Known Issue with sending Square Messages (11/29/22 - 12/14/22)

[Mtbresnan]

The title of this thread has been edited by a Square Moderator from the original: "Square Messages is currently experiencing issues sending text messages."

Is anyone also having problems with text messages failing to send. And receiving this message:

“Square Messages is currently experiencing issues sending text messages. Messages may not send as expected.”

[_Violet · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mtbresnan, @Zeuspmu, and @allisonlrhoades - Thank you all for posting here in the Seller Community. I'm sorry to hear that you are being impacted by the ongoing issue with Square Messages.

This particular issue has been taking a little longer because we are working alongside a third party in order to resolve it. Our engineers and our Square Messaging Product Team are aware of this issue and are currently investigating a solution with third-party mobile carriers. 

In the meantime, we will continue to update issquareup.com with the latest details. Sorry that we have not been posting updates as often on this one. We don't have new information at this time, but this issue is certainly prioritized by our engineers and they are still working on it. We thoroughly appreciate your patience and understanding until this is fully resolved.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions by replying to this thread. 

[MayaP]

Hello All,

I am stepping in while Alanah is out. I am sorry you guys are still experiencing these issues, that is super frustrating. Please reach out to Direct Support so we can investigate this further 1-855-700-6000 squ.re/contactsqsupport. We cannot thank you enough for all your patience and for continuing to work with us on this. We really appreciate it! 

[woodcockre6]

Hi MayaP,

I am going to paste below something I posted in THIS thread on Wednesday.  As you can see, I have already called Support AFTER issquareup.com indicated this issue was resolved.  They suggested that I take my feedback to THIS forum.  Now you are suggesting I take my feedback back to Support.  I know you are just doing your job and that you have a message that has been handed to you to give customers by way of response.  But it feels like Square is giving us the runaround, instead of resolving the problem.  It is particularly frustrating to be told that the problem is resolved, when there is a yellow notification message FROM SQUARE blocking the field where a seller would normally compose a message.  Square obviously knows the platform has not been returned to full functionality, because Square put that yellow notification there.  I'm not sure what the benefit is of saying that something has been resolved, when the company clearly knows that it is only partially fixed.  The person I spoke to at Support on Wednesday directly said that it is "kind of" fixed, in that sellers could reply to customer messages but not compose them.  She said that she suspects that full functionality would eventually be restored.  All I'm looking for is transparency regarding the ACTUAL status, and the ACTUAL plan -- is messaging still being worked on by the Square team/partners, or is this the new normal.  I don't want to be told something is resolved when the company knows that is not the whole truth, and I don't want to get the runaround where the left arm of Square sends sellers to the right arm, and the right arm send sellers back to the left.

Copy/Paste of my Wednesday post:

issquareup.com is showing that this issue has been resolved. However, when I try to compose a message to a customer, the field where you would usually type your message is covered by a notification that says, "SMS messages can be sent as a reply to your customer's message." In the before times, I appreciated the ability to compose a message, even if it wasn't in reply to a customer. For example, today a client who usually has excellent attendance was a no-show, so I wanted to reach out to him, but the system wouldn't let me. I called Square Support, and was told that this feature would probably return to normal down the road. So, my feedback is two fold. First, I hope that full functionality is restored soon. Second, it would be nice if issquareup.com was more clear that this is still a work in progress.

[IndigoSkin]

Once this has gone to 1 month, I will be looking in to a CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT to refund our subscription fees. As this Messages feature is one of the PAID advantages to my Appointments Plus pricing plans and it is now unavailable. Since there has been no update to my terms of service, I will consider this a breach of contract and expect remuneration.

Anyone who is interested in this please like and comment to this thread and we'll stay in the loop.

[lauranadeau14]

Count me in, the problems is still not resolved!

[IndigoSkin]

They are trying to send me to the appointment team. This is a system issue ! Please have it addressed. Everyone didn't just decide to unsubscribe.

[IndigoSkin]

@MayaP The fix is very easy.

We cannot alter the automated text confirmation that is sent from square… but SQUARE can ! Please change the automated text message to read “ reply yes to this text to enable communication “.

EASY. That way, at least some people will reply to the text to initiate us being able to text message.

[zder]

@_Violet

Please clarify what “fully operational” means, because it seems that Square messages does not function the way it used to - there has been a critical change to a business being able to message a customer first, not even to request their permission to receive additional messages.

Square users never received an adequate explanation of why this issue happened, or how it was resolved.

[BriaMayMassage]

It actually hasn't been resolved and it is not fully functional. ALL my clients messages say they have unsubscribed from receiving text messages which is false. Everyone loves the messages and I'm getting complaints about them not receiving their reminders.

[JessPoynter]

I'm still struggling with Messages. I restarted everything, logged in and out and still nothing. I even tried on different devices. Help! 

[Amytaylor]

No it hasn’t. It says every one of my customers has unsubscribed. I even tried myself… I know I didn’t unsubscribe. I want a refund of my square fees.

[MayaP]

Hello, @Amytaylor I know this is extremely upsetting but as advised above you will need to follow up with Direct Support in order to get this resolved. Thank you so much! 

[Ciaociao]

It's still not working. I'm having the same issues as everyone who has replied to your message. It's absurd at this point. 

[IndigoSkin]

Once this has gone to 1 month, I will be looking in to a CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT to refund our subscription fees. As this Messages feature is one of the PAID advantages to my Appointments Plus pricing plans and it is now unavailable. Since there has been no update to my terms of service, I will consider this a breach of contract and expect remuneration.

Anyone who is interested in this please like and comment to this thread and we'll stay in the loop.

[thrpstcheryl8]

My messaging seems to be working in the past several days. Now, I have no idea if one of my clients has tried to contact me and has not been able to do so, however, I have received (and have successfully responded to) clients who have contacted me as of 5 days ago which was 12/15. Please keep me in this loop though and I do hope that others of you have been experiencing better results too!

[gbc8]

This has not been resolved at all. I have Square for Retail Plus. I have customers placing orders and I can't reach out to them via messages to thank them personally thank them for their order, ask if they would like their purchase gift wrapped and when they would like to pick it up. It's because of this type of customer service that I offer that keeps my customers coming back to me. They appreciate the communication and personal attention. It is completely unacceptable that the month before Christmas, Square has thousands of us retailers trying to successfully get through what is usually our busiest time of the year, with a key feature like this unavailable. It makes us look unprofessional. Square has absolutely no answer or explanation. What is even more unacceptable is the amount of hoops they have you jump through by calling support and reciting your email to six different people who never seem to understand what you are saying the first or even second time. By the time you do get an answer, you've wasted 45 minutes of your time, are completely frustrated, and are told they "are aware of the issue and are working on it".  It seems as though every single issue I've had with Square is handled this way. I'm at my breaking point with Square and their lack of customer support and unreliability.

[DancingSydney]

Is this issue occurring again? My messages worked again for maybe a day & now won’t send again. 😩

[AllAboutMamalnk]

THis is not resolved.
SO...for example ...I have a new customer...they come into my store, I enter their name and phone number in to text them a reminder or a coupon later on during the week. Well...since they are new to my list of customers...it still shows that I am NOT able to text them. It says this customer has unsubscribed ...which I know the did not!! The problem is how am I supposed to have them text me first to sign up for reminders or coupons....I have tried but guess what?!?! Looks like some of my customers have gotten texts from my system from DIFFERENT phone numbers from me! So if each customer gets texts from  a different phone number....how can I have them text me first?!?! Is there a way to have it just be 1 phone number that is sending out the texts from my register?! How on earth am I supposed to run a business?! Emails are annoying to customers and texting is faster and easier. Fix this please.

[bartstyes]

We are still unable to message most of our customers. A majority of them are showing unsubscribed and this happened all at once as a result of sobering Square has done. We don’t know how to get them all subscribed again and it’s is having a detrimental impact on our business. 

[GST4]

I am unable to text via messages (It's 1/9/23). Can someone please help with this? It's really a big part of what I need.

[JHarrison1047]

It says its been resolved but it has not. We cannot send outgoing messages to our customers

[MudPieBakery]

Square informed us last week that they aren't allowing this feature any longer. 

You'll have to have the customer initiate contact via SMS and then the seller can only reply to that message.