Square Credit Card Reader 2023: Reviews & Complaints
(855) 351-2274 Company Overview
This article is focused on credit card processing using Square for established businesses and industries, such as retail, food service, and ecommerce. The article provides an in-depth review of Square’s point of sale options and card readers, as well as an analysis of user reviews. It also examines common complaints and fees associated with Square’s credit card processing, comparing them to traditional merchant services companies.
Square’s Card Reader and POS
We will also provide an analysis of Square’s card readers and point-of-sale options, including the Square Reader for contactless and chip as well the company’s retail and restaurant POS. These hardware options are compatible with a range of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, making them an attractive option for businesses that require a portable payment processing solution.
Square’s Additional Features and Services
Additionally, we will cover various services provided by Square, such as its Kitchen Display System, Square Terminal, and Integrated Reservation and Waitlist Management. Readers who are interested in Square’s specific services can find more detailed reviews through links provided in the article.
Square User Reviews
User reviews are a crucial factor to consider when choosing a credit card processing provider. This article provides an analysis of user reviews, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of Square’s services as reported by actual customers. We also cover common complaints about Square’s services, such as issues with customer support, funding holds, and account stability. By highlighting these complaints, we aim to help business owners understand potential pain points and make informed decisions about whether Square is the right provider for them.
Square’s Fees
Fees are an essential consideration when choosing a credit card processing provider. This article provides an analysis of Square’s fees, including transaction fees, chargeback fees, and hardware costs. We’ll compare Square’s fees to those of traditional merchant services companies, providing businesses with a valuable benchmark for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of Square’s services.
Square Review Video Summary
Is Square Holding Your Funds Right Now?
Before we get started, thousands of merchants have reported payments frozen by Square. If you’re one of the business owners that are using Square, then you might find the following resources helpful:
Started By The Original Twitter Founder
Square was founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey who also founded Twitter before it was bought by Elon Musk. The company grew rapidly and Square became a public company in 2015 under the “SQ” ticker. The Square corporation rebranded to “Block Inc” in 2021 but continues to operate it’s payment processing services under the Square brand. Much of the company’s success can be attributed to its then unique take on smartphone credit card processing (See: Best Mobile Credit Card Processing Apps) and by being the first to market such technology to small businesses owners as well as everyday people.
Quick Sign-up and Intuitive Design
Signing up for Square’s payment processing is simple: users simply visit Square’s website to fill out a short form and await approval, which typically happens instantly. Once approved, users can choose from hardware options such as a card reader that connects to a phone or tablet via Bluetooth, or a from dedicated point-of-sale devices that can be used on a countertop or taken to the customer. Square has been so successful in the mobile credit card processing industry that it has inspired numerous competitors.
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 Reviews
Here's What Their Clients Say
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Total Online Complaints | 2,300+ |
| Live Customer Support | Active Merchants Only |
| Most Common Complaint | Fund Holds |
| Lawsuits | Yes |
Square Alternatives
We recommend Helcim as the top alternative to Square. Both services offer an easy to use mobile payment processing device that works with most mobile devices and tablets. Helcim offers a month-to-month contract, no monthly or annual fees, customer support phone line, next-day funding, extremely low processing fees, and QuickBooks integration. Helcim has also been consistently reviewed as one of our top-rated processors since we first reviewed it almost ten years ago. We feel that the company provides all the functionality that Square offers with a much smoother customer experience. For more information please read our full Helcim Review. If you operate a “high-risk” business, please out list of high-risk credit card processors.
Where Square Falls Short
Another area that Square comes up short in this review is its customer service. Square has racked up a lot of complaints (more than 2,300 just in our comment section below). The majority of reviews complaint of virtually nonexistent phone support and funding holds. Additionally, the company has not been active in attempting to resolve online complaints.
Square / Block Lawsuits
The company has defended against several lawsuits:
- In 2018, Square settled a class-action lawsuit filed against its food delivery service “Caviar”. The company was alleged to have withheld money from delivery workers left by customers as gratuities from 2012 to 2015 and agreed to pay $2.2 million dollars under the settlement.
- We have found evidence of multiple other lawsuits from the last few years. In 2019 Square was accused of mishandling the way it dealt with information concerning payments for medical procedures. The suit was dismissed with prejudice later that year.
- In another class-action suit, Square faces charges of holding large amounts of funds from merchant accounts that it deemed high risk. Square has received numerous complaints relating to these charges over the years, and this case is ongoing.
- A 2021 class-action suit has been brought against Square and other major credit card processing companies over what the complainants call price-fixing over the use of the interchange fee.
- A potentially major suit was brought against Square CEO Jack Dorsey in 2021, in which a Twitter shareholder claims that Twitter gives “broad access” to user data to advertisers and that Square, Dorsey’s other company, has “benefitted wildly from this disregard for privacy.” The suit has wide-ranging implications for Square if it succeeds, as it seeks to remove Dorsey from Twitter and force both companies to undergo major reforms.
Square Customer Support Options
The company appears to rely too heavily on customer service provided by email, its support forum, and social media. The company does have a customer support phone number that operates from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. PDT (see How to Contact Square), but merchants and business owners must request and receive a code from the Square website in order to actually reach a representative.
Only Active Accounts Get Real-time Help
Phone support codes are only provided to active Square merchants, meaning that deactivated accounts will be unable to reach support. It is our position that deactivated accounts are the businesses who have the greatest need for phone support. Business owners who prefer to have access to full-time, in-house support staff are better off choosing a conventional merchant account provider.
Long Wait Times
Merchants are waiting up to several days for a response from Square, by phone or email. Many users also report that Square has not satisfactorily responded to their support requests. Many Square reviews report disbelief that a company as large as Square lacks direct phone support.
Beware Square Phishing Scams
At the time of a previous update, numerous non-Square users claimed to receive emails from Square regarding non-existent accounts. These emails stated that Square was having trouble depositing sales into the user’s account. It went on to instruct the to supply account details to receive their payment. These emails are very likely to be Square phishing scams. Such scams are designed to trick users into providing personal information. They do not have any connection to the actual company Square. If you receive a suspicious email regarding your Square account, forward it to [email protected].
Square Online Ratings
Here's How They Rate Online
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Product & Service Complaints | 3,626 |
| Billing & Collection Complaints | 1,115 |
| Advertising & Sales Complaints | 65 |
| Guarantee & Warranty Complaints | 18 |
| Delivery Complaints | 199 |
Note: We have adjusted this company’s BBB rating according to our own standards. To better understand why we adjust BBB ratings, please see our Rating Criteria.
Square’s BBB Complaints on the Rise
As of this update, the Better Business Bureau is reporting an “A+” rating for Square despite 5,023 complaints filed in the last 36 months. Square complaints have skyrocketed since we first published this review in April of 2011.
How the Complaints Break Down
Of the 5,023 total complaints, 3,626 are regarding problems with service, 1,115 with billing and collection, 199 with delivery problems, 65 with advertising and sales issues, and 18 due to guarantee or warranty issues. The BBB previously added a note stating that it has received many complaints regarding Square’s fund-withholding procedures. Square responded by quoting its Terms of Use policies and referring to the help section of its website. It does not seem to have made any tangible change to its fund-holding policy in response to this notice. Square has resolved 1,773 complaints while the remaining 3,250 either were resolved. It should be noted that fewer complaint appear to be getting resolved compared to previous updates.
What Merchants Say
Square has also received 381 informal reviews to its BBB profile, with only 6 positive in tone and 375 negative. The most recent review describes potentially fraudulent charges and a lack of customer service:
********************** took money from our new business account. A recent new startup business. They claimed it was from a different business that was closed long ago, that was in someone else’s name. It had nothing to do with us. We provided them with all the documentation they requested yet they kept trying to debit the account, costing us a lot of money in fees. We were eventually forced to close the account just to stop them from debiting. Fortunately the bank manager had been through this with customers who use ********************** before and sided with us. The ********************** “Customer Success” team was absolutely horrific. It literally took weeks to speak to a real person. They lied to us multiple times, on recorded calls. Even telling us, more than once, that the “Recovery Team” doesn’t have phones (yes, they actually said that)They have done nothing to resolve the costs they incurred us. They cannot give us any details of the supposed transaction(s), dates, company, customer or any other information on why they fraudulently (in my opinion) took money to begin with. We have, to date, spent over 40 hours trying to resolve this issue with **********************. Finally, after nearly two months a real person called. The end result was they still refuse to pay us back for what they cost us and still insist we owed them money. They offered to issue us a “******” for the amount!. The thing is, we DON’T owe them. Never have.
This merchant would be better served by one of our top-rated processors.
A “C” Performance
Due to the company’s high complaint count compared, we have adjusted the BBB’s rating to a “C” for the purposes of this review.
Square Fees, Rates & Costs
A Closer Look at The Contract
| Item | Result | >
|---|---|
| Swiped Rate | 2.60% + $0.10 |
| Keyed-in Rate | 3.5% + $0.15 |
| E-Commerce Rate | 2.90% + $0.30 |
| Monthly Fees | $0 |
Square’s Processing Fees are Simple
One of the most appealing aspects of Square for business owners is the lack of monthly or annual fees. In fact, there are none of typical of the typical fees found with most other traditional merchant services providers, such as activation fees, monthly fees, gateway fees, PCI Compliance fees, downgrade fees, and early termination fees. Square has no additional monthly fees outside of transaction fees. This means that there are no costs incurred if a business owner doesn’t make any sales.
Fees by Transaction Type
Square used to offer a very competitively priced magnetic stripe card reader, but following the switch to chip cards in the U.S., users are encouraged to purchase the chip card reader at a still-low cost of only $49. The company offers a single processing fee option for all merchants using Square Reader or Square Register.
Square’s fees are:
- 2.6% + $0.10 for swiped transactions
- 3.5% + $0.15 for keyed-in transactions
- 2.9% + $0.30 per sale through Square e-commerce
How Square’s Costs Compare
Square’s swipe rate is about 0.80% higher than what a business could achieve with a well-negotiated traditional merchant account. The keyed-in rate is about 1% higher for the same industries. If you are new business and looking for competitive rates, see our recommended credit card processors. If you are an established business looking for lower fees, consider our independent statement audit service to eliminate hidden processing costs.
High Volume Businesses, Heed Caution
Square does not verify the credit history of its prospective customers so it uses sophisticated systems to avoid fraud losses. The company states that there are no transaction limits, per sale or month. However, such marketing is misleading because numerous Square reviews report that large sales trigger funding holds. Additional, reviews also reports that a high number of sales over a short period can trigger a hold. The policies regarding such holds are not disclosed and no advance warning is given.
Square’s Previous Rolling Reserve Policy
Until November 2013, Square placed holds on funds of card-not-present sales if over $2,002 was charged within any seven-day period. This meant that if a merchant processed $2,100 in sales within seven days, the extra $98 would be held by Square for 30 days. This policy caused confusion among users because Square did not provide any warning before the $2,002 limit was reached. Square now says that merchants can process transactions of any type and size without worrying about a processing limit, but this is not entirely true.
Related: How to Stop Square From Holding Your Money
Square’s Current Fraud Triggers
Square’s current primary tactic to limit fraud is less transparent than its previous rolling reserve policy, which is why it has a low score in this section. Square seems to rely on undisclosed algorithmic “risk factors” to automatically hold business transactions that it considers suspicious. The payment processing system appears to flag many legitimate transactions, causing problems for some merchant accounts. Complaints have emerged that Square has randomly placed lengthy holds (over 30 days) on funds, even those swiped in person, without explanation or notification. When a transaction is flagged, Square will either contact the merchant for more information about the merchant or transaction, or deactivate the merchant’s account.
More Transparency Needed For Risky Transactions
This protocol lets Square publicly claim that it does not hold merchants’ funds because the withheld funds technically belong to “deactivated” Square merchants instead of “active” Square merchants. Square’s policies on fund holding and risk mitigation are very unclear and make the service risky for higher volume merchants. Square needs to do a better job of educating merchants about transactions that could lead to account deactivation. Steps the company could take include issuing a warning before processing transactions that will be held, immediately informing merchants when transactions have been held, and communicating with merchants throughout the hold process.
Some Minor Improvements Could Raise Square’s Rating
In most respects, Square has favorable pricing and contract terms for merchants. It has a simple signup process, affordable equipment costs, no monthly fees or long-term contracts, and easy-to-understand pricing. However, sudden account deactivation can greatly impact a merchant’s operations, so the grade for this section will not reach “A” until Square improves its risk mitigation procedure.
Square Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs
Should You Work For Them?
| Item | Result |
|---|---|
| Employs Independent Resellers | No |
| Advertises Transparent Rates | Yes |
| Discloses All Important Terms | No |
| Telemarketing/Door-to-Door | No |
Working at Square, Employee Sentiment
We take into account a company’s employee sentiment as it can have a direct impact on the client experience. Overall, employee reviews of Square have been positive, with many employees praising the company’s innovative culture, talented colleagues, and commitment to diversity and inclusion. Many also appreciate the opportunities for career growth and development, as well as the company’s focus on work-life balance and employee well-being.
However, some reviews have also highlighted challenges such as long work hours and high expectations, as well as issues with communication and transparency. Additionally, some employees have raised concerns about pay and benefits, particularly for those in entry-level or support roles.
Overall, Square appears to be a highly regarded employer, with a strong focus on innovation, employee development, and diversity and inclusion. However, as with any workplace, there may be some areas for improvement, and individual experiences may vary.
How Square is Different from Traditional Merchant Account Providers
Square differs greatly from traditional credit card processors in how it markets its POS systems and sells its service. Most merchant account providers hire poorly trained outside independent agents. These agents are trained to set high fees in exchange for big commissions. Square instead relies on online marketing and partnerships and does not hire outside sales agents. Nearly all of Square’s users sign up directly through the homepage of the company’s website. Square has also benefited from an enormous amount of online buzz and word-of-mouth promotion.
Beware of Processing Limitations
Square markets its pricing with a straightforward and easy-to-understand message. However. the company fails to mention anything about its fraud mitigation policies. These policies have caused significant problems for many businesses and some have complained of large financial losses. Numerous Square reviews accuse the company of misleading marketing. These complaints stem from the company’s fund holding policies and lack of warning on the type of transactions that can trigger holds. There are several industries, that can be found on this page, deemed as “high-risk” that will find themselves at the mercy of Square’s underwriting and fraud prevention systems. Such businesses would be better served by a high-risk merchant account.
Our Square Review Summary
Our Final Thoughts
Square is a great card processing option for entry level and low volume businesses. The company is definitely on the right track with providing an easy credit card processing solution with no long-term commitments and no monthly fees. However, several Square reviews from high volume merchants report murky fund holding policies and poor customer support. It appears that Square is best suited for individuals or small business owners who have an occasional need to accept a credit card payment, such as babysitters, flea market vendors, or small retail and restaurant businesses. The service does not appear to be a good fit for merchants that either have a high volume of credit card sales or that sell high-ticket items.
Learn even more about Square’s services here.
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Brenda
SQUARE IS HOLDING MY DEPOSIT HOSTAGE! I have been trying to get Square to RELEASE MY LARGE DEPOSIT THAT THEY HAVE HELD ONTO FOR 8 BUSINESS DAYS! I have complied with their requests for information about my company. Interesting, as I have been using Square for about six months, now they need additional information. What? I already gave them my information!!!
You can imagine my frustration. They are holding a large deposit of mine to which I have seemingly no resolution but to contact my clients and ask them to repay me. Ya, like that’s a great option.
I have sent numerous emails to Square, no reply. I actually found a phone number (thank you) however, I can’t get anybody on the phone live. I have simply messages which have not been returned. ‘Customer service’ is an oxymoron.
On a lighter note, they did offer to continue allowing me to accept charges/deposits from my clients while they are “resolving” my issue. My only issue is I want my money. Yes, my money. Money I earned and they won’t even communicate with me about. Ugh
If anyone has any advice, I incredibly open to it. I just want my money.
Until this past week, I have been very happy with Square. Now, my advice is RUN….after you get your money of course.
guy phillips
I thought square was pretty good until I made a transaction for $5000 ( I have an A/C company, this is a common amount) and they held it for two weeks while asking for a plethora of proof that I exist. They said there was “unusual activity” but thats bs. I think they hold money (as does paypal) to collect the interest. If they were really wanting to validate I am who I say I am, then do it before I get paid, not after. To date they have only released $2000 to me and are holding the rest for whatever reason. ( and they wont answer calls or emails, either). In the meantime, my bills are overdue and this puts a bad credit rating on me. Screw Square. I will not use them again.
JAY
VERY BAD BUSINESS!
I was sold on Square by their very smooth sales tactics. What i was not informed about was how they HOLD YOUR MONEY FOR 30 DAYS!!!! This is absolutely ridiculous. No word on anything like this when your signing up. Plus it says they will deposit the first $1000.00 within 36 hours TOTALLY FALSE INFORMATION!!! IT HAS BEEN 20 DAYS AND STILL NO DEPOSIT.
Good luck trying to get someone on the phone to even discuss this. They have a very nice automated system that will ring 4 times and then tell you that no one is available to take your call. Leave a message. So i did, over and over and over again. 4 total messages and THEY STILL HAVE NOT REPLIED IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS!!!!
Use your bank, pay a little extra for a wireless terminal and dont get yourself involved with this bullsh** service.
Deana Bass
Square is a JOKE. It sounds innovative and clever. And it may work for teenagers with after school jobs earning pocket change. BUT THE $1000 hold that is not in plain sight is RIDICULOUS for small business owners. I would rather pay the fees with my bank’s merchant account than to have my money be held HOSTAGE.
Kim
Yesterday I received the “canned” email from Squared that everyone seems to be talking about. I do not use this for business purposes….I utilize it for personal use….I seel/swap/trade Pandora, Trollbeads, etc. with friends, coworkers and family and have them pay me using the card reader. I then transfer the money from PayPal to my checking account. I did not register as a business, I registered that it would be for personal use. They are now holding $350 and I have no way to go through the “verification process” since I’m NOT a business. I responded to their email, but based on what I’ve read here I probably won’t get anywhere with that. I also “refunded” the money in the hopes it will reverse back to my PayPal account….. am I out of luck? If this was ONLY to be used for “businesses”, I had NO idea….since I was able to say it was to be for “personal use”. Does anyone have any suggestions, insight, advice, anything they can offer to help me or direct me in this huge mess??? I just want my money back, and I’ll trash the card and never use it again if it’s not meant to be used as I was doing.
Hope to hear from someone, would greatly appreciate any information or help from anybody who can give me some advice.. Thanks in advance!!!
David
I had no idea they were going to hold my money. I am a business and have vendors to pay. Let’s just say it’s not just a couple hundred bucks. And they don’t get back to you with in 24 hours. They said they are holding it for a month! Are you kidding a fricken month?!! Lame, can’t conduct business this way, a big mistake on my part using Square.
Amanda
In case anyone is wondering, the BBB updated their rating and gave it an A- … this post is over a year old, so I’m really glad that the BBB had updated it since then. Thanks to this post, though, I’m on the fence about using Square.
Phillip CPO
This review was actually updated on 5/9/2012, but thanks for the update regarding the BBB rating. I’ll make sure to change it on the next revision of this review.
Tanya in FL
I own a small business (salon)..After seeing the advertisement for Square I thought that it would be ideal for my business. I was actually in the process of signing up with Square when I decided to find out information on the company.I am soooo glad that I read these reviews before making that commitment!! Thanks to all for having the courage to post your experiences with Square it helped me dodge a bullet..
Kyle Myers
As a note the BBB has updated rating to -A.
Fred
I am thoroughly frustrated with this company. They are holding $3000 of my money and I am unable to get anywhere with them. I have left many messages via e-mail and phone to no avail. I would like to get in contact with anyone from California so we can take our complaints to the state attorney general. In addition, we can also contact ABC’s 7 on your side. I’m sure they will love the story. I can be reached via e-mail at [email protected].
Christine Altmann Art
Wow, I am soooo glad I have researched this new company. I was all set to upgrade my phone (more expense) and to read of these enraging practices by Square have convinced me that you and all the others are correct. Several business I know are using Square and some are coming into their busy season as am I. I am going to direct them to this site so they can decide whether to keep it or not. Thank so all so for this enlightenment.
phil
We have had 2 transactions with Square since acquiring our cell phone swipe gadget. Needless to say, both transactions were not satisfactory. The first took over a week to get our funds credited. The second was a card not present transaction and was keyed in manually which cost us $344 on a $2344 transaction, almost 15% charge! This is totally a ripoff. We also have PayPal which we are happy with but they don’t take transactions when you do not have the card security code available.
Unless Square makes this right with us, we will never use them again.
Deborah Norton
Contact Morgan & Morgan Law firm in Florida even if you do not live here. I am implementing a class action lawsuit. As I have read 546 comments. Mine is the same story as the rest. Forward this on I will contact NBC News next.
Joe
I have to be honest here. I have read with fear all the stories and was sure I would be lending my voice to the chorus. I will, but not in the way I thought I would. Square just answered my email and cleared my account. I sent them the info they requested and called and left a few messages and sent some more emails, all in one day mind you. And sure enough they figured it out and go my going again with just one day down. I am not saying all the others aren’t having these problems but it gives me hope that Square is just going through some growing pains and will likely catch up with the astounding growth they have experienced lately. I hope they do because I do like the way the system works for the most part. I am a general contractor and don’t take more than a few transactions a month but they are usually bigger than a small business might usually take and Square makes that pretty easy. I hope they get it together and keep offering the service.
Please don’t hate on me for this comment I do not work for Square or anybody else for that matter. I build stuff and just want to make a living. I was going to flame them if they did not come through, tis only fair I give them this comment as it is due.
Joe
Mary
Joe how did you call them? There is no way to leave a voicemail? Do you have a number? Mary
Joe
I was able to get through the menu once and I left a message. The best communication I had with them was the email. I replied to the email they sent back confirming my submission of the information they wanted. I also sent a note through their system on the site. I dumped all the information about my business in that note. Once that my information they acted pretty quick.
kristyn pertierra
the number is 415-375-3176
scott
If I did not read all of these stories I would think square is the best thing ever.
I’ve used it for 6 months without a problem.
I read about all the problems on the Iphone app when I got this thing and I decided to try it anyway as a secondary solution to my online cc sales account that I use pro pay for. Pro pay limited my per sale to $500 and so square looked appealing to me because of the no limit part. I did read the $1000 rule on their site and I use it mostly at my auto detail shop for small “upsales” for $10 to about $100.
I have never had a problem yet and I think after reading all these comments, it’s because of my small transactions.
About a month ago I was hurting for cash and needed a short term fix while I was waiting for some money that I was expecting. My girlfriend was nice enough to help me out by letting me swipe $1500 and it was in my account the next day.
I guess I just got lucky but after reading all these horror stories I would never run a large transaction again until they get through this growth problem or whatever it is.
I hope that these issues are growth related but after thinking about it I started to think about the demographic that square must appeal to. Me…..business owner with bad credit and they don’t care?!! and I was desperate to accept credit cards at any rate. It seems like I’m the perfect target to be taken advantage of in this area.
Food for thought
Howard
Scott, I wouldn’t mention any more that you swipped your girlfriends card to obain cash, this is not a legal transaction. You should just be lucky and let it alone.
Trevor
The concept is great but the service is terrible. There is almost no way to communicate with Square once you are a customer. They are terrible about resolving chargebacks. They will let you know they are removing money from your account but they will not respond once the money has been removed. DO NOT USE SQUARE!
Charles
Square is not delivering as advertised. Sales made on Saturday are not processed according to the schedule they say in their FAQs. The wait for the deposit takes far too long. I am talking about a small amount under $25
very disappointed here
Charles
Update… still too many days late. No deposit to my account. Have a big crafts event this weekend and between a rock and hardplace. Geared to being mandatory to take credit cards. I did get an automated response with “Case #” but still cannot talk to someone. I looked into paypal and when it is launched another 7-14 days I was told yesterday. Paypal said it would not be tied to my bank account but go directly into my Paypal account. Problem I have is accessing the cash. IF I want to deposit to my bank account will take 2-3 business days to transfer those funds. Paypal does have a no fee debit card, so will have to get one of those too. So remains to be seen if I either will be a satisfactory deal!!!???!!
Dee
I have used Paypal for years and really HATED the 3 – 4 day wait to get the money into my bank account. But that is NOTHING compared to the hold that square puts on my money. AND when I have questions about paypal, I am able to talk to a person….Yes, sometimes I have trouble with what sounds like an out sourced accent and they have problems with my southern drawl….but they are friendly and helpful. I also have the Paypal debit card that I can use to access my money immediately. Paypal is FAR FAR FAR more efficient than Square. It wouldn’t be so bad if they offered a way to actually speak to someone.
Charles
UPDATE…. I must be fair about this. I still have not heard from Square. But found out today.. the posting to my account did take place on the monday after the sale (a Saturday). In my case MY bank did not post it where I could see it on my online bank account. After I called the Bank this morning … surprise… within minutes the monday posting showed up.. Was it Square NO… my BANK… Now you have to wonder when they actually do what they say the are going to do… and then dont followup to let me know… Check with your Bank… well.. they are not even defending themselves if they are right?????
Kris
A one-time enthusiastic user of Square, I was forced to switch to an Intuit account today, and me and my customer are still out $13,200. Any business processing more than $1,000 per month or handling large transactions should be warned! Square accepted my large transaction only to later ask that I refund my customer’s money. Note: my customer did not request the refund. I’m out of product and Square has charged my customer $13,200 but has kept the money. Worst of all, they have not returned my phone calls or emails. This is the MOST disturbing aspect. Totally unacceptable and possibly illegal business practices. Anybody have a direct contact or know where complaints should be directed?
Sandy
I am trying to find the phone number as I am having a similar issue! Have you had any luck?
Teresa Tullio
The phone number only puts you into a voicemail loop. They do not have people answering the phones!!!!!
Kelly
Has anyone retained an attorney to sue them? I see mention of it but would like to join the suit. They took me for 3k, and I lost my biggest client. Please email me if you have retained counsel.
Yolanda
Thank you Albert for posting your comment. It helped my husband and I to come to a decision about this product. I am sorry you are going thru this experience. I hope it is resolved in a positive way.
Kim
Hi Albert, this just happened to me yesterday. They are holding my funds as well. I processed a refund today and it’s pending….did you do a refund and did it go through if you did so?
Kary
Can Square be used on transactions with out the credit card in hand, such as phone orders?
Phillip CPO
Yes, but you will pay a higher rate for keying the card into the phone instead of typing it. The rates are mentioned in the review above.
Art of Dance Designs
I can only echo all of the complaints that have been written. I run a design and event management firm. Many of the events we manage take a least a year’s worth of planning and during that time we process multiple charges from the client. We have been working with a client on his event now for 7 months with no problem, and then the other day, without cause, the funds are on hold. I have provided them with more documentation than necessary and invited them to just contact the cardholder directly. That was five days ago. Now with the money in limbo, I may have to pay for contractors out of my pocket. I can’t look bad to my client and stuff like this has to stay stay transparent to my customers.
In the meantime i was able to open an actual merchant account with Phone Swipe. (Phone Swipe also has a service much like Square except it has legitimacy call Pay Anywhere). If paying a monthly fee and having a credit check is what I have to do to avoid this BS again. I have no problem.
Jeffrey
Problems with this company and a recent change in my account has them holding funds all prior reactions were paid in full with no problems
Trying to solve it with their customer service….impossible
You get canned generic reply and it doesn’t address your issue
Done with this provider going to Intuit
JC
I signed up with Square on the recommendation of my IT guy. My first swipe was $12,500.00 and the money was immediately transferred to my Square D account but the next day I got an email from Square that the swipe was suspicious and they were holding the money. I freaked out and went to the reviews here AFTER I used the account. It seemed to me that they were possibly a scam and I had lost my money at the most and would have to wait a long time at the least for my money. I called the phone number that is on some of these reviews and got run around, no phone customer service. Now to be totally truthful here is how it went. May 5, 2011 signed up, May 8, received swiper in mail, May 15, swiped for $12,500.00, May 16, account frozen and request to go to my account on line and Verify questions, May 17, a request for my bank statements last three months, copy of agreement with customer and previous processor info, all sent that day. May 21, money released to my bank account and an email saying my company is approved for the large amounts. May 28, swiped $45,000.00, went into my account the next day, I swiped at 730pm, money in at midnight. I am convinced they are a legitimate company that may have some startup issues but in my case they really needed to check the validity of my company and my track record with my customers. I believe this is fair considering the large amounts I am processing in the first few weeks. I highly recommend this company.
JC
UPDATE:
Still using Square, no problems
Doorstep Grocery Delivery Service,LLC
It is unbelievable that a financial company with such popularity and with very high prospects of growth could be doing business with no telephone support team. I just learned today that square will hold my funds for 30 days after I’ve been trying to contact someone for the past 5 days about why my funds were not released to my bank account. Initially, I was asked to furnish all sorts of documents to prove that a credit card payment was authentic; and even after all what they requested were sent in, I still got no reply from anybody. I gave them my phone number in two of my emails asking them to call me; … I am still waiting for that call five days later. I would highly encourage this company to establish a good customer service support system in place if they want to continue carrying out business with its current customers and prospective ones. There is competition out there already. Intuit Go Payment is awesome…!!!
James F.
I recently opened up an Espresso business at a Food Pod in Portland, Oregon. Being a new business I was searching for ways to increase sales without too much added expense, such as monthly or added transaction fees. My fellow “Pod” members highly recomended the Square as a great option to accept cards. By my second week I was ready to roll and started accepting cards, it increased my sales slightly but it was a major selling point for those whom never use cash, which in turn brought me new customers that were searching for a new coffee place with good coffee, since they have been severly limited. Since it’s nearing the end of the month I was reviewing my Banking account(s) on-line yesterday and noticed that ther was a major descrepancy with my deposits. Despite having been sent numerous emails that Square has deposited monies into my business checking account there was no record of such in my account. Next I called my Bank and they did a search of my account and had found no attempt to deposit money into any of my accounts, business nor personal. So then I got back on-line to the Square website where I reviewed my banking information, I noticed the last 3 digits they had listed were not my account, or even close. I could understand if I had made a mistake, such as entering a wrong number or out of order, but these were not even close. I then contacted my bank again to have them research this even further (I bank at a CU therefore when I call I speak with someone whom I know), The lady at my bank found the account with the same last 3 digits, Now here’s where it gets interesting, This account was NON-EXISTANT until last Wednesday. With all these “Safeguards” they say they have in place how could this happen? How did my account information get changed and why would they even set up a clear line of transfer when something at the other end doesn’t even exist. I still have had no response from them even though they said it would happen within 24 hrs. It is now Hour 26. UNTRUSTWORTHY, HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE, DO NOT DO IT. There are others out there and they maybe slightly more, they still work on your mobile phone and are long established companies with a proven track record. Square is taking advantage of the people at the bottom of the chain, they do not deserve your business. I’m going with Intuits “Gopay”, The company that developed Quickbooks.
AlamoCityJim
I had been using square since January with no issues. Money was in the account the next day. Then, in one seven day period, I took payment of two $1000+ purchases. The first one went through. Then I got an email telling me they were holding my money for 30 days. Then they said they needed me to supply more info. I supplied every thing they asked for. Next day I got an email telling me they were cancelling my account because my business was “high risk.” Most merchant services have a list. If you’re on the list, don’t sign up. Square has no such list that they make available. I’ve been with paypal for two years and never had a single chargeback. My volume should be near $100,000 this year. I will never do business with Square again, I am building a website to show what a scam they are. I want to drive as many people as I can away from this rip-off.
Rigol5660
I went through hell with square, Their e-mail customer service sucks a ton!!!!…. I lost money and customers thanks to this “Square” bunch of misleading dirty tactics filled company. I think a class action is on order. shall we?
We got an enormous amount of power against this companies, lets use it wisely!!!!!!!!! anybody? please let me know!
albert
Let me know when you know, Their parking suspended funds for lengthy periods of time and making tons off the interest……….
Vintage T
Let me know when you all are ready. [email protected]
Fully a scam. They hold money to play monopoly like banks.
Aaron
Hey the same thing just happend to me they just re- enabled my account after sending in documents they requested and later that night they said they were closing my account due to high risk and I hat two options refund customers and ask for a different form of payment or wait 90 days and the will deposit the 22,000 that my event made into my account how do I confirm that this is legal and if I have any rights for lawsuit . This is putting me out of business. How did your matter end up ? Email me direct at [email protected] please
Kenny
I was thinking of it, but now have many second thoughts. The lack of service and holding back my funds are bothersome.
But my question for those of you using Square is, with American Express charges do they come to you directly and separately from American Express or through Square? Do you still pay Square, 2.75% on top of the American Express interchange fee of 3.50%?
I was told that with Visa and Master Interchange fees, about 80% of those cards being used are below far below 2.00% and debit cards below 1%. Leaving a lot of my money in Squares pockets, but I am just building my business.
Bottom line. Can any one confirm if Square’s 2.75% fee is on top of Visa, Master, Dinner or AE interchange fee’s?
Thank you,
Kenny
Phillip CPO
Hi Kenny,
Square’s fees are not charged in addition to any other fees. Here is Square’s help page regarding its fees.
Kenny
Phillip,
I have to ask this question. Are you employed by Square? Really. Read there help page. They make no direct comment on interchange fees.
How is it that with American Express, everyone complains that their fees are 3.50%? Are you telling me I can accept AE all day long and only have to pay 2.75?
If this is true, I believe you made my decision very easy. 75% of my clients use AE cards. I am saving 0.75% on every transaction.
Besides all the other horror stories that I keep reading, only charging 2.75% on AE or Dinners is a good thing.
Anyone else out there?
Thanks
Kenny
Phillip CPO
Kenny,
No, I do not work for Square or any other processor. This is my website and I knew the answer to your question. It appears that Square has special pricing with AMEX, which explains the low rate.
Howard
So how does Square handle the cross boarder and Visa ISA, International, NPF CP and CNP, Discover ISVC and Data Usage surcharges as well as the Acquiring Fees such as NABU, etc…
Phillip CPO
Hi Howard,
Square does not disclose this information, so it is anybody’s guess how they handle them.
Carla
TERRIBLE COMPANY…their cardreader never works which makes it nessesary to type in number. They charge more and then…. last week we used it for $2300.00 and they emailed to say the money would be held for 30 days. Now they are saying $2002.00 will be put in our account in the next 3 business days. This will be the last time we will use this company.
Elizabeth Beale
I agree with the easy of use for aa occasional merchant such as myself but the very first transaction I ever accepted with square got a charge back 4 months after the transaction and none of the documentation got me my money back. I had the persons card in front of me but no card reader so I input it manually. If it was a fake transaction how did I get their CCV code from the back of the card? I also think its crap that square hides the email address where I sent the reciept for the transaction, so I will now have to copy all email addresses in case someone tries a chargeback 4 months after the fact next time. What really pisses me off about square is that in the past couple of weeks I have seen them on tv advertising their “service” ( more like lack of service ). If they can pay for national tv commercials why can’t they pay for real people to man their help line? Or outsource it to India? They have to be making millions but they are still cheaping out on customer service. Total corporate greed in my opinion.
Will.
Hello,
Just because you send in “documentation” does not mean you will win a chargeback. Visa, MC, AMEX, and discover all have different ways of dealing with chargeback’s. Even if you send in all of the information so that you can win the chargeback, the cardholder can still dispute it. A chargeback is initiated by a Bank or a cardholder; this has nothing to do with Square.
After they dispute it again it turns into a second chargeback (or rebuttal). At this point you can still win the chargeback, but just in case you don’t you can always pressure the card holder directly. As per visa and MasterCard regulations, any time you take a credit card manually, you must also have a signed imprinted sales draft. Without that draft you are almost guaranteed to lose your chargeback. An imprinter is about 40$ and sales drafts are very cheap, spend the money to save your money.
The CVV code means that the CC number is correct to that card, but that does not mean the person using it was the correct person. This is why a signed sales draft is important. The bank wants to know that SOMEONE was there and used that card, without that sales draft there is no proof the card was there.
But what if you can’t get a signature such as a telephone or internet order? When the item is shipped or picked up, always require a signature and ID and confirmation upon delivery.
If you would like to learn more about chargeback’s, please visit this visa website:
Ivonne
SQUARE has NO customer service what-so-ever. So, things may happen, and if for example your money get lost, good luck. Square support is nowhere to be found and neither is your money. Their customer support is literally non existent / zero / none.
Honestly, the stress is not worth it. There are plenty of other payment systems out there that stay there for their customers. If you are thinking about trusting your money to Square, think again. You will save yourself many, many hours of stress and anguish. After they get your money you are totally left alone. Not worth it AT ALL. Technology is great, but still humans are better..
Jason
I just have to comment, after reading all the other comments, but you people who are using Squared for $1000+ transactions are being really naive. Squared is for little charges, not $1000+ per week in transactions. You use Squared if you are selling a little bit of jewelry at the local “Farmers Market” not charging multiply $5000 transactions for your construction company. When you start charging over $1000 a week on credit cards, you go with a real credit transaction company. And if you have to manually type in a credit card, you don’t use Squared!
Think of Squared as the corner liquor store of credit card transactions. You get little things there and if you start doing big business, you go to a big grocery store and if you even need bigger than that, you goto Costco, Sam’s Club or a Whole Saler. Would you buy $25,000 in product from a corner liquor store? No! So why would you run $25,000 in credit card transactions in Squared?
Phillip CPO
Thanks for the comment, Jason. I agree with you that Square is best used for small transactions and a low volume of sales overall; however, the issue that is becoming apparent is that Square does not market the service this way, nor do they do a good job of educating users about the types of transactions that will cause holds. It could be as simple as popping of an alert to warn a merchant that the transaction will be held before they finalize the sale. This way, merchants would have a choice before moving forward with the transaction rather than being surprised by a hold later.
vicki
Square is the most difficult system I have ever encountered to get a problem solved. Been at it since Sunday, today is Wednesday and still no resolution
lisa
I made a deposit on Sunday and my money has not been deposited as of yet. Is this a legitament company. I starting to think not. Good luck to us all
Paula
DONT USE SQUARE. Square is holding $1000 on my very first transaction. I haveprovided them with my tax EIN, business license, signed invoices, signed contract agreement, 2 months of bank statements, business website, and they are still holding my money. I used the swipe method to process the transaction too which is supposedly “unlimited”. It has been over a week and there has been no response and there is no phone number to call. I just get robotic emails back saying they will take care of my request in the next 24 hours.
alicia
Has anyone told their clients/customers to dispute the charge with their credit card, and that way, they get there money back? That way the credit card company disputes with the merchant, square. I was suppose to get our money today, and no luck from it being deposited by Square. I can’t believe I didn’t read enough information.
Phillip CPO
Hi Alicia,
I would advise against doing this because it may cause more problems for you than solve the problem. In most cases, the best course of action is to wait out the hold.
Artem
I’ve been processing through Square problem free for 6 months without any chargebacks or customer service issues. One day I received an email that my account will be deactivated and funds frozen for 90 days. Only now I come to find out what everyone else seems to know already – nonexistent customer service! Tried calling the number on the BBB page (415) 375-3176 like 20 times, cant get through to anyone! My business is at a standstill and I lose money every day because I’m not able to process payments!!! I want the whole world to know that if you go with square, the livelihood of your business to depend on some “voodoo magic” and you’ll have no-one to complain to!
Glenn
Square sucks. They just keep on billing me for the same chargeback from Amex even though it has been credited twice without a single explaination. Of course you can’t get hold of anyone. Why doesn’t San Francisco have a law against bad businesses like this, they have a law against everything else? Grade is F
Will
In reviewing the reviews for Square, it seems as though many others are having the same issues that I have encountered. At first, I thought Square was great…my business is small and I liked the quick swipe of the customers credit cards and then deposit to my business checking account.
However, out of the blue, Square put a hold on a deposit. It has been many emails back and forth, submitting ‘proof’ of my business, documents…and still no release of funds that have been charged over 2 weeks ago.
Poor, poor, non existent customer service. No published phone call to reach anyone. Emails go into cyber space. I would not recommend this company or service to anyone. There is too much competition and other services that are glad to help out and provide customer service. Rating: F
Winston C
If you’re even thinking about using Square Up – DON’T. This is possibly the most frustrating service I have ever used. They have held my money for 7 days and there is no number to call. When you write them they will send you an email saying they will respond within 24 hours. It’s just a robot response. The support staff doesn’t even read your question. I wish I had done my research sooner on the internet ,Square Up is absolutely the worst company ever. Out of frustration i signed up with Intuit GoPayment – there is a NUMBER you can call and talk to someone. GoPayment is .1 percent higher in transaction fees and guess what, that is well worth the money to me to be able to talk to someone when there’s a problem.
Do NOT use Square UP. Worst Company Ever.
Marie
I love my Square and have highly recommended it to artists who exhibit with me.
One problem was taken care of quickly (before I was aware that a customer had been double charged) and I received a quick response when I sent an email and tweet.
I do wish they had a dedicated live phone person to talk to. That would have been easier than emailing and tweeting to get a response to what could have been a problem.
I will continue to recommend the Square to all I deal with…..and my customers think this style of credit card reader is very cool.
PD
Square up is a company that “STEALS MONEY”. They are “FRAUDELENT” and find ways to hold on to money that is large and not pay. They use the “PRETEXT” of verifying funds. We are going to file a lawsuit (Class action) at the Attorney General’s Office immediately.
They are the WORST PAYMENT PROCESSOR. PLEASE BEWARE
BUSINESS OWNER
I ran a credit card purchase for $6926.
they Deposited $1905.95
they said they have to hold $4777.49 until June 16th
Who does that ? This is CRIMINAL ACTIVITY !!!
I tried to issue my customer a refund and the website said they will take the full amount of the transaction out of my bank account even if the full amount has not yet been deposited.
SOMEONE START A LAWSUIT – I WILL JOIN YOU!
I AM DEVASTATED. NEVER BEEN TREATED LIKE THIS IN BUSINESS BEFORE.
Bryan Talbott
Did they fix the problem ? I am dealing with a similar issue, They have yet to deposit a single dime however from a 3650 charge. They claim they are going to deposit 2002.00 and the rest will be deposited on June 25th. I run a leasing business that charges peoples leases much like that of a Hotel stay for a weekend of week. In my case the renter will have stayed, rented, left. I refund 500.00 of their money as deposit as long as they dont mess up the beach house. I am now forced to pay the 500.00 out of my own pocket. Since I own this house and run this business to support my retirement I felt using Square was a secure method making my clients think they had security in using their credit card for a nice weekend or week stay on my beach house. I have tried to look thru all that I agreed to as I printed it down,, and you cant find this so called HOLD. Holding your money for 30 days, is fraud as far as I am concerned, the person whom you charged has been billed and WE have not been paid. I dont know what to do at this point. NO customer service I found the number called it but is merely voice activated BS no one ever answeres its a joke. I could never run a business like that and not be in jail.
Sompong Payne
Don’t use square ,after I lose my job ,lose my home I make jewelry to sale at art fair,it’s only way I can survival,I have one son learn hight school. And my husband have no job. My friend told me to use square ,I very happy because no free every month. After I used with my customer. They hold my money ,I tried to contact someone but no phon only email.i email them manytime they said my account risk and I email them back ,ask what do you need me to do ? It’s silent , I need cash flow for buy my show and my food my supply.
I’m cring ,strain ,no one can help , give up for everything .
,if someone have attorney please tell me I want to joy .my email [email protected]
Pete W.
I sit back and I read all the complaints that people are having and I’m saying B.S.!!!! I have been using Square now for a year and a few months and have had zero problems. I have not experienced a non-swipe $1000.00 Plus transaction so If for someone reason people are having problems with that area than just make sure you swipe the card! I can honestly say that my biggest swipe was $12,300 with no problems. I swiped on a Monday and had funds in account before Tuesday 6am!!!! I first receive an option to send an instant receipt. It records my destination where the swipe took place. I can take a picture and match it up along with the transactions. It tells you right away that square has charged their account. Just so you people all know that it really depends on your bank and how long they get to their deposits!! FYI Bank of America works like this. If All of my square swiped transactions are done before 8:00pm than All of my money will be their the.next morning usually around 6 am.. It works.. The people who have problems I wish you better luck and you also might want to check you local and state banking laws because that could be a Reason as well. Some banks without you even knowing it will have security limits on purchases and withdraws. So when they see a big transaction they accept the purchase but wait for the funds to be verified. Any questions send to email.
NaplesNative
I really have to question any positive reviews on this company.
First of all why is someone who is Soooo HAPPY with them even checking out the background of this company? Most people don’t do that until they get burned and definitely not when they have been using them for over a year with NO PROBLEMS. I know that some people make money writing positive reviews for a living. That would be the ONLY reason I could guess as it is obvious how awful this company is. They have an F RATING at the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU
They held over 50k of our funds and it was THEM who held it. It had nothing to do with our bank or state banking laws as you suggest. We refunded as much of this to our customers as they would allow us to and recharged using another merchant account. It has been OVER 90 DAYS AND THEY STILL OWE US OVER $10,000.
We we e-mail and ask the status their reply is “Check your old e-mails to see the status”
Yes ~ great company ~ NOT!
ed
Pete W,
I applaud your good fortune! However, the good folks who have commented here, myself included, are not idiots as you seem to imply. I do not know where you are located but I am an hours drive from Square, I also have a merchant account with B of A, and in 20 years of business have never experienced such blatant disregard for others, particularly customers, in a business setting. They have been holding a mere $2500 of my money for the past 30 days (today is the moment of truth) and repeated attempts to resolve this issue and communicate with this company have been futile. I am furious with Square, but particularly myself for not carefully reading their legally questionable contract. I am sure that had 90% of the folks who signed up for this service made themselves aware of the details of this unscrupulous company, their contract, and their customer disservice, Square would no longer exist.
Barbara
DO NOT USE SQUAREUP! They are AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!
Do not use this company!! We decided to use this company because the rate was good and no monthly fee was even better. We ran our first transaction (over $1000) a week ago and nothing has hit our account. Let’s see here…they used the “24 hour deposit” as a great selling point. This is a bunch of BS! There is a phone number that I had to search the internet for (nowhere on their website) and EVERY option you choose gets you to an answering machine. We have sent multiple emails, phone calls, messages…any way to get in contact with a live person… and guess what….NO LUCK! DO NOT USE SQUAREUP! They are AWFUL!!!!!!!!!! There number is (415) 375-3176..GOOD LUCK!
Bobbi Crane
I have not received payment from Squareup – and believe they are using funds for personal use. Who do I contact for assistance?
Carol
The only number we have is 415-375-3176 or try [email protected]/square_com
We have not had any luck trying to get to return a charge back for over 6 months now. Good luck to you.
Alex r
Awesome app. First charge 80.00. 2nd charge 1588.00 not a prob. $ is in the bank next day.
John Littlefield
Square is great for my business. When I’ve contacted customer support, I’ve been happy with the result. The first point of contact with support is through the website. If the problem cannot be resolved though email I get a call. Everyone I’ve talked to has been very helpful and professional. Our charges are typically low volume and low value so I can not speak to some of the complaints of those with large value transactions. I’ve been using it for more than a year. I’ll also add that we sell antiques so the ability to take cc transactions on phones at our shop, at shows or upon deliver at a customer’s house is very helpful.
Joan Furlong
I have no confidence in Square or any financial service that does not provide telephone support when my bank account is involved. I signed up on line and received the square device in the mail a few days later. After I signed up Square was supposed to put a test deposit and withdrawel to my bank account . They keep “emailing me” that they did , but two months has gone by and there has been no test deposit to validate my bank account. Worse, takes them 3 or 4 days to even respond to an email and even though in every email I ask someone to call, I have never received a phone call., . In every email, I asked the question “do you offer phone support?” The question is ignored. I am mailing back the square device today.
I do not recommend this company that provides no customer service.
John Stefani
Joan,
I couldn’t agree with you more! I moved to GoPayment by Intuit and very happy with them. Always get a live person on the phone. The discount rate might be a point higher on manual or non-qualified swipes, but that’s a little deal to me. I have another consultant friend who tried Square and had one transaction well over $1000 and they put a big time hold on the money. He also the same issue with e-mail support versus phone support. I also use QuickBooks and they have a service where you can download your GoPayment mobile transactions directly into QuickBooks ($9.95 /mo and well worth it). They also provide you a free card reader as well.
Orlando
What number did you find to contact support? I am anxious to see, if my customer service experience is as pleasant as you stated, thank you
Sincerely,
No Faith
Suzanne
I am disgusted – we should have researched this company more prior to signing up. We run a small business and work payment to payment, as we are still growing. In order to pay for an install next Monday, we receive 50% of the total job cost on Tuesday (the 8th) and it’s not even in the list of transactions on our Square account. Did I get lucky? Maybe it didn’t process? I’m afraid to ask our client to see if there’s a pending charge – for fear he’ll be double charged! Can anyone else tell me – the funds that were being “held” – did they at least show as pending transactions on your Square account? Of course, I haven’t heard back from their “customer service” yet……
Teresa
I just filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. They track the number of complaints against a company to see if there is a pattern. PLEASE file your complaint to get some action here is the link
I also just saw that Richard Branson is part of this company. I am starting a complaint chain to him and all of the other investors in this company. Use your social media contacts on Twitter and Facebook to pass on the information to boycott these companies until Sqaure Square up!
Here is a link to all the news agencies that are talkiong about square. I am sending a press release to each of them. If you want to be included in this please let me know.I’m n!ot putting up with this fraud
Teresa
This company is horrible and I would say borderline fraud! My first transaction was for $7600. The reader did not work on my Android although the company advertises that it does! I was forced to make a manual transaction and key in the information. After I left, I tried to contact customer service and found they don’t have a phone number. I went through ther troubleshooting and discovered that my phone doesn’t work with Square! The reader was not compatible with my phone jack. Then I discovered that the manual transaction cost me 3.5%!! I immediately emailed the company. No one has contacted me yet. But to my horror today when I went to call the company, I found out that they are holding the funds for one month! DON”T DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!!!! They will take your money and run!
If this company does not resolve the issue by the end ot the day. I will be reporting them to the FTC and BBB. I will also start a social media campaign to warn people not to do business with them.
Ron
I never really write anything good or bad about companies on review sites and places like this but this time around they pissed me off enough to add my own two cents!
I have a couple different businesses that do about 3 million a year in sales each. In both cases, most of the funds come in by wire or check so we never had a need for credit card processing. When we found out how easy Square seemed to be, I got a reader for both. On one account which is still ok, we have charged over 130k from different cards without a hitch. Yes they do hold it for 30 days if the card is not present but that was not an issue for us as we have enough cashflow to cover it.
The other account, however, after having charged about 40k over a period of 3 months gave us trouble. We charged 10k for one order and 2 days later received their email asking for more information. Again this was a keyed order and we have no issues waiting a month or responding to the email that requested more information. I sent all the information and an automated email came back saying they would review everything within 24hrs. That was b***s*** as 4 days have gone by and not a single response! I have tried the 415 number and tried multiple extensions. (220 works sometimes, and a couple of other ones do too but ultimately, when a human transfers you to the support group, you end up in a the voicemail trap)… Basically 0 support….
I know that with that kind of business volume I should be processing it with a proper company and in fact we have since established a relationship with a major bank to do that. Regardless, this is no way to treat a customer. If you accept customers that do large transactions you are responsible for accommodating them!
I would not recommend square to anyone else at this point. Even small transactions. No company has the luxury of shielding themselves from very basic customer service. No matter how large or small, specially dealing with money, they have a responsibility to provide very basic lines of support and reachability.
I have since also refunded that particular customer’s card and will get a check from them. But what about all the small business owners out there that do not have the luxury of tracking down a customer and getting them to pay by a different means!? I know myself if that had been me when I first started my business it would have nearly put me out of business so I do feel the pain of most on this list.
If they do not respond before the end of this week I am seriously thinking about funding google ads to point to some sort of “The truth about Square support site”
Good luck to all of you !
j in pa
We run a co-op on the weekends, and do an average of 1-200 in credit sales. Switched to Square because all other services require a monthly fee that was out surpassing the benefit of credit sales.
Have not had one issue yet, with average transactions of $10-20. Money is always in my account the following monday.
I think square is excellent for small volume, which I believe is it’s original intention.
When I whip out my iphone with the little swipe reader, my customers are amazed at the new technology. When I ask them if they’d like a reciept mailed ot them, it is a new feature they’ve never encountered before.
Again, I can not speak for high volume/high total sales, but for the average small business who processes the occasional credit sale, this saves me tons of money. I have not encountered a single problem, so I can not speak of their customer service.
My only qualm is with the reader, as it takes a few swipes to be able to read some cards, but I have yet to have to manually enter a card.
Isaac
I saw your post, and had an idea to help your card reader issue. Believe it or not I learned the following idea from a store cashier. The customer in front of me could not get her card to work after several tries and the cashier did it in just one try. If you take a plastic bag like that found at your local grocery store and place the card into the bag then swip it while tightly inserted into the bag it usually works. I would not try anything other than a Grocery Store Bag, simply it is so thin, anything else might be to thick. Good luck.
Tiffini
I actually really like Square. I am a new Mary Kay Independant Consultant and just used it for my first customer. I agree it seems that the people having the most trouble are those with HIGH volume of sales. For super small companies like mine it is great!! Still waiting for my card reader can’t wait for it to come in!! Good luck.. Oh PS yes the plastic grocery bag trick does work at the grocery store. So try it on the reader and let me know if it works.
Robert Mcinvale
I hate this company and am glad that there are options. My reader has never worked, I ask specific questions to their suport team and get form letters back that do not answer my questions, They withhold my money for 30 days, Now I am having issues with the rolling seven day pierod which is not seven days but 8 days. Every possible way that this company can take extra money from its clients, it does. Also the fact that they do not have a customer suport number and that they do not even give there name when they respond by email is really poor buisness. They were the only company for a while and they could make there own rules but they are not now and I am leaving.
Michael
The customer service at Square has been horrific. I am a physician and exclusively key in credit cards rather than swipe them. I have no intentions of ending a session with them by asking them to take out a credit card and swipe it, etc., it’s inappropriate. I bill my credit card patients altogether 1x/month for clients/patients who have requested to billed by credit card and have signed authorization forms. Wow! They are holding back a lot of $$ for 30 days! I contacted Sqare by e-mail (via their site) requesting the increase the limit I can process at one time without having funds held back for 30 days. They responded promptly–it said on their site they would always do so within 24 hours–telling me if I wanted them to review my situation they would. I responded immediately saying, yes please, send my request on for review. It’s been nearly a week now and I haven’t heard a word. I sent them a second request two days ago, reminding them of their promise to provide prompt customer support, but nothing still. Meanwhile, they have my funds and collect their fees up front. Despite searching everywhere I could not find a phone number contact them. What kind of a way it this to run a business? I’m rethinking using them and looking for alternatives.
crossroads
Wow I should have read these first! They are holding over 20,000 and I can’t get ahold of anyone! Has anyone s lawyer been able to do anything? This is definitely fraud. Can the fbi actually do anything? Help!
Joy
The customer service is horrible: Replied to 3 emails and no answered and tried sending a direct email and got a email back right away saying I would have a response within 24 hours. When that 24 hours passed and still no response I finally found this web site with a phone number. Finally got to talked to someone and they had no reason for the emails not being answered. It sounded like I was talking to a robot that was picking up on one word and giving the same answer but not answering the question. Poor customer service.
Joe White
Do not use Square!!!!!
We are a HVAC company. So, we handle very large transactions. Any transactions over $1000 are held by Square for 30 days!!!! This was not clear to me until after we processed the card. Now they have $5000 dollars of mine that I need to pay my techs and the creditors for equipment. Square promised if I supplied certain documentation they would up my limit. Well, I have provided the documentation twice!!! 5 days ago. They promised to give me a response within 24 hours….Todate, there has been no response from Square. So, Square may be fine for small transactions, But do not use it for large ones. I don’t know if I will ever get my money to pay my people and creditors. But, I do know I am done with Squareup!!!!!
Dave
Square has taken a payment of over $10,000 and held it for going on 6 weeks with no reason as to why except for their “internal policies”.
They refuse to give me an answer as to why they are holding my money.
They refuse to pay my partner on the other end.
They have no phone support.
They do not answer their customer service emails.
Run Forrest Run! Do not ever use Square.
chris o
square started out great until they began holding funds , the most annoying part is not being able to get phone help promptly. keep in mind if you process a refund they will freeze your funds for over a week. if you process 1000 manually withing in 7 days they will freeze funds for 30 days. who does that ? need less to say i am quiting square for now it causes more damage than good.
Vinny
Had another reader sent to me.. Seems it never makes conection and I have to key in card number and the charge is higher,,,,
ejaz
Its technology and never perfect. You can always get a new reader from retail location. If you don’t like square than get PayPal launching at the end of the month.
Tim - Masterpiece Sales
OMG!!WOW!!! I wish I had seen this site earlier!! My wife and I own a sale business, we do estate, moving, down-sizing, liquidation and demolition sales. We had several customers who wanted to use credit or debit cards, so in an effort to appease our customers, we signed up for Square. We used the service in December for a few transactions at one sale with no hitch. Our business has grown dramatically this year. We had a sale for a very important client a few weeks ago and advertised that we would take credit and debit. We used Square for over 50 transactions. We were swiping the cards as we need to then our reader broke. I had to manually key in the cards. Square has only paid us for a portion of the cards. I have sold a dining room set that is in Chicago now, and have not been paid for it. I have e-mailed Square DAILY and was asked for more information. I called my accountant and my attorney. I answered their questions as they pertain to my business per my attorney. The funny thing is that I was in banking for many years and dealt with credit and debit cards both on the merchant and the cardholder side. Also I worked for 6 years for the largest aviation credit card in the world who also does processisng for other card labels both on the merchant and consumer sides. Also, I was a VP of Client Services in the banking industry. These people think we are all either stupid or blind. I used the swiper they provided and it broke. I had no option but to key the cards in. In all my years in this industry if a merchant had to key cards due to faultly equipment we supplied we paid them as normal and apologized for the inconvenience. I had to cash in a CD and take a HUGE HIT, just to pay my client, also I have accounting and attorney fees associtated with this matter. I called tonight after getting their number and left a messsage that I am sure will go unanswered. I have contacted the Attorney Generals office for the State of Missouri and they informed me that a reputable company would have a number to call especially when dealing with credit cards. They are sending me the paperwork to complete a formal complaint and ask for an investigation. I am also filing a complaint with the State of MO division of finance, and have contacted the Missouri Bankers Association for help and guidance in this matter. There are so many of us who have been victims of this company that I think we should open a forum and form a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT maybe that would get their attention. We all know what they are doing… using the float on our money to line their pockets. I am closing my account and closing the associated bank account per my attorneys advice once this matter is finally resolved. The truth is that untill these guys have to pay for thier crimes it will continue to happen. IS THERE AN ATTORNEY WHO WANTS TO TAKE ON THE CASE? CONTACT ME PLEASE!!! I will be filing a suit against them.
Dave
I will join you in your lawsuit.
I have an attorney that I believe will take this case.
There are hudreds or thousands like us.
I will contact my attorney right away.
Teresa
I am with you! I am starting a social media campaign to warn people about this company! I will do whatever it takes!
Brandy
Teresa,
Can I have the information on how to get involved in the social media campaign and the lawsuit?? I can’t believe I didn’t research this company first… someone had recommended it. Ugh.
Rigoberto Lopez
I’m IN !!!!! please count me in and need more info. thanks!!
D. Blakey
I should have read these comments before I relied on this system. I used it for the first time at an International Conference in LA and on day 3 after a $5,000 purchase, my account was frozen. Of course I didn’t know that, all I new was my password & user name was not recognized–I could not long on to the system. For 7 days I didn’t know where my money was–I figured this was some “fly-by-night” business and my money was gone!!! I was sick, I didn’t sleep for days. I kept emailing the “Help” center and would get an email back to expect a 24 hr response from Square–not so, that took 5 days. I’ve had Paypal for 2 years and have had no problem. They now have an app for a smart phone—which I will be getting. How can a company like Square get away w/this. Are they pocketing all this money for a week–making money on interest/or short term investing? I can’t believe w/all the complaints they haven’t been investigated.
Sam
My home repair business was growing. Many of my customers are folks having their new home remodeled before they move to my area. In order to do the work requested, customers called in their CC information so I could get the money for materials and supplies. My first charge was for $1796.00. It went in on a Monday and was in my bank on Tuesday morning. Hurrah!
That afternoon, my own mother asked me to take over repairs to her rental unit and requested I accept payment for materials in the amount of $1100.00. I ran the amount, it was accepted and then,……absolutely nothing! Having expected the deposit to go through like the previous one, I went ahead and purchased the supplies out of my own funds. Two days later, with 50% of the work done, my subcontractor finished his part and asked to be paid. Problem: They still hadn’t cleared my payment.
Only after searching all over the place did I even find the “holdback” crap about swipe versus non-swipe transactions. That’s ridiculous. I purchase things on line all the time without swiping. I order pizza and have it delivered without swiping. I buy stuff over the phone without swiping. Now I can’t finish the job and my parents are going balistic as they need to rent the place so they can cover the payments. I have workers ready to kill me because I can’t pay them now. I stand to lose my business. After multiple emails, I get one back from some dim bulb who signs it “Derek” and all he says is go on the site and request an increase in the non-swipe amount limit. I immediately did so and its been two more days without any response.
When I first went online and ordered the gizmo, filled out the info on my business, and eagerly began looking in the mail box for it to arrive, I got several calls from SquareUp. I even backtracked my caller ID to those calls and can’t get through to anybody. Those numbers are apparently one-way only.
Thanks SquareUp. You’ve destroyed another small business. If I ever see my money back, I’ll be only too glad to run and not walk away from doing business with you. I can already see several UCC violations as you have accepted payment of the non-swipe fees from me without concurrently fulfilling your obligations. That is called fraud plain and simple. I paid the higher fees, you accepted them, now you are just holding my money so you can earn interest on it from your bank. SquareUp, please square up accounts. Don’t penalize the consumer any longer. You are ruining their finances, too, not just mine.
How can any company be so horrible at customer service? Fool me once!
mitchell
This company realy sucks they keep holding my transaction up . No customer service at all
Seze
Do NOT use this company. Aside from the fact that they never get back to you, they hold onto your money and never give you an idea when you can get it back.
I have over $18,000 owed to us and there is no one who will say when I will even get it. Over a week I am waiting for funds!
crossroads
Did u receive your funds yet?
John Stefani
Square “Pay with App” has issues finding my company in the Square database. When I put my company in the search window, it displays the first 100 closest business only and mine isn’t listed, however there are businesses listed that are thousands of miles away from mine. Also, there are companies listed that have no match to my search criteria. There is no mechanism for sorting by distance or alphabetical by company name. Although I like the flat-rate model, the overall product is very weak. I can see why it receive a “C” rating.
Siobhan Boudreau
Square is holding over $1,000 dollars of mine since April 11th. I own a small tree business and a customer paid $1,200 on her visa. They held funds questioning my account. They asked for further info. I gave it to them. Still no money. I have been back and forth with Better Business Bureau who just act as mediators with nothing solved . Now they have closed my account so when I log on they show the money there but they have blocked my account so I can no longer email support. I don’t know what else to do.
Adriana
Excellent Customer Service today…
Perhaps they are improving?
Austin
You mentioned “Excellent”.
How did you get the service? Did you get e-mail reply on time?
We have kept sending e-mails for the last 10 days.
They just ignore, no reply.
Michael
Square has absolutely no idea of customer service, I have $26,000 worth of “swiped” card transactions that I can’t seem to get deposited even though the money has been taken from my customers credit card already. I strongly suggest the use of a traditional credit card processing company. I am a small business and cannot afford to not have these funds
Beth
I am a small business that does not accept credit cards and I don’t plan on it any time soon. I am looking for a very simple POS system to use with an ipad. Could I possibly sign up for Square Register, never accept a credit card and essentially use the POS for free?
Possibly wishful thinking but just thought I would ask.
pam
Do not use this company they have no phone number. I was told that if my customer swipes the card my funds will be in my account the next business day. I have done two payments and funds were released now I made a 25,000 payment and they won’t release my funds until I send all my business information. Are they crazy they have no phone number to call and they want my information. I called that number and they lady is a robot saying over and over give them the information and then they release the funds. My business as a small business owner has been shut down because of this last payment. If anyone has phone numbers to them please please give it to me. This company is not god, they are breaking the law not sending me deposit from my customer to til
I give up all my private business information. DO NOT USE THESE GUYS!!!!! Who does business with no customer service number. Now I do not get money from them. I plan so suing the hell out of these people. My customer is being charged $250.00 per unit due to no fuel that was stopped because square will not release funds. I plan on calling the FBI on this crazy business they call e-mail customer service and they respond within 24 hours. I do not know of any company in America that you can’t discuss your money that they are keeping from you unless they get what they want. SEND MY CUSTOMER A REFUND THEN!!!!
Reggie Thomson
When you sign up it seems great when dealing with small sums of money. They are holding a substancil amount of my money and are asking for alot of information that I cannot provide. I cannot talk with anyone and they answer any email with please reply – never answering any questions. I don’t know if they have a history of keeping people’s money but am afraid I will lose my money. It was a terrible mistake for me to use this service.
valerie
I havee been using Square since 2010 and love it – wish I had an e-mail address or phone number I agree poor customer serivce but I have never had issues with payment.
Pete
They verified my bank account, then when I had to use them (for a substantial amount) they then needed information I do not have, and will not deposit money into my bank account. They are pretty much unresponsive, and I have hired an attorney to sue them for MY money they won’t give me access to. My attorney is also going to sue for damages since my business is being hurt by this company. If anyone else needs the company information it is here:
ADMINISTRATIVE CONTACT INFO
Square, Inc.
Domain Admin
901 Mission St
Suite 104
San Francisco
CA
94103
US
Phone: +1.4152813976
Email Address: [email protected]/square_com
Good luck.
Tom
Hi Pete,
I also have a big privacy issue with Square as an user. Can you send me the contact information of your attorney?
Tom
Fernanda
Hi, Guys,
Me too. Square was a huge mistake! They are holding our money and they do not answer our emails back. If you can send us the information of your attorney we will appreciate it. My email is [email protected].
Thanks
BUSINESS OWNER
Please post your Attorney info. Square is holding $5k of our and will not refund my customers.
This is fraud they need to be procecuted.
Chris A
Square is AMAZING, Use it for all our street fairs and craft shows and not a single problem. When we first started using them it would take a 3-4 days to get funds now if we are at a show on Saturday or Sunday we have the funds on Monday. Square is for the SMALL Businesses… If you can do charges over $1000 you don’t use Square that would be throwing money away.
Brianna
How do you delete your bank account info if you no longer want to use square ??
louie
Brianna have you had any luck ? thinking about this myself from my account,don’t want a 3rd(Square) party mingling my business and that is exactly what they do. !!!
Tim - Masterpiece Sales
I am closing my bank account per my attorney and my accountant.
AL
This company is a joke. They do not have any staff to handle verbal communication. They have stolen money from me. They have received money from my customer’s credit services and have refised to dispurse the funds. The individuals that correspond via email do not know how to spell nor do they use proper grammar.
I have provided them with the requested documentation several times over the past month. I still have not received the remaining $2000.00 of my funds. This is THEFT. I WILL SEE HOW FAST THEY RESPOND TO THE FEDERAL AUTHORITIES.
Me Too
Been using it since last year on and off. I finally started using it every week for my company with an offsite transactions and BOOM… I get the email asking for documents right when I should of had the deposit into the business bank account. Yup, the client credit card was CHARGED ( not pre-authorized) but fully charged. Now, what if I was a stylists or ran a company or just a small business that required the me to use the funds immediately to provide a service? How could I? Wouldn’t that result in a charge-back BECAUSE OF SQUARE? They clearly are not thinking. Why do a final charge and the “suspend deposits?” Let’s see exactly how long it will take for me to get the $2000 (minus fees) used during a SWIPED transaction.
Its just really stupid because they have the business tax ID and they could of pulled a DNB report, or any other business credit report at that.
Alex
Same situación, it just happen to me and it was only 5k transaction, they asked for all the documents and them only 2k on the account, it’s been more than 10 days and NO RESPONSE. Does anyone has a phone number where they can be reach? Definitely I won’t be using their services any longer.
Taylor
The only telephone number they have is 415-375-3176. You will NOT get hold of a person unless you are super lucky. I left at least 10 messages and never got a return phone call. They held $16000 of ours for a long time. When I finally sent them our Articles of Incorporation and our business license they released our funds. But it didn’t happen without serious stress. One thing is for sure, saving the percent we were saving was not worth what we just went through and we will certainly go back to intuit. I would rather pay the extra fees and KNOW my money will deposited and KNOW I can call on the phone and get someone on the other line. This company won’t be in business a year from now.
Irene Spiegel
SQUARE has NO customer service. I have had funds on hold for over a month. I have sent emails with no response and phone calls with no response. Seems fraudulent to me. I have dealt with our merchants and you can always get someone on the phone. NOT SQUARE. NEVER using them again.
carla
Have you ever gotten your money from square? I dont want to wait the 30 days to find out its not coming.
Sid Smith
Overall I have had a good experience with Square up, until recently. If you get a payment over $1,000 they will hold the amount over $1,000 for 30 days. This I did not know until I had to figure out why our funds were not fully deposited in our account.
Why would any business hold funds for 30 days? This is a bad business practice and I am not new to Square up. We sure wish they would give our money back.
Sid Smith
gregg ricca
i can assure you , you willk not be satisfied with square . you will NEVER get a human on the phone EVER and email response is poor at best . You will be sorry you did if you do signup . STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS .YOUR SANITY IS WORTH MORE .
Mary Liebhold
I did a test charge of $11.00. No problem. I SWIPED two charge on April 20. One for $4000.00 and one for $25,000. On Friday night I was asked (via email) for a number of supporting documents for the $25,000. Scanned and sent them Monday AM. Today is Wednesday and I got another email asking for one of the ones I sent Monday. Cannot talk to any one. Neither payment is deposited. My reply today to look again at mondays documents received another “you are important and we will get back in 24 hours” They did not get back in 24 hours on Monday and I can’t find why they have not deposited my funds. The cards were swiped. nothing in their promos or agreements indicate that they will ask for copies of contracts, tax forms or business licenses, copies of my print ads and my website address. That could have been set up ahead of time to avoid these delays that are going to last who knows how long.
The phone # doesn’t even allow a message. says to send info via email.
No wonder they have a lot of money. Its mine.
Laura
Don’t Look for your funds anytime soon….I am going through the same thing and they finally told me they would hold almost 40k for 120 days…Sent them all docs as well!
Ben
Square up is not all it’s cracked up to be. When things don’t go well, tell your customer you’ll get back with them in 24 hrs after square up is in touch with you! See how that goes over. It didn’t work on my android, as they claimed, even though it’s listed as. Kudos to those that claim it works well for them. I’ll seek a better, effective alternative.
Michelle
Just notice a transaction was’nt put in my account
From April 7th a it’s now AprIl 24th.
No way to contact these people.
Matt
CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER (415)375-3176…….Wait for the shpeal and then it’ll prompt you to press #? for this, and # for that….Just press 7 and you’ll either geta LIVE PERSON or a voicemail directing you to leave a message……If you get the voicemail just keep calling back and with a little luck you’ll get a person but no matter what happens they will not be able to assist you and will simply read their script for complaints which goes……………..”I strongly recommend that you contact account services by email and provide the documentation that was request”…….>EVEN IF YOU GAVE THEM WHAT THEY REQUESTED…….This service sucks!
Mike
Not sure why, but they have sold or just gave out my email address. This is my finnancial email, I don’t give it out to ANYONE, but since I signed with Square, I get almost 100 junk/spam/phishing emails A DAY! What a waste of my time.
F- = Get a paypal reader, they may charge a larger fee, but they don’t waste your time!
TRUTH
****WARNING****WARNING****WARNING****
DON’T NOT USE SQUARE for large transactions!!!!
$1000.00 MAX per week!!!!
I use them on my small transactional retail business and they are great.
So I decided to use them on my larger transportation business, that requires larger payments. They ARE NOT MEANT to be used for LARGE transactions. They have been holding my money (an amount well over $5000.00) for almost 2 weeks. I have sent all their requests for documentation, with NO RELEASE of funds. I understand their need for safety with fraudulent transactions. However, they assured me that once they recieved the documents they would release the funds. I’m STILL WAITING.
SQUARE has a good concept, and is great for small transactional type business. Hopefully they will rectify these larger issues and become and even greater company.
However USE CAUTION ON LARGE TRANSACTIONS OVER $1000.00.
I’m glad I use them for small transactions, or I would think they are a scam.
Truth is, they are not. I don’t like their customer support reaction time on the larger issues, but they have served me well on the smaller transactional business.
IM PISSED!!!!!
But I understand.
SQUARE, PLEASE FIX THIS ISSUE. You’re a good company!
David
If you would like to call them on their 415 number, the extension is 202 and I got a hold of someone. I’m currently on the phone with them right now trying to sort out the bs they put me thru.
Happy with Square
i hve used Square for several months and have had no problems. In Florida we have seasonal sales from November thru April. With the old companies we had to pay fees each month we were not doing business that amounted to about $70 per month for a wireless terminal. By the time we paid wireless access fees, batch fees, non-qualified card rates, high rates for American Express, etc; we were paying much more than the quoted rate of 1.69%. The 2.75% across the board rate for swiped transactions from Square computes as a better deal and since we sell at Craft Shows it is much more convienient than carrying a bulky wireless machine. Also, since the customer is right in front of us swiping a card is not a problem. We also get our money deposited so it is normally available the next buisiness day for transactions done before 3 pm est.
I am very happy with Square for the volume of buisiness I normally run through on swiped charges is about $1,000 to $1,500 per week during “season” and we do no charges that are card not present.
M
DO NOT USE SQUARE !!!!
We have used them for a few times only but they are very bad.
They have several of our payments for over 20 days. It was a $300 and a $500 charge. They do not respond to emails and never return voice mail messages. Their only response was a generic email. I sent them a letter from my customer that they are happy with my services and they want the money to be released to them or to us. Nothing happening.
Never ever use them!! I used other merchant services and never had this problem, I will tell to everybody to stay away from a company which is irresponsible. Everything can be worked out with good communication, it is frightening that they are in business and nobody stops them. Now it seems like I have to take them to court to get my money. I am in business for much longer than they are, our corporation was founded in 2001, never one complaint against us. Why Californian tech. companies think that they are so HIP, that they are above the law?!?!
JG
AWFUL COMPANY! This is a great company for garage sales but NOT for a real business. They suck when it comes to fighting charge-backs too. They only correspond through email which is insane! Do not make the same mistake as me! Use a solid bank merchant service NOT SQUARE
ed
Foolishly, i was just swept into the $1000 non-swiped limit, and they are now holding over $2600 of mine.
Considering this seems to be a massive problem for everyone, AND Jack Dorsey of Twitter is the founder; the greatest pressure that can come to bare on Square can be social media. It is time to saturate all outlets, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., and especially Twitter alerting everyone of this shameful business and their unethical practices. ACT NOW MY FRIENDS! THIS IS WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA WAS DESIGNED FOR!!!
robin varian
I use square to my frustration. they have not made one deposit yet. i expected 24 hour deposit. they requested company documents to verify our government authenticity. we supplied it in one day. THEY DO NOT CARE. THEY WILL KEEP YOUR MONEY FOR AS LONG AS THEY CAN. It is frustrating that we can not speak to then EVER! Please tell every one that you know. Post it on all websites. Square is a scam. I have accepted small dollar card transactions and still not one cent has been deposited. they do not reply to emails. I have requested a phone call from them. They have not responded. Has anyone started a class action suit against them? Robin
Kelli
Ed,
I did a Twitter blast abt (hashtag) #SquareUp & #JackDorsey…I was sure 2 make note their BBB rating is an F….the only reason it’s better other places is because of the manipulative sales tactics they use. We found the cust srv number here…THANK GOODNESS! And after 2 VM & another call that was rerouted many times until my husband just guessed an extension…And when they answered they were obviously surprised to have a consumer on the line! But after 2 wks of steadily keeping after them thru phone calls & SOCIAL MEDIA our funds were released!!! These are things that HAVE to be brought to social media’s attn…that’s what it’s for; and I firmly believe you reap what you sow in all facets of life! Thanks to this outlet and review from Philip Parker or I would still be ill-informed!
DO NOT USE SQUARE!
Used square a few times and they suck! It has taken me weeks to get any kind of reply, other than an auto reply, to find out where my deposits are. THEY HAVE AN -F- RATING WITH THE BBB!!!!! And for very good reason. After finally finding a phone number online for them someone had posted I called and left multiple voice mails with NO, yes NO return call or email. FINALLY heard from someone after randomly guessing extension numbers, which starts at ext 200 if anyone needs them moving forward, only to be hung up on! So after calling literally time after time after time after time until someone answered they then told they needed to hold my $5,700 for 180 days to make sure it wasn’t a scam???? I have been in business 5 years longer than square has been, or will be if we are all lucky, I have an A+ rating with BBB, unlike square, and they STILL wanted to hold my funds even though I could provide 50 times the prior transactions through another very reliable company that I never should have left. THIS IS THE BIGGEST SCAM that should be illegal!!
Beach bldr
Square is holding $7000.00 from us for 30 days. This should be illegal,they have all the documentation they need and have charged my customers credit card in full. They don’t have a customer service department to even ask if I can refund and recharge my customer after I swipe their card. I will never use this again
nick
If a costomer’s credit card is invalid or has no money in it, will it go through and notify me later or will the transaction be denied immediately?
Siobhan Boudreau
I am fet up with Square. First use and a deposit of $1,200, seven days later still not in my account. All I get are emails from them saying they are looking into it. As a small business starting out, I have paid workers based on this income and now overdraft fees because of it. No offense but paypal is way more reliable.
Jenny Hurst
We picked up a Square reader at our local Wal-Mart to use with our small company. Generally an online store, we sometimes needed a card reader for walk-ins. We signed up to use it, and started taking credit card orders through Square. There were issues with the money being transitioned into our account. After sending emails inquiring about the issue, with no replies for 3 days, I began looking at Square reviews online. What I found were horror stories. I was very nervous, and couldn’t afford to lose the money that was suspended indefinitely in a cloud. I started emailed Square every hour. After doing this for several hours, they returned all the money. Not ONE personal reply, no acknowledgment of my frustration, no explanation……. The worst customer service, and a very sketchy way to take credit cards.
BUYER BEWARE.
Carol
I am extremely disappointed with their customer service (they don’t seem to have one), We have been trying to resolve a charge back issue for several months now and we have only gotten 2 emails that you can’t even respond back to because it comes back as “delivery failure notice.”
What can we do to get a live person to respond????
Very Very Angry
7 days ago Square received a payment from my customer of $12,000.00 This being my first transaction with them I was hopeful for a quick turn around as promised in all of their marketing. The idea of starting to take credit cards was to increase cash flow and broaden our customer base. This is not the case. It is not until you are wondering where your money is that you find out their real business plan. I have not seen any account activity, I have been unable to contact anyone via their phone # that you have to track down or their auto reply BS from Michale K. They have basically taken my $12,000 dollars and disappeared leaving my company in a big mess. If I do not hear back from them today my lawyer and I are going to file a police report in San Francisco. This is not good business, it is thievery.
Luca
Did u fixing your problem with them? U can see your 12k on your square account?
Its a week they been keeping 10k from me, and 5 days trying to get in contact with somebody with no
Answer
Not happy
I am wait for 2000+. Emailed with no reply. I had 2 chargebacks and they pulled the money out in January. No problem but they still have not released the money to the card holder. I guess the are drawing interest on it I don’t know. They will not release my money going on 3 weeks! I switched to gopayment and see if they are better.
Something needs to be done about square.
Roseann Harrington
This product has awful customer service. They say they offer 24 hours service yet there is absolutely no way to contact them. My bank showed verification of my accounts, but Square is not showing it and will not let me proceed. I have searched the site and topics and there is no answer even close to my issue and no way to contact Square. Please someone develop a product to compete with this company so I have an option!!!
JJ
your best option is gopayment.com. It’s intuit company and has real merchant account. it took me 15 min to open an account with them and they have real live support and way better and more trustworthy company.
Walter Freeman
Square is okay but I have had it with no customer service. I had an email placing my charges on hold where square wanted me to show proof of the charges. They requested that I reply to the email with the proof of documents. When i sent over the documents to the corresponding email, I kept receiving an error message saying that the email was failed to send. The email address was not valid.
No phone number to call, no main address, no main email address. I have had it, and now I cannot tell my customers that I have to recharge their credit card because square did not release their funds to my account. This is Bullsh..
EJAZ
I drive cab and have been using square since launch. Initially they did freeze my account, but i gave them all the documents. It took 2-3 business days, so please be patient. Its a great company if you use charges from $5-$100. funds are transferred by 3 am in my account
JC
Don’t use Square credit card payment. Your money maybe delayed without any reason, Square will hold your money without telling you. They holding hundreds dollars from our company for more than one week. We tried to call Customer Service but they don’t have any phone number you can call. Very poor services, we are so disappointed.
Square Inc should know your company are not the only one provided mobile credit card payment.
JC
04/13/2012
Honolulu Airport Express, LLC
Kelli Athas
I’m beginning to feel like my husband & I have been scammed. We are a small intervention company and we recently purchased SquareUp at Target to use to accept payments from our clients. We work with people all over the country and it sounded like a great alternative to the high fees we paid through other services. We only work with 1 family per week & the deposits are all made over the phone or through another service. After waiting for 4 days for our 2nd payment to go through I decided to research and now I’m floored that all this information about “card-not-present” transactions was not available to me…as well as the toll free number. So now we are going to have a negative bank account because of Square. BUT more frustrating than anything is the lack of communication or even care & concern. Our client even offered to email them to let them know that they okayed the transaction…I understand holding off a few days if the card isn’t able to be scanned BUT 30 days is completely unacceptable. Shame on Jack Dorsey & Square for making tough times even tougher on small business owners! I can’t afford to wait on $1000. Has anyone had a good experience with customer service…like received an answer to a question or anything other than a “standard response” email? It is also confusing that our 1st “card-not-present” transaction went directly through…why would we feel there would be an issue with the 2nd payment. Is this misleading for a reason?
Deceived & Peeved Customer
Kelli Athas
I just saw that SquareUp in NOT accredited with the Better Business Bureau but complaints have been filed through them. So would I be correct in assuming filing a complaint through the BBB is the best & quickest way to get a resolution to our problem? Since it is glaringly obvious that the actual company has no regard for their customers & clients.
KHILL
Are you able to print receipts, and how do you handle adding tips? I run a barber shop so adding the tip after the customer signs is our normal routine.
Ejaz
many people like electronic receipt which can be sent via SMS or e-mail. However i recommend that you get blank CC slips & and a imprinter for people that want paper receipt. You don’t need their signature twice, just put date of service & authorization number that can be found in the sales section of the app & in your email that comes right after sales. I use android phone with gmail & the email comes instantly. i hand over the customer the phone where they have option to add tip in %age amount & than let e know to enter either their SMS or email themselves as many people are scared of privacy. its not that hard just takes practice.
Matthew
I have had nothing but problems with Squareup. In the last 2 weeks I have tried to process over $18,000 through their service. I am closing my account and will be using a different service. I can not afford to wait 8 days for a deposit!
Ejaz
Did you tell that you are processing such a huge amount. That will alarm their fraud alert, who knows what you are selling. I know a drug dealer that uses sqaure for his dealings, but he was smart & emailed sqaure that he is door to door salesman for some direct sales company & emailed the paper work to them, When i started using them for taxi paymemt. I emailed them my chauffeur licence & also amount of my each sale. They replied in 3 business days & all was sqaured away. Trust me i have used other services & they are so freaking horrible.
Mosier painting
Does anybody know how to get the account unlocked. I changed the password snd every time I go to use it says I have tried too many times and to wait ten minutes. I have been waiting about 8 hours with no luck. Sent email but no response.