Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My Recent Experience With Square

jasongullickson.posterous.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 96 posts

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#11

Post by noonespecial »

It just goes to show that even with Square, charge-backs suck. People are going to look you right in the eye and steal from you. Its a business reality.

The company that addresses this problem in the most painless way possible is going to win. We can thank payapl for demonstrating the worst way to handle it. The moral: be as least paypal like as possible.

I don't think its possible to cure the charge-back. As a merchant, you're going to lose out. That just seems to be how it works. The win will come from making the process as clear and painless as possible. Automatic systems that keep overdrafting your bank while sending you robo-responses are not they way.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#12

Post by TylerE »

pm24601 wrote: post #10
mrsteveman1 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I like to hate on Paypal because they deserve it for a variety of reasons, I'm considering lately that for financial services startups like this, it's possible they CAN'T do certain things differently, though perhaps customer service could make up for it and may not have in this case. This phrase caught my eye in the story "Per the network regulations, the debit process is automated and will continue to at…

Absolutely square could do things better. How about for starters picking up the goddamn phone and making a call to talk to the customer in person? It really shocks me that people are willing to entrust their business's finances with a company they cannot contact immediately. I do exactly what the OP poster did - have a account that receives the funds and is immediately swept to an entirely different institution. I wo…

Low fees. High quality customer support. Pick one. You can't have it both ways.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#13

Post by pm24601 »

parfe wrote: post #3

I'm not sure why this guy had trouble understanding that he needed money in his account as collateral against the charge back. "Yeah, he'll probably send us the money if the charge back is upheld" is not a sustainable policy.

I'm not sure why you think it is a good idea to let random outside parties dip into his business's working capital?

Ooops sorry about withdrawing $10,000 instead of $100. What's a decimal place among friends? Hope you can still make that tax payment and payroll while we futzy around on our end.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#14

Post by adgar »

I get nauseous when I see companies with 200 some-odd employees respond to a distressed individual with PR-drafted form letter ad libs.

I can't wait to see what they do when they have 2,000 employees.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#15

Post by leejw00t354 »

I think Square could have tried to be more understanding of this use case.

He did clearly explain that the linked account didn't keep a balance and that he was willing to pay the negative balance in his Square account with other sources.

I don't see this as shockingly poor customer service, but Square should have just disabled the automatic debiting on his account as he was a long time trust worthy customer.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#16

Post by adgar »

bmj1 wrote: post #5

I have to disagree (perhaps unfashionably) with the author's sentiment and the comment below "I really like Square, but I always have this feeling that this company is going to be oe (sic) more paypal and with this story it´s confirmed." - The customer service was pretty responsive and reasonably polite for a very fast growing company. - The author notes he has paid Square hundreds of dollars in transactions fees so…

You seem to be giving Square far, far more credit than any business deserves. I suspect it is because Square is an HN darling, but hey, to each his own.

I take serious issue with your characterization that those Square responses were "pretty responsive" and "reasonably polite."

* They took several days to respond to a time-sensitive billing issue

* They claimed to provide support they could not and did not provide

* They refused to even acknowledge that this was frustrating for the customer

* They refused to acknowledge that their automated systems may not be doing the best thing for the customer

* Instead of owning any responsibility, they blamed the customer, several times

* __They still haven't given him his money__

All over a measly 180 dollars. Seriously - Square jerked this guy around for weeks over less than two hundred bucks.

How on Earth do you characterize those actions as responsive or polite? They weren't "responsive" to the customer's support interactions or his time-sensitive needs. They barely even "responded" at all, considering the e-mails they sent were clearly stock PR crap with some blanks filled in.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#17

Post by dsterry »

noonespecial wrote: post #11

It just goes to show that even with Square, charge-backs suck. People are going to look you right in the eye and steal from you. Its a business reality. The company that addresses this problem in the most painless way possible is going to win. We can thank payapl for demonstrating the worst way to handle it. The moral: be as least paypal like as possible. I don't think its possible to cure the charge-back. As a merch…

Well there is Bitcoin which has no chargebacks and for a face-to-face transaction there would be little need for an addon escrow service.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#18

Post by delinquentme »

pm24601 wrote: post #10
mrsteveman1 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I like to hate on Paypal because they deserve it for a variety of reasons, I'm considering lately that for financial services startups like this, it's possible they CAN'T do certain things differently, though perhaps customer service could make up for it and may not have in this case. This phrase caught my eye in the story "Per the network regulations, the debit process is automated and will continue to at…

Absolutely square could do things better. How about for starters picking up the goddamn phone and making a call to talk to the customer in person? It really shocks me that people are willing to entrust their business's finances with a company they cannot contact immediately. I do exactly what the OP poster did - have a account that receives the funds and is immediately swept to an entirely different institution. I wo…

Hate to break it to you but a pissy customer whos mad over $175 bucks only thinks hes a priority when it comes to square.

Seriously how much cash are they transacting ... and hes flipping out over ( as pointed out earlier ) $180 profit for square?

yeahh....

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#19

Post by Navarr »

I read over this and all I can think is that OP didn't do what he should've.

Their process of pulling in funds when you have a negative balance is automated. (check)

He said he'd fund it from another source, but as far as I read (got really bored about halfway through) He didn't. So the automated process pulled in money from his linked account, as expected.

This money was crucial because square has to be able to refund the chargeback should it end in the customer's favor.

I don't understand OP's problem with Square. They handled this as best as they possibly could?

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#20

Post by pm24601 »

pm24601 wrote: post #10
mrsteveman1 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I like to hate on Paypal because they deserve it for a variety of reasons, I'm considering lately that for financial services startups like this, it's possible they CAN'T do certain things differently, though perhaps customer service could make up for it and may not have in this case. This phrase caught my eye in the story "Per the network regulations, the debit process is automated and will continue to at…

Absolutely square could do things better. How about for starters picking up the goddamn phone and making a call to talk to the customer in person? It really shocks me that people are willing to entrust their business's finances with a company they cannot contact immediately. I do exactly what the OP poster did - have a account that receives the funds and is immediately swept to an entirely different institution. I wo…

Tyler, that kind of lets all sort of bad behavior off the hook doesn't it?

I rather like the high quality, low cost support I get from https://www.techcu.com/ myself.

Post reply on HN