Online Payment Disputes

[FlammeBurger]

I'm COMPLETELY fed-up with Square screwing me out of money for online payment disputes.  They take ZERO responsibility...none!!!!!!!!

Online order; credit card number, CCV, Exp Date, blood type...doesn't matte.  They process the payment, somebody "disputes" it...I jump through my own butt gathering all of the info, and the bank comes back and makes me eat it!!!!!!!!!

Had the nicest customer service lady two weeks ago; helped me set-up higher security for online orders (restaurant) and sent me a great follow-up email with some additional info and recommendations.  Really great info and helpful (I thought).  But here I am...same freaking issue!

How is Square NOT RESPONSIBLE?????????  They process the payments!!!!!!!!

I'm beyond hacked off.  I don't care what Toast costs, it's gotta be better than this mess!!!!!!!!!

Any other ideas on how to fix????

[ryanwanner]

Hello @FlammeBurger !

First, let me just say that yes, you are completely correct that the dispute thing is a significant issue right now. And the fact that there seems to be no assistance from Square can definitely cause the frustration to grow.

Square does process the payments, yes. When a dispute occurs, Square hands over all the applicable data to the contesting bank. It's the exact same information that you would hand over to the bank, but you get the addon of people who are paid to do the footwork for you. The bank makes the final determination about the dispute, not Square. And yes, you can win disputes at times.

It really comes down to an issue that is everywhere in the credit card era: scammers spoof the credit card data, go online to make their fraudulent purchase, and then contest it--or the actual cardholder contests it since they never made the payment in the first place. The only relatively secure way of processing cards anymore is "card in hand" transactions: the customer physically dips or taps their card at your establishment. Every other way out there has a level of risk unfortunately. This is a SIGNIFICANT issue plaguing all businesses who conduct online sales right now.

I am in a coffee shop owner's group on facebook, and that was a topic of conversation today: Toast and Clover users both reported chargeback issues, and their frustration was just as obvious as yours. Sounds like scammers got their hands on a batch of cards and are having fun.

If you have Risk Manager enabled on your account and follow acceptable procedures for large order verification, there's really not a lot left that we can do until the industry itself figures out a way to slow down this kind of fraud. It sucks, it really does.

[TheRealChipA]

Hey there @FlammeBurger.  No card processor is responsible once the card holder’s bank has made their decision.  Square can only collect all of your evidence (including the evidence in your account for that transaction) and submit it.  After that, they are not allowed to have any input in the matter.  The card issuing banks are the ultimate arbiter of disputes and they almost always rule in favor of their customers — the cardholders.  It sucks, but it’s a cost of taking cards in this day and age.

I will warn you that the grass is not greener on the other side.  Toast has the same restrictions.  Everyone is at the mercy of the card issuing bank.  I have friends who use Toast and Clover and they have exactly the same gripes, sometimes.  The only thing that will really fix this is for Congress to step in and pass some good laws that protect small businesses.  But that won’t happen any time soon.  Big banks make the laws because of the money they donate to Congress and to the Presidential races.  That’s capitalism for you.  Also, if you do just a little research online, you’ll find that you are definitely not the first person (or even in a small group) of people who have exactly the same gripes.

I assume by your description that the customer service person helped you set up Risk Manager?  There may be some things there that were not set up and, if you want, I could try to help you review your setup and give you some pointers and ideas.  But I’m not going to do that here if you just wanted to vent.  It’s possible that I could even set up a Zoom call for us to look at your Risk Manager setup together and see if anything pops out.  I’m a fellow seller, but I have a pretty firm grasp on Risk Manager and what it can do, and I’d be willing to see if I can help.  One other thing.  If you’ve only had Risk Manager set up for a couple of weeks, that won’t help with any transactions that were done before it was fully implemented.  And, given the timing, it seems very likely that those are your latest disputes — ones that happened before Risk Manager.

Anyway, let me know how you’d like to proceed.