially fraudulent charges and a lack of customer service:

********************** took money from our new business account. A recent new startup business. They claimed it was from a different business that was closed long ago, that was in someone else’s name. It had nothing to do with us. We provided them with all the documentation they requested yet they kept trying to debit the account, costing us a lot of money in fees. We were eventually forced to close the account just to stop them from debiting. Fortunately the bank manager had been through this with customers who use ********************** before and sided with us. The ********************** “Customer Success” team was absolutely horrific. It literally took weeks to speak to a real person. They lied to us multiple times, on recorded calls. Even telling us, more than once, that the “Recovery Team” doesn’t have phones (yes, they actually said that)They have done nothing to resolve the costs they incurred us. They cannot give us any details of the supposed transaction(s), dates, company, customer or any other information on why they fraudulently (in my opinion) took money to begin with. We have, to date, spent over 40 hours trying to resolve this issue with **********************. Finally, after nearly two months a real person called. The end result was they still refuse to pay us back for what they cost us and still insist we owed them money. They offered to issue us a “******” for the amount!. The thing is, we DON’T owe them. Never have.

This merchant would be better served by one of our top-rated processors.

A “C” Performance

Due to the company’s high complaint count compared, we have adjusted the BBB’s rating to a “C” for the purposes of this review.

Square Fees, Rates & Costs

A Closer Look at The Contract

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Cost & Fees Summary
Item Result
Swiped Rate 2.60% + $0.10
Keyed-in Rate 3.5% + $0.15
E-Commerce Rate 2.90% + $0.30
Monthly Fees $0

Square’s Processing Fees are Simple

One of the most appealing aspects of Square for business owners is the lack of monthly or annual fees. In fact, there  are none of typical of the typical fees found with most other traditional merchant services providers, such as activation fees, monthly fees, gateway fees, PCI Compliance fees, downgrade fees, and early termination fees. Square has no additional monthly fees outside of transaction fees. This means that there are no costs incurred if a business owner doesn’t make any sales.

Fees by Transaction Type

Square used to offer a very competitively priced magnetic stripe card reader, but following the switch to chip cards in the U.S., users are encouraged to purchase the chip card reader at a still-low cost of only $49. The company offers a single processing fee option for all merchants using Square Reader or Square Register.

Square’s fees are:

  • 2.6% + $0.10 for swiped transactions
  • 3.5% + $0.15 for keyed-in transactions
  • 2.9% + $0.30 per sale through Square e-commerce

How Square’s Costs Compare

Square’s swipe rate is about 0.80% higher than what a business could achieve with a well-negotiated traditional merchant account. The keyed-in rate is about 1% higher for the same industries. If you are new business and looking for competitive rates, see our recommended credit card processors. If you are an established business looking for lower fees, consider our independent statement audit service to eliminate hidden processing costs.

High Volume Businesses, Heed Caution

Square does not verify the credit history of its prospective customers so it uses sophisticated systems to avoid fraud losses. The company states that there are no transaction limits, per sale or month. However, such marketing is misleading because numerous Square reviews report that large sales trigger funding holds. Additional, reviews also reports that a high number of sales over a short period can trigger a hold. The policies regarding such holds are not disclosed and no advance warning is given.

Square’s Previous Rolling Reserve Policy

Until November 2013, Square placed holds on funds of card-not-present sales if over $2,002 was charged within any seven-day period. This meant that if a merchant processed $2,100 in sales within seven days, the extra $98 would be held by Square for 30 days. This policy caused confusion among users because Square did not provide any warning before the $2,002 limit was reached. Square now says that merchants can process transactions of any type and size without worrying about a processing limit, but this is not entirely true.

Related: How to Stop Square From Holding Your Money

Square’s Current Fraud Triggers

Square’s current primary tactic to limit fraud is less transparent than its previous rolling reserve policy, which is why it has a low score in this section. Square seems to rely on undisclosed algorithmic “risk factors” to automatically hold business transactions that it considers suspicious. The payment processing system appears to flag many legitimate transactions, causing problems for some merchant accounts. Complaints have emerged that Square has randomly placed lengthy holds (over 30 days) on funds, even those swiped in person, without explanation or notification. When a transaction is flagged, Square will either contact the merchant for more information about the merchant or transaction, or deactivate the merchant’s account.

More Transparency Needed For Risky Transactions

This protocol lets Square publicly claim that it does not hold merchants’ funds because the withheld funds technically belong to “deactivated” Square merchants instead of “active” Square merchants. Square’s policies on fund holding and risk mitigation are very unclear and make the service risky for higher volume merchants. Square needs to do a better job of educating merchants about transactions that could lead to account deactivation. Steps the company could take include issuing a warning before processing transactions that will be held, immediately informing merchants when transactions have been held, and communicating with merchants throughout the hold process.

Some Minor Improvements Could Raise Square’s Rating

In most respects, Square has favorable pricing and contract terms for merchants. It has a simple signup process, affordable equipment costs, no monthly fees or long-term contracts, and easy-to-understand pricing. However, sudden account deactivation can greatly impact a merchant’s operations, so the grade for this section will not reach “A” until Square improves its risk mitigation procedure.

Square Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs

Should You Work For Them?

Jobs & Marketing Summary
Item Result
Employs Independent Resellers No
Advertises Transparent Rates Yes
Discloses All Important Terms No
Telemarketing/Door-to-Door No

Working at Square, Employee Sentiment

We take into account a company’s employee sentiment as it can have a direct impact on the client experience. Overall, employee reviews of Square have been positive, with many employees praising the company’s innovative culture, talented colleagues, and commitment to diversity and inclusion. Many also appreciate the opportunities for career growth and development, as well as the company’s focus on work-life balance and employee well-being.

However, some reviews have also highlighted challenges such as long work hours and high expectations, as well as issues with communication and transparency. Additionally, some employees have raised concerns about pay and benefits, particularly for those in entry-level or support roles.

Overall, Square appears to be a highly regarded employer, with a strong focus on innovation, employee development, and diversity and inclusion. However, as with any workplace, there may be some areas for improvement, and individual experiences may vary.

How Square is Different from Traditional Merchant Account Providers

Square differs greatly from traditional credit card processors in how it markets its POS systems and sells its service. Most merchant account providers hire poorly trained outside independent agents.  These agents are trained to set high fees in exchange for big commissions. Square instead relies on online marketing and partnerships and does not hire outside sales agents. Nearly all of Square’s users sign up directly through the homepage of the company’s website. Square has also benefited from an enormous amount of online buzz and word-of-mouth promotion.

Beware of Processing Limitations

Square markets its pricing with a straightforward and easy-to-understand message. However. the company fails to mention anything about its fraud mitigation policies. These policies have caused significant problems for many businesses and some have complained of large financial losses. Numerous Square reviews accuse the company of misleading marketing. These complaints stem from the company’s fund holding policies and lack of warning on the type of transactions that can trigger holds. There are several industries, that can be found on this page,  deemed as “high-risk” that will find themselves at the mercy of Square’s underwriting and fraud prevention systems.  Such businesses would be better served by a high-risk merchant account.

Our Square Review Summary

Our Final Thoughts

Square is a great card processing option for entry level and low volume businesses. The company is definitely on the right track with providing an easy credit card processing solution with no long-term commitments and no monthly fees. However, several Square reviews from high volume merchants report murky fund holding policies and poor customer support. It appears that Square is best suited for individuals or small business owners who have an occasional need to accept a credit card payment, such as babysitters, flea market vendors, or small retail and restaurant businesses. The service does not appear to be a good fit for merchants that either have a high volume of credit card sales or that sell high-ticket items.

Learn even more about Square’s services here.

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Your Comments & Reviews

How Did Square Treat You?

2224 Responses

  • jamie mendez

    Square company is a piece of shit company.After holding my monies for 3 months and not giving me an explanation they deactivated my account. Tried getting an answer …never got a response. My business never had a complain nor a bag review for using this service. Be very aware of the way they do business

    • Ofel Garcia

      Hi I’m kinda going thru the same thing they held my money for 90 days and 90 days just passed and haven’t heard anything from them still haven’t received my money . Did you ever receive the money they had on hold ?

      • Jake Eissinger

        aslong as u have a verified bank on your square account u should be able to request a deposit or get one by contacting square support, it should only be 60-90 days

  • Your company is ridiculously horrible. Your complete lack of customer service when handling merchant’s money is laughable & void. Your customer number is also a joke when you still refuse to actually have a live member of your, “staff”, if you indeed even have one, have the common courtesy to respond to emails . I will warn everyone that I know not to use you & recommend one of your competitors that actually know a little something about customer service, ethics, & just plain have respect.

  • I got a square account a few years back, have not used it till December of 2016. I was not aware that I was not allowed to swipe gift cards and so I did. My account was closed but for the past 3 months I have been trying to get my money back that square held in my account when closing it, they will not return my emails or calls. So they just decide to keep my money????? I will never use them again

  • Andries van Riezen

    Great business! Almost bankrupting mine by randomly deactivating my account and freezing over $ 25 thousand dollars in payments. “High-risk” activity, but thats all the information I get. Then when you are deactivated, they deactivate your account number so you can’t call them anymore!! I have to wait 2 months (already waiting for 2 weeks) to get well over $ 25K. Absolutely unacceptable

    • wayne breaux

      did you ever get you money? these assholes have a hold on almost $10k of mine?

    • Hi I would get An attorney. You will never see that Money from the Square in sorry to say. There are thousands of complaints just like yours. I’m so sorry to say. Get an attorney involved. That’s the only way you will see a dime of your money.

  • Milenko Lazarevic

    I had problem with a square: I had around 600 dollars payment to me, but Square sent me only 300.
    I was waiting for their reports for 3 weeks and final answer was: nothing.
    In conclusion: check on them. Somebody in company is doing something stupid and they don’t want to admit.

  • GST doesn’t work correctly.
    For my colleagues in Canada, I would like them to know that Square cannot handle the national sales tax. Square can only calculate and apply tax for a province. Customer service advises that Square has been aware of the problem (the sales tax has been in place since 1989), but do not have a solution. I wish I would not have spent the time setting up the on-line store, only to find out it isn’t going to work. Perhaps I can save others from wasting their time.

  • Shane Innes

    Horrid customer service. “Deferred” deposits seem to be the norm with these guys.

    If you HAVE to use them, be sure to contact account services as soon as possible to submit ALL required documentation PRIOR to square holding your deposits for days/weeks.

    Will switch to another system immediately.

  • Carla Mader

    DO NOT USE Square – it is a sophisticated SCAM, they double debit you and hold fund for 90 days and your customer funds for 60 days. There are thousand of complaints online and also on the Better Business Bureau website and now being investigated. A class action lawsuit is being initiated and filed by customers for scamming them and defrauding our customers. They “review” your account after a large deposit, then notify you by email that your account is closed while they are hold funds for another “review” for 90 or more days. Oh, and also you may not contact them – only via email. They do this to customer after customer and thereby breech the contract with their customer by getting paid for a service they DO NOT deliver. They further add insult to injury by debiting your bank account because after they freeze your funds and close your Square account, When you now do not have funds that are frozen. They scammed us out of $4200. Some customers complained to the BBB that funds were held for 14 months or more. They provide services and charge like banks but do not offer enough staff to expedite issues. DO NOT USE SQUARE. I recommend Worldpay and regret opening an additional Square account for my onsite sales staff.
    We, scammed Square customers are banding together with the exact same complaint for a Federal law suit to stop this seemingly legitimate company. They are stealing and holding capital from very small businesses and sole proprietors and need to be prosecuted. They should be ashamed and are immoral, unethical and thieves.

    • Barney Nowicki

      Hi Carla…….The EXACT SAME THING HAS HAPPENED TO ME and I am LIVID. Can you please write to me at [email protected]?? I am the smallest of independent Photographers and the Bastards at Square have ripped me off to the tune of over $2700 now, since Dec. 24th of last year. That amount being stolen from me has hurt tremendously and I’m desperate to hear about the class action law suit. Please write me, thanks!

    • wayne breaux

      these assholes have me on the hook for almost $10k. please let me know about the class action law suit.

      thanks

  • We began with Square in mid Jan 2017 . They made a deposit into my linked bank account with no issues. All of a sudden they were asking for verification. Their verification they say takes 1-2 days. Nonsense…mine took over 10 days during which they were holding onto $17000 of my sales. Every time we sent them information the verification clock started again only for them to come back and say they needed more information. Finally my account was verified but after two weeks it has now been closed by them . Why ? They won’t say …they say possible “suspicious activity”. But no evidence and examples. What suspicious activity, some sales are in the $5000 range some in $100 range.
    Now of course you can not call them but only send an email . They want to hold onto my sales money for up to 60 days.
    STAY AWAY FROM SQUARE. They are corrupt and dishonest.

  • Michael Woodruff

    Square failed me in a major way. I am a freelance DJ and I DJed a wedding on December 3rd 2016. For reasons completely unjustified the customer disputed the charge with their bank A MONTH after my services were given. Square immediately took the amount out of my account making my account negative in that amount plus fees.
    I provided square with email after email and text after text that proved the services were provided and the charge was legit. After a lot of back and forth with GUS he informed me that the case had been resolved in my favor. Then the customer re-disputed the charge. GUS at Square asked me for documents as if I had never provided him with them the first time. Square lost the dispute the second time around which makes no sense to me. Now they want me to pay them back the money they sent the customer.

    So now the customer basically got her wedding DJed for FREE and I had to pay to do it.

    I am tired of emails I want to talk to someone on the phone that can fix this. The only way you are getting your money back is by getting it from the customers bank you gave it back to.

    Btw, this was all disputed because they said services were not what they wanted it to be.

    So next time you use square just remember all your customer has to say is I didn’t like it and they will get whatever services you provided for FREE!

  • I WAS NEVER NOTIFIED AS A CONSUMER THAT I WAS GOING TO BE ENTERED PERMANENTLY INTO A DATABASE WITH MY CREDIT CARD PURCHASE THAT HAD NO RELATIONSHIP WITH MY PROVIDER AND WOULD NOT LET ME EVER DELETE MYSELF FROM THE SYSTEM.
    This is invasive, creepy and absolutely needs to be investigated by consumer protection agencies.
    The website gives NO information on how to delete your personal information permanently so I got an e-mailed receipt yesterday from a phone transaction when I never gave out my address to the vendor.
    I AM OUTRAGED THAT THIS IS BEING DONE WITHOUT OUR PERMISSION OR KNOWLEDGE.
    SQUARE NEEDS TO BE STOPPED.

  • Darryan Prestin

    I have been very happy with my Square service for a few years but now things are going awry I’m not getting my money and I absolutely cannot get ahold of them I have looked everywhere online for the PIN code to call them and I cannot find it I’m not a millionaire but I’m done close to $50,000 worth of business with them last year and it frustrates me that I cannot call them and talk to somebody when I have issues

  • adam jagiellowicz

    I started an online school and had just received my second course payment. Square held my money claiming that my account had a ‘pattern’ of risky payments and that they therefore had to hold my funds for 90 days and deactivate my account. There was no pattern (2nd payment ?) and they refused to explain the reason. after deactivation they no longer felt obliged to answer my requests and only replied with canned emails asking me if the support i received was satisfactory. Well, now over 105 days have passed since they held back that $1000.00 from me for no just cause. They have not credited my bank account and have not emailed me. Square has a license to steal money it seems. This company is fraudulent. there is no other way about it. And I will be contacting the police. What a pain in the ass to have to track down these slime bags.

  • So here’s my problem. My account was hacked in December. Over $1000 processed through my business but sent to another account. Square confirmed the hack, closed my account on line and said no problems for me. I now get an email that one of the transactions is being disputed and my account will be billed. Hmm I say, I need to contact Square customer service and make sure this is not going to happen. And the merry chase begins for a customer code – which is the ONLY way you can get to the customer service line. BUT they closed my account, I cannot log in. So I cannot get said code. I try to re-establish account – but alas, my account already exists and I cannot get a new password. So my complaint – Square customer service sucks. I’m dropping any relationship with Square and no longer recommend them to anyone.

    • Fist Fit Tech

      Square is the Worst!!!!! Signed up and was told I can still except payments until my account was verified. They were holding $19,300 of my funds and when it got verified 2weeks later they deactivated my account without explanation and no customer support to no longer talk to about my funds!!! Telling me they will be holding my funds for 90days . WTF !!!! This company is a real Scam and Feds need to shutdown Square . American Greed at its Finest!!! Don’t USE …..

  • Sandra schultz

    I am getting emails of transactions.. I am not a business owner or have any contact with square except as a customer.

  • SCOTT BROOKS

    These IDIOTS!!!! I changed my bank account and they verified the new bank account was verified. The old bank account not even listed.

    I take in a $1500 payment and do instant deposit and they deposit to old account!! My customer needs his goods tomorrow and they are saying it can’t be reversed, about to go frigging ballistic!!

    YOU FRIGGING IDIOTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

  • Jonathan May

    This is a horrible company. I mainly deal in large scale gold bullion transaction via wire or check, but I also sell fine jewelry. To test their system my own mother bought jewelry she wanted from my website and it was denied. I was given no chance to explain. They would have gotten their fees. But I cancelled my link to them and got a refund. Don’t use them. Poor poor connection and understanding , trust and communication did not exist. May their business be cursed by G-d

  • Worst company I have ever dealt with. If you can find any other processing company, use them. Nightmare dealing with them.

  • I joined Square in December and purchased their hardware. On January 21st, a client paid $100 for services and few days later I couldn’t use my square account. Square deactivated my account and I am still waiting for my deposit. It has been 28 days. I have emailed them daily for 3 weeks and no response. I reached out via Facebook and no response. I finally obtained a code (2/16/17) to reach out to them and I didn’t get any assistance. I was told someone will reach out to me. Few minutes later I received an email stating “our decision to deactivate is final” “unable to provide details” WTF At this point I just want my money.

  • Worse customer service I’ve seen. What a SCAM. We use Square calendar for booking reservations. We have both our bank info listed and a company credit card to pay for the monthly calendar charge. We found that Square is charging our credit card for the monthly subscription fee as well as debiting our company bank account for the same charge. We notified Square customer support about this in late January 2017 after they double charged us for December 2017; Jan 2017 & again in Feb 2017. They requested that we send them the bank statements and credit card statements so that they could escalate this to their engineers which we did and it clearly showed that they charged our credit card and debited our bank account for the same amount on the same day for Dec 2016, Jan & Feb 2017. We made several attempts to contact them via phone and email after our initial phone contact and you cannot reach them by phone and they do not reply to the repeated emails.

    Their bottom line must look great since they double charge their customers. We have since deactivated our account with them 2/16/2017 and pursuing reimbursement through our credit card company.

  • DO NOT use square. They are a horrible company and customer service sucks. They withdrew money from my account for a dispute without even listening to my side of the story. Who does that when you are their customer. Awful!!!!

  • Glenn Miller

    I am a sporadic user of Square since I conduct my business part-time. I took a customer’s credit card for the amount of $600.00 on Mon Feb 6, 2017. I’d always received a deposit into my checking account within a few days. It is now Feb 15, 2017 and no deposit. I have sent them numerous e-mails with no response other than the automated response. I tried to call them and the recording said I needed a customer number. I read the instructions on how to find a customer number but could not find one no matter how hard I’d searched. Can anyone offer some practical advice?

    I also set up Instant Payment to my ATM card but the web site will not let me transfer the money.

    Can anyone help? I am at wit’s end

    • I am in the same boat. I set up my account beggining of February, they verified it, let me believe it was all set up, I even did two small transactions for $5.00 just to be sure it was working, no problem, the money was in my account. Later, when I swiped 2800.00 is, I’m getting emails they need more information to verify my account. So they wanted three months of bank statements, all my signed receipts, (they can’t verify signatures with the signature you capture on their app) credit card agreement for my customers, my business information. But they advertise” NO Surprises!”. Of course you can’t reach anyone by phone to talk to them. Then, this is the best, after I send all this information, they send me an email and tell me my account has been deactivated for too much activity. I can return everybody’s money or wait three months and they will refund mine. So the billionaire Jack Dorsey is keeping my money for three months because he doesn’t make enough with Twitter. Search the internet, exact same thing they have done to numerous other people. This money was for a friend dying of Cancer, real nice Square, you need money that bad. Scandalous and sickening.

    • I deposited also money since January 31st and still on hold ! I tried to call several times even with a customer number and sent emails with no response.

  • chuck dehney

    poor commutation, on hold for hours, no people skills , actually one of the Square service people hung up on me during a recorded conversation on there end, his final words where , there will no longer be any telephone dialog ,everything will be thru email , and I was just trying to get answer about my 57,000 plus dollars they where holding for over 30 days, I will say it was a experience dealing with them and I learnt a lot , which help interviewing new credit card companies , which have better rates , we do about $40,000 – $50,000 a month in cards. We have a saying here if you don’t take care of your customer someone else will

  • David sapirstein

    I have a problem with square and realized how ineffective their operation is .
    The order could be resolved immediately but they are not interested to find it immediately but yo take their time and cause hardship yo their customers

  • Don’t do it. My square worked before they went to point of sale and now it’s literally a POS. Now it is not compatible with my phone. So completely useless. I have a new phone so that is not an issue their new update makes it not compatible now. Spent 60.00 for this POS.

  • One and a half years ago I purchased a square register to use with my I-pad air 2. I was not told at the time that this was not compatable with my device. Upon using this product with my Ipad it has since began to warp the screen and peel back it back. I have contacted square and tried to resolve this issue but I was only given the option to receive a $50.00 credit rather than any other method of resolution. I spent over an hour on the phone with square and this was the best result they were able to offer me.

  • Babe Savage

    The worst processing company ever. I have never had a charge back. Been with them for 8 years . My first large transaction comes through and they deny it because afraid of a charge back. Cost me a huge customer.

    • BAD, BAD. They have my money and have turned off my account and I can’t call them. NO number to call. We are talking $8100.00. NEVER NEVER again

  • Great Idea! Miserable execution; Zero customer service for merchants. Flush with cash they forgot the small businesses that made them. 7 days, no reply to email generated from account dashboard. Sales department contacted after 6 days without any reference to message; generic reply. Live phone agent 67min wait, arrogant to the max. PayPal never looked so good. We’re taking our money and running as fast as possible. Might as well be a fake website in China for all the human interaction available.

  • This service is horrible. They do not have a working customer service number and when you call they ask for a customer code that they do not provide to you. They make you send an email that they never contact you back on. It has been about 3 days now since a payment was cashed out and it has not been deposited in my account.

    Worst Customer service ever!!

  • Sales just started to ramp up and square has advised me that they are going to hold all of my funds for 90 days for no reason or justification. There is no way to call them and no way to contest. I paid the 2.75% for convenience and look but now i see there are much better solutions out there.

  • Square has the worst customer service ever. There is no phone contact. The only way to contact them is via email. They have deactivated my account with no warning in the middle of my business day. Left me with huge chaos with client check out. I’ve emailed them several times and they send the same email back to me every time. Not answering any of my questions. THE WORST CUstomer SUPPORT EVER!!

    • Same thing happened to us. Cancelled our account in the middle of the work day. And, they had already accepted some charges before cancelling. There is no way to contact them after they cancel your account. They will hold all your money for 90 days after they cancel. This company is a nightmare waiting to happen. Beware!

  • Marce Holmquist

    My Square reader experience was horrible and costly. I am an independent contractor that had an issue with a large Square transaction. Not only did Square wait over 2 weeks to tell me the customer challenged the charge, but I did all Square requested to upload my documents supporting the transaction. It took them less then 6 minutes to find against me and start debiting money in Square escrow & my personal account. Knowing that legal issues are pending, Square made no attempt to aid me in this situation & now its in the legal systems jurisdiction. I don’t recommend to square to any independent contractor, small businessman or any business. There are better options out there that actually protect me against similar instances, and Im happy I found one. Trying to contact Square customer support is a joke!!!!

  • No customer service. My credit card payments are floating in an electronic black hole and I am getting sent back to the website without any way to resolve the issue for several weeks! My money never reached my bank account, and no one at Square seems to care.

  • Bill Edelblute

    No customer service at all if you can’t sign in to your account. If you call, the greeting demands a code that you have to sign in to obtain, when I can’t sign in.

    Need to change password after having lost it, it won’t let me get past answering security question and entering new password. Sent three emails over two days, just get an auto reply saying we will contact you soon. Meanwhile can’t take any payments.

  • Jayme Terrigno

    The company is holding over $16,000 of our companies money. We can’t get a hold of anyone and there are no responses to our emails. We have supplied them with everything they requested and then the communication just stopped!

    • Donna Evans

      I, too, used square because it was recommend to me. I call Square to ask about setting up the account. A rep walked me through how to set it up. Then after receiving my first round of charges for my Weight loss class. I am , then, told that my account was deactivated. No reason why, but I would receive my funds within 90 days. That was on 10/11/16. I have not received any funds as of today. It is now almost 114 days. I have emailed with no responds what soever.
      I sure need to get paid for my serves. Plus they are holding over $1000 in her account with the exact same thing happening. I wished I would have read reviews before I did this. I now use Paypal and tell all 300 reps to please use them instead. As we add reps I will continue to recommend Paypal. With Paypal, I have had no problems.

      • Same thing happened to me. Cancelled my account without notice. No way to reach anyone on the phone as they wont accept any calls without a code from a WORKING account. You have to be crazy to use this company.

      • That’s what happened to me on Stripe. They told me it is the “new industry standard” to just close your account with lies and hold funds for 90 days. Something fishy is going on with the Globalists pushing their agenda. I have $12 and change tied up, not a grand like you, and I’m pissed! Oh the lie for closing my account is that I have a significant amount of charge backs and disputes on my account and also my shop is high risk – the reality is I have one normal sale, zero charge backs, zero disputes, items shipped and delivered with positive feedback, and have two items in my shop for $12.99 each.

        • I have recently changed to Paypal and they sent me a triangle to uses – like the square but I received my money the next day. Totally different than what I received with Square. Still waiting 99 days later for the money in my square account to be sent to me. They keep saying once your 90 days are up we will transfer it. Well, we are going on 10 days past 90.

          • What if we start a class action suit against square for deactivating accounts for no reason. I have lost money because my web site can no longer accept credit cards.

  • Dwayne K Boyd

    Sqaure sucks. Period. After doing several transactions Square held my funds claiming that they needed to do an account verification. After checking the reviews, they have done the same thing to numerous people. So basically, they are stealing peoples money. I don’t know how they can legally get away with this, but avoid this service like the plague.

  • Hi i have had sqaure for sometime now making some small transactions now today. I do a transaction for $2,000 ,when I needed it the most (square let me down) ? I really wished I would have read the bad reviews on google first. I would have never tried it. Next thing you know they send me a email saying that they are sorry to inform me Dactivated my Account stating that I am to much of a risk WTF !! They want to keep my money for 90 days !! Now I have to go back and tell my customer to refund the money !!
    I DO NOT RECOMMEND SQUARE FOR BUSINESS AT ALL !!

  • I am a credit card paying customer at a coffee shop which uses Square at POS. Square is the only reason I leave the visits with an unnerving feeling of violation. The shop prints out an invoice for my visit which prints out my full name, posts the invoice until prepared and calls out my name to the public. I don’t know how the shop disposes of the invoices with my info.

    I am not a subscriber of Square nor have I signed up for Square and yet, when my credit card is swiped, all of my personal info is printed out for this shop to save or dispose of as they wish. It appears whether or not you are a subscriber or customer, they are collecting info.

    People, beware. This company collects A LOT of your personal information, cc#’s, bank account #’s..look at their privacy policy for yourself. Their service is free and they systematically collect your private info and your customers’ info on a daily basis.

    Awesome, cheap technology? You decide. I am not a fan of privacy being striped away in my day to day life.

    Anonymous

  • CARLOS DELAMILERA

    Please be carefully processing credit cards with this company. They keep your money for 6 months. My best advise is to contact your bank and not let them debit your business account or personal account. Beware!
    They like to work threw emails and they do not have a direct line to contact or live representatives.

  • Horrible service. They help my money from a client based on a customer service glitch. It took 2 weeks to resolved and then they withdrew money from my bank account based on marketing service I did not approve! I am unable to take payments from customer through square because I am still waiting for them to Put my money back in my bank account.

  • We will never use Square for credit card transactions again. Not only is it expensive, but recently a customer erroneously initiated a dispute and Square immediately took back $900 for the transaction. The customer realized his error, called American Express (his CC) and cancelled the transaction (providing me with an email from Amex verifying that conversation), and Square STILL will not release my funds. I forwarded the email from the customer and Amex to Square and they maintain that American Express communicates to them that the dispute has not been cancelled. Well the customer said the charge remained on his bill, which means he paid the $900 that my business was owed. But Square refuses to release money that doesn’t belong to them, even after being provided with proof. Their support is the worst I’ve ever experienced in this industry. Phone support is useless and email is inefficient and it’s as though you get an entry level employee that could care less whether to resolve your issue or not. Do your business a favor and throw away your Square reader immediately. We switched to the Clover Mini and it’s been a fantastic experience so far.

    • Michael J Mayosky

      You are so right.. They did the same thing to me. I did the work, and the client paid… but square kept the money…. STILL… and after I provided proof the client was still charged…. they are the worst. No accountability.

  • Business Identity Fraud using the Sqaure App and I can’t get any answers from Sqaure. Apparently, someone had used my business name to set up a fraudulent square account and was able to bill someone’s credit card for fake services. I had a man show up at my door (since Square lists my address and gives a map detail) demanding answers how I was able to illegally charge his credit card, I have been emailing Square for the past several days only to get a few replies thanking me for my email. I have asked repeatedly to speak to someone over the phone and have been denied. They also told me there are not at liberty to discuss due to privacy rules.

  • Theresa Crosby

    Recently someone accessed my Square Acct, changed the banking information and helped themselves to my deposits. IN addition they opened a cash advance on the account. Fortunately they were only able to get a few days of deposits. I immediately called Square and everyone I spoke to (Josh, Terry, Wanda, Mark, Susu & a couple others) were extremely helpful. I took about 10 days but I did get my money back. The only downside was the hold time when I would call, but other than that they were great to work with.

    • Hi Theresa,

      Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!

  • Horrible company I cannot believe that this type of cruel and rude behavior is allowed to go on as long as it has. We as vendors/customers has to shut this company down. This whole thing is set up to steal peoples money.

    • Dwayne K Boyd

      I agree! The whole company is set up to steal money. We all need to file complaints with the FTC!

    • Square charge my customer card for $4,000 and sent email saying money being sent to my account. They charged another customers card for $3,720 the following day and said money being sent. They then REFUSE TO PUT MONEY INTO MY ACCOUNT. When i call them they had NO PHONE and sent a email said we will get back with you by email only.This is company is playing games on the NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE with consumers money. BE AWARE !!!

  • I just submitted and filed a consumer complaint to the federal trade commission. If square has also not returned your money take the time if you can and fill out a complaint.

    https://www.ftc.gov/

  • I lost my business because of square. How is this company still functioning?

    I have a small shop at the mall, square has been holding my funds for over 2 weeks now. I’ve been reading so many reviews and I know I’m not alone. I know this man in Texas and it’s been over 1 month and he has not received $14,000 and a lady out of Dallas and she has not received her $12,000. She has contacted the local news.

    Unfortunately because square has not given me my hard earned money that I have to close my shop Dec 16, 2016 because I’m unable to buy the merchandise I needed to continue to do business here. I’m located in Sunland Park Mall in El Paso Texas.

  • Russell Roesner

    Square is great until they turn off your account with no warning. Instead of asking me about certain activities, they just decided to turn off my account the day after I made two big sales. Not only could I not draw out the money, I had to refund my clients and ask for checks for a total of over $800 after they had received our services putting me at a huge risk. Beware of square. If they turn your account off, their customer support phone will not allow you to talk to anyone to even discuss the matter. You become the “scum of the Earth” to them. I really liked this company until they did this. Be VERY careful of this company or you might get screwed over like I did.

  • Been there done that

    I’ve been waiting 96 days for $8,871 to be deposited, they asked me documents which where provided and legal. I provided proof I was at dragoncon and spent $1,600 to be a vendor there. I’m now out of business and still waiting on these funds emails are always the same saying we’ve made our ruling and it will be 90 days we are way past that. I’ve since lost my house and now living with friends and they do not care enough to respond. Beware these crooks!!!!!!

    • Jayme Terrigno

      Have you received your money yet? They are doing this to us as well – Holding over $16,000. We can’t get a hold of anyone and there are no responses to our emails.

  • square is one lousy company, deactivate my account with a reason of high risk although i do business with people whom i know for a while and they authorize me to use there debit card every once in a while
    DON’T EVER USE THEM ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU CAN’T REACH THEM OVER THE PHONE!!!

    • Russell Roesner

      Agreed they did the same thing to me. I CANNOT BELIEVE they would turn off your account and then BLOCK you from even calling them on the phone right after. I had been a customer for over 5 years and bang, they cut my account off with almost $1000 that I couldn’t collect. Its been a nightmare!

  • THE WORST COMPANY — a few months ago, i used Square Cash to collect for an ill friend, no problem. TODAY i did 10 requests to collect for my kids school fundraiser, there’s payments to me — but I CAN”T GET THEM OUT as they want me to VERIFY ON FACEBOOK? I hate Facebook, I don’t use FACEBOOK — WTF

  • This company is holding our deposits from our customers

  • Reuben Avalos

    This company has terrible practices and very little respect for customers, they do what they want and provide very little help, they do not care about your complain and treat you like you are just some pity fool who needs their help, I will spread the word everywhere to raise awareness about these people…

    • kathy Green

      They are morons. I ordered some stuff from China . The company said the were going to refund me. Gave them my info. Now I have 2400 in charges. The screwed up thing is Square makes it look like I was binge shopping. My banking is linked from one card to a bill to another card! Its a mess.I dont know where. to start. To be honest I am afraid to see what other damage has been made on my other accounts.

  • Square Sucks!

    Square is holing more than $26,000 of our funds (after we proved our claim, the merchant company agreed with us and was validated by Square). They initially told us it was a 90 day hold, the 90 days is on 12/15/15 and two weeks ago they cancelled our account and told us they were going to hold the funds for an ADDITIONAL 90 days.

    We’re a small business stuggling to meet payroll.

    Their claims are unsupported and decisions have been unilateral.

    THey are a joke!

  • I had $900 transferred to my cash app and it won’t let me transfer to my bank.
    $600 was actually taken out of my bank account without my authorization and hasn’t been put back. I’ve been going around and around with customer service with no real help and every time I get a different person telling me something different that doesn’t help at all. And now I’m out of this cash. I feel cheated and it’s creating a problem for me.

    The original $600 I was cash apples is not even showing anymore. Just disappeared. And didn’t disappear to my bank account.

    This is the worst. Not reliable and my money disappears!

  • LV LEGALDOCS

    We have been with Square-up for nearly 7 years. I’ve had two chargebacks. Both were from people that were being evicted. We provided services, submitted all the paperwork. However they still placed a hold on our account, then debited the account twice making a overdrawn balance of 1045.00 not including overdraft fees. I have always been in good standing, however, they still treated me as if we were committing fraud. DO NOT USE SQUARE. THEY LIE THEY STEAL AND IT TAKES AN ACT OF CONGRESS TO GET A SIMPLE ANSWER WHICH THEY REALLY DON’T PROVIDE.

  • Horrible NON EXISTENT customer service. You can’t even talk to anyone when you call. (if you can find the number to call). I sent them an email and they gave me a “case ID” . Big deal. No more response from them. I have the best credit rating possible and yet they just say “declined can’t confirm your identity” What the heck. Hoping I can take their “free” reader that I paid 10$ for at best buy back. With a big complaint. Now reading the other reviews I should have checked them out before getting involved with them. I think I dodged a bullet by not being able to sign up. STAY AWAY

  • Muy mala atención al cliente, he tratado de comunicarme por teléfono y me piden un código el cual no puedo obtener de ninguna forma posible, también he enviado varios email y no he recibido ninguna respuesta. Estoy tratando de aclarar una transacción y no hay modo de que algún representante se comunique conmigo, increíble !!!

  • Billed amount on credit card statement was $22.00 more than the invoice amount. Appears Squareup is charging credit card fees to the end customer vs. the merchant/vendor. Watch out!

  • Hello Seymour,

    Another day has passed and this is getting ridiculous, SQUARE has stolen money from us $5380.00 and this is unacceptable especially since I can’t even get a phone call or email response, at this point I’m contacting our attorney by the end of business day as this is not being handled in a professional manner, I will also file a police report against SQUARE at the end of business day as well as this is theft, and is impacting our business and our client whom paid to have work done by us.

    More so I’m returning the items I purchased from SQUARE readers etc..and expect a full money back return, and say goodbye to a good customer who planned on using SQUARE for all our processing roughly $100,000 in transactions per year and social postings of what SQUARE has done to us.

    I cannot believe how unprofessional we are being treated!

    • I opened an account with square and had nothing but problems getting my account verified. finally after 5 weeks of fighting. a gentleman named Barrett sends me an email, stating that my 606.00 would be transferred to my account…..5 hours later I received an email from someone else saying that my account is being deactivated for suspicious activity….so now I stuck with no way to talk to anyone about my problem……why is this allowed to happen….. I also feel like square is stealing my money……I don’t want an email notification all you do is lead me to a help desk that does nothing with out you 12 digit code to get online….without one you cant talk to nobody…..

    • Russell Roesner

      WOW! I cannot believe how many recent complaints there are about Square just for this month, DECEMBER of 2016. They deactivated my account after 5 years with no problems, held my funds in “RESERVE” and would not allow me to transfer to my bank. I had to refund almost $1000 to my clients and have them all write me checks after they received our services. ITs been a NIGHTMARE! When you get deactivated, their customer service number won’t allow you to talk to anyone and you have to only email them. Its a SCREWED UP COMPANY! Do not use them!

  • POLITICAL RETALIATION After an initial positive experience with Square Up for over a year in my Business, as soon as my Political Views crossed their Boards and Presidents lines, the nightmare began… and I’m a Democrat!, But I sued Obama for Constitutional Qualification Violations to the U.S. Supreme Court 12-5276 & 14-9396 as a Presidential Candidate myself.

    I can’t began to express the cross-over childish and unprofessional tactics Square has exhibited in collusion and cartelish retaliation with info coming from step-sister company Twitter as part of their social algorithm in discriminating against Customers. BEWARE! 95 DAYS to get my Money! A Quarter of a Year! Horrible Business principles of fairness and equality masked in a shroud of non transparency and murky language that I’m seriously so upset about I’m thinking it deserves a Federal Case Number in violation of Commerce Clauses crossing State Lines.
    SQUARE NOT SO SQUARE
    https://codyjudy.blogspot.com/2016/09/square-up-review-not-so-square-in.html?m=1

    • Michael J Mayosky

      You are so right….. Is this the “New Economy”? No accountability? No way to dispute? They stole my money too…. This will be a law suit… HOPEFULLY. They should not be in business.

    • Square charge my customer card for $4,000 and sent email saying money being sent to my account. They charged another customers card for $3,720 the following day and said money being sent. They then REFUSE TO PUT MONEY INTO MY ACCOUNT. When i call them they had NO PHONE and sent a email said we will get back with you by email only.This is company is playing games on the NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE with consumers money. BE AWARE !!!

  • Terrible service. They debited our bank account based on a claim that services were not rendered. However, we provided a signed contract of the credit card charge and Square ignored it. Poor customer service when calling back. No real managers to talk to. bad experience.

  • Great idea BUT: This is a product designed by people who might be good at tech stuff but seem to never have run or owned a business, do not appear to know retail and what information one is looking for when running a retail business, have no clue about good customer interface. It is complicated and absolutely NOT INTUITIVE nor in keeping with established norms of organizing sales, customer, inventory and other vital data. GET SOME PEOPLE WITH REAL WORK EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELDS YOU ARE TRYING TO SERVICE onto your product development team. Seriously.

  • Sharon Brown

    Very unhappy with support, can’t get anyone on the phone. I’ve emailed and cannot get the anwsers i need, I ordered their chip reader and opened an account with them. Used the chip reader once for a test to make sure that it worked. When i go to use it again, it wont work, I go online to find out that my account has been deactibvated. I seem to be unable to get anyone on the phone to solve the problem.

  • Tom Lambrecht

    Signed up for Square bought card readers, sent LLC papers explained we were a consulting company, Mortgage Broker company, feasibility studies and
    mortgage restructure and arbitration company in advance. One first client was asked for a ton of info
    then they say they don’t do business with Debt counselors (we are not) . Keep away from these guys they don’t even have a phone to complain or settle disputes. In doubt call me 800-810-0949

  • Scott MacDougall

    This site says Square’s rating is “B”. This is misleading. It should be “F”. Called four times to follow up on none payment. They were uncontactable. How can you run a business when a financial services company is holding on to your cash flow?. If you’re relying on funds being available Do NOT!. I repeat DO NOT use square! Otherwise you’re a Square Head….

  • On 10/15/2016 I made a donation to a small local nonprofit using an email address I’ve never used before or since (so I can determine the source of spam email). On 11/24/2016 this email address got an unsolicited commercial email from:

    Amorino Theater District

    about a Black Friday sale. They could only have gotten this email address from my 10/2016 Square purchase. Perhaps there was fine print somewhere that said my charge allowed Square to sell my contact information to Amorino Theater District for commercial gain, but I’d never have allowed it if I’d known.

    • Excised from my above review was the actual, telling, email address of the Amorino Theater District:

      marketing at messages dot squareup dot com

      Jim W

  • SpongeBob SQUARE pants

    Welp……As of 11/25/2016 Iike everyone else I’m going thru the same BS with Square. Unlike most reviews on here I don’t do large transaction over $500+ I first made a credit card transaction for a measly $75.00 Square wanted documents sunt via email I passed all verifications. Yesterday I swiped for $286.95 I received an email today saying my account has been deactivated due to “High risk”??? WTF Its like were suppose to make transactions for $100 or lower for your account to stay active SMH

  • Will not use this product ever again service is the worst I have ever seen. I got the same email like everyone else about my account being deactivated and they will be holding my $2400 for 90 days and they will not contact you or reverse the decision. It sounds like they will be holding all of the money for the next 90 days and collecting interest off of it. Plus I cant go back to my customers and tell them I need to rerun their card again. The whole thing smells fish to me.

  • The Youth Shop GA Property

    We have read this about your company, no merits on this decision at all, but it is okay. You received the documents and you know the transaction was legal and legitimate. Please Refund the clients money today! You guys should verify account before setting up account not after pending transactions. This will help both merchants and customers. This tenant maybe homeless because of how your company conduct business. We will make the necessary steps we need to help prevent this from occurring again to another merchant that decides to use your services.

    FYI. I spoke highly about your service to my friend at NCR the next competition she comes in contact with will mention my experience.

    From: Square Account Services ;

    Subject: Alert from Square, Inc: Important Information About Your Account
    Sent: Wed, Nov 23, 2016 6:19:16 PM

    Hello To my company
    We’re sorry to inform you that we are deactivating your account. Our Account Services team reviewed your account and found a pattern of transactions associated with high-risk activity.
    For further information about our policies, you can review section 36 of the Square Payment Terms.
    We regret that, starting today, you will no longer be able to process transactions using Square. Any funds currently in your account will be held for 90 days before being released to your linked bank account.
    If you’d prefer to receive funds more quickly, you should consider refunding the payments back to the original cards and seeking alternate forms of payment. (Please note that we will refund all the fees, too.)
    Refunds are available within 60 days of the original payment. To process a refund, log in to the Square dashboard.
    Use the date selector tool to locate the specific payment.
    Click the payment you’d like to refund, then click “Issue Refund”.
    Select the reason you’re refunding the payment, and click “Issue Refund.”
    If there is additional information about your transactions or your business that you would like us to take into consideration of an early funds release or a full reactivation of your account, please submit that information here. Our Account Services team will review your request and you should receive a response within 2 – 3 business days.
    Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
    Sincerely,

    Square Account Services

    © 2016 Square, Inc.
    This was done in middle of the pending transaction, documents where sent in, however this is the company business practices. PayPal will do your account verification prior to approval of the account,not during a.pending transaction. The cause hardship on both merchants and the customer and Square holds customer funds 90-120 days and longer in most cases without merit. No fraud activity whatsoever. Please take this as a warning for your business and your customers.

  • I would not recommend this service for new small businesses. There is no phone support and you must contact them through email. Their email response is vague and answers absolutely no questions on the issues at hand. I regret signing up with them.

  • Wow where do I start? Horrible horrible customer service!!’ My advice to you is turn away, find a different route!!’ I went online and bought the Apple Pay , chip reader pack. I was super excited! So when I tried to register this and get it all set up it kept telling me we are unable to set up at this time try again later, so I did several times kept getting the same message, so I contact customer support well first of all it isn’t customer support it’s more like we don’t give a **** about you, telling me that because I had attempted to set my reader up to many times they are unable offer me their service! Then they said they couldn’t approve my application, well if I needed to be approved why didn’t they have me fill out the application before taking my money’ wow wow wow I am returning it before I even opened it all up! So disappointed!!! Wish I would have read all the reviews before I even did anything! Cause I would t have even ordered from them! So just know they don’t ever pay you on time there is no customer support!!! Bad bad bad bad bad service!!!!!!!

  • I decided to use Square Up at a small artisan show on Nov. 4th. I made two transactions which added up to a little over $600. I worked for 6 months to prepare for this show so that I would have Christmas money. They deactivated my account and are holding my money for 90 days! I’m unable to contact anybody, you can’t without an account. I feel as though I’ve been robbed.

    • Square is an inadequate rip off company. Their service is ZERO- you can never get anyone on the phone as they make it impossible to contact anyone period! They send you robot emails that never explain anything clearly and they rob you of your $$$$ as they hold onto it for 90 days without telling you anything other than nothing! Of course they keep the percentage right uP front. I despise this company and their unrightful ways. Use PayPal or do it the old fashion way- accept checks- Postal Money Orders.

  • Vasil Vasilev

    DO NOT USE !!!
    After 3 years business with Square, suddenly last week i received the “deactivating account message, NO explanation”. We run legitimate Limo and Shuttle Services business in Orlando and i have some charge backs from time to time, but nothing excessive! DO not use these Crooks!! I gave them so much money over the years, never caused trouble! I was telling all my friends how good Square was and got knifed in the back!

    • I agree with you. I run a small taxi company and I drove a customer for 200 miles he paid me with credit card over a week ago and square didn’t deposit the money in my account .

  • Unable to send invoices. Error message says “Payer’s email is invalid”, This comes up on every invoice I try and I verified the addresses plus one of them is a repeat customer with no change in the email. Sent an email to Square earlier today and the only response was an email saying they would respond.

  • Hello
    We started using Square in 2012 at our pizzeria and it has worked flawlessly. Never had a problem. Fees are reasonable and it was easy to sign up. Thank you Square for a job well done!

    • The Youth Shop GA Property

      They do things without notice, during pending transactions with verification documents and it can be a hardship for your business and your customer. We and other merchants in metro area are taking their business practices to our senate and house representatives.

    • You must be the only person on the face of this planet thanking square. This company is money holding company for interest period. Nice try do yourself a favor and watch for squares moles leaving good reviews.

  • Absolutely THE WORST Customer Support. Terrible service provider. We have transactions that range between $5000 and $25,000 and we had funds held on the second transaction pending additional verification, which we provided. With no response from the verification team, I called Support THREE TIMES in one day from 10:30 AM – 3:30 PM PST with hold times up to 45 minutes per call. I finally got ahold of a human being on my third call only to have him not answer one of my questions, rudely and forcefully talk over me without listening, then hang up on me.

    SQUARE PROVIDED THE MOST HORRIFIC CUSTOMER SUPPORT…EVER!

    The reviewer has the perfect words to describe who best Square is for…”It appears that Square is best suited for individuals who have an occasional need to accept a credit card payment, such as babysitters and flea market vendors.” This is NOT THE CREDIT CARD PROCESSOR FOR PROFESSIONAL SERVICES OR SERVICE PROVIDERS. However, it appears it’s best for business owners selling coffee by the cup, baked goods, a mobile mechanic, or someone selling T-Shirts at a swap meet. Low dollar transactions (below $500) are king at Square.

    The provide NO escalated phone support. The support reps treat every phone call like the Wild West. If they feel like being rude or abusive towards assertive customers asking valid questions they can’t answer, they simply hang up in your face. There are no managers, no staff supervisors, NOBODY with any higher level management to escalate a call to.

    I will not be surprised when this company goes out of business. They seem to be on a fast train heading for the mountain. There are too many other credit card processors available for anybody to tolerate such disgusting service.

  • I used Square for a bit back in 2011 with no issue but business closed. I recently opened another business and decided to go back with Square. After my first sale on the new account was taken, and I received an email that had me going
    through every hoop they demanded. Contractor licencing proof,3 bank statement,state tax id #,
    contracts with clients on & on. I get email next day (no deposit of funds) stating funds were seized to cover chargebacks from that old account. I was never was able to speak with anyone! After some research I found out and wasn’t aware there was fraudulent activity on the old account by an employee that switched information to their own (bank, email, etc). Our domain was deactivated when business closed so i never received any emails afterwards. Therefore I wasn’t given the opportunity to resolve or try to clear up old account; just another email stating new account deactivated due to suspicious activities. I assume since I was on hold for an hour and no one answered the account was being deactivated and reading here “deactivated accounts” don’t get support.

    • Also forgot to mention the charges happened in 2014 from what i was able to gather but still unable to find out exactly due to no access to account, and no response from Square.

  • Have been on hold up to a half an hour to get a recording for call back, which has never come. They have held my funds for going on 2 weeks after I have submitted the information they have been asking for, only to find out that ,oops ? They need more information by emails , that they said were sent….. I haven’t received!

  • The Square system is a great idea, the Square customer support (if there is any) sure leaves a lot to be desired. Their software quit working yesterday and I still haven’t been able to contact anyone about them getting it to work.

  • SQUARE USERS BEWARE! I worked all day preparing for & catering an event. I used Square to charge my customer’s card. Later, I received an email from Square saying they had refunded my customer. After jumping through all the hoops to get a customer service rep, I was told that I had manually processed the refund. I could not convince him that I had not. Later, I charged myself $1 & refunded it just to learn the process. You have to manually input the refund amount & then enter a reason. So I called again & asked what reason had been entered. I was then told that there was indeed a problem because no reason had been entered. But shortly thereafter, I received another email stating that a reason had been entered after all. Obviously, Square has either had a security breach or a glitch & they are refusing to acknowledge it. To date, I have not received my funds for all my hard work.

  • Hi there,

    I am writing this review from Canada since I also have the same problem as you guys here. Square have been held my $10K for more than 6 months after they deactivated my account. I try to search for anyone who have ever get money back but seems hopeless until I found this news “Complaints mount against credit card processor Square”
    please search in youtube or copy and paste the link as below:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYgMx2AkqtM

    Is there anyone follow up or any result of this news?

    God bless us!!

    • Hello square deactivated my account 95 days , long story short i got my 4800 today thank God

      • Hi Rob

        Just curious
        I’ve tried to link my bank account after my $5400 has been held and it won’t link

        Did you have issues after the 90 days actually getting a proper response or if just automatically released back into your account ??

  • My retail store switch to square a year ago. It’s been the best thing we ever did. I have been reading all the complaints and wonder what company your dealing with, the ease of completing sales and the ability to instant deposit the funds in my account is priceless. We also deal with square capital and presently working on paying off our third agreement. Square is a top notch company. I rate them 5 stars– end of story.

  • Carrie Fletcher

    We used Square for a few months and had many problems. We switched to another service provider years ago and have never had any problems.

    • may I ask which other provider? I was just about to get square but these reviews are making me want to find another provider. thanks

  • Nick Kostovic

    To Square;

    To Whom it may concern,

    You are stealing the people money and their identity.
    I supply you with all information, even with my clients phones, and their banks which approved funds.
    You are asking me which way I get my clients, and it has nothing with payments.
    It is just proof you are part of Organized Crime, and I report you to FBI, Los Angeles Police and BBB.
    I found on Internet you cheated your clients and kept money, tents of thousands of dollars for months from your different clients.
    All of my clients dispute payments and it was $15,000, because of your stealing the money and information.

    CURSE ON YOU,MACUMBU ON YOU

    Nick Kostovic

  • I did business with square for a little over a year. Then I started having issues some issues with “charge backs”. I was told that for my business it would be better to do an invoice and allow the customer(s) to pay their own invoices instead of keying in the card information (not in person). I did as I was instructed. For a while (6 months), it worked fine. Supposedly, a client waited 36 days to decide that they didn’t make the purchase. I tried contacting the customer to see if there was a problem. The customer would not respond to my emails. Square deducted the money and stated that I needed to provide information/documents regarding the purchase. I did exactly as I requested. First they told me the case had been decided in my favor (based on the information I provided). Then a week before they were to release the funds back to me, I received an email stating the customer had re-contested the funds. The bank decided in the customers favor and square locked down my account. I can’t get to any of the information. I’m out $1,085.00. You are gambling with the funds if you trust square to honor you as a business owner.

  • Square wil rip you off. Held $1725.00 received from one of my customers for weeks and it still hasn’t been put in my account or refunded to the customer so they can pay me a different way. They won’t respond to inquires my email or take calls. Its impossible to get any help. Horrible company and customer service is a joke.

  • Paul badeau

    I would never recommend square to anyone. They took my customers credit card payment immediately . 8 days later I was trying to find “a person” to speak to and all I could get was a recording telling me to go on website and get customer code. I could not get the customer code because they deactivated my account for no apparent reason. I finally got someone to call me after many emails left asking where was my money (4000.00 mind you). After being asked several questions I was told I was all set and the funds would be in my account within 1-2 days. I received an email stating they deactivated my account and the funds would be in my account within 1-2 days. 3 days later still no $. I again tried frantically to reach someone and could not because the account was still deactivated and not deactivated as I was told by their customer service rep as well as the email. It has now been 11 days still no money ( however it was taken from my customers card 11days earlier). I finally revived a response to my , again, several emails asking where my funds were. They stated they could not process it because I for some reason am on a “red flag” list. For what , I have no idea!! They said I could wait 180 days for my money or refund the money to my customer. OFCOURSE I refunded the customer immediatley! What a horror show that company is. BAD BUSINESS and no customer service!!!! BEWARE!!!

    • my God I am just reading all these reviews and just come to see I have just took a ladies credit card for my first sale using a card and I am not going to get my money and neither is she… This is the first time to use Square and they send a long list of thing they need to verify my acct. After is sent all the stuff to them and waiting on hold for hours I was told all is well and the money will be sent to me the next day.. not only did I not get the money they said I was deactivated and can not say why and have to wait 6 months for the money.. that is $6450.00 I cant even refund because there is no button to do it….. What can I do????

      • That is a major lawsuit waiting to happen. Contact a Lawyer or look to see if there is a Civil Law Suit filed then jump in.
        I do not trust this Company as far as you could throw them- they are crooks!

  • Jacinthe Herbert

    We would never recommend Square to anyone. We have just been terminated without reason and warning. Since then, we are not able to even talk to anyone to resolve the issue! Why??????

  • Received a text saying Welcome to SMS messages from Square – Reply ……..
    View your receipt from The Fix Solutions:
    Tap to load preview

    Never heard of them. Don’t have an account. And I’m darn sure not going to tap on their link! I see that apparently this is another sleazy scam method they have added to their arsenal. Watch out.

  • In Florence,AL. I bought something from 256-718-7999. She was using Square. First she said …no receipt, than she said ok with a phone nr.
    Gave it, received a link …
    Now I dare not go pick up my receipt as my security tells me square’s site is improperly set up & would allow my info to be hacked. ???
    What is this ???? not having security in there ?????? I deeply regret having accepted to go through square. Bad juju !

  • Kristen ottea

    HORRIBLE service. They are holding my money hostage right now. NEVER USE SQUARE!!!

  • Beware do NOT use Square in offline mode. It is no better than writing the credit card info down on a piece of paper and hoping it goes thru when you can actually process it. I’m a vendor at craft fairs. I use square registar. I had great cell service because I was checking the current weather reports on multiple sites with no problems. Square would not connect online and told me to use there offline mode. I did, I checked for proper current valid ID. I had a $255 credit card charge. Square approved the charged and I had the customer sign squares capture screen and got the usual thank you screen. Big mistake on my part that I did not write down any customer info. My sales are one time things I don’t ever expect to see or sell to theses people again. IAcccording to Squares directions it says that as soon as I’m connected to the Internet it will run theses charges. I take the risk that these charges could be declined till I’m online. Less than 8 hours later I was definitely connected to the Internet I was at my home with dependable service. I checked my emails , sent emails, etc etc. I assumed Square was processing my credit card charges but NO they did not process these charges until some 7 hours later. Which is when this one Charge was declined. I feel that had this been done when I was first online then maybe this card would not have been declined. It took me three days to finally talk to someone at Square. The person was no help, would not let me speak to a supervisor. Would not give be any info about this charge, told me she felt it would have been declined no matter what time it was processed, but would not tell me why she felt that, would not try to resolve this with the person , or bank , would not run the charge again either.. Would not help in any way at all. Whe did offer to give me free processing fees for the next $1000 charges which amounts to $25 . So they are admitting that they were in the wrong. She would not check to see if their service was down it that area at those times. It was working at the library across the parking lot. Only Square was not working.
    So I’m out $255 which is a huge sum to us.
    Does anyone know if it is legal for me to take photos of people’s ID’s so I have this info to contact them if there is a problem and so I can run the charge again if needed. Of course I would delete the photos as soon as the charge cleared. I’m opened for suggestions . What company can I use ? Help

  • One of the worst company ever. It looks like I have lost my money with Square. This company is not releasing my own money after providing them with all legal documents. I called them today and I was told that they will release money today but nothing happened. Scam!! Stay away sole traders

  • Pedro Moreau

    Soy un usuario de SQUARE y esto es una publicidad engañosa, me registre y seguí todos los pasos que ellos exigen, sin embargo después de hacer cobros por tarjetas que suman $6387.84 estos señores nos tienen estos fondos represados por mas de 3 semanas dañando el funcionamiento regular de nuestra empresa de servicios WETTER TOURS LLC. No USES ESTOS SERVICIOS ENGAñOSOS por favor. He tratado de llamar para resolver el problema y si revisas por internet verás que es imposible comunicarte con un representante, son una compañía sin seriedad y se quedan con tu dinero. CUIDADO con usar este servicio.

  • My husband realized he was swiping his clients cards using square but all funding are pending. I went to BBB to see what they are about… WOW!!! To my dismay I read at least 15 reviews and all of them were talking about money withheld by square. THIS IS A SCAM!!! He only lost $78 which is a blessing when you look at the merchants who lost thousands. My heart dropped everytime I read a review indicating their trust in this company with information about their bank accounts and that of their clients. WARNING- You may want to randomly check your bank account for any unwarranted activity. If they are willing to steal from us blatantly in our face then how much more will they do behind our backs.

  • I have been using Square up for more than 6 months for my retail furniture business. First of all they have the work customer service, I had to call them twice both times the representative was horribly rude.

    The biggest reason I hate Square up and I am going to quit using them is; NO REFUND AFTER 60 DAYS. So if you issue the refund via check you obviously loose the fees charged by Square which is unfair.

  • Terri Freeman

    Do not use this company if you have half a brain. Square has one of the worst web sites I have ever seen. It is anything but user friendly. You can’t find anything you want and trying to get a customer service phone number is totally out of the question. All I want to do is bill one of my customers by inputting their card number manually and I have now spent over 45 minutes trying to find the link to do that. I have tried signing in several times to see if I could get to the page I need but NO all I get is useless reports, and a bunch of junk. This is RIDICULOUS!!! I am going to find another company that does this but has a clue when it comes to designing a web site. This place SUCKS!!!

    • Hey Terri, how funny to see you on here. Someone used my credit card who l trusted and took out alot of money. l have tried for three days to get a hold of Squareup and can’t get any one to speak to. My credit card company has tried and sent a letter to dispute the charges. Still nothing. Now l have a 1300 bill on my account. I can’t believe square didn’t send me “the card holder” a confirmation number at the time . l could have denied the charge then. Now two months later and l still haven’t got it resolved.

  • jeffrey phillips

    Square put a hold on a large payment from a customer and gave me no reason why. I will do everything in my power to prove that this company is holding money illegally to draw interest. I have contacted my attorney who has contacted the federal Bureau of Consumer Protection | Federal Trade Commission. I would not do business with these scam artist.

  • Wow, I have read some reviews that was just posted within the last 72 hours and to my surprise, I am having the SAME issue. My account was DEACTIVATED yesterday for some unknown “security” reason after having a transaction done under $900.

    Is SQUARE serious. They shut you off without any explanation at all and keep you from calling THEM! How professional of them.

    I don’t understand what was ‘RISKY’ when its on file that an invoice was sent and paid by the customer on their on server entering their own information.

    For SQUARE to not want to explain themselves is a huge red flag for me.

    I DO NOT RECCOMMEND SQUARE TO ANYONE !!!!

  • Robert Faulkner

    I signed up with square the let me collect fees and when I tried to collect from them they closed my account and kept the money 3700 dollars don’t trust them they will steal your money and try to call them impossible

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