Agree with our rating?
Tell us about your experience with Square in the comment section below.
(855) 351-2274Company 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.
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.
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).
Financial and Legal Services
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 Complaints & Reviews
Here's What Users Think
Complaint Summary
|
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 BBB Rating and Report
Our Better Business Bureau Profile Assessment
BBB Summary
|
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 and Rates
A Closer Look at the Contract
Cost Summary
|
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 Jobs and Employment
Hiring Standards and Ethical Marketing Assessment
Key Points
|
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.
Square Review Summary
Our Final Thoughts and Opinions
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.
If you found this article helpful, please share it!
Julia
I wish I would of seen all these complaints years ago only they probably wouldn’t have been there since I started with square from the beginning. I’m a small business in the St. Louis area of all places (where square originated) . I’ve been in business for 30 yrs , I’m an honest rational thinking woman owning a business from grass roots of no loans scrapping by and raising a child on my own. Who has grown up to be a honest hard working young man. My salon is in a small town . Square has given me approximately 4 capital loans to grow my business and I’ve never had an issue with this till now . Square gave me a capital loan 3 weeks ago with an agreement to pay back in 18 mos with a 600.00 fee etc … a week later they deactivated my account on a Friday night with only an explanation of section 3 and or section 4 . I was so upset and had no idea why or what was going on. I left 3 frantic emails of what happened and why can’t I talk to someone etc . I had been setting up an online store thru wix.com for Cbd products and was told by so many companies and officials it’s legal in 50 states . I had the toxicology reports the whole shabang .Spent money on a Domain name etc. I never ordered any except to myself to see how to do shipping which I never got the product it was just to test our shipping. When I saw this deactivation sect 3 is about paraphernalia , this is the only thing I can come to a conclusion of this deactivation . Since then Missouri laws are so confusing and there’s so much gray area that I deactivated my online store and forgot the dream of helping so many of my clients crushed. But I don’t care my business is more important to me and I don’t want to do anything illegal. I pleaded with square to understand and take me back. Now they’re stating I need to pay back the loan in 6 mos which would be over 800 dollars a month. I cannot do this I can’t afford it. They said get back with them in 3 days if not we will take out this every month from my checking account . What the heck are we suppose to do they don’t let anyone try to work things out . I’m so upset and my moms in the hospital at the same. I’m afraid when I see squares emails. Good luck everyone .
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best CBD Merchant Accounts
Joe Kerr
Square will refund up to $250 per month on chargebacks but only when the purchase is less than $250. So, since I was selling something that is more than $250 through Square, I get nothing when someone does a chargeback. Why protect the people who sell small things but not your better customers who sell tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff through you? I’m going back to PayPal.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best E-Commerce Merchant Accounts
Angel
Fuck square they held up my money for some review of my account I sent them the info, and now they are costing me money because I can’t buy materials to start the job and meet my deadline with my client. Couldn’t speak to a higher up or wasn’t provided with a number to have further assistance. Totally sucks. And totally didn’t care about the inconvenience they caused. Simply told me I should know loook at what sign up for.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
Dee bishop
This company is terrible. I cancelled a charge on my cc that I didn’t recognize. When I found out the name of the company I notified my cc to pay the merchant which they did. The problem? Square was fast in taking the money out of the merchants bank…without notice! . The invoice was sent through by my cc. Within a few days. It has been over 1 month and the merchant still has not received his money. They have the money and have had it for over the month. I would never recommend this company for any thing. This is totally inappropriate and needs to be reported to the merchants lawyer. So now square is making money on the interest that should have been given to the merchant a month ago. He has called several times which is a pain in and of itself with the passwords delay and no one to actually speak to. Still he has not been paid. They’re excuse was they couldn’t see that money! Or they couldn’t pay it . No customer service. I have my cc giving time and date of payment to square. It was run through just like the original bill. Poor business and unacceptable response. Do not get this business.
Dusty Abrahamson
TERRIBLE!!!! We gave this POS (more like piece of you know what) system two tries and had both accounts deactivated after taking out first payment on both. Then we jumped through all their stupid hoops and provided all the information they requested only for them to deactivate the accounts. You cannot speak to anyone on the phone and it takes DAYS!!! For a response. When you get a response it is very generic and all they do is refer you to their policies without explaining what violation/ if any you have committed. Then they freeze your account and hold all your money ransom. Or you can refund you payment back to the customer and track them down to see if they can pay you using a different method. This pos is a fricken joke. STAY AWAY FROM IT!
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
paul
I opened a merchant account –linked my bank account and debit card as such was confirmed buy Square
Taking 1st payment the reader did nit word on the phone so customer car was entered manually– Day number 4 ; the deposit show pending and to be released each day!
Paid extra 1% for instant deposit–did not deposit instantly
I messaged customer service and then received an email that payment can be accepted; however deposit put on suspension wtf !!!
Then. I received an email to complete a verification form
I completed said form–still pending !!!
My customer has the product— I had to text customer and then I issued a refund– customer agreed to pay me via paypal!!
GUESS WHAT REFUND PENDING
I’LL FILE A COMPLAINT WITH THE FTC ONLINE NOW
ONE COMPLAINT WON’T WORK; BUT 1000’S WILL
SO FILE A COMPLAINT
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Report Bad Credit Card Processors
Rob
Customer disputed a charge several months after making payment. Square’s dispute resolution team could not get the “dashboard” to work. Despite being assured they would only place a hold on the funds in question they seized them anyway without explanation. They refuse to respond to email and refuse to provide a phone number. When initially asked for a contact for their legal team I bogus address was provided.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Fight Chargebacks and Win
S
After several electronic invoices from a long time customer who happens to have my same last name, they closed my account with no warning, no opportunity to provide an explanation or evidence of shipments of product delivered, customer website displaying products etc. Nothing, just a form letter accusing me of a pattern of charging my own card or some such bs. Had never done that. And of course when your account is closed you can’t even reach a representative! Square is absolutely ridiculous. Leaves a bad feeling. Every time I see one of their stupid registers I pay with cash and when possible mention my experience to the business owner. Screw them!
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Electronic Invoicing
Tiffany Bentley
DO NOT USE!! They will not give me my money. I have used Square’s credit card processing service before. I accepted a credit card payment for $833 for a service through square’s processing services. I called Square’s customer support line to find out when the money would be deposited in the bank on Friday 09/21/18 and they informed me I would have to wait until Monday, 09/24/18 to receive the deposit. I had setup my account to receive instant direct deposit of funds from Square whenever processing a credit card, so I was upset. The first customer service representative I spoke to said they could not do anything, I could not have my deposit until Monday. I asked to speak to someone like a manager, or someone in charge, not just a customer service representative. i was given a manager to speak to, and I did continue to argue with the manager demanding my money. The continued response was I would have to wait until Monday. I researched the internet for a phone number to their corporate office and I could only find a number that directed me back to their customer service number, and I would not be able to speak to customer service until I got onto their website and got some number through going through a very long process. So, now it’s Monday 09/24/18, I am expecting my money that Square is holding. There was no deposit in my bank account. Not until Monday morning did I receive some sort of email requesting my personal information. I had used this service many times before. I sent them my personal information. Later in the day I went through the long process of trying to speak to a human being, to which I finally was directed to one, who informed me it would take 2-3 business days for them to process my personal information. So, now they have been holding my money for 4 days, and have come up with a reason to hold my money for 3 more days. I explained to the customer service representative that I was told on Friday I would receive my deposit on Monday. It is now Monday, and I want my money. You cannot just hold people’s money. She just kept saying I would have to wait another 3 days to get my money, making the total number of days 6, when I have my account setup for instant deposit. So, I requested to speak to a manager, and was denied that request. I asked for the corporate phone number, which I was denied. So, they are just allowed to hold my money and I am angry. I tried to call their corporate office and all that happened is the automatic system sent me back to customer service. And, because they are holding my money that I earned, I am angry and expressed my anger. They now have blocked me from being able to contact the company at all. How can a money processing system have no way to speak to someone besides the customer service representative, and then block the consumer from calling at all? This is not the way to run a money processing business. I find it gross neglect of handling other people’s money.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
Jr
Do not use this app, Square makes promises that do not ever hold up, the company will not hear complaints or return emails, the managers are there to receive a paycheck that you worked hard for and will not care if your money is missing or stolen, the representatives are disrespectful and will not take the time to fix any issues related to a complaint. Please use another way to receive payments Square is not the only one who does this method of payments, so I found out
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Contact Square
Kevin Hill
This companies customer support is horrible!! Because Square allowed one of my customers to use a supposedly stolen card they locked up my account but they are now holding all of my credit card transactions and will not pay.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
Chris
***Gun shop owners beware*** I purchased square on 6/29 from Amazon. I followed all directions in setting up my account information and did a test transaction and all was good. About 2 weeks later, I get an email notification stating that square could not communicate with my bank and to please contact my bank for my information. I went ahead and contacted my bank to make sure nothing was wrong and they assured me that my business account was ready to go and start accepting payments from square. This happened at least 6x and still getting the runaround from square, stating that my bank is the problem and not them. I come to find out that square is not a gun friendly company and most likely have not been sending the link request to link my account and then lying that they could not communicate with my bank. I have since moved on to a much better credit card processing unit and will never support square due to there intolerance of law abiding gun ownership. they should be ashamed of themselves but I will take a little responsibility in this as well because I should have researched who owns square and his political affiliation. Better l;ate than never I guess
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Gun-Friendly Merchant Accounts
McKenzie Sims
I had a charge on my bank account from a Square user that I did not authorize! Squares receipt finder didn’t even work so could not figure out where it came from! And then no one could help me or talk to be me at square! Worst company and support ever!
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Contact Square
Robert Ferrera
I’m the co owner of a growing children’s theater company that has been unfortunately handling our transactions with square. Our business brings in a steady stream that naturally fluctuates from day to day, and we recently had a very good day, probably one of our best. This was over a week ago now and square has yet to deposit our money. We have been told it’s “under review“, no details. They tell us we can’t discuss the account information over the phone inexplicably, but that instead we have to email about it. We have sent email after email to them with no response.
They have essentially stolen our money and are as crooked a financial business as I’ve come across. I’ve read a lot of other reviews and this but this company is begging for a class action lawsuit as it seems they’ve defrauded many small businesses like ours.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
Jonathan Kent Swaim
My chip reader never works. So i am charged more. Can never get ahold of anyone for help.
Jerry C
Yea i don’t recommend them for any online transaction i had one customer i did all the work for them and i made sure the customer was happy but at the last min customer regrets the purchase and 6 months later disputes the charges and square couldn’t do anything for me and i lost $4,000 they said they couldn’t help me much i felt this was bad i was hoping they would fight back and help me solve this issue i would not do business with square because your pretty much on your own
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Fight Chargebacks
Garlene Horton
I am small business owner, which the square beat me out of money not once but twice and I will not use it any more.
sorry company to do business with.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Mobile Card Processing Apps
Derrick
I made 2 test payments from my store. And now my account has been deactivated stating I violated Section 3 of the Payment Terms and/or Section 4 of the General Terms. Those terms do not relate to my business. Futhermore, calling into Support does not explain to me in depth why my account was deactivated.
Thank you.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How To Avoid Fund Holds With Square
Katie Short
I sell meat at farmers markets and depend heavily on Square. A month ago, it just quit working. I’ve tried everything to reconnect. No luck. Nobody to talk to. No way to get the so-called code for support. What beats me is that Square’s losing money while my account is down, so why don’t they help me get it back up and running? I’m done with them.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
Ivo
Square is by far one of the biggest joke companies on the US market today. Terrible customer service, can not resolve any issues, can not get hold of live person, can not get any explanation on any issue. If you are in process opening a new business or trying to get merchant processing company, Square is not the one for you. Guarantee 2- 3 months later you will regrade. Consider different payment processing company for your business.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Acupuncturists
Freddie Falgout
So many credit card charges do not swipe. Charges at the airport must be swift. NO time to type the data in. Can I get help in that area ?
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best All-Purpose Merchant Accounts
Spurdy
Square worked fine for my small business for over 5 years. Then all of a sudden, a month ago, they held all of my deposits. When I investigated why, I found a form online that said I needed to “verify” my business account. I filled it out but it kept saying I needed to provide more “documentation”. The instructions are not clear as to what exactly this is. I provided a tax code-but still no deposits. I emailed many many times and got auto responses every time. I tried to phone many times but you can not speak with a representative without a “code”. I couldn’t get a “code” because I needed to “verify” my account. And round in circles as naseum. The one time I did get a response back from one of my many emails, “Fred” finally gave me a “code”! However it was “invalid” when I tried to use it to speak with someone about my account. This was by far the most frustrating and possibly the most illegal business practice I have ever witnessed. I know I signed “agreements” with Square when I started with them, but I never would have imagined that they could keep a months deposits from me and that there was not one live person to help me with the issue. I would discourage every business owner I encounter that is looking for a system such as this, to never ever ever ever ever do business with Square. It was convenient, but very over priced compared to other systems, and worst of all there was absolutely no customer service at all. None. Zero. In fact I am still wondering if there are actually any live people that work for Square, or if it is just a “completely computer run” system ??? Do not use Square when there are so many others with actual customer service, to choose from.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Mobile Credit Card Processing Apps
Mary Fouse
I have had a problem with your company since beginning of July when you decided to stop making my deposits. Some reason you think that my lotion and potion business is a “High Risk” so you deactivated my account. You NEVER contacted me. Yet you let me continue using square without depositing
This is FRAUD!!
DEPOSIT MY MONEY
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Square Release Your Money
Amaris Bailey
Horrible & Unreliable service. Cash App/Square Inc. took $700 from me & my husband account 7 weeks ago, & it’s still Unresolved. Please Note, neither me or my husband authorized a transaction at all. Square couls not explain how this happened. Not one person has contacted us, & the emails from Square, Inc (aka Cash App) that promised to get put our money back, stopped a week ago. Both our banks advised us never to use this app because of these problems from many others. This should be illegal, but we will be included in a lawsuit that comes from this.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Mobile Apps for Sending Money
Lasonja Brown
Did two transactions thriough Cash/Square those transactions were supposedly refunded…my bank has no records of the refunds I have been trying to get my refunds back since June 14 I have written numerous emails with all the information that had been asked by them of me still no response back no money no anything I will never use them again And I advise you to do the same
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Mobile Apps for Sending Money
Sheila Dumas
Square is used by the ER Electronics store in Leesburg, FL. On May 22, this store sold me a reconditioned iPhone (which had to be ordered) for $493.69. The charge went immediately onto my credit card. On May 26 the store could not obtain the iPhone and they gave me a receipt matching the sales receipt of 4 days earlier, but with a minus sign on amount. From 5/26 to present, 7/2, the ER store said they notified Square of the return and told me the amount would be taken off my credit card. This has not happened. Each time I contacted the store I was told that Square would remove the charge. Poor service.
Elyse Ellinger
Someone hacked my account and I can no longer log in. I can therefore not reach customer support because you have to log in to get a code so you can call support. The only other way is to send them an email, which I did, but apparently they will answer in up to 24 hours. Meanwhile, i’m freaking out about who’s using my account and what they’ doing with it. Unacceptable!
Steve
Unfortunately the support team at square is very poor. They make assumptions and recommendations based upon those assumptions. Such as they assume you have not followed suggestions for resolutions. Sent me for a software upgrade I already had, assuming I had an older version. Unfortunately I have received no help from square at all. To call you need a code and they run you in circles, no code.
The support is for the simplest of issues and no real help if you have an issue that requires more than basic operation. I used to recommend square but can no longer do so in good conscience. Use square at your own risk!
Jeff Schneberg
Horrible. Would not accept customer payment. Returned payments. Poor communication
Brian
Called the day before to verify maximum transaction amount, was told $50,000.00 as they have posted, the transaction was $7650.00 they deactivated my account without completing the transaction held the money and charged the $210.00 for the transaction they chose not to complete. They need a class action suit for deceptive and misleading practices, all in favor👍
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How To Avoid Funding Holds With Square
Ed
I’m with you on this one Brian, I thought about filing a law suit, these people hold funds for so long because they get money from That and they don’t even send a notification to let you know the account will be deactivated or a warning At least.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Mobile Credit Card Processing Apps
justen
Hey we are in process of filing suit now against them.
I had a fireworks stand & used their pos system for 21 days. At the end my figures show I should of had close to 65000 in sales square reported 21000 & when we contacted them we was 1st told to upload a ledger & it would be fixed we did that. & then they said funds are being held & now I can’t get a hold of them
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Processor Release Your Money
Shawn
If you start a class action lawsuit, I’m in at [email protected]. They took money from me claiming that my account was connected to another business. It isn’t! My husband and I shared the same bank account about a year ago and for about a week until he got his own business account, his business listed our bank account as his verified bank account. We switched hat over a year ago,and he’s had his own business bank account. About a month ago he got a chargeback from a client that was fraudent but the bank of the customer rulednin their favor. So this month I get paid from a client, Square holds my money and then says because I have a connected account, they are charging me for the chargeback since my connected account is underfunded? What? It’s not even my Square business account and my bank is not attached to his Square account. How can they do that and it be legal and they tell me investigation closed?
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
Brittany LeSain
Hi Brian my house long did they hold your money before releasing it i am experiencing the same thing now
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Avoid Fund Holds With Square
Robert De bry
Negative, I wanted to help my daughter with her rent so I sent her a one time payment of 300.00 through square cash . Unfortunately since that time over 25,000 has been debited from my bank from square cash without my approval… Looks like bank fraud to me. No way to talk to a real person to resolve this, they demad you give personal info ( hello) to resolve problems. This is a shit – fraud company, report them and never use them
Jose
Hold funds over time and with no reason of telling why
Elizabeth Drury
We have tried to work with Square to get our account corrected. So far, they have yet to return our customer’s money and we have yet to receive it. In other words, they have our money! You cannot reach them by phone. I was considering using this form of payment versus VISA for our business (lawn/landscape/tree business) but after this trouble, forget it. I am happy to pay the 2.75%. At least the credit card companies are not thieves.
Jay Lynch
We are having great difficulty trying to get a refund to a customer
dennean baker
i purchased ice cream and said i didn’t want a receipt. my sister calls me and said she received a email with my purchase. how is my sister receiving my receipt. why did they send it to her. we dont share email address. what if my information went to someone else. the store manager or owner didnt care. it was baked bear in bethesda. so upset.
robert M
It sent my X wife of 8 years ago a receipt a few months back. Now it is sending my x wife receipts from my moms transactions using a completely different card. Crazy!!!
Rena Van Steele
Exactly the same for me. I send a receipt for a transaction. That person does not receive the receipt. A different strange person calls me furious that I have sent them a receipt and they have had no charge card what so ever for 5 years,…and now they are receiving a receipt for someone else card and someone else transaction. Lots of wasted time, energy and frustration and lots and lots of back and forth to figure out. Finally a rep said,..” oh sometimes that happens and disregard.” Grrrrrrrrr
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Complaint Roundup: Crossed Wires From Square
Keith Chemlen
Square is the worst company ever. If you own a company, and are looking to process credit card payments, be careful of this company! They allowed me to set up an account, and once i collected my first payment from a customer, Square held the funds and requested all sorts of hard to get documents to verify that i was a legit company. I am easily verifiable by a simple google search, which clearly indicates hat i am a Corporation, fully licensed, etc. These practices hurt my operations and almost put me out of business.
Manny
Beware, this app is a scam it sucks,unprotected. I sent money to an individual and they literally told me they weren’t going to send me my product,and there’s nothing I can do about it I contacted square they said there’s nothing they can do it’s unprotected once you send your money it’s over the seller does not have to refund your money does not have to send any product and you’re out of X amount of money this app is terrible, this company Is terrible. It’s a scam and there’s no protection stick with PayPal at least your money is safe.
C Miksicek
Earlier this month (May 2018) I was a victim of fraudulent charges using Square accounts. I have been in contact with Square for two weeks now by email and have yet to get a satisfactory response from them (I can’t find a phone number anywhere). They don’t seem to understand payers are customers too. I see 19.2 Million results on Google for fraud + Square, so I don’t seem to be the only one experiencing this problem.
John Baumberger
I’ve been doing business with Square over 5 years and apparently they put my money in the wrong account and are holding saying I need to fill out form I put my federal ID # but they want an EIN # which I have no idea what that even is. Please call me 812 454-8812. why up till now have you made my deposits but now you can hold it. This is outrageous!!!
Hayley
I too am having problems and I don’t have a business. All I wanted to do was get my information fixed. Whenever I purchase something through a vendor using square it offers someone else’s phone number and email for the receipt. This concerns me but I can’t get a required code to talk to customer service because I’m not a merchant. I’m asked to sign up for an account, tell them about the business I’m supposed to have and answer personal questions about myself like phone and email. I spoke to my credit card company and they don’t know why another name is associated with purchases from square. I hate companies like this! It’s like trying to get something fixed with Apple and you can’t unless you schedule a phone discussion so they can validate your complaint before helping you because you can’t actually have a legitimate problem unless they agree you do and verify you’re worthy of talking to someone that can fix it. I’m sure after reading all of these negative reviews it’s really a poor ran company. Overlook the cool app and flexibility of taking payments and see the flawed business practices people. Stop using square.
Lee Morris
Not customer friendly. Poor presentation of customer information. Hard to use. Will again use a merchant that uses this system. Merchant may be rest this square system is not
Joel
Square is not user friendly at all. I had to search for their phone number on the forums as it is impossible to find it on their website. Finally talked to someone set up a meeting, changed around schedule and never got that phone call. Waited 1.5 weeks for someone to email me back after countless efforts to try calling them (which you require a code but only if you are a client). Ended up going with another company just because of that reason.
Marcia Anderson
Everything was going along just fine until squared suddenly determined that our transactions were high risk. They permanently deactivated our account and put a 90 day hold on the funds we had. No customer service. Had to refund the money back to the customers and use another service to get our money after 45 days of no help at all.
Penelle Skinner
I agree with other complaints. This ap is now run by techies who think we are all techies too and don’t need some real help getting answers by at least Chat if not by PHONE! The site keeps saying I am in Canada, which I am not. It will not show my “code” no matter how many titles I pour through. No one will take a call without a call, and I wanted to purchase one of its programs. My dashboard won’t register anything, so Forget it! SQUARE management is forgetting that as slick as they get technologically speaking, a competitor will be better at it!! Without the ‘personal’ touch and human response, why would I stay with SQUARE??? No purchase from me today. Horrible company breathing too much San Francisco high end air.
Peggy Pettigrew Stewart
HORRIBLE service! Cannot get a phone number to call to get help. I just signed up with them a month ago. They withdrew $1500 from my account, no explanation. I emailed, and they said it was a chargeback from 2010. They emailed me this answer, and said case was closed. However, I never had an account with them previously! And I cannot reach anyone to help me. I have emailed over and over. AND can’t get a phone number and “code” to call into ask for help. Horrible company!
Felicia
Limited customer service/support. Unreliable devices.
Donna Pantelides
Square is not a friendly place to do business at all. They held and hold alot of peoples money for 30 to 90 days depending on what the issue is. There should be a law against companies like Square as they dont help businesses, they hinder them.
Roxanne Scrivens
I agree 100% that Square may not be for everyone. They are holding $776 of my funds for 90 days because I forgot to change my Debit card number associated with my account after I completed a transaction with my client..
I had not realized the mistake I made until after I completed the transaction. So I put the correct info, but they would not transfer the funds to my account. It should not have been a problem since they have all banking info.
The client sent me a deposit towards a purchase, she was not presence so I sent her an invoice for the deposit..
I contacted square and they offered a chance to explain via email. I sent them my ID, bank statement, and my business LLC information. I also gave them contact info for the client transaction.
But to them that was not good enough, so they deactivated my account and sent an email 10 days after they keep telling me to check my email for instructions about them keeping my funds for 90 to 120 days.
I always question what they are doing behind our backs with the money that they hold.
I can assure you that the money is not just sitting there waiting for them to send to you in 90 days. The money is being used to benefit them.
At the very least common sense will tell you they collect interest on it.
If you dig deeper you will find that they are hiding information form the public about the money they get to keep for extended amount of time. They do not tell the truth. They tell you what they want you to know.
Until someone questions them or sue them, then they will pay attention. Im one of those people who will challenge and ask the questions.
We have rights… For that reason I will leave you with this.
There are many things in the seller agreement which can be considered “illegal”. Holding money for so long does violate banking laws, however, it is a grey area that needs to be cleared up in court.
There are many lawsuits currently for companies who use these practices of holding your money. Unfortunately, most settle, and usually the results are kept confidential.
Im going to exercise my rights
Sónia
It’s a scam! Got the account twice, they cancelled them with lame excuses, once cancelled you can’t reach them by phone anymore only email and if you have money on the app, good luck! They will refund it maybe in 6 months unless you cancel the transaction and they refund your client! Biggest SCAM around! Be aware
Desiree
I would not recommend anyone with a business use square they will hold your funds and keep asking for Documents about your clients or customers. I have sent over everything they have asked for a million times but like always they want more and more info I will not be using square again they are giving my business a bad name with all this holding funds and some customers I refund them back and they give me a check or cash because of square don’t use them they don’t deserve our business.
Daniel
HORRIBLE! No customer service, no phone number, email takes too long to respond. I can continue on and one, but stay away from this company.
chris
what a useless bunch of idiots these people are! I signed up to get the reader and talked to them in person and was assured I could put the account on my website through godaddy. Not the case, they wasted my time and now I have to wait to get a payment device from another company that actually knows what they are doing. There tech people are the most useless idiots i ever dealt with!
Larry
I am a reseller for GoDaddy. You can use Square with the services. I have not had a problem with them as of yet. Most my transactions are in person.
Andy
What other company you’re using?
Paul Beach
Square is a very simple, very easy to use system that provides quality point of sale but very limited inventory control and accounting system integration support. If you only have a few items for sale or are not tracking inventory it is ideal. Fast up. Easy. Low cost. Low fees.
If you have a lot of inventory items or SKU’s … it can be problematic. Also the service and support is …poor. The contactless and chip reader tools are convenient, but break … which is odd for tools with no moving parts …. they are only covered for 30 days and in order to get any support you have to remember to keep your email from square from your initial purchase (regardless of how long ago it was) because without it they can not confirm or track your purchase.
They are nice, but essentially useless in the support area. It is honestly cheaper to just buy new hardware than it is to waste … hours of time on the phone with support to be told that they can’t confirm your $46 equipment purchase so wont replace the unit.
John V
I had a Square Credit Card Processing Account that I used 3 years ago while working for a company called iCracked. Suddenly, I began receiving collections calls from Square Capital saying that I took out a loan and never paid it back. They have the another email address for a different independent contractor and a different name as the authorized user. They refuse to even verify the Tax ID or SSN that the credit was issued under. Their records are completely inaccurate and it sounds like fraud on the part of Square Capital and/or iCracked.
Andrew Allen of Elevator Mobility Systems
Square took an 18,000.00 payment from my customer and refuses to give us a dime. these folks are criminal!!!
E
They are keeping my money to
Peggy Pettigrew Stewart
Iam having the same problem! $1500
Gregory Harnett
Years ago I had a Square account. Then medical issues and unemployment hit me bad. Last week I re-established a Square account. I got a sale for $971 to teaching some insurance agents for securities exams. Later that day it was cancelled and I issued a refund request.
However, 2 – 3 years ago I had an unpaid refund and owed Square more than the $951. They denied the refund to my client, a Regional Office of a Major Insurance Company, and placed two demands so far on my bank account. Twice they sent me an email to make arrangements to pay the past balance and twice I responded with offer to clear up the debt based on their selection of terms. Payment monthly was offered first time, same as well as 50% of any sales coming in.
I got an email back saying the refund was denied to my client of this week, and that I should pay him back with cash or a check of mine.
They confiscated the funds and have bounced now twice on my checking account. The first demand they put in the full amount as well as had my new customer’s money in their hands. I never received one penny from the new customer. It was never sent to my bank, just absorbed by Square.
I have an inquiry in to a consumer rights lawyer to determine if they broke policy or law confiscating the money from my new customer which should be refunded.
Why would a company tell me through customer service they are processing the refund and then the same day go after my bank and absorb the new customer’s money to satisfy my obligation?
I just lost a major client and income stream thanks to that action by Square.
Berry Sharp
Terrible customer Service I do not recommend using them and you would not be able to contact a human.
William S
I had been a customer of Square for 3+ years and no problems, no chargebacks, only happy customers. I own a small convenience store and also make sales at local flea markets. I mainly sell novelty items, food, spices and knives. I was doing fine until I added the knives to my website then BOOM, Square terminated my account without any notice and no appeals. I have been without credit card system for now without a week.
Kamri
Biggest piece of shit app. Can’t even get in contact with a real person. They keep pulling money out of my account and i can’t get hold of anyone to discuss it. Shittiest company I’ve ever worked with. Never again. Im telling everyone i know to stay far away from this shit show!!!!!
Berry Sharp
I’m having the same problem
Joy Allen
Square is holding 10K and will not give it to me. It has been almost 6 months on one deposit that is being held. RUN FROM THEM!
Bradley Martin
Could not be more displeased with Square. Do NOT purchase! The hardware goes out as often as you have to replace a car charger. When your whole business is down because you cannot process sales, they make you purchase new equipment from a 3rd party vendor. Once you’ve spent another $400 they send you a warranty claim so that you can send your stuff back, before sending new hardware. All the while you’re left with nothing.
Chisselle Sanchez
We processed a $16,745.38 transaction with Square, Square then informed they couldn’t support the amount, therefore, a refund was issue but, that did not stop Square from withdrawing the funds from the client’s account. That was 13 days ago as of today Square has yet to deposit the funds in our account or refund the client. They are holding $16,745.38! There has been no email responds nor is there a number to contact. This is the worst situation our business has ever been involved in all thanks to Square.
Joy Allen
They are holding almost 10K of my money. One is from about 6 months ago now!
john
Do NOT get involved in this shyster company! Customer service sucks. You can’t get any information out of “customer service”. I asked to speak to a supervisor and the ditzy chick said she doesn’t have one. I said who hired you, who signs your checks, who schedules your hours, etc. she wouldn’t tell me. They processed my deposits for a while and then out of the blue, with no warning, they refused to process a job for me. No reason, no explanation, nothing. Then they told me I can keep processing payments thru them. WTF? Why would I take that chance again? My client is pissed and I might lose an $80,000 job because of these Aholes. And they won’t even tell me why. No transparency! Stay away because they treat people like shit!
Ernest Travold
Received an email receipt from square for a POS purchase. I did not provide an email, my credit card company does not provide any personal information. This is unauthorized use of personal information
Contact info VERY difficult to locate on website, phone number is useless–msg goes in circles “Check our website…”. Website requires an account (I don’t have–and they are NOT getting my personal info). This is as close to a scam as one can get while staying on the inside of law.
Michael
F- Joined Square in Decembar 2017 company bank account was verified by Square in December, received my Square strip reader in early January. Processed my first transaction on January 24th by entering the card info into the computer payment accepted, everything seemed fine but amount never transferred into company bank account. Waited a week as clients money needed to pay for products they ordered. Payment never received contacted Square and they replied account deactivated. As such could not call(deactivated) to find out why as this was my first transaction. Square Email response was after through review deactivation stands(still no reason why?). Was able to get refund back to very unhappy client who wanted to know why and I still don’t know why. Dealing with Square is very Kafkaesque when most you need to talk to them there is no response only you are deactivated.. Funny thing my other store uses Square and have had no problems, but I would stay away. Something is wrong with their business model.
Rodney Mitchell
DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT USING SQUARE!!!! LOOK AT THE COMPLAINTS!!!! GOOGLE WHAT THEY DO TO PEOPLE!!!!
I own a small handyman business and my transactions vary from anywhere around $10 to $500, yeah thats it. I’ve been using the square app on my iPhone to process these transactions and now they’re holding a little over $500 of my money and wont process the transactions. They have already had me refund one transaction that was o$500 because they wouldn’t pay it so now I look like an idiot and unprofessional to the customers because I had to explain to them why I refunded their money to their perfectly good credit card and I have to ask for a check or cash. Nobody uses the either anymore and they now look like well if you can’t get your credit card acceptance right why would I trust you with my cash. I painted a ladys house who was nice enough after me explaining that Square needed this gave me a copy of her ID, and a copy of her credit card (front and back) and told me to have them call her to verify the transaction. I provided all this to Square. Including everything in the world that I can muster. I can’t get my money but more importantly my business that relies on word of mouth because I am really really small maybe two or three jobs a month small. Squareup.com(Square) advertises that there is no dollar amount limit to swiped transactions and that they will have the money deposited within 24 hours. This is a LIE!!!!! Here is their reply to one of my emails to them:
For payments that haven’t been deposited (generally in the last few days), you may consider having your customer pay you by another method (cash, check, etc.) and refunding the payment(s) back to the original payment card(s). The full payment amount will be returned to your customer. Refunds can be issued within 120 days of the original payment date. To learn more about issuing refunds, please visit here.
We apologize for this inconvenience, but our decision is final.
So I requested Square refund MY money to the customer. Even though I already painted her house so somewhere between here and 4 months she may get it back. Then she may pay me in another method after that. But she will never use me again and she will never recommend me to anyone else. This is just so damaging to my business. Before I got this lovely response from them they had me fill out a lot of useless information, from invoices to ads I placed. I gave them copies of my ID and bank statements and just basically sitting somewhere on this company’s computer is my entire life story. I sent them so much information. My question is this… Why would I have to split transactions if there is no limit to swiped tranactions? And why don’t they have a number for customer support? It’s like pulling teeth trying to get a response through email from them because they aren’t in any hurry at all!! Save yourself the stress, headache, business loss and anxiety!!! DON’T USE SQUARE!! This company is RIPPING EVERYONE OFF!!! Please read the reviews Google Square and look at what people are saying. I wish I would have.
Also they toute am A+ rating with the BBB. But I filed a complaint with the BBB and I am looking to file with the California AG about the BBB who gives them an A+ rating with 94% Negative reviews and over 1600 un resolved complaints? Who does that. Now I dont trust the BBB anymore!
Earl Coobs
I have been waiting 3 weeks to get money back from a merchant who failed to deliver my product in a timely manner. I put in a dispute with square card and they are not responding to VISA or the merchant who says his funds are on hold. The funds seem to be in limbo. No support or customer service seem to be standard at square card. Why it takes them weeks to settle a charge back is beyond belief. Especially when the merchant agrees he owes you the money.
Dee
Square appointments is going from bad to worse their time zones is all messed up causing double booking. It has been a month that I have reported, on March 13 the online booking calendar changes from PST to PDT not only is it causing my clients to book an appointment and then it shows on my dash broad as an hr earlier. pulse recurring appointment aren’t showing as booked causing double booking.
Rena Van Steele
Yes, Square has really left a major gap in accuracy here. The site directs me to go to the Canadian site. I do. I specifically went to two representatives to get my end of day time exactly how I set it up. That being two very complete discussions and both never took the time difference from US to Canadian causing so many problems as with time differences. I ask I ask I ask why are our numbers not balancing out. Finally after 4 reps,….one knew what they were doing and pointed out the time difference. I am on the Canadian site which it directed me. Why is this so difficult and why do one of 4 reps knowledgeable about the different time changes. Daaaaaaa
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Mobile Credit Card Processing Apps
Dr H
If you are looking for a cheap payroll company, Square is one of the cheapest. You get what you pay for! They messed up my taxes and would not take responsibility! They told me to file amendments because that wasn’t part of the service! They are difficult to communicate with. There is very poor customer service. You can’t get a straight answer because none of the employees really understand payroll or taxes. They have an automated system. Press the wrong button and you are screwed! Their platform has a lot of bugs in it and I had 3 major issues during the 6 months I used them. Overall, I would pay more for a more legitimate payroll service. They suck!
Travis
I was recently contacted by a stranger that let me know for about 2 years he has been getting my receipts sent to his phone. After 2 years he was able to track me down and let me know. I have tried to contact square to get this resolved and there is no way to contact them? no phone and I am not a customer of theirs. I buy things and my information is sent ot some random person!!!!
Basden
your business is a piece of shit, I am tired of having my business be declined with your company, I have had a business working fine for over a year, with customers here in MD, what the hell is your problem alll I want to do is charge my customers. I hope noone ever uses such a terrible company such as you.
Ari Lieberman
After a year of successful use of Square we ran into our first issue with their equipment after a Square update. It has taken over 10 days and we have had zero solution. All I get from the technical department is a run-a-round. When they finally agreed to send us new printers they sent then ground so I had to wait a week to get them. When they did arrive they too did not work. This is not surprising since we knew the issue wasn’t with the equipment but with the app after it upgraded. Square has continued to charge me for every credit card processed and has offered no concrete solutions. One of the things that surprised me most was when a technical support person told me that they are not able to send anything overnight. So if you sign up with square and something breaks, plan to wait at least a week to get a replacement part and chances are that won’t be the fix. If you are contemplating getting square, contact me first. I am now looking for a new service provider and POS option.
Brian Travinski
VERY Poor company! For absolutely no reason they “Deactivated” my account! And there is nobody to talk to, no customer service to call..they don’t have ANY phone number on their website then I Googled their # and got a recording that says you need to go back to the website to ask for a “CODE” to talk to someone ( who puts their “Customers” through this crap?!?) so I do this, and the website says “Your account isn’t “eligible” for a code”! I’m like “REALLY?!?!?”
So, in short, they screw your account up buy deactivating it THEN hide when you try to call! Yeah, business people don’t need this kind of service. Will give my business to their competitors. This company is TERRIBLE!
Linda Johnson
My stolen credit and debit cards were used on square. No signature required. If not for bank security this may have been a needless complaint.
Craig Stone
These folks are cold and will shut you down with no notice and will not accept phone calls
Mike M
Terrible Customer service, boiler plate response, always blaming our equipment. No real person to talk to asked the same question in 10 emails never got the right answer.I had recommended this app to the person paying me and even she is totally upset with them. Nothing but bad reviews. Looking for people who had a bad experience with Square and maybe even lost money or caused grief in your life for a class action lawsuit. You can contact me by replying.
They are a terrible company that needs to find out about customer service and how to treat people. They have lost a lot of business because I deal with business people everyday and would have referred them easily… if they had any idea what helping your customers meant.
cheri
If you are a small business owner and are looking for a point of sale system to accept credit cards. do NOT use square. I was at a market and all but one of the credit card payments I accepted that day NEVER showed up on my sales report. When I called square they said they did not see any such transactions and if I had indeed taken those payments, which they had no proof, I would have to call each customer (are you kidding me) and have them re run their cards. So if my clients were charged then square kept the money. If they weren’t then I gave my products away for free thanks to square and was told that 90% of the time it is user error because the user submitted it as cash. So they also called me a liar because I was the one processing the payments and was told I entered it in as cash not credit card even though I did it the same way for all transactions that day and only one charge processed. I wonder how many times they have kept my money in the past and I didn’t notice it. DO NOT USE SQUARE UNLESS YOU DONT MIND IF THEY KEEP YOUR MONEY
I would join a class action suit except the only proof i have is the word of me and my mother as they have no record of the transactions. Isn’t that convenient.
Cynthia Foy
I ordered a Caviar gift card for my daughter-in-law for Christmas and she didn’t receive an email from them to redeem it. I am frustrated because I am only able to communicate with them by email and I need to talk to them. I have tried to straighten it out multiple times over email, as has my daughter-in-law, but it is now February and it still isn’t resolved. The customer service leaves a lot to be desired.
Matt Cracas
Square is continuing to bill me automatically after I have canceled my service with them, and i can’t reach them to resolve the situation because i am no longer a customer with a customer code!!!!!!!!!
Sam
They deactivated my account by email, with $35,000 frozen. No reason no phone number no nothing. Please anyone outthere help me out and tell me what I should do. Thank you all. The biggest SPAM please people don’t use SQUARE
KIMBERLY PACK
Sam,
I am so sorry to hear about your problem with Square. My business was bankrupted in 2013 due to them doing the same thing to me. The Ohio AG didn’t even help me because I was the business owner, but they were available to file felony charges against me due to my clients not receiving their products. I couldn’t even get Square to return their money. The emails back and forth were exhausting. When I signed up I gave them all of my info. When I demanded a phone number to call regarding them deactivating my account, they suddenly said they offer all complants via email only, but if they could call me I had to give them a telephone number and EXACT time to call. So I did, I sent an email with 123-456-7890 . Now to anyone that had any sense at all they would know that was not a good number, I thought I would play their game. About ten minutes later I get another email stating “Kimberly, we aren’t able to get that number to work” – I knew right then I had been had. Wishing you the best in getting your money.
joyce A. Pagán Nieves
HORRIBLE SERVICE NO ONE TO TALK
For more than 3 days I had try to comunicate with square by phone and by email, to clarify this issue of a suspended deposit of my payment and it has been imposible. I am very dissapointed with your bad service. No number to call, no person to talk, no chat, no nothing. It is very frustraiting that you have my payment and you dont act fast. And there is no service at all. Horrible Service its not reliable!
Barbara
I bought something from someone using square and never received my item. I try finding a way of getting my money back but they don’t have a place for me to do that. That’s not fair they get paid and we don’t get out product. I will do paypal from now on square s**ks.
Michael Malloy
Square reader has to be the worst company for customer support. If you need help you have to log in and request a customer number just to talk to someone. Not only are they not open on weekends, they can’t seem to get there accounting right. I gave them my account number for my business and they deposit into my personal account. How did they get that information I don’t know? Square reader is the worst! Do not pay for instant deposits if your a member of a credit Union. Everytime I paid for instant deposits they never came instant. My credit Union don’t recognize them. I use U of M credit Union.
John Madden
California’s Song Beverly Act forbids requiring an email address to get a receipt for a sales purchase. I made a cash payment, requested a receipt and was required by local business to give my email address which they gave to Square who sent me a receipt. Square has no phone service and I want them to remove my info from their database.
Jay
This is the biggest rip off Square sucks they steal your money and try to shut you down after collecting your money .. RIP OFF DO NOT USE!!!!
Margaret
Square sucks there is no way to contact them other then the bullshit email nonsupport team’ They have held my money’s since 12/28. Do yourself a favor find another company to use because square is in it for square not their clients.
Sally Henderson
My boyfriend decided about a year ago to sign up to process rental payments through Square. Up until this past month he’s had no problem getting his money deposited into his bank account. However, this has changed. Square starting withholding all payments processed in the month of December. We have made many, many attempts to get this problem resolved. There is no phone number to call. We have sent a total of 9 emails to no avail. This is the worst customer service that I have ever experienced in my life.
I would not recommend this service to my worst enemy.
Jessicah Hayes
Square is awful. They decided to permanently deactivate my account because more than 2 comsumers used gift cards. They deactivated it on Thursday. I missed ALL SALES CHRISTMAS WEEKEND!!! I am all online, this is my busiest weekend of the year!! I am going to have to close my business. I tried to withdraw my money but they are not letting me. I am a single widowed mom with a daughter in college and one in high school. No one has responded to my emails and they said I don’t have access to call. When I call the 800 number they ask for a code, which I do not have so they hang up. I am not even allowed to post on the community threads. I needed my money for Christmas, I am in the negative at my bank and getting charged more everyday. Who has a number I can call? Why is this happening?
Alix Curry
NO Customer service. Square shut down our account with no notice, no explanation and is holding onto our clients money. This is FRAUD. If you are closing the account in spite of us following every directive to the letter then have a PERSON available to explain why. Square is apparently allowed to keep our clients money and get away with theft!!!! Our clients think that they have paid us. I will not go on and on as plenty of people before me have had the same experience. This is not a good company and I am surprised they are allowed to get away with what they do. If I stole people’s money I would be charged and sent to jail. Square is allowed to hang onto other people’s money and apparently does not feel compelled to explain themselves. We followed Square’s instructions, did all that was asked of us, (and more) had our account shut down and our clients money has been seized. We cannot run our business with no payment, Square should be held legally liable for fraud. BEWARE OF SQUARE.
andy
$5 billion company. No one to talk to.
I have 30 years experience running a retail point of sale and dealing with banks and merchants. I have never seen a company that takes in 100’s of millions in revenue and has no phone support or decent client customer service. After using Square for 1 year without any issues, no charge-backs and no complaints, they suddenly shut down my account. When trying to obtain the reason for closing the account, they sent an email that reads:
— “Thanks for following up. We understand that this can be a frustrating experience.
Unfortunately, our decision to deactivate your account is final. Due to the obligations of our agreements with card networks and other financial institutions, we cannot reverse this decision and are unable to provide additional details. For further information about our policies, you can review the Square Terms of Service on our website. Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”—
So there is no explanation and no reason given as to why the account is suddenly shut down.
Square inc. is a PUBLIC company and it is traded at NYSE under the stock symbol SQ with a recent valuation of 5.4 Billion Dollars. A Company at that size should be held liable for making the life of small business owner a living nightmare, deactivation of account and holding funds with no reason could be devastating to some business owners, specially when the payment was for service, not a tangible product. With so many complaints, it is time to file a class action lawsuit against Square inc.
Such lawsuit is likely to end with a large payout to all victims of sudden deactivation and funds withholding.
Jessicah Hayes
Andy I am with you! I can not access my money, no one responds. No phone number Square single handedly destroyed Christmas. What do we do?
Michael
I agree completely. Class action Lawsuit!
Gary Hughes
Very hard to get a fast response from square, processed a charge 6 days ago …. no money , every day when checking get message “sending that day” day keeps changing. Have to loose these scum bags. Costing me money.. not helping my business.
Dana Pride
Their 3.5% plus .15 cent does not add up to what they charge you. THEY DO HAVE HIDDEN FEES!!!!
ssk
After many years 100% problem free, out of the blue Square falsely accused our business of running personal cash advances and summarily deactivated our account. We attempted to resolve the issue numerous times. Their responses were boiler plate if they responded at all. They lock you out of customer service and their forum too. Enough to make your blood boil!
Don’t trust Square. They really don’t care about their customers.
Arden
The negative reviews for Square surprised me. I’ve been using square for a professional services business for several years and would give them a solid “A” rating, perhaps even “A+”
They are in my view significantly better than all other options I’ve explored to receive cc payments. I’ve tried another cc processor w/out monthly fees that charged more per transaction and put several day holds on my funds. With square I have ALWAYS received funds promptly. I also have been courted by other credit card processors (calling, emailing, etc.) but everytime I compare the annual costs (their monthly fees, some with terminal requirements and most charge a premium to accept Amex) Square costs me less to process.
Now I offer professional services in a brick & mortar location, don’t do any funny business and probably am “low risk” in terms of cc transactions. I wouldn’t at all hesitate to recommend Square to others in my line of work and in fact do!
CPO
Hi Arden,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
Marie Gourdet
I guess that’s your own luck. They are holding onto my customer’s money for 4 months, with no explanation. I ordered the products for my customer using my own debit card. Those thieves called squareup are holding onto my money for no reason. I did everything that they asked, even sent them a copy of my driver license. They stink, their odor is riding up their custmers’ nose…
Susan Oster
Things you can do:
1. File a small claims lawsuit and let Square know you’ve done so (you can do a bigger one but it’s a big hassle and much more expensive) Do it in your area so they have to come to you. Their legal counsel is Hillary B Smith. This can usually be done on line quite easily.
2.File a complaint on line with the Federal Trade Commission. Holding Funds without notification of a non-client is Bad Faith Breach of Contract and it is my contention that they are using these funds for their own profit/interest…etc. When you are a publicly held company, this is a big no-no as it could affect their year end earnings report.
3. Call or write a reporter. I wrote a bunch yesterday and have an interview Monday morning. Make noise.
4. Let Square know you have done all this. I can’t promise you’ll get a response but boy, I sure did.
5. If you didn’t know this, you can return funds from your deactivated dashboard to your client’s cards immediately without a hold. They won’t tell you this until you get ugly.
6. Remember you do have power and collectively we have more. Have a good holiday and let’s make change together for a better 2018.
Jessicah Hayes
Thank you Susan, I am following your advice. I am beyond shocked how many people this is happening to. Square has permanently deactivated my account because more than 2 consumers used gift cards. They deactivated it on Thursday. I missed ALL SALES CHRISTMAS WEEKEND!!! I tried to withdraw my money but they are not letting me. Everyone is going to know about this. Class action lawsuit for sure.
Jake Eissinger
the thing is i was notified i could refund customers however the customers have already got the merchandise they ordered and all items are being used by said customers. they shouldn’t have to return items because we send our products all brand new, and square refuses to give our money after providing tracking for all our customers
Justin
Susan do you have an address for the small claims lawsuit for square? They shut me down yesterday and from what I’m reading I need to get on this quickly and be prepared if my funds aren’t given to me.
Susan Oster
It turned out that they have a CT company here in California that is there legal representative. I had to serve them instead of Hilary Smith. I had to call the court after trying in vain to file against someone in San Francisco. I don’t know where you live, but call your local courthouse and find out who the rep is for Square. They had a stack of paperwork against them here and the clerk had to wade through it. Don’t forget to get proof of service – I hired a company to do that. My question – under what circumstances would they have given the money to me after the 90 day hold? Presumably none. By waiting, I would have been out merchandise and money. Since I’m deactivated I’m technically not their client, but I have proof of payment to them over months..so, nice client service, there, Square. Second question; Are they making interest on held funds? And do they report that in their year end report? Third question: why not just decline the purchase since you have the power to do so? If the sale is questionable, they should question the sale. Fund holding is NOT in the terms. Stop referring us to terms in which your own actions are not listed. Lastly, I’d like to refer everyone to Authorize.net with whom I have built a great relationship and whose customer service is top drawer. I am thrilled with them, and if you are looking for an alternative check them out.
Jamaica
We used square for the first time today for a rather large deposit. I received the verification email and sent all requested documents, but now I’m wondering if I should just issue a refund and be done with it. I’ve read that it can take 60 days for the refund to reach the customer. How can I do it immediately like you did?
George
I have been in the retail automobile business for 35 years and never encountered the utter nonsense that those clowns perpetrated upon my company. it almost cost me my job. The held up 69k for three vehicles for 30 days. I was under intense pressure to get the money. They deactivated my account refused to speak to me, said my only way to communicate with them is by email but never responded. We finally received our money but Square is anathema to me now. The biggest joke of all was after we received our money yesterday I received an email from a woman telling me my account has been permanently deactivated which is hysterical if they ever thought I would do business with such an unscrupulous company again. I closed my reply to that womans email with ” I feel sorry for you to be working for such a bunch of thieves go be a stripper it has more dignity.” With my apologies to strippers.
Susan Oster
Square is not a bank. I, and probably many of the other merchants here, are verified by their banks already. My bankers went through a rigorous verification process with me and so I had no idea that a processing platform would even have the right to HOLD funds after deactivating me. Either work with me or don’t, your choice, but if you are not working with me, you can’t hold my customer’s money. That is theft, plain and simple. Do I think they are making interest on this money? Yes, I do. Leave verification to the bank. Do your job and move on. I’ve taken legal action, and BTW, this part of the plan is nowhere in their agreement.
John
I had the unfortunate problem of being affected by a server bottleneck with Square. During a recent small event where there were a few [8] merchants selling their wares we all started having issues with cards being processed. Transactions were timing out. This was not a WiFi or Internet issue as other apps and web pages worked very well. During one transaction at the point the customer began to sign for their sale the screen went back to the register. Since the transaction was approved and the customer began the signing process it was apparent that everything likely worked out well. While the customer wanted to be sure and checked her bank app, I tried to view the transaction summary on the Square App – it timed out, repeatedly. Seeing that the transaction was pending with the customer we agreed that it did go through. Being in a tricky situation where I could greatly upset a customer and others around me which would be disastrous, we rested upon trusting her bank. As it turns out the transaction was cancelled by Square so I immediately reached out to them to report this issue and attempt to salvage this sale. They took 9 days to respond with a very pedestrian first level tech support answer and did not address any of the information provided. In fact the response was far off topic. I immediately replied and 8 days later I received another tech support response, at least on topic but not directly related to the specifics. I again immediately responded and a day later received an email telling me to contact the customer. Now, I would have done this by now if I was allowed to see the customer’s information. You have to pay for their marketing services to be able to see customer information, I use another service. Responding with that detail I received a response some days later telling me the customer was contacted and I may expect a response. Well, no word from the customer and giving them 30 days to respond I decided to follow up with Square and stress the point that this was a system failure on their part and can be documented by others to validate. All I received was an automated response that the case was closed and I need to open a new case. Square likes to blame the end user for their limitations and failures. They refuse to be cooperative and helpful. I am no trusting their chip readers any longer as the failures seem to be more related that device. To continue to use their services I am at risk of more transactions going unpaid and presenting a very unprofessional image to customers by having to question their cards. Square took too long to respond and did nothing but point fingers at me in place of jumping to action to help. I am out money and time dealing with them and feel that they don’t care. I feel that these situations need to be made public and Square should be required to track and report publicly system integrity issues as they happen. All of this is not small business friendly!
Rena Van Steele
OMG!!!! I have lost so much money in sales that magically disappeared. Just terrible. Square is not concerned. Hank, the customer service manager,…(can you believe it) does not care. He was so busy trying to get me off the phone he offered me to refund the 60 for the piece of garbage chip reader. Also 2000. in fees to compensate. Now, somehow, miraculously,…that credit has disappeared with an (noreply email) saying,…….”It is now in sales (that being $50. compensation when I was led to believe it was 2000. in fees. Big difference. Mr wonderful Hank. Did not want to answer my calls, did not answer my email,..and just shoved the issues of…………….where are my sales and why are they not registering when I am getting prompted to enter the card, get pin and signature,…complete sale…..only to find it was not recorded. Tech letter I was sent said, “all sales were captured”. What a bunch of morons,…it was not the sales it captured that is the issue,……it is the sales that disappeared when I followed all the prompts to signature and pin and done. This is a major financial company and …………they do not care,…sorry,…and “move on”. with no answers. But when I was told to,….”move on”,..twice by customer service reps,..I just about fell over. Still no answers and point the finger at me. I lost thousands in sales that have disappeared. So much time, effort, frustration and anger. This is how a customer service manager deals with a very uncomfortable situation. Terrible!!!!!!
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Avoid Fund Holds With Square
Melanie B
On September 3, 2017 I used my bank issued debit card at a store and got distracted and accidentally left my card in the card reader. When I realized it, the store was closed. The next day I checked my account and there was a Square One transaction for $300. I called the store to ask if my card was there and was told that it had been turned in to the office by the cashier who checked me out at the register the day before. An employee there who has a business on the side and is a Square One merchant swiped my card and transferred $300 from my account to hers. I filed a police report and the employee was fired from the store. I printed a copy of the receipt that has her name, address and phone number. It also shows where she forged my name. I have spent hours searching Square One’s website to get information on how to report her. Since she committed fraud using her Square One account, she should be deactivated. I just want to make a report but it is impossible to get any information on their website as to how to report a merchant for fraud. It seems that you can only speak to a customer service representative if you are a merchant.
Jeff
You need to contact your bank and explain the detail of this fraudulent transaction. Square generally won’t be able to help you, but your bank should be able to backcharge the fraudulent merchant.
Lisa
Square was really great for a while, and then all of the sudden they stopped releasing my money! For over two months I have been trying to get released over $4,000 in sales (30 transactions) and there is no way to call anyone, I just get e-mail replies that there is something wrong with one transaction, they won’t tell me which one!! I can not even get an address to serve them for small claims court! They are the worst!
Orlando
Like almost everything, they started very well … now it’s a very bad company.
I have an animal rental company for parties.
One of my clients, after I made the event, reported that he had not done the event. We provide all the documents that certified the realization of the party.
Square, withdrew the funds from my business account and informed me that they were in hold (the funds were withdrawn) after two months I was informed that the customer’s bank had given the reason to his client and therefore my company lost the complain .
They’re really nothing professional. I will cancel the account
John Zawacki
Square is a good service until you need support
Almost Impossible to get any one on the phone.
You are required to login to get support. But if your issue is a problem with logging in, you are SOL. If you do manage to get any kind of response its an email days later asking for additional information
Jody Wood
Square is hold on to my funds. My first two transaction was fine. Now after my third sale, my funds is pending. I received a email stating my account is under review. And my funds will be on hold or suspended until my account is verified.
I would be happy to supply normal verification documents e.g. licence, abn numbers etc but they are also saying they need a bank statement showing transactions and a copy of my customers invoices, links to my social media and name and contact details of my customer and they are effectively holding my earnings as ransom until I comply.
I own and operate two companies and I’ve never heard of such request. I wouldn’t recommend using square for business. Especially after this huge inconvenience.
TB
I have the same issue this week with a sale being suspended, pending submittal of bank statements. Square suggested I do a refund to customer since I would not provide the bank statements. I issued the refund. And now need to look for another processor.
Sandra Thompson
That is exactly what we are experience! It’s been going on for 6
Months! A nightmare!
William
I opened my account in June of 1016 and was quite excited.We are an excavation contractor and this account would allow me to tap in to a customer base I had yet to tap. I have one builder that we work for who only wants to pay with a credit card plus any private home owner wanting to do some work around there property who didn’t have the money in the bank up front. Sounded great. However, it did not go smoothly. Out of the 6 transactions that we made using Square the deposits were usually held up because they needed more info on the the customer and more info on the our company. it’s always the same builder that paid with the card. We had 6 transactions all from the same guy. The last transaction went smoothly and I was thinking finally, but a few day later our account was permanently disabled. I contact customer service by email because that is the way they do it and I was told by email that my account was disabled because I broke a rule in the user agreement. They apparently decided I was the customer charging to my self as a cash advance. This is despite that fact there are bank records and I even gave them the phone and address of the customer but I was told sorry for the inconvenience but our account is permanently disabled. I would not recommend the service as it was completely a waist of time and effort.
thomas caddy
I found out that my samsung s8 note with not work with any of the readers. Even though they say they work with the dongle plugged into the end of my phone either the chip reader or the swipe reader to not work. Please update your customer support to reflect this. Also, their bluetooth stand alone reader won’t work.. Don’t spend the money if you have this phone.