Does anyone know if the "real big" merchants like Walmart have to pay the fee? I assume they're so large they can sit on the processors and squeeze them (I know Costco does, they pay 0% fees in-store because Visa is so hungry to be their processor).
Square to no longer return processing fees when buyers are issued a refund
61–70 of 176 posts
Re: Square to no longer return processing fees when buyers are issued a refund
#62I guess the days when refunds were frictionless so that consumers could purchase with confidence are gone? Refunds have always been a cost of doing business - it just seems the processors / card companies want to change the rules and have their cake and eat it now that cash is mostly dead.
Refunds are still frictionless for consumers. It's vendors who have to maintain product quality and prevent fraud to avoid returns. It's not Square's job to make sure that a vendor's product is high-quality or that customers really want to keep the products they buy. Credit cards mostly work the same way. https://www.cardfellow.com/blog/credit-card-refund-fees
Re: Square to no longer return processing fees when buyers are issued a refund
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Businesses will increase costs to cover it, just like they do now.
How will that help in the scenario the GP described? The businesses would still have to refund those higher charges.
Re: Square to no longer return processing fees when buyers are issued a refund
#64This will affect businesses that do 3rd party merchant services, like events. If the event is cancelled, refunds are issued. Who pays that fee? It would be up to the business to try to claw back funds from the promoter of the event... who is now bankrupt from not being able to do their event. It gets ugly fast.
Re: Square to no longer return processing fees when buyers are issued a refund
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And of course, it is always negotiable. Sweet. How do I negotiate with Amazon again? In reality, negotiation is a relic of a long gone era and flea markets. Buyer agency in general has mostly disappeared in modern transactions.
"negotiation is a relic of a long gone era and flea markets" So how did you determine salary last time you were hired? (I last negotiated a price in a retail store about 10 years ago - if you call that a long gone era then I feel rather old).
Even vacation has been non-negotiable. It's disheartening, but typical for tech (and ironically largely enabled by tech).
Re: Square to no longer return processing fees when buyers are issued a refund
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Businesses will increase costs to cover it, just like they do now.
How will that help in the scenario the GP described? The businesses would still have to refund those higher charges.
Re: Square to no longer return processing fees when buyers are issued a refund
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Businesses will increase costs to cover it, just like they do now.
How will that help in the scenario the GP described? The businesses would still have to refund those higher charges.
Re: Square to no longer return processing fees when buyers are issued a refund
#68This will affect businesses that do 3rd party merchant services, like events. If the event is cancelled, refunds are issued. Who pays that fee? It would be up to the business to try to claw back funds from the promoter of the event... who is now bankrupt from not being able to do their event. It gets ugly fast.
I'd think they'd just amend insurance policies to include the potential 3% revenue loss.
This also isn't just events, that is only one example. Any 3rd party merchant service provider is going to be affected.
Back when I had my events company, we went with WePay because they were the only service at the time that offered 'free' refunds. Eventually, it became the norm. Now it seems like this policy is getting reverted and that's going to have a large impact on merchant service providers.
Re: Square to no longer return processing fees when buyers are issued a refund
#69This is now pretty standard across the industry. PayPal made the same change last year.
Sadly users still expect refunds for any reason. Charging a 3% fee on a refund is a cause for a shtfit.
Re: Square to no longer return processing fees when buyers are issued a refund
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And of course, it is always negotiable. Sweet. How do I negotiate with Amazon again? In reality, negotiation is a relic of a long gone era and flea markets. Buyer agency in general has mostly disappeared in modern transactions.
This isn't true in payments. There are many reseller orgs, indie processors, etc. that are happy to negotiate heavily based on volume etc. Source: I was director of digital marketing for a payments company a few years ago.
Or, to put another way, someone selling handmade goods at a fair using Square will never have more negotiation power than "if you don't like it, leave".