My Recent Experience With Square • Hacker News Board

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#61

Post by pbreit » Thu, May 10, 2012, 6:48 PM UTC

Navarr wrote: post #19

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 refu…

> They handled this as best as they possibly could?

I disagree. Square handled it in a manner similar to waht we've come to expect from, say, PayPal. But I think many of us were expecting Square to be better than that.

The tone of the support staff was unsympathetic, responses took too long, the reply about sending in multiple inquiries was obnoxious, there was an over-reliance on links to terms of service, funds recovery seemed over-aggressive considering the customer's legitimacy.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#62

Post by benatkin » Thu, May 10, 2012, 6:52 PM UTC

Glad Square isn't wasting money (or time, or attention) on people who are misusing it so badly. Square is well-funded but that isn't what funding is for.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#63

Post by rhizome » Thu, May 10, 2012, 7:02 PM UTC

debacle wrote: post #48

Throughout the entire exchange, Square is relatively prompt and incredibly informative and professional. This guy doesn't know how electronic payments work, and has clearly never had to deal with managing a merchant account before.

He also didn't mention anything about hearing back on his inquiry to his customer company. Maybe only Square has to reply promptly?

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#64

Post by jsavimbi » Thu, May 10, 2012, 7:08 PM UTC

Man get all wacky about $175 transaction. IF you're playing that close to the bone, my advice would be to stick to cash sales and forget about banks and online escrow services like Square.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#65

Post by FuzzyDunlop » Thu, May 10, 2012, 7:24 PM UTC

The problem here isn't necessarily with Square, but with Jason being very quick to play the 'taking further action' card.

Being irate and confrontational gets you absolutely nowhere, and I would never say Jason's exchange was an exemplary case of dealing with an unexpected situation professionally, and with a cool head.

Having spent 7 years in customer service, I'd encounter such attitudes all the time. It achieves nothing, except to piss off the person you're mouthing off to.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#66

Post by phillco » Thu, May 10, 2012, 7:56 PM UTC

pbreit wrote: post #59

phillco wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Verification of a new account would take up to 5 business days, so it would be no faster than sending an ACH for the money.

What are you referring to?

When you link your bank account with Square, they have to send test deposits first to verify that it is indeed yours. These take up to 5 days, plus the time after that to actually transfer the overdrawn money.

Asking Square to take the money from another account would be no faster than moving it yourself to your primary one, because of this verification stage. Even if you had the foresight to link it ahead of time, Square only supports being associated with one account at a time.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#67

Post by twunde » Thu, May 10, 2012, 8:06 PM UTC

There are a few issues with this article

1) The author never understood that he has to keep some sort of balance to cover chargebacks. Square may need to better communicate this since they are targeting people who may have never dealt with credit card processors. The automated chargebacks themselves may be regulated by the government and if not are standard practice to prevent fraud.

2) Square needs to upgrade its customer service division. The division is obviously not able to respond in a timely manner at this moment. The first thing they should do is change their policy to reflect that it's more likely to be 24-48 hours before a response. Their response was factual and ok for a big bank. However since Square promised to be different they should be aspiring to be like Charles Schwaub's credit card service where you can get someone on the phone at any hour and have them explain what's going on and why and what you can do about it. That's the kind of service that most people who use Square expect and should get. And specifically they should be available by telephone.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#68

Post by chpolk » Thu, May 10, 2012, 8:38 PM UTC

sumang wrote: post #2

I really like Square, but I always have this feeling that this company is going to be oe more paypal and with this story it´s confirmed. Hope they solve this issue and improve their customer service .

I agree, I created an account whenever Square had first come out and for whatever reason my identification could never be verified allowing me to not be able to use Square. After an email to customer service, I was told "If we believe we erred in our assessment, we will reach back out and contact you", to basically say that my ID couldn't be verified and it would be that way into the extended future unless Square changed their minds. I understand things need to be safe and secure but at least ask for some other form of verification for my ID before telling me that I just can't use your service.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#69

Post by wilmoore » Thu, May 10, 2012, 8:44 PM UTC

awj wrote: post #60

ArbitraryLimits wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Getting money quickly from a merchant account is a privilege, not a right. What is this, a forum for dads of teenagers? "Getting money quickly from a merchant account" is a feature that services like Square can either try to provide insofar as the law allows, or not. I really don't see the point of making this a moral issue.

At the end of the day, square has to live within the existing system. The purchaser's bank deducts the money from square at the start of the chargeback. That is the system. They can't just foot the bill until things are resolved, so the choice is between holding the money until chargebacks aren't eligible or handing the money over with the agreement that you'll promptly pay them. Compared to having the money held, pr…

Sure, Square has to "live within the existing system"...in fact, from everything I've heard from them, their value-add is that while they live in it, they shield you from it.

They are very sympathetic with regard to how crappy banking technology is and try to shield you from that; however, it doesn't seem that this sympathy extends to the charge-back side of things.

Re: My Recent Experience With Square

#70

Post by bosch » Thu, May 10, 2012, 9:07 PM UTC

debacle wrote: post #48

Throughout the entire exchange, Square is relatively prompt and incredibly informative and professional. This guy doesn't know how electronic payments work, and has clearly never had to deal with managing a merchant account before.

Irrespective of if the author was correct in his use of the service, how is not replying for days prompt and how is tersely worded e-mails informative and professional? The whole thing reminded me of PayPal.