Is there a support number for difficulties in accepting payments

[RobbieJewellery]

Hi, Not sure if this is the right section for this question, but I'm looking for a possible support number to cover the following situation, should it arise again in the future.

This is related to the payments issue reported on the status page for Nov 20 at about 13.20.
Put simply when trying to take a payment, the approval process was timing out and saying try again. After a few attempts the customer checked her bank account to find 3 deductions, however none of these were reported on the square app has being received. This left me in a very awkward position, since the customer "rightly" felt they had been charged 3 times. Because there was no record of the transaction coming through, I could not offer a refund. 
In the end I exchanged phone numbers with the customer and assured her that the supposed  transactions should be redeposited into her account once the system sorted itself out and if not then a phone call to the bank should be able to resolve the issue.
What I really needed at the time was a number I could call to check/clarify if there was a problem and what action to take. Trying to go through the automatic support system searching for help when you have a customer standing with you thinking they have been charged 3 times, is not a good look.

[SeddonDeadlySin]

We had the same issue on Saturday.  Looks like a lack of processing capacity. Saturday is a already a busy trading day and with the Black Friday sales there must be a bottle neck in the systems. 

Payment pending is not proof of purchase 

though most customers don’t understand this. 

[DebB1]

Interesting! Exactly the same thing happened in WA yesterday (20th Nov) I am a stall holder at quite a large market and just after 9.30 am the Square card reader stopped working…when trying to do a transaction it went round and round until finally it said something like 'No internet connection, transaction failed, cancelled'. The first time it happened, my customer and I tried twice to process $25. Finally she said she didn’t have cash and couldn’t buy anything and then left.

In the next hour I tried many times with other potential customers and got the same 'No internet connection, failed' message.

I heard from the other stall holders who had Square at that market, that they were all having the same issue. We all tried restarting phones and devices and trying to take payments, until about an hour later it started working again.

Later in the day I was contacted via Facebook by that first failed customer…..She had my name because it was on her bank statement, which said that she had paid me 2x $25 just after 9.30 am and $50 was gone out of her account and supposedly paid to me.

There was absolutely no record of it at all in my Square app, I do not have her money and I was not able to refund her.  Thank goodness she was understanding, but I felt terrible.   

I wonder if everyone who’s card was attempted to be processed during that outage also had their payment taken?? This is horrifying!

[RobbieJewellery]

I understand from my customer that the money debited from her account was returned sometime later. Although I lost out since I let the customer take her purchase. 

[DebB1]

Oh that’s good to know…I’m glad the money was returned to the customer. I hope that happens with my customer as well. The whole thing gives me an awful feeling about Square though, I did not use it at all at today’s market and I’m very reluctant to use it again. 

[Aikon]

It happened again this Saturday midday. App was saying the transaction was canceled, but the client was showing me bank app and the transaction was there, so I gave them the goods bought. Now I’m learning the transaction on their end was probably just pending. I lost hundreds of $s. How do I make those transactions valid?? Or who was it? Where is the report on failed transacions?

[Seamus]

Hey @Aikon,

Apologies for the issues you saw on Saturday. We saw some transactions declining/voiding over a 30 minutes period on Saturday due to an issue with an upstream payments partner. I have moved your comment to this thread for visibility. While we're not able to look at specific account transactional info via our public community forum, you can call our support team on 1800 760 137 - lines are open Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Melbourne time.

You should be able to also view a Transaction Status Report from your online dashboard.

[Seamus · Accepted solution]

@RobbieJewellery @SeddonDeadlySin @DebB1 Sorry to hear about the trouble you had on Saturday.

Our payment processing partner experienced an issue on Saturday for ~30 minutes which resulted in some payments being declined at point of sale. We understand how important it is never to miss a sale - thank you for being patient with us, and we apologise for the issue.

During this time, you may have seen declined or voided transactions. As @SeddonDeadlySin has mentioned, these transactions would have appeared as "Pending" on customer bank statements. On mobile apps it can be a bit tricker to view the transaction status - the app notification won't show the pending status, but it will if they go into the app and look at their transaction history list, or click on the transaction itself to bring up further info.

While it may initially look like the charge has posted to their account, it should disappear after a few business days. Square sends a void notification to the bank as soon as a payment becomes voided. This notification informs the bank that Square will not be capturing the funds in question. Once this notification has been sent, it is the bank’s responsibility to release any hold on those funds in the cardholder’s account.

Our support team will be able to clarify whether a given transaction has been declined as a result of this or for another reason (eg insufficient funds) so please feel free to reach out on 1800 760 137 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Melbourne time), or contact us via online chat or email:

1. Sign in to your Square account

2. Head to our contact page https://squareup.com/help/au/en/contact

3. Go to "More" then "I don't see my issue"

4. Click "Message us" or "Email us"

The best place to check in on Square's status out of business hours www.issquareup.com. Payment disruptions are very rare, but understandably frustrating when they occur. Our team will continue working with our payments partners to minimise these occurrences as much as possible in the future. 

[RobbieJewellery]

Thank you Seamus. I think I will print this out so that I can show it to customers in the future. I was confident that the customer would not loose her money, but difficult to convince her of this at the time. 
For a suggestion, would it be possible to have an information card on 'common issues when accepting payments', aimed at the customer, rather than the seller? Maybe include it with the marketing kit.

[Leann]

I still have customers chasing me for refunds due to funds being charged twice.  I also lost out on $100s in sales as I had to stop using Square.  What about the two customers I gave cash refunds to because I couldn't refund through square in real time and they were (justifiably) upset about their account being charged twice? 

What would have been nice, is if the Square support team got on the front foot and sent out an email apologising to everyone and explaining what happened over the weekend, and what we can do or tell our customers who are contacting us. 

I can tell you there is much discussion on social media group pages about this and there are a lot of your customers who are not happy.

[DebB1]

Unfortunately the exact same thing happened again yesterday, Saturday 4th around 8.30am WA time. Even though I tried to explain to the customer how the transaction had failed and how I had not received her $50 and how her $50 would bounce back into her account, she was extremely upset!. She came back to my stall two times to loudly DEMAND I give her back her money, and caused such an awful scene…it was horrendous, I was a shaking mess.

For goodness sake Square, please fix this issue. I shouldn’t have to be apprehensive and crossing my fingers, hoping transactions work each time I use your card reader.

[Arie]

I'm sorry to hear about the frustrating experience @DebB1. We experienced an issue with an upstream banking partner, which has now been resolved. We take payment disruptions seriously and understand how important it is never to miss a sale. Thank you for your patience, and please feel free to reach out to our support team on 1800 760 137, if you'd like us to take a look at your transactions with you. Our lines are open Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Melbourne time.