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My website hasn't propagated and it's been a month!

I'm extremely frustrated with the service we've received from Square/Weebly and I’m reaching out to this community in hopes of finding some resolution or at least sharing my grievances.

 

We started working with Square Online on May 16th, expecting a smooth setup and functional website. However, since May 26th, we've been facing continuous issues, and despite countless interactions with support, we still don’t have a functioning website.

 

Each time we contact support, we are assured that the underlying issue has been identified and will be resolved within 24-48 hours. Yet, nothing changes. When we follow up, we're either ignored for days or passed to a new representative, causing us to start the process over from scratch.

 

To make matters worse, our domain, which was officially transferred to Weebly on May 29th, is not discoverable. The server cannot be found, and it shows as a "not secure" page when using the link provided in editor for viewing purposes on my end. This downtime has caused us to lose out on sales and negatively impacted our online visibility, as Google updates show we're missing out on numerous searches due to the website being down.

 

Adding insult to injury, it turns out that one of the representatives was using ChatGPT to respond to our issues. I was literally having a conversation with a robot instead of getting support from a qualified professional. This is inexcusable and unacceptable on every level.

 

The last straw was when support claimed that the reason we're receiving these error messages (see screenshots at end of thread) was due to bad SEO. This response was completely unhelpful and misleading, as our issue is with the website's functionality, not its search engine optimization.

 

To move back to our old web host, we now face an additional $10.99 fee to transfer the domain.

Not only are we starting back at square one but we're also paying for it. Our customers are growing anxious, and this unresolved situation is damaging our business.

 

Has anyone else experienced similar issues? How were they resolved? Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated or if we are doing something wrong I would love to understand and fix it. 

 

Thank you,

Cindy.

 

Screenshot 2024-06-10 123324.pngIMG_4030.jpegIMG_4029.jpegprocessed-E79D65B8-CA73-4F66-A11F-CD0FCC53C3E4.jpeg

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2 Best Answers

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Wow, it worked! You (and your web developer friends) are absolute heroes! It still shows as not secure but honestly, that's the least of my concerns right now. What is the next step?

Screenshot 2024-06-10 183324.pngScreenshot 2024-06-10 183315.png

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Square Community Moderator

Best Answer

Hey @CynthiaPierce,

 

Our team has resolved this issue! 

 

I know this wasn't easy and appreciate you sticking with us! 🙏

View Best Answer >

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No problem. Thanks, @RobynR and @TheRealChipA for all the help. I'm excited to be one step closer to figuring this out!

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Square Champion

@RobynR please read our entire thread here.  On Thursday, I reached out to Adam in the Champions lounge.  He reset a few things and we have now waited over 5 days with no satisfactory results.  This is the third time that I’ve been involved in waiting at least 48 hours, and more!  Adam confirmed that this is unusual but they hoped that what they did would fix this.  It did not.  I updated my thread in the Champions lounge and am waiting to hear back.  @CynthiaPierce already knows (as she mentioned multiple times in this thread) that she needs to wait 24-48 hours after making such changes.  She has done that numerous times.  What we need now is someone to figure out why the changes are propagating to SOME DNS servers but not to all.  I have confirmed that her DNS is not propagating to Google, OpenDNS, and CloudFlare, three of the most used in the United States.

 

@CynthiaPierce does not need to wait again.  She has waited sufficiently as evidenced by all of the work we have done together in the past week.  It’s time to quit the insanity of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  It’s time to investigate.

Chip

If my answer resolves your issue, please take a minute to mark it as Best Answer. That helps people who find this thread in the future.

Piper’s Ice Cream Bar, Covington KY USA
Website
Facebook
Click here to see a list of third-party apps I use to add functionality to my Square account!

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Big gun time.  @isabelle @Pesso @maxpete 

 

Can one (or all) of you get something moving, after of course checking in with Adam?  I’ve spent a lot of time here to no good result.  I’m about at the end of my level of incompetence here, having exhausted every trick I know.  There is something extremely strange and frustrating going on here.  The usual tricks (which include waiting) do NOT work and suggesting that we just keep waiting is, in fact, insulting to me and to @CynthiaPierce.  The ECOM team needs to take this very seriously, IMHO.  I’m not seeing that level of commitment here.  Sorry for the frustrated bluntness but if you read this thread from beginning to end, I think I can be excused for feeling a little slighted here.

Chip

If my answer resolves your issue, please take a minute to mark it as Best Answer. That helps people who find this thread in the future.

Piper’s Ice Cream Bar, Covington KY USA
Website
Facebook
Click here to see a list of third-party apps I use to add functionality to my Square account!

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Admin

Thanks for the tag, Chip! I'll do what I can to escalate this asap!

Max Pete
Community Engagement Program Manager, Square
Square Community
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Square Community Moderator

Hey @TheRealChipA, thank you once again for your assistance with @CynthiaPierce

 

I want to assure you that I thoroughly reviewed the entire thread before escalating it to our ECOM team and responding in the Seller Community. I also informed them that the seller has been experiencing this issue for over a month so that they could understand the sense of urgency.

 

The domain was transferred from another company to us in May, so previous attempts to connect or reconnect the domain were not successful. Currently, our team can see that the domain is in the process of fully propagating. We understand this isn't an ideal experience, but for domain-related issues, our team is required to wait out the 48-hour propagation period.

 

After this time has passed, if the domain still isn't working as expected, the best course of action would be to contact our Support team and request to speak with an ECOM agent directly for live troubleshooting.

 

Thank you for your continued patience and time.

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@CynthiaPierce Since you have now waited 6 days (which is more than the 48 hours) I guess you’ll need to get on the phone with the ECOM team.  You’ll want to mention everything that we’ve done together, and that you were told to wait 48 hours AFTER you had waited 6 days, which seems odd but true.  Hopefully someone there can figure this out.  I’m sorry you are being asked to be patient, after being more than patient, and I’m sorry that you are being asked to wait.

 

@RobynR Please pass on to the ECOM team that @CynthiaPierce HAS waited 48 hours.  She has waited 6 days since Adam made some modifications.  Since six days is definitely longer that the required 48 hours, I hope that they can actually do something now other than tell her to wait another 48 hours. 

 

@CynthiaPierce I’d love it if you would come back here and update me on what has happened.  I’ll admit that this issue wins the prize for the most frustrating one I’ve ever dealt with in all my years with Square.  It would be less frustrating if we weren’t being told we hadn’t waited 48 hours after we had waited 6 days.  But, I’m going to have to throw my hands up in total frustration.

 

My apologies for this circus.

Chip

If my answer resolves your issue, please take a minute to mark it as Best Answer. That helps people who find this thread in the future.

Piper’s Ice Cream Bar, Covington KY USA
Website
Facebook
Click here to see a list of third-party apps I use to add functionality to my Square account!

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@TheRealChipA, I think there might be a bit of a misunderstanding in our communication.

 

We understand Cynthia has patiently waited beyond the 48-hour threshold, but her previous attempts weren't successful because she wasn't using our DNS at that time. Our ECOM team confirmed that the most recent change, made less than 48 hours ago, is currently what we are waiting to propagate. 

 

It's important to note that each time things are updated, it triggers a new turnaround time of up to 48 hours for propagation. Unfortunately, neither we nor our ECOM team can expedite this process time.

 

I would suggest waiting the full 48 hours before reaching out to support to avoid being advised to wait until the 48-hour period is complete.

 

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@TheRealChipA, @RobynR, and @maxpete,

Thank you for your messages and all the help you've provided so far. It has indeed been a long and frustrating journey.

 

TheRealChipA, Thank you for going to bat for us. In the past, when reaching out to ECOM I have ended up in chats where I have to explain everything from the very beginning and usually get a generic response that they've updated the domain and it will be another 48 hours.

 

RobynR, I understand we need to wait the full 48 hours. Hopefully, ECOM can provide a concrete solution this time, rather than making another change and asking us to wait again.

 

MAXPETE, thank you as well for your support and assistance throughout this process.

 

However, we are running out of time. We are now in the countdown to our 48-hour window for the ECOM team, and our website is still not responding. We don't have much hope that anything will change in the next 24 hours. Is there a way to find out why the changes are propagating to some DNS servers but not all?

 

If the issue is not resolved in the immediate future, we will have no choice but to abandon this case study and move on.

 

This has been incredibly challenging, but your support has been invaluable.

Thank you again for all your efforts and understanding.

 

Best,
Cynthia

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@RobynR Any updates? I'm only pushing because I want this to work out so badly. What are the next steps? Do we transfer now? You mentioned we would be good to go after 48 hours on Monday, and that time is up.

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Square Community Moderator

Hi @CYNTHIAPIERCE 👋

 

I'm so sorry to see you are still dealing with this issue. I can imagine how frustrating this must be. 

 

When I search the domain information online, I do not see any DNS records showing up. For instance, here. 

 

I escalated another request to the advanced support team to see if they can explain why the domain has been properly transferred, yet the DNS records appear to be stuck in limbo. They do have access to the backend and can override settings, so hopefully they will be able to assist. 

 

As soon as I hear back from the team I will let you know. Please also feel free to @ me if you have any additional insight to add. 

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@BernadetteA I’m going to add one insight.  Some of them DO have, so DNS records are only in limbo for SOME.  For example, register.com has DNS and can resolve the IP address.  So do/can AT&T, HiNet, Securolytics, and Yandex.  But others can’t — Google, Comodo, AdGuard, CloudFlare, OpenDNS, Verisign.

 

The inconsistency is weird and frustrating.  That’s what made me think that this might be exacerbated by an incomplete transfer of the domain to Square — that there are conflicting records out there somewhere.  But, that’s just a guess.

Chip

If my answer resolves your issue, please take a minute to mark it as Best Answer. That helps people who find this thread in the future.

Piper’s Ice Cream Bar, Covington KY USA
Website
Facebook
Click here to see a list of third-party apps I use to add functionality to my Square account!

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Update: our website was removed from our Google business profile over the weekend.Screenshot 2024-06-24 084910.pngScreenshot 2024-06-24 084830.png

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Hey @CynthiaPierce, our team has resolved the issue!

 

I cannot thank you enough for your patience and grace during this time. If there is anything else we can do for you please let us know! 

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Hey @BernadetteA - do we have an estimate on when the advanced support team will have an explanation on why the domain has been properly transferred, and if they will be able to override settings? 

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Hello @CynthiaPierce, stepping in for @BernadetteA while she is off. 

 

We do not have an ETA, I do see our team is still investigating this. 

 

I know this isn't easy and truly appreciate you working with us on this! 

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Thank you for stepping in, @MayaP.

 

I have a few questions regarding our situation. Do you think it would be better to wait and hope that we can continue with Square as our host, or should we consider moving to another provider if this issue persists? We've already experienced significant setbacks due to our website being non-functional for nearly six weeks.

I genuinely want this to work out, but I understand that this is a complex issue and you may not be able to provide a definite answer. Additionally, if our DNS records are currently in limbo, will they remain so even if we switch to a different web host?

 

Best,

Cynthia

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Hey @CynthiaPierce,

 

Our team has resolved this issue! 

 

I know this wasn't easy and appreciate you sticking with us! 🙏

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HALLELUJAH! 🎉 Thank you so much to everyone who worked hard to resolve this issue. It was truly a team effort, and your persistence is greatly appreciated! 🙌

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