Lost payments from square!

[Upsetclient]

Previously, an employee had set up the square account and she can't remember her login or security questions.  I had called square and they told me all monies were transferred to our accounts and I could close the account and create a new one.  Now, the accountant finds that over $2500 has not been sent to us!  Talking to square again and they will do nothing without talking to the "owner" of the account who has not been with us for over 3 years, does not live in our community and is not reachable.  I am NOT willing to have Square keep our money!  I am not happy with the run-around from the call centres!  What is the next steps? Legal?  Where do I write to someone?? 

[TheRealChipA]

Hi there @Upsetclient.. This is definitely a legal issue, but I don't hold out hope that you can prevail here.  Having an employee set up your Square account was a very unwise move, no matter the reason.  This is because Square (and no doubt Canadian banking regulations) say that this person is the ultimate authority for that account.  If you have any chance of prevailing, you would need to engage a competent attorney who could work with you and your employee and possibly convince Square that you are on the up-and-up here.  That is the only way that you can possibly convince anyone that the person who set up the account wasn't the owner of the company.  And, if you could prevail on that point, then the question of fraud comes up since that employee had to represent themselves as the owner of the business to set up the account.  You've opened a can of worms here, and it won't be easy to resolve yourself.

Trust me, Square is doing what they are legally required to do here.  They need more than just your word.  I'm afraid this might be one of those "lessons learned" things regarding not having employees do things like this for us.

Talk to an attorney, but remember that it may cost you more in legal fees that $2,500 to resolve this.  It might not be worth it.

[VanKalkerFarms]

I would agree with Chip here.  

Think of this not from your business but from Square's side.  Someone is saying hey this account over here that is not my name or my SSN or my ein is mine and that person can't be found.  Trust me bro.

If you were to proceed, you would need to find that previous employee, then maybe a lawyer could get a notarized or court order that says you are the legal account owner of this account.  Even then, Square is bound to the laws that allow it to do banking and CC payments, and that might be a large obstacle to overcome as there are state and federal laws on providing and opening accounts.  If this person opened it for your use that could be seen as breaking the law, as the entire point of verifying an account holder is to know who the money is going to.  These laws were mostly passed after 9/11 to lower trafficed monies.  

Right now you seem to be at a cross roads of you lost $2,500 3+ years ago and didn't even know it vs spending thousands and time on a lawyer to get it.  It very well could be worth it depending on how much the lawyer charges and how long it takes.