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Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

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Re: Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

#71

Post by yeldarb »

kuschku wrote: post #59

And this is exactly why the US domination of the payment industry is so dangerous, why companies like mastercard/VISA need to end, and why maybe sometimes it's understandable countries like Germany or Denmark have their own card systems or prefer cash. Running all transactions through companies subject to foreign laws makes you subject to those foreign laws. And there is no reason US laws should affect e.g. a Canadia…

Curious how you feel about GDPR (the EU asserts its authority to bind an American entity with servers in America running a service targeted at American consumers so long as a single EU citizen chooses to visit the site).

Re: Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

#72

Post by cameronbrown »

yeldarb wrote: post #71
kuschku wrote: post #59

And this is exactly why the US domination of the payment industry is so dangerous, why companies like mastercard/VISA need to end, and why maybe sometimes it's understandable countries like Germany or Denmark have their own card systems or prefer cash. Running all transactions through companies subject to foreign laws makes you subject to those foreign laws. And there is no reason US laws should affect e.g. a Canadia…

Curious how you feel about GDPR (the EU asserts its authority to bind an American entity with servers in America running a service targeted at American consumers so long as a single EU citizen chooses to visit the site).

In theory*

In practice if you've got no presence in the EU, what can they realistically do? Extradite over GDPR?

Re: Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

#73

Post by skcjdndj »

kuschku wrote: post #59

And this is exactly why the US domination of the payment industry is so dangerous, why companies like mastercard/VISA need to end, and why maybe sometimes it's understandable countries like Germany or Denmark have their own card systems or prefer cash. Running all transactions through companies subject to foreign laws makes you subject to those foreign laws. And there is no reason US laws should affect e.g. a Canadia…

In a certain sense, you didn't "vote on" the sanctions, but, when the system works as it should (prior to the current US administration, for instance) these kinds of decisions that affect international infrastructure are made with broad consensus---including the approval of people you _did_ vote for, or at least the approval of other nations whose interests are broadly aligned with yours.

This alignment of interests has reduced the transaction costs of building global systems like payments infrastructure, because of the assumption that parties with the technical ability to control their functionality will be constrained implicitly by international norms. I wouldn't dismiss this outright as "hegemony"---it worked well for a long time---but it's natural in the current political context to wonder if assuming good faith from all parties involved will be as reasonable in the coming decades as it was in the past.

Re: Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

#74

Post by giancarlostoro »

Canada wrote: post #12

They need to just give her the $14k immediately and then eat it if it's a problem. Stop processing the transactions going forward or until it's sorted out, but do not steal her money. Also, I found this distasteful: "I want to clarify that Square is not experiencing a technical glitch. While I cannot speak with you about Monica's individual case, I can tell you that Square's Customer Success team spoke with Monica ye…

I agree. Unless there is an actual law telling them to hold the cash. I would let go of it. Cut out future transfers as you said. Why PayPal like companies can just steal cash like that is beyond me. They should be legally liable for the laws broken if they keep someone elses cash.

Re: Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

#75

Post by Angostura »

Canada wrote: post #12

They need to just give her the $14k immediately and then eat it if it's a problem. Stop processing the transactions going forward or until it's sorted out, but do not steal her money. Also, I found this distasteful: "I want to clarify that Square is not experiencing a technical glitch. While I cannot speak with you about Monica's individual case, I can tell you that Square's Customer Success team spoke with Monica ye…

“We’re not experiencing a technical glitch, this was entirely an organisational screw-up”

Re: Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

#76

Post by jpambrun »

yeldarb wrote: post #71
kuschku wrote: post #59

And this is exactly why the US domination of the payment industry is so dangerous, why companies like mastercard/VISA need to end, and why maybe sometimes it's understandable countries like Germany or Denmark have their own card systems or prefer cash. Running all transactions through companies subject to foreign laws makes you subject to those foreign laws. And there is no reason US laws should affect e.g. a Canadia…

Curious how you feel about GDPR (the EU asserts its authority to bind an American entity with servers in America running a service targeted at American consumers so long as a single EU citizen chooses to visit the site).

You could have one GDPR compliant site in the EU and a different international one.. or just block EU. Nobody is infringing on someone else's sovereignty in that case.

Re: Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

#77

Post by jpambrun »

vinay427 wrote: post #69
vkou wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If my bank took my money, and ran off with it, and then blamed it on bad behavior of some third party that I have nothing to do with, I have two things to say: 1. Not my problem. 2. Fuck you, pay me. If they can't find counter-parties that let them do their jobs, they should not be in the business of payment processing. I don't get to pick which third parties my bank interfaces with.

They're working on refunding her the money. I'm not sure running off with it is an appropriate comparison here. They just don't want to work with clients that have a business relationship with Cuba in the future.

How much work does cutting a 14,000$ check requires? It been going on since August. For a foot truck operations 14,000$ must be a significant toll on cash flow. It's inexcusable.

Re: Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

#78

Post by kuschku »

skcjdndj wrote: post #73
kuschku wrote: post #59

And this is exactly why the US domination of the payment industry is so dangerous, why companies like mastercard/VISA need to end, and why maybe sometimes it's understandable countries like Germany or Denmark have their own card systems or prefer cash. Running all transactions through companies subject to foreign laws makes you subject to those foreign laws. And there is no reason US laws should affect e.g. a Canadia…

In a certain sense, you didn't "vote on" the sanctions, but, when the system works as it should (prior to the current US administration, for instance) these kinds of decisions that affect international infrastructure are made with broad consensus---including the approval of people you _did_ vote for, or at least the approval of other nations whose interests are broadly aligned with yours. This alignment of interests…

Remember that the EU was actively working with Iran to find a solution that works for everyone, while Trump on his own reinstated the sanctions.

This argument could have been made in years past, but now, when sanctions can be reinstated by a single mad man instantly, the argument no longer holds.

Re: Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

#79

Post by jrockway »

Canada wrote: post #12

They need to just give her the $14k immediately and then eat it if it's a problem. Stop processing the transactions going forward or until it's sorted out, but do not steal her money. Also, I found this distasteful: "I want to clarify that Square is not experiencing a technical glitch. While I cannot speak with you about Monica's individual case, I can tell you that Square's Customer Success team spoke with Monica ye…

This was my main takeaway from the article. Call a spade a spade. "Square's Government Fear team spoke with Monica yesterday, and she now knows the reason."

It's completely legitimate for a corporation to be afraid of the government, and have a team to manage risks. It's not legitimate to call stealing $14,000 of someone's money "customer success". What Square's team did was fail the customer. That's not success.

Re: Square Canada has a Cuban coffee issue

#80

Post by nullc »

azernik wrote: post #27
Canada wrote: post #12

They need to just give her the $14k immediately and then eat it if it's a problem. Stop processing the transactions going forward or until it's sorted out, but do not steal her money. Also, I found this distasteful: "I want to clarify that Square is not experiencing a technical glitch. While I cannot speak with you about Monica's individual case, I can tell you that Square's Customer Success team spoke with Monica ye…

If the question is legal liability for violating sanctions, releasing the $14K could put them on the hook for much more than $14K in liability.

So why not continue to refuse to pay the sanction-risked funds and enter into a private settlement for an amount of, say... $14,159.26 for failing to comply with their agreement and Canadian law?
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