Hey there, @Kitchen216. So first, allow me to clear up a common misconception. Square Risk Manager ONLY works for orders placed online. It does not apply to in-person charges. For the in-person ones, our only recourse has been and continues to be checking IDs to be sure they match the card being presented. In your case — since this seems to be a problem with timing you can predict — I would recommend figuring out a way to take a photo of the ID as well. Then, when you receive a dispute, you can go back to your photos and find the ID to use as some proof that you did, in fact, have the card holder with you at the time of the transaction. It sucks, but not as bad as losing money does.
For your online orders, let’s dig a little deeper. Can you please share a screen shot of all of the Risk Manager rules/actions that you have set up? I have a couple of thoughts about what might be going on and how you might be able to tighten the noose a little more. But I need to see your rules and actions taken when those rules are triggered.
All of that being said, the fact that we take cards at all makes us sitting ducks. This is because the card processors (Mastercard, etc) and the banks are some of the biggest contributors to political campaigns. They get to buy their version of fairness and justice and almost always this means that we are at the mercy of the card-issuing bank. Customers know this, too, and exploit it. The only real way you can protect yourself is not to take cards, which everyone knows is pretty much business suicide for most of us.
@Kitchen216 Can you click on and screen shot the setup for the two rules that have the action “Require 3D Secure?” It looks like you’re doing quite a bit, but I might be able to see something more.
Also, have you verified that some of your disputes did indeed go through this 3D secure process? There are logs in Risk Manager where you can review this sort of information. I ask because if you can prove that a disputed transaction did invoke 3D Secure, you might have a case here with Square. This is because of the following quotes from the 3D Secure documentation. (Red highlights are mine, not Square’s)
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Disputes with 3D Secure
If you have a 3D Secure rule enabled and a payment does not invoke it due to a service outage, system failure, or if a qualifying customer’s card-issuing bank does not have 3D Secure enabled, Square will cover the dispute, also known as a chargeback.
If you have a 3D Secure rule enabled and a payment goes through because the issuing bank verified it, you are not responsible for covering a fraud chargeback (but may be responsible for other types of disputes).
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Benefits and risks of 3D Secure
While there are a lot of benefits to using 3D Secure….
- Fraud chargeback protection: If a payment is 3D Secure verified and results in a fraud dispute, you as a seller are not held responsible.
- If the dispute is non-fraud (a customer is unhappy with purchase, broken items, etc.), you may still be liable for the chargeback. You can protect yourself from these chargebacks by using Square Contracts.
These quotes from the 3D Secure help document are the ONLY part of Risk Manager to include this added protection, as Square nor the issuing bank do not guarantee the others which they repeatedly state in other Risk Manager documents. But with 3D Secure, they seem to be saying that we’ve done enough.
Anyway, please post the two additional screen shots I requested and maybe we can tighten this up a little for your online transactions.
@Kitchen216 Also I should ask. Are all of your delivery orders placed through your Square online store? Or do they go through the third-party delivery service sometimes, too?
@Kitchen216 I’m going to post a few times here. Please read carefully before you call Square.
First, before you call them, you need to be sure that your Risk Manager rules and actions were sufficient to invoke them. If the rules weren’t broad enough and the issuing bank wasn’t notified to do 3D secure, then Square will not guarantee anything, nor should they.
Second, that reason is EXACTLY why I asked you to bring up both rules you have for 3D Secure and screen shot them and post those shots here. As an example, if your first 3D Secure rule only triggers for amounts over $50, and your disputed transaction was under $50, then Square has no potential liability.
Third, if we can find a transaction or two that should have triggered 3D Secure, you’ll need that activity from the Risk Manager log so you can identify if the rule(s) worked correctly. Calling Square right now is VERY premature.
So don’t get ahead of yourself. First, PLEASE make the screen shots I asked you to make and post them here. Then I can give you pointers about where to go next.
@Kitchen216 I’ll emphasize here — you COULD STILL be responsible, especially if the Risk Manager rules were not set up correctly. That’s always on us.
@Kitchen216 Thank you. That’s a big help. On the Main Risk Evaluation page are two reports — Blocked Payments and Allowed Payments. You now need to find a recent disputed transaction, then locate it here to see how Risk Manager handled it. Most likely the transaction is in the Allowed Payments list. When looking it up, you’ll need to be sure your date range is close to the date of the transaction.
Anyway, let me know what you see. With a screen shot, if possible.
As for your other question, if you set it up correctly and either Square or the bank messed up, then you at least have the starting point of a case here. We’re closer to determining out if that is the case.
Thanks, again, @Kitchen216. I have one more question here. You posted screen shots of two Risk Manager rules — one for $10 and one for $100. Are both of these still active? If they are, they should not be. There’s no way to know how Risk Manager would act with contradictions such as that. If might be that the law requires it to match BOTH before triggering, rather than one or the other. Anyway, if you have two rules like that, delete one of them. My guess would be that this is the entire cause of your problem. Keep the $10 rule and delete the $100 rule.
You’re welcome. Once you have your rule list cleaned up, give it some time. Then if you get another dispute, you can come back here and post the information. We will investigate and give you the evidence you need to approach Square with your concerns.
Since I saw this duplicate rule thing, I’m not sure past disputes will do you any good. I truly believe that those two rules sort of cancelled each other out. We should concentrate on the future after you fix your rules list.
