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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duanne
I thought square would be a good product how ever if you have problems there is no one to talk to help. They are quick to get the money but hard to reach. We have emailed and even changed accounts thinking there is a problem. I guess the take the money and run
TE
WARNING. Don’t use square for any large sums! After I had customers swipe their cc and had several thousands of dollars in square account, they (square) asked for tons of private information. I didn’t feel they needed but I gave it to them anyway. They finally emailed me after my numerous attempts to reach them by email or phone. This email said they(square) have decided to hold my money for 6 months for an undisclosed reason! I just had to disclose my entire life to them and they won’t disclose to me why they are holding my money…hmmm. They gave me the option to refund my customer but by reading thru the above, doesn’t sound like they honor that either. Now what? Isn’t there a law that if you are a company whos business is to hold other peoples funds, collect interest, you must pay out that interest? Holding yours and my money collectively while we go borrow to cover the amount being held… Just does not seem right. And by the way, all their advertising and statements online say they pay out next day or Monday if on a weekend. NOT SO! I sure wish some attorney would get ahold of this! All you tweeters…look at this and know the type company you are supporting. I don’t tweet and if I ever get my money, I will not “square up” either. Anyone in this funds holding scam, I would hope will be reporting this to better business bureau and consumer attorney general.
Joseph Abbott
We’re in the same boat…can’t get our money. My wife has a one man business that relies on cash flow to keep it going. Square is holding several thousand dollars of our money and ruining our business. Square won’t call us back, they only respond by form letter three days later. We’ve been fighting with them for over two months trying to get our money back. Square offers no explanation why they continue holding our money, even our bank can’t get through to them. What a mistake my wife made getting involved with Square.
Do NOT get involved with Square!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are filing a complaint with our state’s attorney general, may he can put a stop to Square doing business in our state.
Judy Mast
Too bad, this company sounds just like a clearing house. Processing payments takes time and they really do take their time. And yes they do get interest on the holding money in accounts besides the interest charges they get up front. That’s why it takes at least thirty days for them to transfer funds to their clients accounts. Also on suspicious charges they will hold them for a period of time, but at some point they must be released or process them. Most card processing company’s-example AmEx will contact the card holder of the charge to be sure it is a valid purchase. It’s a way of protecting the company from fraud loss. But to hold funds with no contact to the card holder or their client’s the merchant I believe has some really big drawn backs. I would strongly suggest that merchants use a different source or company for processing purchase payment transactions.
LT
I am extremely disappointed in Square’s service also. A customer wanted to pay a big ticket item by credit card so we thought we would try square. What a mistake. We were approved and told to begin using the reader. They are holding several thousand dollars of my money now. They have ask for way more personal information than needed and drug it out over several days saying “they need more information”. They are slow or unresponsive to any email support. I finally received an email in which they have decided to hold my money for another 180 days. They offered the option that I could refund the amount if I didn’t want to wait the 180 days BUT they will take the funds from my account in addition to the funds they are holding. Then I would be out double the thousands of dollars and that will still take several days/weeks. Is this even legal?
It has been ridiculous and instead of running my business, I am trying to obtain my money. I would strongly recommend not using them for anything over a couple bucks. Which by the way they are also still holding my couple bucks from a week ago. The advertising of nightly deposits, not so. Beware.
Robert Werner
My experience with Square has been mixed. The good is that they have a clean-cut constant discount and that they pay my small amounts (< $100) within a few days. The bad (and it's very bad) customer service (having cost me several repeat customers) is due to their stupid refusal to open a real-time support service to solve the occasional problem.
My first problem was their lack of notification that processing would be locked up until an unannounced update was installed. Second problem was my inability to give credit to a customer who had accidentally been double billed. They could/would not tell me why a credit was impossible. I had to get the customer to call their bank and start a dispute. The customer's bank representative was who explained the process to me!
Third problem was their error in assigning an inappropriate MCC (Merchant Category Code – same as SIC code) to our business. This prevented a long-time repeat federal government customer from being able to rent a room at our motel (inexplicable to him after using the card for meals and fuel). Their default assigned code is 'Gift shop'. It took a barrage of uncomplimentary emails to get them to acknowledge this, again explained to me first by my customer's bank service department. We were finally changed to a 'Travel Agency,' not accurate but better.
Square was started to solve credit card processing for a glass-blowing street vendor. Their folksy, black shirt and sneaker mentality persists. For that class of merchant, they are to be lauded in bringing them cc processing, a service all but unavailable before Square. Their business model did not include the level of support required by merchants who process a large number of transactions per day, or high dollar transactions, may need authorization software or need immediately help when a problem occurs. Their goofy receipt is one half advertising for them. It may not even be a legal receipt as I did NOT find my customer's name on it. I always send it to myself, cut their ad off and forward it to my customer. It is necessary to use the Description field to enter customer's name and an invoice number – stuff a glass-blowing merchant or cinnamon bon-bon vendor might not care about.
In conclusion, if your business processes small or numerous swiped charges and an occasional glitch would not be catastrophic, you will probably find them satisfactory.
Phillip CPO
Hi Everyone, I would like to invite you to checkout the new “Square Troubleshooting” forum we’ve recently created. Many of you have attempted to have more in-depth conversations about Square in this comment section, but we try to limit the number of comments by the same people in order to avoid too much clutter. The new forum will allow you to post as much as you want and discuss the topics that you want.
Check it out today!
Mary Liebhold
After disaster with square, inswitched to Intuit’s GoPaymant. Wonderful. I get my 5 figure sales in my account right away. No issues at all. Stay far far away from Square and the massive problems getting your money. Strange customer service for a business started by the inventor of Twitter!
Bettina D
In the light of all the negative posts re Square, I wanted to share a more positive experience. I did send an email asking for info on some payments made earlier this year. I sent my inquiry to: Square Support Team on Oct. 31st and received a detailed response the next day. Just wanted to share this email address for those who have had trouble reaching customer service for Square. Unfortunately, unless you track your own payments and who made them, Square does not hold a history of payments made like Paypal. So, make sure you enter your own history with names attached.
Bettina Devin
CB
I have used Square maybe two dozen times. Yes I got my $$ fairly quickly. Nothing over $68 bucks though. Without it I would not have made those sales. I do not advertise it for them. Only when a customer asks if I can take a debit or credit card.
I did have issues with a reader. I got a stupid response by using their Facebook Page. At least there they read the comment, complaint, b**ch. Which often just refers you back to the dumbest help pages on the planet.
Going to leave Square very soon, proabably for another devil we know….Paypal… but it is that they do have a customer service that does respond. For the very few pennies more I think it will be a better way to go.
Cheri Vilona
Square has not responded via email to my requests for several days, and has removed funds from our account without allowing my detailed information to show that the chargeback has indeed been resolved by the customer. They are impossible to deal with, no phone number is innexcuseable, and I will cance my account immediately and tell all my customers and vendors not to use Square.
Matt Mahoney
I agree with the article that customer service is extremely bad. I have not had any held fund issues but getting customer service is impossible. The Square process is great and the price is much better than my business bank was charging. They need to greatly improve customer service.
Thanks for the good information here.
Joette Dorosheff
Biggest complaint I have is that the Squareup Readers have been defective. I’ve gone through three of them in swiping about 25 transactions. The readers are free, but when they fail in the midst of a transaction they “cost” me a sale.
Jack Shelton
I have found the the big problem with readers that plug into the headphone port is that your volume has to be all the way up as it functions like a fax and if the volume is down the program just does not hear what it needs to. So Turn your Volume up all the way an see if this helps.
Rick Emery
Square users beware! The Square contract allows Square to access your bank account even after you stop using Square because of the terrible service. I had to go to my bank and sign a document barring Square from accessing my bank account. Laurel Redd has long been a proponent of Square and I am happy that she has had good luck but there are far too many complaints about Square’s customer service (or lack there of) to dismiss. Square notified me that I would have to wait 90 days for funds and I was unable to reach anyone at Square for an explanation. Inexplicably, the funds were released prior to the 90 day limit but I never heard from Square even though I called 23 times, left a message each time and sent numerous of emails. Needless to say, I dropped Square like a bad habit and switched to GoPayment by Intuit, which is a real company with real customer service. Since then PayPal has also introduced a service similar to Square except that they actually have customer service, too. There is no reason to settle for a questionable service like Square when there are other reputable options with superior company values.
Jeremy
I see I found this page a bit too late, like most of you. I’m waiting on 2 customer refunds I processed on September 19th. Over 1 month, multiple email and being hung up on by there voicemail system, I still have no refund. Do not use these guys if you are here considering them. Without a customer service to talk to how can they truly be taken seriously. Looks appealing but you will certainly pay for it in the end.
Laurel Redd
I am not sure why you are having issues, I have used Square since it came out and have had zero issues, the one refund I have done was completed on time with no issues. I keep posting my experience on here hoping people will see it and give Square a chance. Also all the vendors that I know personally have not had any issues and absolutely love their Square!
Wilburn Hilton
The problem I had with Square was that I do a lot of extended warranty work in the RV Industry and the warranty companies pay by faxing us the credit card information to process. No card present charges results in Square holding funds. Found out by reading complaints after I got so pissed off. My Square account showed that they processed the total amount, however my bank deposits were not the same. With NO One to talk to about this, you and I are left to sift through Square’s help files until you come across the explanation. I guarantee that if you come up several hundred dollars or more short on a deposit, and NO explaination, you would be upset too. I was sent a questionaire with NO explanation of why. After searching several google responses, I think it was some kind of survey to determine if Square will up my “no card present” charges. Still don’t know if they have yet…
Tom Crowe
My business is seasonal. I used Square to process credit cards in the field. I worked seven days a week in a remote area. All the proceeds were to be deposited in a separate bank account. When I returned at the end of the season, I went to the bank. Only about 1/4 of the transactions were deposited. I have called Square/ emailed Square several times. No one from Square has even tried to solve the problem or acknowledge that I exist. It’s like the money evaporated. I guess the next step is to initiate an investigation of fraud. I will not use Square again and recommend to anyone to find an alternate credit card processor.
Richard
Laurel, with all due respect… I don’t think you’re getting it.
The problem is NOT that Square has issues. All companies have issues.
The problem is that Square has ZERO ways to talk to a live person. They hide behind an email address. When there’s a problem there is NO way to actually TALK to someone.
THAT’s the issue here, that Square has zero customer service, hides behide an email address and voicemail.
It amazes me that they’ve been able to be successful and have some major names investing in their service.
I had to wait months to get a lousy $200-some charge that was mistakenly disputed by my customer sorted out. Was no big deal money-wide. Was a huge deal trying to get it resolved.
I can tell you it was with great satisfaction that I literally took a hammer to their neat little white and square gadget! I should’ve recorded it and put on YouTube. :)
Steve Kassa
This company is a joke and wont last long once people catch on to there antics, such as NO customer support!! you would think a company like this with the same CEO as Twitter would want to better serve there clients??? They with hold peoples funds with no real explanation!! With the fees they charge you would think? making millions on other peoples money being held collecting interest?? is a scam!! I cant believe the BBB even rates these guys!! BEWARE LOOK AROUND THERE ARE WAY BETTER COMPANIES THEN THIS!!!
Mike Wood
Count my company as one of the many small companies injured by Square’s less than transparent policies regarding holding funds. I have been injured both as a consumer and as a retailer. See below:
I purchased a new shop truck for my business. I did not have the cash on me (weekend transaction) so I helped the seller set up a square account. We then manually entered my CC info and processed a $10,379 transaction through square. This was on September 15. Square had debited my credit card within the hour for the full amount. Yet, it is now October 22, and Square has yet to pay the seller.
Not realizing what a problem this might cause, I had paid off the credit card transaction three days after making it. Now American Express (an investor in Square, by the way) says that there is nothing that they can do for me because, by paying off the debited amount, I “authorized the transaction in full”.
I am now having to borrow the money from another source to make the seller whole. This will put me out almost $21,000 with no idea when I will get the “fronted” money back.
Then, as a seller, my wife took a SWIPED transaction through Square for $4,000 on Friday, October 19. Square debited the buyer’s credit card within one hour of the transaction. Their policy clearly states that the money should have been in my account this morning and that there are “no limits on swiped transactions”.
Not only is the money not there, but Square actually withdrew $400.00 from my checking account. My wife had inadvertently run the sale at $400 instead of $4000. So, she issued an immediate refund of the $400 and re-swiped for the $4000. Again, not only did Square NOT deposit my $4000 transaction, they WITHDREW the $400 for the “refund” from my checking account.
Then, Square sent us a “congratulations” e-mail saying that our CNP (manually keyed) limit was being raised to $3,003 per week.
What freakin’ difference does it make if they never pay you? It could be $1 or $1M…what would be the difference if you never get your money?
These two sets of transactions have crippled my small business and basically locked down my personal bank account.
They are impossible to deal with. The phone number is a joke. The voice mail goes nowhere and hangs up on you each time you call. I have called over 200 times and it has never been answered. Each time you e-mail, you get an auto response with a “case number” that is a joke. It changes each time you e-mail, even if you reference every “case number” from your previous complaints. This company is a scam.
This company is a predator. They are trading with your money and not paying out.
I challenge Jack Dorsey and his co-conspirators to disprove me with my own account. They are a disgrace.
Wil
I ended up here because I just got the square and was having trouble getting the card reader to work.
It seems from the comments that Squares business plan is to distribute card readers that don’t work or rarely work, prompting the user to enter manually so they can put a hold on your money while they collect interest and invest it in other ventures.
At some point in the near future, they will be so initially popular that they will be withholding millions of transactions. At that point, and before the BBB and FBI have a phone number to investigate, they will file bankruptcy and be laughing all the way to the Caiman Islands.
My reader just landed in my trash basket.
Solar Deal Usa
This was a big mistake. Do not use this guy they will rip you off. They took a deposit from me over 1000.00. They locked my account for no reason and then said they was going to deativate my account. They are holding the money for 60 days. DONT USE THEM>>
Daneil
STAY AWAY FROM SQUARE!
I have only had square for 1 month but already it is by far the worst product available. When I first logged on and swiped a card I thought it was amazing; with reports, summaries etc. The fees are unbeatable and so is the fact I can charge a card anywhere.
However…one day my money didn’t hit my account so I checked my email and saw that square was holding my money for an undiscolosed reason. I tried calling but nobodoy would answer. When I finally got someone they just kept repeating the same words in the email over and over and hung up. The manager did not take phone calls.
In short – it’s been three weeks and square still has my $3,000.00. American Express okayed the charge, the customer okayed the charge, but square is holding the money. If this happens to you expect to wait 30-60 days to receive any funds from square. The best part? They’ll let you keep charging cards…you just can’t receive the money.
Squre does NOT notify you when you swipe they are holding your money, and they may request 10-15 documents just to verify you deserve the money. They also give you the option to refund your customer which may take 10 business days to do…but even if you refund your customer there’s no guarentee they will pay you.
The biggest issue with square is that they beleive they have the right to withold my money, when in fact they don’t. If American Express okays a charge, they are in affect agreeing to pay that money whether or not the customer pays it. If AMEX agrees to pay me money, sends the money to square, then square has NO right to hold the money. What Square is doing is acting like a bank. Imagine you put $10,000 into your bank. A week later you go to withdrawl $1k, and the bank says you have to wait 30 days. But they tell you you can deposit as much as you want, you jus tcan’t withdraw anything for 30 days.
Fernando M.
Warning! Stay away from Square! I for months told all my friends that Square I thought was the best thing since sliced bread, and I actually thought so for over a year, then that all ended in a chargeback I have been unable to resolve that cost me $1850. As a small business owner this represents an entire months salary for me and I do not have the resources to recover from such a loss anytime soon!
Theere customer service is almost non-existant with no phone number to call, everything must be handled via email, and you get partial answers to your questions when they bother to respond at all. Very poor way to run a multi-million dollar business that Square is supposed to be. What are you guys at Square doing to yourselves and your business?
I for one will NEVER use you again, recommend you to anyone. I am going to my lawyer but have a snaeky suspicion tht that will just cost me more losses with no results.
The saddest thing is I do not know anything. They have kept me so much in the dark with respect to thier chargeback defense team – that I don’t know if they just kept my money and are laughing all the way to their bank or what.
Do yourself a favor and avoid Square at all costs.
Good luck
Melody Fortier
I’ve been using the Square for nearly a year now and I have a mixed review. The fees are lower and there are no surprise charges like my last two credit card services, thats a big plus. However, I am very dissapointed and a little concerned over their lack of customer service. There is virtually no way to contact them in a timely manner with any issue. I am currently trying to contact them about the holding of funds from recent sales, ostensibly because the sales were entered manually. The company will not be releasing my funds for a full 30 days from the date of sale. This was not made clear when I signed up. ALSO the reason I had to manually enter the sales was because my Square reader did not work. This is the third one I have purchased one never worked from the beginning the other two just up and quit. I finally gave up and just started to process the sales manually. Had I been aware that the company would be holding back my funds I would have purchased yet ANOTHER reader.
Their website provides an application to have the manually processed fund limit raised which I filled out with no response. I have no way of finding out what the status is, meanwhile Square has my money which is affecting the cash flow of my business. :(
Melody Fortier
Update on this review: I found an e-mail address online to contact Square ( I could not find one on their website) and this issue has been resolved. Resolution took about 4 days. Square approved my applicatipn to upgrade my deposit limit for manually entered sales and released the funds being held. I do wish they provided more immediate customer service and access to an actual person. I hope they will work to achieve that but I am happy with the outcome of this issue and am comfortable in saying I will continue to use Square as my credit card service.
Melody Fortier
Paula
could you sahre the email address with all of us. we get no response on emails
Emi Lorraine
I am having the same problem. Can you provide me with the email address to fill out the application in order to my funds to be released
dee
Square has a lot of great benefits, but when i have no number to contact them when i have questions then i may need to look elsewere. We own a furniture store and have some large tickets and when i run a card i cant get number to find out why the money has not been deposited.
Paula
I can answer that because you went over 2002.00 or manually typed in the card vs. swiping the card they do not tell anyone this when getting the square up device and no you can not talk to a live person because there is none and good luck with the email stuff no response to that either good luck
Roger
Let this be a TRUE and HONEST WARNING to anyone who is considering using SQUAREUP.COM or to anyone is currently using SQUAREUP.COM.
I have been using square for 9 months. Never once has there been an issue. One night recently I saw there commercial on TV and googled it. I was shocked at the amount of complaints I found. Well here I am saying I’ve never had an issue…Till 5 days ago. They did not deposit a 1k charge as they normally do.
Well you guessed it after 3 days of no response via email they tell me they have the right to hold any amount for 30-90 business days. I am in SHOCK. I demanded the refund my customer and told them to close my account immediately. Well what does Squareup.com do respond in NO LESS than 20 mins telling me they have decided to close my accounts because NOW I AM HIGH RISK. They will be placing a 180 day hold on my funds. Shock ? Words cannot describe the anger I am feeling right now. They have basically stolen 1k from me and will use it some offshore interest bearing account along with god knows how many other millions of dollars from other customers. This my good friends is FRAUD at it’s finest. How there is not a class action lawsuit against I don’t know. If you are using them get out now. They could be heading to bankruptcy and stealing all the money the can. There is no way a company who processes millions of dollars cannot have a phone number. I guess until you have an issue you would never think to check in this day in age of the internet. Buyer Beware ! Cancel your account today or you will be next.
john
Problem is Roger they are all the same and I mean all. I have had 3 different services in 15 years and they all go bad at some point, some after years of decent service. Up till now I haven’t had a problem with square. I had a customer make a mistaked charge back, with in hours he reversed the chargeback and had his credit card service contact square thet still took out the money Square said it would take 10 days for the funds to be deposited back into my account. OK fine but after 15 days I asked when I should expect the funds, I was told in 3-5 days more. That was almost a month ago. I received the :Good News: email stating that all was good but no money still and no answer, They stopped answering my emails. So now what do I do ?
Barbara
I’ve been using Square for about 2 years, and love it. The only thing I expect for the extremely low cost is for them to process the funds and deposit them to my bank account. They do this exactly as promised. I read all the information on their site before processing any payments, and was still surprised at the 30 day hold on certain funds. Since it’s not my only payment processor, the hold wasn’t a problem, and I’ve learned which transactions to send through them, and which make more sense with another processor.
Some of the problems people mention are not unusual when you’re a new client, as they do have many anti-fraud procedures in place. With history, I’ve found they now don’t hold my processed funds, even after processing a refund.
I’ve discovered the problem with the card readers is often dust in the card slot, or in the earphone jack on my phone. I regularly blow both out with air in a can, and no longer have problems swiping cards.
As I mentioned, they aren’t my only payment processor, but for taking payments on the spot, without all the assorted fees a traditional merchant account generates, they are a smart choice.
sebastian
We used Square for a high volume festival as a vendor this past weekend paying for our inventory upfront. Now we are stuck with the $2000 hold limit because we had to key in the majority of our sales due to the readers being unusable! So now we are not only hit with the higher rates but we can’t access our funds for another month while our inventory invoices are coming due now. HORRIBLY frustrating. We will certainly be looking for another mobile platform for our next event! Has anybody used intuit’s go payment?
Jeff
I just signed up with Square this week and I am already going to find another processor. There was absolutely no mention of thier $2,000 limit on manual charges. I am now waiting for the balance of $1,700. I ABSOLUTLY DO NOT RECOMMEND SQUARE. NO CONTACT NUMBERS, NO EMAIL SUPPORT.
lucy nathan
i have, as of today october 13, 2012, been waiting 2 weeks for a payment of $81. from Square up. i have received no less than 4 emails from them since these charges were make on september 29th, telling me my money is now in my bank. in fact, it is NOT in my bank. i have responded to these emails each time, telling them the money has not arrived. i have not received any answers. i now have a phone # for their offices in san francisco, but have been warned that no humans will answer and only voice mails will pick up calls. i am getting frustrated and angry & i wonder what to do.
Linda
How can Square possibly have an A- rating with the Better Business Bureau? When I contacted the San Francisco BBB, to find out why nothing has been done since I filed a complaint against Square in August they said that they have so many complaints about Square that they had to go to the District Attorney to just get a phone number so that they could contact Square. They have held on to almost $9000 of my credit card payments with absolutely no explanation at all. I have never been given any reason at all. When they asked me for all sorts of documentation on my business and business licenses, (I have a retail store), I gave them exactly what they asked for. They still have released my funds and it’s been two months since they started withholding my funds and 1 month since I sent them everything they said they needed in order to release my funds. Square have no one who you can call or talk to. No phone number that leads to a live human being. They haven’t answered any of my 30 e-mails I’ve written in the last month. Somethings very wrong with a business that withholds others monies for no reason! In their Merchant User Agreement it says they can hold on to your funds IF your transactions are not swiped. I’ve had no charge backs, all my transactions were made physically in my store, all were swiped and signed. I do no internet or phone sales, and I’ve told them all of this when I sent them all the documentation they requested. Still they won’t release my funds. I’ve contacted the District Attorney, filed a complaint with the FTC, BBB, and have called the FBI. So please, advise any business that does a moderate number of credit card sales to stay away from Square. They are trouble!
Paula
We are a small business and we use the square up card very little and we were in need of some money quickly so we had a customer run a credit card for the amount he owed on his ticket and we got online the next day and found a portion of the money in our account. upon reading reviews on this company and trying to contact a human (IMPOSSIBLE TO DO) to talk about the account. The number is pointless and leaving a message or email stating we will get back to you within 24 hours well, who wants to wait 24 hours for money that is our money!! Some one needs to shut this company DOWN FOR GOOD> He is not hurtng he has everyones money and interest. I am calling the better business bureau as NOW!! I will be the one to keep pushing on to get this company shut down you can count on it
susan
My customer was double charged today. By SQUARE not me. No quick way to deal with problem. Email may take days, phone is useless. A message to hold then disconnects within 1 minute. over and over again.
I will not be cancelling my more expensive system. Wish I had looked for complaints instead of going by word of mouth.
Amanda
I love the concept and easy use of Square.
However, it let my non-authorzed mobile staff member enter a credit card and take payment when they were’nt linked tov our bank account.
I am now finding it impossible to contact Square (no email or phone number anywhere on their website) to find out what happened to the money.
Jolene pond
I singed up for use of the square at the end of September and have had no luck with contacting the business as to where my money is at. It has not been turned over to my financial institution. I am highly disappointed in the square at this time. I definitely would have gone with a different company had I known all the hassle I would encounter.
Benjamin Plum
DO NOT USE SQUARE. They have absolutely, without a doubt the worst customer service i have ever experienced. It is literally IMPOSSIBLE to get someone on the phone (they have an email only policy), and a response to even a simple question can take days, sometimes weeks. Great marketing, nice ease of use, but HORRIBLE once you scratch the surface. Avoid at all costs.
Dave
We are a small vendor and only use the device on weekends, we were without the use this past Saturday and most of Sunday. We gave up trying to contact the useless e-mail customer service. We have been researching alternative credit card processors and we probably will make a change soon. We are not in a position to play email tag with a company that doesn’t respond, and the loss or delay of revenue would not be acceptable. We have not been in a position where funds have been delayed but have been in a position of lost sales because of system issues.
cheryl
I have had the square for a couple of months now and so far have had no problems with it. Would highly recommend it. My deposits have been put in the next day without fail. I am a hairstylist and accept the payments on my htc one x phone and my customers love it. The only complaint I have is that I would like to have the tips to be customized so customers can put whatever dollar amount they would like for tips. Other than that love it. Very easy to use.
connie
I read in the business section of my local paper that Starbucks was now exclusively doing their credit credit card processing through Square–I though this was something maybe I should look into..I ordered the “square” and have many questions….can not find a phone number ANYWHERE!!!! My monthly
credit card fees average $700.00–so a flat rate of $275 looks very good..but if its this hard to simply ask questions I can’t imagine how hard its going to be when I really have a problem…bottom line–I pass on this one
Wayne Guy
We (Edge Graphics) were with a large bank for our credit card processing. The rate was OK but we realized we ended up paying our customer’s rewards programs on top of the transaction fee. That made it really expensive.
We moved over to Square and we had a couple of issues till we got used to the system. We’ve never been able to find a contact phone number but have been using their rather obscure email help system.
After overcoming a couple of issues where Square were going to hold on to some larger amounts for a month we managed to get the hang of it.
You’ve got to request a turnover limit increase if you’re going to be processing larger amounts. We’re up to $7000 a week with no holds.
Yes, it’s not like a bank where you pay for phone help in their fees but Square’s really inexpensive processing is a money saver for those who are prepared to learn how they work, and don’t need any hand holding. We’re saving MANY hundreds of dollars every month.
John Yezeguielian
Like so many others, we had GREAT experiences with Square for the first couple of months. I was bragging on them, spreading the word that they had our money in our account the very next morning. Since we’re in the Automotive & Truck repair business and one of our main customers likes using his company card to pay for repairs, it seemed like a perfect solution… and ended up being a perfect storm.
We had already emailed for a raise in keyed limits and they bumped it up to $3000 a week. Apparently somebody didn’t tell their system? No, couldn’t be that, because out of a $2300 transaction, only $1700 was made available to us the next morning. The remainder, they THEN announced, would be held for a full month. I emailed, explaining that our limit had been raised, but a full business day (and another email) there is still no reply. The funds being held are a parts deposit. So now the commercial/fleet customer’s parts are also in limbo, as well as the repair on their vehicle.
I found this site while looking for a phone number. Just as all the others described, they simply are not accessible by phone. A recorded announcement tells one to check out the website and use email.
They charged us $80 to process that charge. Over 20% of it is being held a month. The way I see it, even if they release it in a month, they still ripped us off big-time by charging such a fee and then holding our money for a month. More importantly, they put us in a bind with the customer. I will now have to take that money out of my personal budget, so that the customer is cared for properly. Yet they’re not even answering emails in a timely fashion, after charging for their “service”? No thanks. Good idea gone bad. When I get done typing this, I’m looking for an alternative solution. Or maybe we’ll go back to just cash and checks from big clients. What’s certain is that I won’t be trusting them with my money again.
Mike
Why would anyone let someone have their social security number and checking account information without talking to a human?? Let me guess, because of a TV commercial. If you are doing over $20 per transaction and doing some volume – $5,000.00 and up Square is not a good deal. Square has a great marketing campaign, 2.75 and No Customer Service. You get what you pay for.
Diane
I have been using Square for appx two months. I’ve had no problems what so ever. My transactions are small amounts usually 25.00 or less, I have a small store. I never key in cards. I think these are the two many problems that I’m reading from other comments. The transactions are each sent to my email with a running total for the day and then the next day the money is deposited. I never had them take more than the 2.75%. So people with small transactions like flee markets, cabbies, small stores this will work for. This has saved me 1.25 percent over what I was paying and for a small business that can add up to a lot.
Paula Miller
What company in this day and age does not have a customer service number!!!!! I needed to contact Squareup regarding an issue. I searched their website for a phone number. There is nothing on their site to indicate how to contact them via phone or email. I spent 10 wasted minutes on their site searching for customer service and contact info. You can search for a topic which gives you a list of various scenarios to choose from. When you click on a scenario, the site takes you to a faq sheet, none of which tells you how to get live assistance. I then had to search Google for a phone number. I found a phone not from any Squareup publications, but from word of mouth…such as Yahoo answers. The number I called was 415-375-3176. The phone number was for Squareup. I get this recording giving help options, one of which was to hold the line for assistance. After a minute or so, I get this recording for help…email [email protected]/square_com to receive an answer in 24 hours. For such a large company, their service stinks!!!! Worse than any I have seen and believe me, I have had a lot of BAD service in the last few years. Good service for many companies is a thing of the past…but this one takes the cake. You may not encounter rudeness or ineptness, just NO service. I will be contacting an alternate vendor for future service. To the executives of Squareup, I do not know how you have grown and stayed in business…Keep it up and one day you may not be in business. There always comes a company out there ready and willing to take your customers by providing superior service.
Yvette Burford
I have installed my square, and wanted to use it at a festival today. However after taking a transaction weeks ago, it shows the item was purchased and charged, invoice was sent to customer (with my name on it, instead of my company name)which I have been trying to correct. The other big problem the money has not shown up in my bank account even though the transaction was done 10 days ago. During set up it did show it was connected to my account because they took out and put back the small amount of test money that would show everything was linked and working. There is no company help what so ever. I need to talk with a person, I see that’s not going to happen. I am ready to dump this square and discourage anyone and everyone I talk to, not to use the square.
Greg young
I am currently caught in one of squares undisclosed fund hold situations. The customer response is zero The company is obviously designed to not allow you to communicate to a live person as far as I am concerned they are engaged in fraud. they’re holding a major amount of my money for
Weeks without prior dosclosure. Your review is dead on. I would have been charging upwards of $200,000 a year with square. Now Iam thinking of a law suit. NO SIZEABLE SMALL BUSINESS SHOULD USE SQUARE AS THEY CURRENTLY DO BUSINESS
Steve
I had no charge backs and a perfect record for several months. I had $21,000 in charges and they said I had to verify my account…OK…I send bank statements, AUDITED financial statements, etc. Then they said they were canceling my transactions. So…the customers took the merchandise and I am out $21,000. WOW! This is sure a convenient service!!!
Wendy
Very glad to have found your website. I have had all the positives and the negitives stated in your article on Square. It works until it doesn’t. So the solution is to find another resource for a small growing business that goes from retail to wholesale. Larger volume sales. Your website is such a wealth of information, just in time for the next step. Thank you.
Phillip CPO
Thanks for the kind words!
Diane
No actually it works well for me, a small business owner. I do not however do large transactions and never key in cards.
G
It is crazy, you cannot get help from anyone. I can’t sign in into my account sent email. No response, no help line. All they have is email, this is very lousy service.
Davius Billingslea
I recently began using Square. I followed the procedure of linking my bank account to receive payments. After finalizing my first transaction and waiting a few business days, more than the required amount, I decided to check for the money owed to my account. The money was not there. Now I can’t even talk to a real person over the phone. This is ridiculous. Square takes their money immediately, but I’m left waiting and researching several days later about how to collect my money owed.
Robert Dempster
I am having trouble getting my reports, cannot go back three months anymore,use to be able to, whats up with that?
AMANDA
Business owners beware, I was unaware of the $2002.00 weekly limit for manual entering of credit card data. Since none of the three square readers I have were working I paid the additional transaction fees and entered a purchase manually with the client standing there, she even signed. Needless to say I was shocked to learn Square would be holding 1/3 or the total sale for 1 month from purchase date. This seems to me as a very suspect way to float funds for an unreasonable amount of time, what guarantee do I have that I will actually get these funds deposited in my account after the month is up. What if Square becomes insolvent during that time. Huge risk for a small business owner. Read the minute print, wish I had, I would have never agreed to these terms. If they do not resolve this situation ,I will not only be reporting them to the Better Business Bureau but also to the State Attorney General’s office and the Federal Trade Commission. Would certainly suggest finding an alternative credit card processor.
RUSSELL SULLIVAN
Would definitely stay away from this company. I ran two deposits totaling more than $13,000.00 and they are still on hold and they have no one to talk to. DO NOT USE THESE GUYS, try someone else. I thought it was a great idea at first, not anymore.
Lutie Batt
I am having a hard time finding any way to contact Square to correct the address for my business as it shows up on a customer receipt. It is showing up with the wrong state. Other than that I love the ease fo using this product.
Beautiful Diamondz
I got my little reader in the mail downloaded the app logged in set everything up then it logged me out and now I cant get back in I sent out the help email to try to reset my password I got no reply or anything its like everything went into cyberspace or something. Now while it was set up i swiped my card for $1.00 to see it works it did and I did get my .97 cents back into my account the next day. yeah its set up but whats the point it I cant log into it to even use it.
My Husband says try Intuit I did I talked to a live person got everything confirmed was able to log in and get started now Im just waiting for my reader. I think Square could be ok if they had a customer service team that actually works I might as well just have a dead account not that I don;t want to use them but I literally can’t good luck to you all
HIGH RISK
I was referred to Square by a professional business owner. He told me how square was better than all of the merchant services that he’d previously used. I planned on using square for personal use to sell items that I make (jewelry, clothing, etc) or items that I bought previously that I no longer found use for. I figured it would be a time saver and safer then someone giving me a bunch of cash. I dont not operate under a business which I clearly explained to a representative of square who stated that it is not a problem. I did not use the service until about a year after signing up. my first payment was for 1900. the card was entered in manually, etc. That night I got an email stating that there were suspicious transactions on my account and that I needed to verify my account (completely understandable since I hadn’t used it since signing up). Upon verifying, I noticed that they wanted me to sign in using my facebook account, upload legal documentation, and invoices, etc. Like I stated earlier, I dont work under a business and was just using the service for personal use. I called a representative again and was told to upload my drivers licence and an invoice which I promtly did. The invoice had all of the information necessary to verify that the payment was legit. 24hours later I get an email stating that my account was being deactivated because I was “high risk” and I had to wait 90 days to recieve my payment. I called the rep again to ask what was going on/ why was I determined to be “high risk”, but she had no answers. She instead became very rude and said “Is this it because I have to hang up on you to keep the lines clear”… I asked about the refund policy and she spoke to me like I am incompetent saying “if you use your mouse and click on refund…” … … … any way… Their customer service is horrible and so is their process to determine if you are “high risk”.
Roger
I have been using this company for months only to find out within the last few they have withdrawn $4627.93 from my account in a single month. We are a company specializing in customizing car parts for customers all over the country. It seems that these people will not answer the phone at all! Where are the customer service reps? I have called the only two numbers that I could find. One 415-375-3176 just is an automated voice message telling me to email [email protected]/square_com to get prompt answers. I have emailed them and no response at all. The other number I got from their bank thru mine (JP Morgan Chase) 877-417-4551 and still the same crap as the 415-375-3176. Their company ID is 9424300002 and leads to no where. I am fed up with this company and want my money that I earned legitimately. This company spends all their money in advertising instead of hiring CSR’s to help with issues like this one! DONT USE SQUARE!
jodilynn
Square really messed things up for me. They were not clear on the needing to swipe over 2000.00 and mind you I didn’t have a square reader after asking serveral times. I finally got 3 of them after putting through about 10000.00
these people are just awful. they held my money for no reason at all and no one to call. I got over 500 worth of fees from my bank and another 200 because of the lack of service that they gave and mind you didn’t put the money in my account. I would have signed up for the bigger account if I was told that this needed to be done and this was up front.
I am so upset at square and I WILL NEVER USE THEM AGAIN…I WOULD ADVISE THAT YOU DO NOT AS WELL. They will do great then one day when you need it they will mess you over and any savings you would have got you can wave by by !! They are an aweful company and I hope they go out of business very soon. GO quickbooks. I would rather pay a little more for someone who will answer the phone..and oh yeah who has a phone number..BE WARE DO NOT USE SQUARE. I will go on every site I can to let eveyone know.
Jessica Norene
Once again, I am dealing with Square holding money. I have quoted their own website back to them, and ONLY after writing about oh, I don’t know…. maybe 45-50 nasty emails to them today, I’m still getting the runaround.
They’re blaming it on my bank now… Except that my bank can’t hold funds that Square won’t release to them, so that argument doesn’t hold water.
MERCHANTS BEWARE!
DO NOT USE SQUARE! IT WILL RUIN YOUR BUSINESS AND YOUR LIFE, MARK MY WORDS… DO YOU SEE THE ALMOST 800 COMPLAINTS HERE? TAKE THIS AS A SIGN AND RUN AWAY WHILE YOU STILL CAN!
I don’t know much about Intuit yet, but I can tell you that when I called them, I got a real LIVE person on the phone, and she answered all my questions, told me they’re available 24/7 for merchants and will ALWAYS communicate a REASON if there’s a problem.
Personally, getting a real human is enough for me. I’d pay twice the fee just for that peace of mind to know where my money is – and my clients’ money…
Rey Phung
Square is a waste of time and a major loss of profit for my business. First, instead of qualifiying someone for use of square, they let you activate it immediately. Then send an email stating the need to answer a few questions to secure account. All the while still allowing me to take payments with no indication that I would never receive these funds. i am a small independent business owner, who just started my own company. I do not receive credit card payments very often, just occasionally. I figured square was an ideal service for me. Even with all my legitimate information, I was denied service and my funds were being held for 120 days! Several other friends of mine I bragged about this product to, went out and got it, only to have the same thing happen; ranging from 30-90 day holds on funds. Second, how am I suppose to get repaid for service or products rendered to clients that I may meet only once? If I returned their money, what gaurentee do I have they will re pay in a different form? I really feel Square is a scam and hold multiple individuals money for unexplained reasons. Who knows how much that totals to. It could be $1000 or 100,000 but holding someone’s funds for more than a month should be illegal. How do I know they are not using those funds to invest in something for that month and earning on the interest?
I feel worse that I promoted this product to several friends who don’t have the liberty to havel $100-1000 withheld for 90 days and never was warned before this action took place. Other people’s money, right?
Linda
I forgot to mention that the entire time I used Square I never got a charge back or issued a refund. All credit cards were run in person by cardholder & a signature was received. I rate them an F-.
Linda Becker
Square is the worst experience I have ever had since starting up my business 6 years ago. With absolutely no warning or no reason, Square decided to hold all my money from credit card sales. Credit card sales are at least 65% of my business. I tried calling them but their number does not get you a live person, nor can you leave any message. I tried e-mailing them at least 20 times, they never responded. They are withholding almost $9000 of my money. Finally after filing a complaint with the BBB, they responded to me with a computer generated letter that said they needed copies of my business licenses, after licenses, an explanation of my transactions, etc. I process approximately 35-40 credit cards a day and they are telling me they need detailed explanation on my credit cards processed? I wrote them & asked which ones, they answered me after 2 more weeks. They gave me no fax number, no address to send them this information. I scanned the information but they said they didn’t get it. I finally got a fax number and I could not fax the documentation the transmission report said their fax was not turned on.. After notifying them of this I guess they turned it on and I sent them all requested documentation plus some extra proof that I’m running a very legitimate business, if they were in doubt. I asked them to acknowledge receiving all my documentation. They never did, I have written them at least 30 times since sending them all information they requested and I HAVE NEVER HEARD BACK FROM THEM TO DATE. They still have all my money, which I desperately need to continue running my business to help pay for cancer treatments for my son. They have totally ignored me and after reading their USER AGREEMENT I can clearly see they have absolutely no reason at all to keep any of my money. I swipe all my transactions and always have. All purchases are made in person by the credit card holder and all transactions are signed. I have had to drain my savings and spend countless hours trying to figure out how to get my money back. I believe they are committing fraud because they have simply taken my hard earned money without any explanation or reason and they are sitting on it, while I desperately need the money to continue running my business. I have contacted the BBB and the FBI. I don’t know what else I can do, but I’m looking into it. I strongly urge everyone to stay away from Square. They have no customer service and in my opinion are unethical and are conducting business illegally by withholding my $8769.76.
Bernie
I was using Square for my business, and gave the company nothing but rave reviews, until I had to deal with . . .
DISPUTES: Immediately after a dispute is filed on a credit card transaction by a customer, Square will automatically (with little notice) debit the dispute amount from your account, or your Square balance even if the dispute is unresolved. They claim it takes anywhere from 60-90 days to resolve a dispute, and when a dispute is in your favor, it takes Square another 30 days to credit the funds back to your account. Unless most well established merchant accounts, there is a process to be followed, paperwork to be filled out, and only when the dispute is resolved is the appropriate action taken. In other word, if the dispute is in your favor, then no money is taken from your account. I could only imagine the amount of money Square is making on disputes when they hold on to your money for as long as they do before finally returning to you. I currently have a dispute right now with them, and it’s been over 4 months. Which leads me to . . . .
CUSTOMER SERVICE: Despite the numerous email messages I have sent to Square requesting status on a currently open dispute, they truly have stuck to their commitment by responding within 24 hours with the following response “Thank you for contacting Square. We are committed to responding back to you as soon as possible. In the meantime, feel free to return to the Square Help Center for instant answers to frequently asked questions.” How frustrating is that.
I had the great fortune of finding out what Square’s telephone number was by reading this review, but when I attempt to call the number, a recorded greeting comes on indicating that if I needed further support to stay on the line. Finally, I think I’m going to reach a live person, but next thing you know, I am disconnected. Thinking something had gone gone with the call, I tried again, only to be disconnected again. I tried again the next day, and the same thing.
Unless you are running a part-time business (e.g. Craft Shows, Art and Wine Festivals,) stay clear away from Square. It’s worth paying the monthly fee’s.
Fulvio Ortega
I t just joined square , after I signed on one time put all my banking information, I have been unable to logg back on. They made the 49 cent transaction to show it so call works . But their is no one to speak to about this probllem. Here is a great idea for all. since this company has numerious individuals banking information and we have no human to speak to it is starting to look like this is a scam, report them to the better business bureau, Attorney general in your state.
Paul
It is IMPOSSIBLE to get a human response for the simplest question! I like the service being an infrequent user but when you need a simple question answered it is ridiculously impossible. I do not need to wait 24 hours for an email to answer why I cannot access my account and take a payment! Convenient or not there is competition in the marketplace. This will cause massive customer shifts if you do not get this customer service problem fixed ASAP!!
Mike
Wow! I just read all the reviews and am glad I did. I just signed up today and finally got all the way through. But, when I tried to sign in, no luck. Not only did it not accept my password but upon clicking on the forgot password, I did not get the promised reset password e-mail. I’m quitting while even.
sandra
I have been using the square registery for ONLY 1-week and 2-transactions were NOT deposited. Know, there were only a total of 8 transaction. There is NO customer service to speak to, only email, which I haven’t received an answer from….I’m very fustruated. It would be highly recommended for a customer service phone line to be available. HELP !!!!
Wilburn Hilton
With reading of your information, I think I believe I have found out why we are short on two of our deposits for the month of September. No help from Squareup! we noticed that our deposits do not match up with Squareups account activity. Without a way to TALK to someone, we are left to ASSUME that there is a major problem with someone’s accounting. We have a Credit Card Merchant Account that we have been using for years and because we are a Mobile RV Service, decided to give Squareup a try because we did not like the idea of having to obtain the customer’s Credit Card #’s and wait until we got home to run a credit card. Squareup leaves a lot to be determined later. I guess if I were a Lawyer and had read the entire file of their help and FAQ swction, I may have known of the holding of funds that is mentioned in this article. We do a lot of Extended Warranty work and accept payment from the insurance companies by credit card, which is faxed to us by the companies.
I think we may look into Intuit’s credit card reader.
cb
I confirm Square most certainly deserves a big fat F for customer service. I literally received the worst customer service of my life from this product.
I have been working for the past couple months to start a nonprofit organization with a few other founding members. We decided to have a fundraiser to kick things off just recently. Several weeks before the fundraiser we bought two Square readers to take credit card donations during the fundraiser. On the Square reader box, it says it only takes a few minutes to get you up and running and accepting credit card payments (They are flat out lying about this; total false advertising here.) So a few days before the event we decided we should probably get the square readers set up so we didn’t have to do it last minute. Then the nightmare began….
There is no possible way to get the Square reader to start accepting credit cards in a matter of minutes because you have to wait 1 to 3 business days for them to deposit two test deposits into your bank account to verify all of your information.
Because it was going to take 1 to 3 days, we freaked out and tried to contact them directly. As mentioned in the review, they have no customer service number where you can actually talk to someone. All they have is a number with an automated message telling you to contact their customer service email and you’ll receive an email back within a “prompt” 24 HOURS!!
So… emailed them with an urgent request to get our accounts up and running asap and to contact me via phone so we could get it all figured out soon. NEVER received a phone call, only sporadic emails over the course of 3 days that were of absolutely no help. Actually, we finally received our test deposits and had set up our account to receive credit card payments the day of our fundraiser and then I get an email back from the “customer service” person that he found something wrong with the information I gave him and so he DEACTIVATED OUR ACCOUNT on the day of our fundraiser and said he could try again within 7-10 business days!! Are you kidding me?? He never tried to verify or confirm any of the information I gave him. He probably inputed it wrong since we were able to do it on the website ourselves. Yet, he took the liberty to deactivate our account and make it impossible for us to receive credit card payments on the day of our fundraiser.
The day of I received NO response from customer service although I flooded their inbox with between 75 to 100 emails in hopes of getting it all figured out before our fundraiser began. Again… this was by far the worst experience in customer service in my life. I highly suggest waiting until there is a direct customer service line before ever attempting to use this service.
Becky
Square is terrible! They have no customer service! Their website says they respond to emails within 24 hours – this is just a bold faced lie. They are holding my money – which has not met their amount criteria for holding funds – just because, evidently, they can. I have sent mulitiple emails and attempted to reach a human at their support number 415-375-3176. They don’t respond or seem to care about their customers. I have used square for all my business for two years and I have now switched to GoPayment, where a real person answers the phone. Run from Square!!!!
michael
AMEX says my client’s card was charged twice for $5500. I did not see the screen for the client to sign and was unable to offer a receipt. In fact I kept getting a “Sorry cannot process” message. Anyone experienced this problem? I never heard about Square holding money. Nothing shows up under transactions. thanks
Stu
Just wondering from all the complaints with delayed charges, large amounts ($15K is pretty big for a CC) , did you key in the charge or swipe the card? Did you have a sudden shift in charged amounts? Do you have a traceable business name, location, and physical mail address. If your business is not your name or doesn’t include your name, are you registered anywhere as “name” DBA “business”?
Cythina
Those are good questions Stu because every time I read these comments I wonder if they are maybe missing something that they don’t realize. And I don’t mean that negatively or anything so I hope no one takes offense. But I know when we first signed up, I didn’t realize about the dollar amount limit and potential for hold. Once I noticed it, I immediately emailed and had the limit increased. I must admit after being turned down by Intuit and seeing how easy this was I was nervous that something would go wrong down the line. Then I read all the negative comments and got even more worried. We don’t process transactions daily since we’re a fairly new swing set company but our first transaction was $7500 and we add the funds within 2 business days (I actually think it was 1). Since then we have processed 3 more transactions and without any problems. So I can’t help but wonder if maybe some of these complaints are due to valid fraud concerns on Square’s part. I agree that there should be a better method communication between the company. I’m glad you brought up those questions because some people might not think to check on those things. Since our business is registered as a DBA with the state, we have a physical business address, and a federal and state tax id, I will be sure to post here if I have any issues going forward. FYI, all of our charges manual and still no issues but again we notified Square upfront with all necessary information about our business.
Barb
In my case I have a brick and mortar store for the past 17 years. We sell high end mailboxes, house numbers, weather vanes and other cool outdoor accents. I took about 20 small orders over the first 6 days while tending my booth at our WI State Fair, using Square, and the total dollar amount was about $1,200. This is not high risk stuff like electronics, and I have a history of less than 2 charge backs per year over thousands of transactions. I did go into Squares Web Site and entered in the 2 small transactions like I was supposed to do and have yet to see a dime from them. VERY disappointed. When I didn’t see any deposits from them in the first few days I was wise enough to stop using them and go back to a traditional credit card machine. Good thing or I would be out a lot more. For some reason I believe I will still get paid, but I think their growing pains are giving them a terrible reputation. They better get on top of this or the word of mouth will be their doom. Wish I could understand WHY they still are running TV ads advertising their faulty product. Cut the ads and pay more people to get the money for their current/former customers straightened out.
Maha Saadeh
While I understand your lack of experience being in business a short period, and believe in due time
you will have devoloped better ways to please every one, it is to professional use these excuses at any given moment non the less especially doing it at the merchant’s expense. Let your merchant acknowledge and agree to your not so good policies before you tie up their money for months at a time, It’s bad enough you get a good chunk of it up front, if you suspect fraud or other wise, you should not eccept the charges made especially the larger amounts as I have experienced with you because
It can put any small business out of business. Thank you for your interests, M. Saadeh..
sarah
Do not use square!!!! You will be sorry if you do. I had my account verified and everythjng before i started to take payments, because i was afraid of issues. After it was verified everything went along well for a few days. I had a good day where i did around 3k, all swiped. They let me go for one more day before I got some big problems. I will say that they sent me an email…but it came thru around 12 am…and it stated they were withdrawing ALL the funds they had deposited so far and holding the rest. Soooo i rushed to the bank and put a hold on that account, and proceeded the lengthy process with square. They wanted more and more info, till i found myself showing them my marrige licence and mortgage statement! Each time i sent more info they said they would get back to me in 1-2 days. They took at leasr a week each time, with this last timevtaking acweek and a half. Now, i was smart and 1. I used my businesses “internet” account. Its a regular account, but we onky use it for internet transactions. 2. I emptied that account everyday. 3. As soon as i got the email from square i put a hold on the account so square couldnt put me in the negitive.
Where it gets really fun is that they have decided to close my account (after i told them our lawyer would be in contact). They told me they would be holding my funds for 180 YES 180 days! Really? There’s a reason to hold funds for 1/2 a year? Thats bullshit. Im seeing if their refunds process will work. Not sure yet. Since they couldnt get the funds out of my account it is showing my square account as negitive. They didnt give the money back to my customers (i verified with several that payment was taken) so in my opinion square can go to hell. Oh and by the way HERE IScA WORKING NUMBER 1 (415) 946-4087 option 1 always gets me a person. Maybe you will have better luck than i did, because they really have no answers.
tj
I have swiped using an LG 4g lte phone. It worked great and i wore out two swipes then bot the third and now i can no longer swipe. i returned it to best buy and got another one and still does not work. All transactions must be put in manually. sucks! Of course square does not respond to my questions. i going to quit square and find another.
Laura
It has now been 9 months and Square is still holding Over $6000. They originally held over 50k until I had to refund all charges to customer and rerun their cards using another processor. Even though they told me they would hold it for 90 days, they have still not paid us. BEWARE! If you need to be paid DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!
ro
I am giving you a real persons experience with square. It has not been good. I recently took a payment that was in the neighborhood of 2900.00. What we found out after we took the payment, in fact days after we took the payment, is that we would be credited with 2000.00 in days. We would be credited with the rest of the money within 20 or 30 days. We were not aware of this policy but it is definetely a deal breaker for us. We will no longer take payments of this amount with square. If you want to talk to someone at square, this is not even possible. They only deal with humans by email. When we initially started taking payments we had a significant amount of trouble and our client finally just sent a check because we could not get his payment. We are going to use a different service because we have not been at all happy with square, also known as square up, I think. That is another issue. Why do they give themselves a bunch of different names. This just creates identity issues. I give them a half a point for being a viable business and that is about it. They have a lot off issues to overcome if they are going to be rated any higher by someone who is trusting a company to get us money into our account through a credit card transaction.
Maria Brophy
I have used Square a little bit over the past year for small orders. I just decided to shut down my traditional Merchant Account and use Square full time. But now I regret it – I just took an order for a $4,000 painting. Square is holding half the money for a MONTH! Now, I can’t ship it until the funds are received. My customer is angry, and Square hasn’t responded to my email (48 hours ago).
I called the number you posted – it states that you have to go the their website with your questions, then it hangs up on you.
For a small biz owner, this is very bad for me. I can’t afford it!
I’m not going to use Square anymore – I’m back to looking for another option. Bummer.
Carla
I am not a merchant, but I received e-mails from Square Up saying that I’ve successfully signed up. Then I started “receiving” payments. They had my correct credit card number, my name and e-mail address. I reported this as fraud to my credit card, even though I was receiving money, as it was a mistake. I don’t know how it happened, but I would not trust this company with my business. I believe there is great potential for fraud. Trying to get them to answer the non-existent phone number or e-mail address is impossible. Seriously, bad company.
Rnadler
I am extremely disappointed in Square’s service. I used them for a government contract I did. They wanted to pay with credit card so I tried out Square. What a mistake. They are holding over $15000 of my money now for over 2 weeks. I have a business to run and have changed the amount to release on teir website and have had token responses from their support people. Still no money.
They took out their percent right away. I manually put credit card in but can’t understand why I would have to wait this long. They are slow and unresponsive to email support. When dealing with finances you should never have email support only.
Thank you for giving their number as I will try that and contact better business bureau to file a complaint and contact my lawyer. In today’s world this kind of service is unheard of. I would recommend not using them for anything over $100.
Thanks
Darci Davenport
I have been in business for close to 10 years and Square succeeded where even other Merchant Service Crooks had failed… They caused me to stop taking credit cards. I had the unfortunate need to give good customer service and issue a refund to a client whose dog was unable to stay with us after he had already made payment. Square took the refund money out of my bank the next day. I noticed a couple of days later I wasn’t getting a deposit but it was a Friday night I though maybe just a policy change well by Tuesday morning and still no deposit even though they had a $1000.00 of my money I started to try to find answers. I have a VERY busy dog care business so it’s not exactly conducive to exhaustive Internet searches so I start looking for a contact on squares website… I was unable to even find a contact email I had to enlist my geek husband who found this website and a customer service email for me. I sent an email and the next day I got a response that square put a hold on all funds for 7-10 days after a refund Doesn’t matter the size of the refund or the amount you have in credit card sales…with absolutely no notification they hold all your funds for 10 days. This shouldn’t even be legal. I fortunately figured it out about 3 days in so they only had $1000.00 not several thousand of my money but I’m through I’m just not accepting credit cards anymore. They’re all crooks and Square claimed to be different and they are different just not in a good way they’re Worse! Beware
Karrie
Darci Davenport – what was this email address your husband located? I could use it right about now.
Valerie
My square reader was unusable on 9-5-12. I wonder if that was the same issue that other people were mentioning, it did not update so wouldn’t work. Seems to be working now, but it was difficult for client’s who normally pay this way.
M Frazier
Square lives up to all the poor reviews. Sure wished I had researched into this company more before arming my service and sales staff with the Square Card Reader for point of sale credit card processing. Sure, you get an much lower rate with SQUARE than other merchant processing companies, however:
1. Never at any time can you get a live person on the phone. All calls to their phone number, which we had to search to find, for it is not listed on their website or on any packaging, are answered with no option to leave a message .
2.All communications with Square are either fax or email. When you email you get an auto reply that you will hear from them in 1-2 days..We are still waiting. When you fax.. well hold onto those fax confirmations, you may need them in court.
3. Most important, THEY KEEP YOUR MONEY!! We have THOUSANDS of dollars they are not releasing into our bank account. We have submitted documents to “verify” our business as they requested and still no response or MONEY from Square.We have never had any chargebacks or issues with customers cards.
Don’t be fooled, it all starts out fine, then they will randomly start holding funds.
Numerous (HUNDREDS) of complaints on the National BBB site, more complaints on Pissed Consumer Site. If you too are a victim, Please contact the State Attorney General in California, The State Attorney General in your State, Federal Agencies governing interstate commerce, banking and internet fraud divisions and all the credit card companies directly: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover.
David
Recently we started using Square. It appears to be easy to use and pretty timely in processing payments. However we encountered a problem while we were at an event. The device would not accept cards, either with a swipe or manually entering it. Not being any kind of geek or IT person we were without credit card sales for the show. We are not, by any stretch of the imagination, a large volume user, but we may use it 10-15 times a day for a craft show. So, while we were at a show over Labor Day Weekend we lost the ability to process credit card sales. My initial thought was the card swipe was damaged, or cell carrier was not working properly.
Upon returning home I was checking the device again, still no luck, but maual entry worked. I then tried to order a replacement device, I thought I could not, but found that an upgrade to the software was available, and to my dismay THE DEVICE WILL NOT FUNCTION IF AN UPGRADE IS AVAILABLE. REPEAT, THE DEVICE WILL NOT FUNCTION IF AN UPGRADE IS AVAILABLE. What kind of business stops the equipment from even functioning if an upgrade to the software is available. They receive an F- for this action, plus there is no way to contact them if there are questions, again an F- for this. After upgrading the software everything seems to be fine, but this can be a problem for users because they did not even notify us of the upgrade, they need to work on their customer service.
Diane
I started using square a month ago. I love it. I’ve had no problems and each day they deposit into my account the transaction amounts less 2.75%. Each time I accept a card I receive an email with the transaction amount and the total so far for my charges for the day. Then the next day I receive an email telling me that they have sent a deposit into my account and the dollar amount.
From reading the reviews people seem to have problems with manual swipes (which I clearly saw on the website that there was extra fees associated with these).
The other problem I see people having problems with are due to large purchases. Perhaps then Square is not your option. As you know they haven’t been in business too long and need to also protect themselves. Lets face it, a large transaction manually keyed in can be a fraud problem. I, don’t do a large amount in each transaction, I own a variety store and usually the charges are lower compared to what I have read others are doing, who are having problems.
I can bet that Star Bucks will not have a problem using square because the charge amounts are not large.
This is the forth company I have used for processing. They understate their charges and then add line charges, when you complain they state “that not part of OUR fee, that’s a government fee or some other agency fee.” Then there if the compliance fee. All they want is our hard earned money.. Some say 1.5% transaction but then charge tons of extra line charges and what not. The 1.5% is then really 4.05%. Okay they have customer service, Square doesn’t. They say 20 cents a swipe fee, next thing you know they upped your fees. They charge a monthly service fee. I can not tell you how many times I read my statement and there was ALWAYS an additional fee for SOMETHING.
Last company National Merchant Services (NMS) in Brooklyn NY was a total rip off. Promised me .10 swipe with 1%. Got my statement, yeah they charged 10 cents but charged multiple times for the same swipe and multiple times for the percentage. They turned out to be 65 cents a swipe and 4.5%. You have to watch your statements. Keep track of all your transactions, swipes, etc and compare your records to your statement. Now I’m fighting with the company that bills for them over a bill that is inflated. Of course now Arthur at NMS won’t call back, but was up my butt when he wanted my business.
It is hard enough to make it in business without these *** trying to rip us off.
Concealed Handguns
At least I am not alone in my complaints against Square, Inc. Like many others here, I have had my own run-in with Square, Inc. using their Square credit card processing device. I signed up for Square and received the card reader in the mail within a few days. After installing the app on my phone, I tested the system by processing a few transactions over a couple of weeks time frame. These low dollar amount transactions went through without a hitch. Thus, I cancelled my Authorize.net account which we were paying on average, around $500 a month in fees and charges. And for the next few months had no issues using SquareUp.
My problems began when I attempted to process an order from three individuals who were all friends and wanted to purchase the same item. In this case the price of the item(s) were $1,616.00 each. As I was unaware at the time with Square, Inc’s policy of holding any funds over $2,002.00 within a rolling 7 day period for a period of 30 days on manually entered transactions, needless to say the first $2,002.00 was deposited the next day, but the remainder of the transaction was going to be held for 30 days.
A little digging and a few emails later, I rudely found out that my funds would indeed be held the 30 full days. Being a small business owner, having to eat $2,846.00 in overhead was hard to swallow. What was really the kicker is that I could have swiped the credit cards that I had manually entered, but my card reader was in my vehicle and just didn’t take the time to go get it. I certainly would have done that if I had known the reprocussions of that decision.
I ended up refunding all three credit card transactions, refused the UPS delivery of their merchandise, and planned to just re-purchase the item(s) after having the customers pay by cash. It took 4 business days for the first to refunds to be credited to the customers credit cards, and an additional 4 business days for the third refund to be processed through. Meanwhile, the item(s) they were wanting to purchase had been sold out and are no longer available through my distributor. Talk about leaving a bad taste in your customers mouth.
That started me dong a little research, and I discovered there was complaints all over the internet regarding SquareUp and Square, Inc. There is a video on SquareUp Forums on how to accept credit cards without a card reader at: [redacted – solicitation to 3rd party forum] , which was created by Square, Inc., but nowhere in their video did it explain that there was limitations.
Regardless of who the master mind was behind Square, Inc., which in this case was Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter. I cannot see them staying at the forefront of mobile credit card processing without an actual customer service department and a method being able to contact them via a telephone call, whether that be a toll free 800 number or not.
Charles Hooper
SQUARE UP NIGHTMARE! We signed up for Square a couple of weeks ago. I must say the process was easy and straightforward and we received the Square card reader a few days afterward. Our purpose was to process a large number of prepaid Visa giftcards that we have acquired over the past year and a half totaling $2150. Our first transaction was a week ago on a Friday and worked well, simple to enter and the card reader worked fine. Two or three hours later, we decided to complete all of our transactions. Again, the system worked fine.
Now the problem begins late Monday. We received an email from Square stating their Account Service Team has “determined our account to be high risk. Any funds currently in our account will be held for 90 days before being processed to your linked bank account.” We determined the first $50.00 card was processed and deposited in our linked account, less the 2.75% fee, but the remander would be held for 90 days.
We now attempted to talk to someone and searched for a phone number. This was difficult to find, but we finally came up with 415 375-3176 which provided only voice mail suggesting a website for canned answers and email contact promising a response in 24 hours. Well, the email responce took 26 hours simply stating our account cancellation was not reversible. Also, “If you do not want to wait, you may refund back to the original cards.”
Fortunately, we still had the original cards and opted for the refund.
We have now signed up with Intuit GoPayment and our account has been approved. We have not yet received the card reader. We have, however, processed our first card by manually inputting the information and the process went smoothly without a glitch. The biggest advantage with the Intuit Go-Payment system is that there are real people who can be reached by phone for questions or problems. Prior to signing up, I contacted them twice just be sure. At this point, I expect a good relationship with Intuit Go-Payment which was not my experience with Square-Up.
Charlie, Stuart, FL
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Jerry Dowling
They are holding my money and will NOT give it to me. I am dumbfounded. Horrible customer service, no phone number, emails unanswered.
Ohio Biohazardous Recovery
As the owner of a business that does many transactions out in the field, the SQUARE seemed to be a convenient way for my customers and me to do credit cards.
Two small transactions actually went well, then the third one of $6,500.00 became the nightmare everyone talks about.
I recieved an e-mail from square requesting information that I could not answer. Example; they wanted my California CPA#. I live in Ohio.
I called square, but noone works phones. I sent e-mails, but no answers. I got my money back by having
My customer put a hold on her card. Long story short, her card was credited and I recieved my money.
SQUARE is not a good method for doing business. That easy swipe they claim, will cost you a major headache in the end. Check with your bank, to see if they have merchant services. HUNTINGTON, and CHASE have very nice machines for use in the field.
M Frazier
10AM-6PM PT call 1-415-946-4087 with your account number ready
This is the customer service number for SQUARE with a LIVE person.
Good Luck
Jason
Square lacks transparency and has no zero access for customer service. when you sign up for an account, it is near impossible to find information on charges and fees. They advertise 2.75% fee for transactions but actually charge 3.50% plus $.15 for manual entry – something they don’t represent when you sign up. In addition, the only support they have is through twitter, which is a completely inadequate amount of access to handle problems. I don’t have a twitter account so I have zero voice to resolve an issue with them. I would not recommend Square because of their questionable transparency and complete lack of customer service.
Gretchen Legg
Yeah, I’m in the same place as you. I just signed up and was hoping to get a lot more info in the mail, like pricing info and a copy of the terms, and contact info for customer service, maybe some set up instructions would have been nice. I navigated it all on my own. Now I’m trying to set up my account so people can find me (and so a certain customer can pay me from Canada using Pay with Square so I don’t have to pay the higher fees). I can’t upload a photo as a logo and my business is mobile so I check that box. It keeps saying I need to update my logo and provide an address. Neither 415 number will get me to a person or let me leave a voice mail.
Nirvana Smoke Shop
I own a small retail store that does a high volume of credit card purchases. I recently signed up wIth Square. The first week of doing business with square they deposit all credit card funds the next day in my bank account. To date, August 23rd, they have not made any deposits into my account for over 1 week & are holding over $8300 of money. I need this money to pay rent, payroll, sales tax, etc. I gave tried to call Square over a dozen times & have never been able to reach anyone & all calls are cut off without taking any msgs. I have written at least 5 e-mails & none have been answered. I have received no letters, e-mail or notifications as to why they are withholding my funds. I will go out if business if they continue to hold my funds. A small business that does over 65 % in credit cards must be able to access their money to continue. They have no customer service at all & the guidelines they have on their website gives one a false representation of their true business practices. I cannot imagine anyone ever using Square that runs a busy retail business.
Luis
People…….Do not use Square…
i have a scooter store and i’ve been using square to receive payments…
i sold one scooter on july 27, i received $360 from one costumer everything was fine until now…
The costumer opened a dispute with his credit card company and unfortunatelly, Square took the money out of my account without my permission, and without hearing both of us….
I do have receipt, title and all the things that prooves the purchase, but they never did anything….
DO NOT USE SQUARE AT ALL PLEASE….THEY DON’T EVEN HAVE COSTUMER SERVICE
Robin
I am really rethinking using Square. We have ran a patient’s credit card 3 times, Square has taken the money out of his account each time but shows the charge as declined.
When I try to get in touch with someone it is impossible….this is ridiculous, they won’t answer emails and the phone numbers tell you to email. I have a patient with $750.00 tied up for days and I need to talk to someone. Why all the secrets…..no phone number, no email response?
I will say this in their defense they have always, up until now, been very good and we have been happy.
Francisco Gomez
We have used Square, Shopkeep, and Intuit. Here is my experience with all of them.
My favorite is Shopkeep
Shopkeep:
Reasons I use them:
Contact number easily available
24/7 live person support
Cash drawer that actually keeps track of your cash
Amazing customer service
Dual printers
Really low swipe and no swipe fees
Export to excel and can then import to quickbooks
Keeps track of cash in cash drawer
You can open and close shifts
It tells you how much should be in the cash drawer when closing a shift
You can make employee ID’s to better figure out who sold what
You can put notes on the receipts that print on the remote printer for the cook or coffee maker to see
Receipt number so you can yell number 102 your order is ready. (Five Guys)
Bad things:
Technical support is lacking
$50 monthly fee per iPad setup we have 3 so $150 a month does add up for services. But when your in a jam and need help that 800 number is worth every penny
(in respect to there low swipe fees the $50 monthly fee is worked into your monthly expense when reviewing the high swipe fees from other companies such as square.
Initial investment is expensive for cash drawer, printer, swiper ($1000-$1500)
I have had issues with the printers disappearing from the network
(we have them on static IP’s and we have those IP’s excluded from the DHCP Scheme)
Good news:
They are working on techical support
They release updates monthly for there app and all the updates are actually usefull
Customer rewards system is coming soon
Square:
I currently am testing square
Reasons:
No monthly fee
Starbucks decided to use them
Mobile apps for iOS devices
They have a location app for using there services where people can do a search and find places to pay using square
Apple sells there products in the store and to me this is a sign it may become integrated into the next iOS software upgrade. Starbucks switching to square is another sign of this possibility.
The same app for locations allows my customers to pay through the app, see our menu (not order from the app just view the menu), but my customers can start a tab from there app and on my iPad register I can see who has tabs open and close there tab when they are finished.
You can add pictures to the items
Customer rewards built in
The bad:
Horrible customer service (I can’t stress horrible enough)
They hold your money 30 days or longer if it’s over a certain amount we do $20,000 transactions and sometimes it takes a month to see the money.
No contact us number
High per swipe and no swipe fee
Can’t do dual printers (1 for customer and the other would print near the coffee maker)
Does not keep track of cash in cash drawer
Does not have a way to do shift change
Issue with location of one of my cafe’s on square app. It thinks my address is down the street so sometimes people cant open a tab because it says “to far from location” when in reality they are in my cafe.
Good news:
With Starbucks investing in square and the surge of additional capital to square there is hope they will solve the contact number issue and customer service complaints. I am hopefull that as a company square can at least notice that they have a major issue with customer service.
Intuit:
Currently using for my other company for mobile IT services.
Reasons:
I still use this for the mobile side of one of my companies
Low swipe fees no monthly fee or you can pay $15 and get a 1% discount on the per swipe and no-swipe fees
Easy to create new items on the fly
Good for simple quick transactions that have to be done in person but at different offices using my iPhone or iPad.
All tax information is automaticly handles and sent to you at the end of the year
Built by the builders of quickbooks
Again I only use this for mobile sales for my IT business
The bad:
Not friendly for a cafe environment
No cash drawer ability
Good news:
I noticed they came out with a POS package at office depot
Not sure what it contains but maybe it will be usefull to some
I hope this helps you guys when decideding which company to go with. Feel free to message me with questions it’s slow season for my right now so I’m glad to help.
Alex
can anyone clarify this, please. as you will notice, a browser search yields isq, accompanied by the subheading, “sign up for free”. so i did. i now find a page submerged on their site that invites me to sign up AGAIN for $275 monthly. what gives? have i just signed over $275.00, after being promised i could sign up “for free”? and the fact that they are barely accessible to communication is not boding well. are these people just inefficient or cons?
Phillip CPO
Hi Alex,
This article should answer your question.
Steven
Chargeback reversals ,
I am involved in a chargeback gone wrong. My customer paid me 1900.00 and when they were unhappy with my service they complained to their credit card company. I immediately recieved an email that there was a problem with the charge. Before I could respond the monies were withdrawn from my account. When my customer contacted their credit card company for the 2nd time one day later. They informed them that they were mistaken and basically cancelled the chargeback so now everything should be fine. Now my real problems begins no one to call no response to emails just a simple email telling me the quickest resolution is to do a refund and than rebill the original amount. So we attempt the refund and first it’s pending than the refund becomes rejected. So now I am emailing every day trying to find out how to retrieve my money. This type of not being able to simply resolve a dispute will ultimately hurt the square. My general rating is good. Problem solving is terrible
Adam
I went through them holding almost $11,000 (net after their fee). I went to war basically. I eventually researched the company and contacted the COO via his personal Twitter. I received an email within a couple of hours. Within the afternoon my funds were promised by the next day. So as a public service the department I finally got a hold of that helped is (415) 946 – 4087. But you didn’t hear it from me ;-)
Business Owner
After having funds held with Square Up for several weeks I now only use Square Up for small business transactions. They requested we send a load of sensitive company infomation on email so we could have our limit reviewed. With no way to contact them except a generic email address I refused to send such information. Have now gone with Paypal Here and also use cardlink.com.au for Australian transactions. They pay all funds straight away into your bank account (no matter what the amounts).
What I want to know is why don’t Square Up pay business owners their funds straight away. They must be doing short term 30 day trades on the stock exchange.
Square Up are definitely not worth the hassle especially if you take alot of orders on email and phone and have to manually input the transaction like I need too. They go on national TV raving about their partnership with Starbucks, yet have the worse customer service ever. There is no way you can get in touch with these guys except by email. With no visible customer service contact details, it leaves me feeling very uneasy about Square Up.
Bettina Devin
Despite my excitement at the arrival of the Square, I am experiencing ongoing frustration re: the fact that I cannot get a response from the customer service. I am unable to sign in for one thing. When I click “forgot password”, I keep getting a message saying they have sent an email to me, but those emails never show up. I am unable to go in and look at my history… a BIG no no for any financial software company. I am going to try the # you provided here… I would never have known it existed, so thanks for publishing this. But something tells me it might not make much of a difference.
Frustrated
Small Business
Sounds like the same problem as I am having. Use my phone for my transactions, had to do a reset on the phone. Now it won’t let me log into my account and they will not respond to any emails. I am waiting, but have limited faith in their customer support.
Also the card reader (all 3 of them) have never worked.
BUSINESS OWNER
Hope this helps anyone that is still having their money held….
Square was was holding $4500 of a $6500 transaction.
I emailed and faxed them every form of documentation they said they needed to verify transaction,
then they said they will still have to hold it for 30 days!!
So I went onto their facebook and twitter accounts and posted that they are a fraudulent company beware to all new users and I did this every 15 minutes for an entire day.
I also reported them to the San Francisco
FBI white collar crimes division, and filed a report with the FTC
The next morning I got a call from a Square supervisior and he was very friendly and apologetic and he said my funds would be released and they would raise my limit. They were all realeased the next day.
I really think they have a good business idea, but the guys in charge never really learned that taking care of their customers is key to any business.
They also gave me a number to call other than their “so call customer service line”
it worked at the time it was 415-946-4087.
So I think the key is if you “publically” expose them then you will get their attention.
also I contacted an investigative new program that was going to research and do a story on this company because of all their customer complaints.
Anyway, hope this helps anyone who is still waiting for their money.
Classy Carz
I am a small business owner and have been a Square client since April 2012. Until this week I havent had any issues with Square, Now I have BIG issues with them. Something is going on within their company, perhaps they are getting ready to go under and are trying to siphon as much cash as they can lay their hands on. There are an awful lot of recent complaints identical to mine. I have been making charges all week, small ones all under $200 each. I have not received ONE deposit! I emailed them and have received NO response. I tried this number 415-946-4087 and it actually was answered but the rep was very rude. Talked over me, kept repeating she couldnt help me. says she is for ” verification only ” Then started screaming at me when I told her i was recording my calls. Tried to tell me what i was doing was illegal. (In my state you CAN record any conversation in which YOU are participating.) Illegal? What Square is doing is illegal, they are collecting merchants funds and KEEPING them. Didnt banks get in trouble for that? I think it was called “Floating” Square is also putting my business in a bad position becuase they arent allowing me to do any refunds. I lose credibility with my customers when I cant give a refund. They also are putting me in a position to receive chargebacks! My next call is to the state attorney generals office. Square is destroying small businesses with this practice. Any one know of any class action suits against them? If you have the same problems, call their only number that a live person answers. 415-946-4087, perhaps they will start to help their merchants, the ones they actually make money from and keep them in business!
Lee Surgener/President of OBR
I have sent them everything possible but one. What is a CPA liscence? I live in Ohio and am not an accountant, so I cant send them that. What is this that they are asking for?
Jean Houndsome
Signed up for square via mobile and never even received my free card reader. E-mailed them 2 or 3 times, no response. Couldn’t find any phone number for them. Eventually a month later bought my own card reader and now it’s not working. I read from other people on here about Intuit that got great reviews, so I will take my business there. Thanks Square, but even bigger NO THANKS!!
You guys have no customer service,so you will not see a penny of my hard earned money!
Mike
They keep taking refunds out of my account and will not stop.
The problem was fixed with the customer but the square keeps taking money from me and will not stop. No number to call them also. DO NOT USE
Brad Brown
Swiped a card last week for $5,400.00. Found out four days later they did not process it saying they need additional info about my business. We have already been using the service for six months and why did they pull this on me now. If you need the funds in your account, do not rely on Square.
C.McQueen
Square is not working at all.Horrible experience I must say. I do not recommend square for anyone. I have a business and uses square.I purchased it, had the customer sign his signature but card number had to be keyed in because the dern card would not swipe and it is new. So, my customer is on hold because we cant start the customers car because the funds have not cleared. It has been a week and no response and cant contact anyone. Except, I am getting plenty of emails for me to submit verification, in which I have and still no money has posted. Wtf!!! Please read all reviews before you purchase square. I did my research but evidently not good enough. This is a disaster and I will not use them anymore
Barb
Square is not working at all. Horrible experience I must say. I do not recommend Square for anyone until they get their act together. I have a small business and used Square for a few days at our booth at our State Fair. Had the customer sign his signature on a piece of paper because the card number had to be keyed in because the dern card would not swipe and it is new. I am getting plenty of emails for me to submit verification, in which I have and still no money has posted. Wtf!!! Please read all reviews before you purchase Square. I did my research but evidently not good enough. This is a disaster and I will not use them anymore. I need my money NOW!
Rose
Square has been holding $3500 of my money for over 180 days even though they said they would release the money last week. In addition, I never had any chargebacks in the first place and I used the card swiper. My account was randomly flagged as high risk 6 months ago and my funds are still frozen.
kirk
i was also flaged a high risk after many transactions my account was all in line and in good standing and they are holding $3,000 from me i received a e mail stateing they would be released in 30 days then 1 hour later i received another e mail stateing they would be held 180 days they said i could seek other optiuons to receive my funds to go about doing a refund i did the first one and informed the customer why i received a check from my customer. i tried to do the other refunds to seek other payment options then square blocked me from doing that . i shouold of been a more educated consumer a read the hundreds and hundreds of negative reveiws one reveiw said they are holding $19,000 im temepted to show up at there door!!! to get there full attention in addition it says this is your case number and you will receive a return reply!! i have several case numbers and no returns they completly shut me out!!
Melissa
OK So here goes my rant……….. We sell custom golf carts, at trade shows and soforth. I started using them over 1 year ago and thats when I learned they put a hold on your non-swiped funds. I called and actually got through to someone. They had me e-mail in several business related items to them. THEN, they had me scan all of my receipts where the customer agreed to purchase the carts, I did. After only a couple of days, they increased my line to $20,000.00. I hadnt used them in a while as we just started doing trade shows again, and …..guess what?? Tried to use swiper and it wouldnt work, so we had to key it in manually. The customer even called their AE BEFORE and told them the amount of the charge, and even gave them our name and invoice info had to key it in and BAM, now they are holding all but $2001.00. Bull crap! Sent them an message, today. Going to see how long it takes for clear this up. Thanks for letting me RANT……lol
Pectolite Inc
My wife and I own a natural skin products business called Pectolite Inc. Our Brand, Oh Honey, specifically works with handmade all natural soaps made with all natural oils and lye. We started using Square as our merchant solution. In the summer, we sale our soaps, lotion bars, and natural lip balms at farmers markets and festival events. Square has been great. We are able to accept credit cards with nothing more than our telephones. The cost of using square is close to any other merchant account provider and is their fees are more simple. We have more customers, because we can accept credit card and debit cards, when many of our competitors cannot. We sell more natural soap at the farmers markets, than on our website at http://www.soapguildstores.com/pectolite. The receipt can be emailed or texted to the customer and you are able to and should always put in a description of the purchase. This will let the customer know exactly what what they purchased. I would recommend Square to any small business. It has helped our natural soaps and lip balms company, Pectolite Inc, grow faster.
Cindy
I have been using Square for almost 2 years now. I have never had a problem that couldn’t be resolved with them. I am a small business owner, my transactions are small so maybe that is why I don’t have problems. This has really increased my business by being able to accept credit cards. I have recommended Square to many vendors at farmer markets and craft shows.
Cindy
Laura
UPDATE ~ Over Six months and Square is still holding over $6000 of our money. Original hold was for over 50K! The only way I got any of it back was to refund all the charges and then re-run them with a new processor. The last $6000+ they refused to allow me to refund and they are still holding it after SIX MONTHS.
This company is HORRIBLE. It has so many complaints and the way they hold peoples money is unconscionable! They have NO regard as to how this effects a small business! In my opinion they are probably robbing Peter to pay Paul.
They just partnered with Starbucks who is investing another 25 million. Maybe then we will get paid, Otherwise they will probably declare bankruptcy and we will get nothing. WARNING ~ STAY AWAY!
Chris
DASHBOARD DOESN’T WORK! I used Square twice this last weekend but have no way of finding out from Square if they’ve deposited my money. When I sign onto the Square website absolutely nothing comes up on the Dashboard page. Nothing at all. I can’t even use the back arrow to return to their home site. Without the use of the Dashboard, I can’t personalize my phone app, can’t follow a transaction record, can’t do anything. After reading all these complaints, I don’t think I’ll use Square any more, and am more than nervous about whether I’ll ever see my money at all, or will be sure that if deposited, it’s truly there to stay!
Given the ease of actually using Square for a transaction, this lack of customer service, lack of communicating with their customers, and the withholding of funds is so disappointing.
Karla
I LOVE SQUARE UP. When my business partner and I first opened up our auto repair business, we needed a way to accept credit cards. We couldn’t stand all of the merchant sales people trying to sell us merchant packages that we didn’t need, so we googled merchant packages and found Square Up. It really seemed to good to be true at first, but we have been using it for all of our credit card processing needs for over 7 months now and I have NO complaints! Easy to set up, the processing card reader gets sent to you FREE OF CHARGE, there are no other fees other than the 2.75% per swipe. I personally couldn’t be happier with Square Up, best processor ever :)