One Square Feature that I ignored for months, but can definitely live without, is the Square Dispute process. Just got our first disputed charge in over a year (which is why I ignored it for months). I'd really like to see Square work with the credit card companies and banks to even out the playing field, putting business on an equal footing with the customers who experience remorse over their purchases when the credit card bill comes due.
In this instance, a customer who checked out of our nail salon on Saturday, March 7th just before we closed, and whose name does not appear on the credit charge info from the bank (i.e., anonymous), checked the "goods or services were not as described" checkbox on their banks charge dispute page, on April 23rd - over 6 weeks later - presumably when the $145 charge for her manicure & pedicure services showed up on her monthly bill. This has happened before, usually at this time of year when we have lots of customers with tax refunds coming in and parties or proms to go out to. We have notices posted in the salon and on the credit receipt stating "please bring any concerns or problems to the attention of the manager" and our business phone number. If there was genuinely a problem with the service, a simple phone call to us would have taken care of the problem.
Pedicures and manicures usually last only a month anyway, due to the nail growing out or the polish wearing off or chipping from doing chores, etc. We still encourage customers to come in anyway and we'll fix the problem free of charge. So when they don't bother to call or come in after 6+ weeks, then I suspect it is either fraud or buyer's remorse.
Letting the banks get away with anonymous disputes like this only encourages the same behavior in the future, at our salon or another in town. And it's the businesses that come out short on this. The employees get paid no matter what. It's the business that suffers. At least put the business on an equal level with the customer.
