Bad News
Complaint
Tom
Country: United States
Hello,
I am a small business owner in AZ. Recently I purchased at the Walmart store a product that markets the public to easily start accepting credit cards purchases using their service. I am a new business owner and was looking for a credit card merchant. The Square products all state on the box for their Credit Card reader that "Now everyone can accept credit cards". I joined their service which only took a few minutes for them to start accepting credit card charges from my business which I thought was a great thing, however I did not know that after running several charges through them they put a hold on my legitimate business account and held over $5,000 dollars of my business operating capital. An email was sent to me from them stating they were putting my account on hold due to suspicious activity on my account and they wanted several documents from my business. Since I am legitimate and all of my charges were correct I had questions regarding the documents I emailed them and they promised to respond within 24 hours which did not happen. After multiple emails from me they finally responded 2 weeks later and with each email they promised to respond within 24 hours. After claification and a week response by them I sent in the documents they required only to hear back by email last night that they consider my business high risk and they deactivated my account and will hold my funds for 180 days. I have been to online blogs regarding Squareup.com and found they make this a regular business practice due to the large volume of complaints from business owners across the state and country where they have done the same practice too for many different reasons even putting some small business owners out of business by holding their funds. The false misleading marketing material they publish should be condemned where they lure the public in letting you use their service then keep your money with no warning "Now everyone can accept credit cards". I know they have legal coverage way back in their website to allow them to do this however it does not make it right to sucker you in and give them thousands of dollars to keep and use to prosper while consumers suffer. Please investigate this matter and this company (Square, Inc) I only ask that I recieve my funds immediately to operate my business so I am not another tragedy in their criminal game. I have also sent this complaint to the Arizona Attorney General and Walmart Stores corporate offices by email. This product should be taken off their shelves.
Thank you please let me know if you can help me and others.
Tom
I am a small business owner in AZ. Recently I purchased at the Walmart store a product that markets the public to easily start accepting credit cards purchases using their service. I am a new business owner and was looking for a credit card merchant. The Square products all state on the box for their Credit Card reader that "Now everyone can accept credit cards". I joined their service which only took a few minutes for them to start accepting credit card charges from my business which I thought was a great thing, however I did not know that after running several charges through them they put a hold on my legitimate business account and held over $5,000 dollars of my business operating capital. An email was sent to me from them stating they were putting my account on hold due to suspicious activity on my account and they wanted several documents from my business. Since I am legitimate and all of my charges were correct I had questions regarding the documents I emailed them and they promised to respond within 24 hours which did not happen. After multiple emails from me they finally responded 2 weeks later and with each email they promised to respond within 24 hours. After claification and a week response by them I sent in the documents they required only to hear back by email last night that they consider my business high risk and they deactivated my account and will hold my funds for 180 days. I have been to online blogs regarding Squareup.com and found they make this a regular business practice due to the large volume of complaints from business owners across the state and country where they have done the same practice too for many different reasons even putting some small business owners out of business by holding their funds. The false misleading marketing material they publish should be condemned where they lure the public in letting you use their service then keep your money with no warning "Now everyone can accept credit cards". I know they have legal coverage way back in their website to allow them to do this however it does not make it right to sucker you in and give them thousands of dollars to keep and use to prosper while consumers suffer. Please investigate this matter and this company (Square, Inc) I only ask that I recieve my funds immediately to operate my business so I am not another tragedy in their criminal game. I have also sent this complaint to the Arizona Attorney General and Walmart Stores corporate offices by email. This product should be taken off their shelves.
Thank you please let me know if you can help me and others.
Tom
Comments
Did you link your Square account to your checking account?
Are you doing card-not present transactions?
https://squareup.com/legal/ua
16b. Payout Schedule - Card-Not-Present Sales.
If you accrue more than $1,000 in card-not-present sales during any trailing seven day period, Square will defer depositing the amount in excess of $1,000 for 30 days. For accounts likely to exceed $1,000 in card-not-present sales per week, contact Square support to inquire about accelerating your payout schedule. Upon receiving this request, or once you exceed $1,000 in weekly card-not-present sales, Square will conduct a review of your Square Account to determine if you qualify for acceleration. Square will consider a variety of factors in making its decision, including but not limited to a proprietary set of rules, chargeback rates, transaction behavior, and other supplemental data about your business.
Why shut them down completely with no way of getting answers to the many questions that follow? Square basically "drags you out of your own business, no time to prepare, pack, or find an alternative solution, just throws you out on the streets after slamming their door on you!" Oh and holding your money hostage.
Is this how a "reputable" business should treat its customers? This causes many small business owners to simply go out of business, Square essentially kills any business by shutting down their cash flow, many times even after the merchant has already shipped good or provided services, thus leaving merchants with no way of covering bills and expenses, etc.
Furthermore, why doesn't Square investigate merchants prior to opening their account? Why not ask for all such documentation and a conduct an analysis of the type of business and transactions the business owner will be conducting so as to avoid or warn merchants ahead of time?
The answer is very simple: they want to get as many customers as possible, make money off them, and shut them down while holding their funds hostage without any regard to its merchants.
Square is the WORST thing ever! They sent me an email stating there was an inquiry about my account and something about fraud. NO WARNING, took $1,400 out of my account and now my account is NEGATIVE! I didn't even have time to dispute this! I cannot find a correct phone number either! This is causing me INCREDIBLE FRUSTRATION. This company needs to be 1) SHUT DOWN, and 2) SUED and have any profits TAKEN AWAY FROM THEM.