(Resolved) Performance Issue: Square Services Disruption 6 Feb, 2024

[amydssalon]

[The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Square is down again, getting frustrated]

Help cannot check out or bring up directory 

[#2]

We have identified the issue and are working to release a fix as quickly as possible. Thank you for your continued patience. 

If you are already logged in to your account, please do not log out. You can opt into offline payments to continue taking payments until service is restored. 

For live service updates, visit IsSquareUp.com

[tranguyen]

We have identified the issue and are working to release a fix as quickly as possible. Thank you for your continued patience. 

If you are already logged in to your account, please do not log out. You can opt into offline payments to continue taking payments until service is restored. 

For live service updates, visit IsSquareUp.com

[Convstore]

With this service disruption today is it ok to accept payments from customers? Transactions are getting approved on the App but not showing up in Summary.

[alexandriak]

You should be fine but I know some of us are being forced into offline mode. Note that with offline mode it needs to connect to the system within 24 hours for those transactions to go thru. 

[Candlestore]

@Convstore ;

If your system is online and not in offline mode, you SHOULD be fine.  Now to have a paper trail of this I would print out a gift receipt at minimum to keep in your records incase something fails.   Before when Square had this issue I setup my receipt printer 2 times.  The Square Print Profiles I set up, one was manual, that I had to tell it to print, and the other one I setup to print every receipt out of the same printer.  This way if Square missed something I could scan these receipts and say receipt #AY5t is missing from your report, scan it and send them a copy.  I did NOT have to do that because everything did show up, but was delayed even after they got everything fixed.  When all was fixed I disabled the Profile to print automatically.  This way if things went sideway (like) today I just enabled the always print receipt profile.

Here is how to setup printer profiles

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/6050-create-a-printer-station-and-connect-a-printer 

[RobynR]

Thanks for jumping in here @Candlestore!

@Convstore I went ahead and merged your post to an existing thread where other Square Sellers have discussed this topic as well. We merge duplicate conversations together to keep like comments in one place, and to make it easier for others to find the thread in the future. 

[brick]

Once again... Square is completely down and we cannot conduct business... i.e. we're losing business... i.e. our livelihood is threatened.  So now what???

[Candlestore]

@brick ;

Some of us use more than one CC processor in just such a case.  It is inevitable that a CC processor will have issues.  Square, Clover, any of them or all of them run into these issues sooner or later.  I even make sure I have 2 internet connections, 1 Cable and 1 through my cell provider and a hot spot.  

There are other credit card processors that do not charge a monthly fee, and only charge by a set % of processing fees.  The fees for some are more than Square, but a Higher fee in a pinch is better than lost sales.

Being in business you need to be prepared for the worse, and hope it never happens.  Why do you think stores also have backup generators and UPS systems for computers and network devices so we can power them down safely.

What I did the first time I experienced this I set my recieipt printer up with 2 profiles:

1) Manual receipt print - incase customer wants a Printed receipt, most want no receipt or texted or emailed is fine so we save paper.

2) ALWAYS print a recipt - so then I would get a receipt automatically for my records, in case the transaction did not show up in Square.  This way I had physical proof of it.  I did not need this but gave me a sense of security.

[DinaLRosenberg]

Like @Candlestore says above- always have a backup. We are functional but very slow currently. We have a Zelle and Venmo account we use in these cases.

[RobynR]

Thank you again, @Candlestore, for jumping in here and @DinaLRosenberg, as well!

@brick I went ahead and merged your post to an existing thread where other Square Sellers have discussed this topic as well. We merge duplicate conversations together to keep like comments in one place, and to make it easier for others to find the thread in the future. 

[ghostinit]

SQUARE WTF DOWN AGAIN! Just was down two months ago! How can you run a business like this? This is crazy!!! Imma hold my funds from you all for days and see how y'all like it! WTF get your **bleep** together! 

[JJ_]

Hello there @ghostinit. Just wanted to let you know that I have merged your post to a board where fellow Sellers are sharing their concerns regarding the Square Services disruption. 

[French-Baker]

Days that we don't experience some sort of weird anomaly with Square are now rare.  

Unfortunately "System Disruption" announcement that was sent out yesterday (2/7/2024) did not clarify what we would experience at our end. So this morning when a customer calls and says her credit card was charged twice for her order (while we have received only one order) puts us in a awkward place on how to respond/resolve her issue and not to mention a lot of time wasted. Or when a customer emails us to say she tried to place an order but could not, we have no answers.

Why does Square did not share the details of what to expect with "System Disruption"?

Instead it was mentioned as "delay in balance transfer" as a result of the disruption. Obviously that is important but keeping us merchants in the dark, does not build confidence.

I need to mention that I am writing this not just because of yesterday's event, but the instability/reliability we have been experiencing quite frequently with Square.

It is bothersome that with all the talent that we have in the Bay Area, they cannot put a team together that can fix the reliability of this system. We obviously don't want to see this beautiful platform slowly lose customers and fade away. Tackling the issues head on and communicating more clearly will certainly help.

[_Violet · Accepted solution]

Hi all - Just wanted to provide an update here.

After careful monitoring, we can confirm that the main service disruption is resolved.

We appreciate your patience with us while our teams worked to resolve this issue.