Square, Inc.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: My bank informed me that there are no...

pending deposits and my friends bank has not refunded the money to her account. How do we go about canceling the payment? It has been well over 14 days, the payment has not been claimed and there is still no cancel option.
 
Cash Accidentally Sent to the Wrong Address
If Cash was sent to the wrong email or phone number, you can cancel the payment if it hasn’t yet been claimed. Learn more about canceling payments.
Sincerely,[redacted]

I am an Independent Distributor and in some cases need a card processing service. Well I was having financial issues so I was unable to purchase inventory for many months due to bills piling up. I was finally able to buy some inventory this month (12-2016). I had a customer who wanted to get an advanced package valued at 250 dollars, but wanted to pay with Credit. I said sure! Well turns out that Square permanently deactivated my card processing service without notice and I am under review. I guess if we go awol and not use the aervice they boot you out of the system. I tried emailing them twice and as of today I have received no response from them. I don't sell products to become rich, I sell because I want others to get healthy as I did.
I told my client that he can pay me cash in small increments so in the end I sold products and helped out a client.
I am very disappointed with this service and asked them to deactivate my account completely since they banned me. Still no response! Steer clear from this company, it could happen to you. I think this works for people that have a decent amount of transactions a month.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/11/03) */
Hello,
According to Square's Merchant User Agreement Article 42. Suspension or Termination by Us: "We may terminate this Agreement and close your Square Account for any reason or no reason at any time upon notice to you. We may also...

suspend the Services and access to your Square Account (including the funds in your Square Account) if you (a) have violated the terms of this Agreement, any other agreement you have with Square, or Square's policies, (b) pose an unacceptable credit or fraud risk to us, or (c) provide any false, incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading information or otherwise engage in fraudulent or illegal conduct."
The decision to deactivate your account is final. For security purposes, Square cannot disclose further details regarding the reason for account deactivation.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/11/06) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
I am ok with what Square Inc. stated, but I would like to know when I will receive my funds. I do not want to do business with them any more. Thanks for your cooperation.
Best,
[redacted]
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/11/19) */
A member of Square's Account Services team reviewed your account and elected to terminate the account in accordance with Article 42 of the Square Seller Agreement: "We may terminate this Agreement and close your Square Account for any reason or no reason at any time upon notice to you. We may also suspend the Services and access to your Square Account (including the funds in your Square Account) if you (a) have violated the terms of this Agreement, any other agreement you have with Square, or Square's policies, (b) pose an unacceptable credit or fraud risk to us, or (c) provide any false, incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading information or otherwise engage in fraudulent or illegal conduct."
Article 43 further states that: "We will not be liable to you for compensation, reimbursement, or damages in connection with your use of the Services, or in connection with any termination or suspension of the Services. Any termination of this Agreement does not relieve you of any obligations to pay any Fees or costs accrued prior to the termination and any other amounts owed by you to us as provided in this Agreement."
The decision to deactivate your account is final. Any funds currently in your account will be held for 90 days from the date of the deactivation. If you do not wish to wait the 90 days, you may issue a refund at any time within 60 days of the date of the transaction. To learn more about issuing refunds, please reference this article found on the online Help Center: https://help.squareup.com/customer/portal/articles/XXXXXX-how-do-i-process-a-ref...⇄ /> For security purposes, Square cannot disclose further details regarding the reason for account deactivation.
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 11, 2015/11/20) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/05) */
Square sent you a final check on 12/22/15. Please refer to the latest email correspondence between you and Square for specific details.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2016/01/07) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID...

NOT accept the response from the business.)
Dec 22 was 15 days ago. Every time they email me the date is pushed up further. I still don't have my money. Now they're saying I should have it my the 15th. It doesn't take more than 20 days for a piece of mail to reach someone.

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. Sincerely, [redacted]

I would NOT recommend Square to ANY business. We received an offer to add Square as a payment option for our clients, we had been using and continue to use the payment Gateway from Freshbooks. After putting a few transaction through Square with one client Square put a hold on our funds to "verify" the transactions. After answering many question and uploading and email several files Square closed our account, KEPT OUR MONEY and said it would not be available for 90 days. We are a company that does business and provides service with Fortune 500 company's for which we provided AMPLE documentation. We are an approved member of the Ariba Vendor management portal which is used by our Fortune 500 clients. I WOULD suggest if you are a small business DO NOT USE Square.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2014/02/20) */
Hello [redacted],
After further investigation I do so that you opted to refund the payments back to your customer at no cost or penalty to yourself or your customer. There are no longer held funds in your Square account.
As the email...

you are referencing stated, a member of our Account Services team reviewed your account and elected to terminate the account in accordance with Article 42 of our Merchant User Agreement: "We may terminate this Agreement and close your Square Account for any reason or no reason at any time upon notice to you. We may also suspend the Services and access to your Square Account (including the funds in your Square Account) if you (a) have violated the terms of this Agreement, any other agreement you have with Square, or Square's policies, (b) pose an unacceptable credit or fraud risk to us, or (c) provide any false, incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading information or otherwise engage in fraudulent or illegal conduct."
Article 43 further states that: "We will not be liable to you for compensation, reimbursement, or damages in connection with your use of the Services, or in connection with any termination or suspension of the Services. Any termination of this Agreement does not relieve you of any obligations to pay any Fees or costs accrued prior to the termination and any other amounts owed by you to us as provided in this Agreement."
For security purposes we cannot disclose any other details regarding why your account was deactivated.
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 12, 2014/02/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
I do accept the offer of all monies being refunded back to my customers and would not recommend this company to anyone.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/02/08) */ Please refer to the latest email correspondence between you and Square. The message from 2/4/16 states: "Thank you for writing in. I apologize for the delay in getting the check out to you. The person that I needed to approve the check...

request just got back into the office. I am currently working with him to get this check mailed out! I will update you when I have more information." Square will reach out to you in latest email correspondence.

Honestly the worst business I've dealt with in a long time I made a payment (usually use venmo) but decided for square and they charged me three times for one payment thinking it would be an easy fix I didn't get to mad. However it was the opposite not only did I keep getting automated responses (so irratating) but a week after me trying to get the extra $300 back they charged me a fourth time so now they over charged me $450! And when you finally get someone that isn't automated they are rude and refuse to help you in any way or answer any questions be careful stay away from them

Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 6, 2014/02/24) */
Square did issue a refund to the customer on 2/21/14. However, my complaint about this company's business practices is still a valid concern.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 10, 2015/09/03) */
Hello,
Upon further investigation, a member from Square's Disputes Team spoke with you on August 19, 2015 with regards to this matter.
A message was sent to you on August 19, 2015 after you spoke with the representative from Square...

Disputes to inform you that the dispute had been cancelled by your customer and that the held amount of $115.65 had been released and was scheduled to be viewable in your linked bank account within 1-3 business days.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 12, 2015/09/07) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
They finally gave me my money back.

I own a small Servpro-type business and signed up for a Square account in August of 2016. We processed one $300 payment. Several weeks later, we received an email stating that they were cancelling our account and that they were holding our money for at least 90 days?? They gave absolutely no reason why they cancelled our account, gave no email address to contact them, and cancelled our cr so that we could not reach them via phone. I did some research and was not surprised to find out that they've done this to countless others. Make you wonder how much interest they've earned by holding small business owners' money. What a shameful racket... STAY AWAY FROM SQUARE!!

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/09/22) */
Hello,
Square was unable to locate a Square account associated with this name and email address. If you could provide the name and email address on the account of which you are inquiring, Square can further assist you.
Initial...

Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2015/09/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
the name on the account is [redacted] and email is [redacted].com
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2015/10/11) */
Hello,
Upon further investigation, a member from Square's Account Services team reached out to you through email requesting additional information about your account. The email was sent to you on September 9, 2015. The message states: "If you do not wish to submit the requested documents, please refund your payment and collect it by another means."
If you have additional questions please reply directly to the message that was sent to you by Square's Account Services team on September 9, 2015.
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 11, 2015/10/19) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
I went ahead and refunding my customer their money back using the square website, now I'm just waiting on square to refund the money back to my client debt card so I can collect it another way.

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
This is the same response that we received previously. We are unable to refund the money and expect the customer to come into our location and pay. Many of these transactions, were over the phone. We have signed authorizations from the customers for each transaction.
We do not understand why we are being flagged as high risk. If it is because the transactions were manually entered, we did receive the square reader until [redacted], days after our account had been deactivated.
We are trying to resolve the issue, but the company refuses to provide us with a valid explanation as to why we were deactivated. Our response may be valid and the issue may be resolved if we could get an explanation.
Example: If the reason we were deactivated, stems from each transaction being manually entered;
1. We have signed authorizations for each transaction that we can provide.
2. We did not have a Square Reader until [redacted].
 
 
 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Hello [redacted],We’re sorry to inform you that we are deactivating your account. Our Account Services team reviewed your account and found a pattern of transactions associated with high-risk activity.For further information about our policies, you can review section 36 of the Square Payment...

Terms.We regret that, starting today, you will no longer be able to process transactions using Square. Any funds currently in your account will be held for 90 days before being released to your linked bank account.If you’d prefer to receive funds more quickly, you should consider refunding the payments back to the original cards and seeking alternate forms of payment. (Please note that we will refund all the fees, too.)Refunds are available within 60 days of the original payment. To process a refund, log in to the Square dashboard.Use the date selector tool to locate the specific payment.Click the payment you'd like to refund, then click "Issue Refund".Select the reason you're refunding the payment, and click "Issue Refund."Unfortunately, our decision to deactivate your account is final. Due to security reasons and the obligations of our agreements with card networks and other financial institutions, we cannot reverse this decision and are unable to provide additional details.Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.Sincerely,Square Account Services

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/11/30) */
Hello [redacted],
Upon further investigation, I see that a member of Square's Compliance Team recently conducted a review of your Square account and after further review, it was determined that excessive prepaid card transactions were...

processed with your Square account. This activity is a violation of the Square Seller Agreement.
According to Section 47 of Square's Seller Agreement: "All transactions taken with Square must represent a bonafide sale of a good our service. Excessive gift card use is an indication of a violation of this term. "47. Representation and Warranties. You represent and warrant to us that: (a) you are at least eighteen (18) years of age; (b) you are eligible to register and use the Services and have the right, power, and ability to enter into and perform under this Agreement; (c) the name identified by you when you registered is your name or business name under which you sell goods and services; (d) any sales transaction submitted by you will represent a bona fide sale by you; (e) any sales transactions submitted by you will accurately describe the goods and/or services sold and delivered to a purchaser; (f) you will fulfill all of your obligations to each customer for which you submit a transaction and will resolve any consumer dispute or complaint directly with the purchaser; (g) you and all transactions initiated by you will comply with all federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations applicable to you and/or your business, including any applicable tax laws and regulations; (h) except in the ordinary course of business, no sales transaction submitted by you through the Services will represent a sale to any principal, partner, proprietor, or owner of your entity; (i) you will not use the Services, directly or indirectly, for any fraudulent undertaking or in any manner so as to interfere with the operation of the Services; (j) your use of the Services will be in compliance with this Agreement."
Furthermore, Section 42. Suspension or Termination by Us states "We may terminate this Agreement and close your Square Account for any reason or no reason at any time upon notice to you. We may also suspend the Services and access to your Square Account (including the funds in your Square Account) if you (a) have violated the terms of this Agreement, any other agreement you have with Square, or Square's policies, (b) pose an unacceptable credit or fraud risk to us, or (c) provide any false, incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading information or otherwise engage in fraudulent or illegal conduct."
There are no further updates for this account.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2014/12/02) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The response is rude and unprofessional. They never called, they never returned any of our many phone calls. To the best of our knowledge they still have over $5,000.00 of our money! Also, why in the world did you accept all 46 transactions and all $5,175.00 of our money? And then have the nerve to say that our account is closed and our funds are frozen for a minimum of FOUR MONTHS and up to SIX MONTHS, and even then only POSSIBLY the funds might POSSIBLY be returned. Complete rip off and acam. You have over $5000.00 of our money and we have nothing. There is something seriously wrong with this picture! We want all of our money back now, no more no less.
jf
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2014/12/10) */
Hello [redacted],
Upon further investigation, I see that you have initiated refunds on all the pending charges on November 21st. There is no longer a pending payout and there are no further updates on this account.
Final Consumer Response /* (2000, 11, 2014/12/16) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)
had to jump thru major hoops to get my funds returned. zero customer service, very poor communications.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/19) */
Please refer to the latest email correspondence between you and Square dated 1/11/16. The message states: "We are happy to inform you that we have re-activated your account and your pending deposit will be sent to your bank account...

tonight. Depending on your bank, you should see the funds in your account within 1-2 business days."
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2016/01/20) */
This was resolved- they finally released the funds last week.
[redacted]
XXX-XXX-XXXX

Square is quite possibly the worst company I have ever worked with when it comes to customer service. It is so frustrating because they are easy to use and have a great processing system. Instant deposit is convenient and the website and app function very well. However. Customer service is absolutely horrific. They don't answer there phone, you have to get a customer code and once you have received that then you can call them and when you do, they never answer and say they will call you back. IF they call you back and you answer it (because it can be several hours before they do) they are un helpful and have no answers for you. This is the most frustrating thing when trying to figure out something immediately. The write back on facebook right away but can't help you with your account over facebook so its useless.

I have used square for several years and taken large payments for my photography business. Never had too big of a problem. Then randomly they asked me to confirm my account through email, so I provided them with all the documentation they asked for. At this time they were holding one of my payments, which I'm used to getting the next day and count on that sometimes. At the time this was going on, I was counting on this payment to keep my electricity on (which it got shut off, because I didn't receive it for weeks). After submitting the information they wanted, they wrote me back and told me they were closing my account permanently and there is nothing I can do due to "Suspicious activity". I have used my account the same exact way for years and never changed anything about what I was doing. I was taking payments from clients I had all the documentation for. That was it. This has happened to several other merchants I know for absolutely no reason. When I called to ask why or what I could do, they simply told me there was nothing I can do and I would have to go elsewhere. They also told me they were holding my funds for 90 days. So I had to refund my client and tell them what happened. Of course they were confused and it made them worried, so they ended up cancelling there services with me. I don't blame them. When someone you just paid over a thousand dollars to tells you there credit card processing company closed there account for no reason, I probably would too. I have considered taking legal action against them, it is absolutely ridiculous.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/07/01) */
Hello [redacted],
Upon further investigation, I see that Square sent you an email on June 30 detailing the status of the transaction in question. Square identified a technical issue over the weekend that delayed the daily deposit and...

deposit notification for some merchants. At this time, it appears as though all funds have now been deposited into your bank account and your account remains in good standing. There should be no further issues with these transactions and all deposits should be made per the regular schedule. If you have further questions regarding this matter, please respond to Square's most recent email so that they can best assist you.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 7, 2014/07/03) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Hello [redacted],We've received notice of a $[redacted] payment dispute on a payment you processed on [redacted], [redacted].Our Dispute Resolutions team is here to guide you through the dispute process. Click here to send in supporting documentation for this dispute and help us advocate on your behalf.Please be aware that your linked bank account will be immediately debited for the amount of $[redacted] if these funds are not available in your Square balance. The disputed amount will remain on hold in your Square account until we receive an official resolution from your customer's bank.You can visit your Dashboard for more information about the disputed payment, including the dispute claim and a copy of the transaction receipt.Thanks,Square Dispute Resolutions Team