Problems with the SQUARE Reader and App

I have a small, home based arts and craft business, and a little over a year ago, I started doing a few craft shows. I got one of those Square Readers and Android App, and I love it! I've never had a problem with it, although, there have been a couple of times that I was unable to complete a credit card transaction because of a lost signal. In those cases I've always still made the sale with cash or a personal check.

A few months ago, I found a crafters cooperative, that allows me to rent a shop space for a really reasonable price. The owner of the building is a philanthropist who is willing to let us display our work for little more than what it costs to keeps the lights, heat, air and insurance in place. We all volunteer our time to man the store, so we don't have to pay an employee, and that also keeps our costs low. There are two people who work to make sure the shop is always staffed, open and close every day, maintain the cash and financial aspect, and do the general cleaning and maintenance in exchange for a free space.

The shop has a Square account and a dedicated Android phone. A few weeks ago, a mass email went out explaining that some of the credit charges being logged and rang in on the cash register were not going through on the Square account. In my mind, I thought this has to be due to some of the volunteer's ineptitude of the technology of the Square, and didn't think much else of it.

Then, it happened to me. I remember the sale well. It was a woman who wanted to buy a painting, and asked me to call the artist for a discount, which I did, and gave her 10% off. She didn't want her husband to know about her purchase, and so, she decided to put the purchase on two different credit cards, thinking he wouldn't notice 2 small purchases, as compare with one large purchase.

I ran the first credit card for a partial payment, which got an approval, and when the screen appeared that asked her where to send the receipt, she opted for "No Receipt" in fear that her husband would find it. Then, I ran the second credit card, also approved, and when the receipt screen came up, I opted for "No Receipt" on her behalf.

Yesterday, a week later, I found out that that sale didn't go through, and Square has no record of either one of those credit card charges, and the store, and therefore the artist, got stiffed on the sale. I am told that this is the fifth time that this has happened in 6 weeks!

My trust in technology is dashed! What could have happened? How did my two transactions get lost in cyberspace? Could a hacker have hijacked those sales? Has anyone else experience anything like this with the Square Card Reader and App? Any ideas?

I used square a loooooooong time ago and got rid of it for this reason. We were using it to do quick charges for customers after window washings on the office buildings. While we were testing I noticed that Square would authorize $1.00 at the time of sale, similarly to how pay-at-the-pump purchases work, checking to make sure the account is open, and then the charge sits in a queue until they are all processed during the end of day. We had quite a few payments simply disappear because the card that was used did not have the full amount of the payment available.

I'm assuming that something similar has happened to you. I don't have a link or source because this is a personal experience, but I would be sure to get on the phone with someone at Square and get a copy of the logs. There should also be a way for you to get swipe logs from the phone app itself. Talk to their tech people and see what they can help you out with.

I feel terrible that this has happened to you all! The whole idea of your business is wonderful and it pains me to see that an artist is losing out. Good luck!

reply to post by SolarObserver

I'm assuming that something similar has happened to you. I don't have a link or source because this is a personal experience, but I would be sure to get on the phone with someone at Square and get a copy of the logs. There should also be a way for you to get swipe logs from the phone app itself. Talk to their tech people and see what they can help you out with.

That's interesting. So, you're saying that if the card doesn't have enough money available, the charge could still go through as approved, but cancelled later due to lack of funds! Yikes!

I don't have access to the shop's Square account info, but I will pass along what I learn here to the people who do. We're all at a loss as to what is happening to these lost charges.

Thanks for your input.

reply to post by windword


You're very welcome I haven't used square since 2011 so they might have changed things around, but I doubt it since it's cheaper for them to process a huge stack of ccd charges all at once with a lower fee than pay the higher percentage with each swipe.

BUMP!

I'm finding loads of complaints about all kinds of problems with Squareup, and other's who have also had disappearing charges.

We use Square for our processing two days per week in a retail setting, always swiping through the card reader. We have used their service for a few months now and up until 3 weeks ago, had no problems. The charges in this instance appeared on our smartphone, but not on the computer dashboard area. We contacted Square via email several times to notify them of this and got no response.

Then the data disappeared from the smartphone and Square is now saying they do not have any record of any charges during that two day period. I have no other backup information; being new at this I didn’t even think of emailing myself the receipts until I saw it in this forum. I can’t imagine they would not do data retrieval – originally they said they would be depositing the funds (they originally could see it) now, since it has disappeared they apparently are not going to do anything. It is in the amount of $1600, all small amounts.

Any suggestions? We tried calling the phone numbers found in this forum and did not get a live person, only a loop – then they hang up on you. Not good.
www.cardpaymentoptions.com...-94056

A loss of $1600 would absolutely devastate our little shop's business! And, it would put me, personally, in a big financial hole!