Official Complaint: Unauthorized Fees Charged During System Testing——Aura Beauty

[Aurabeauty]

Subject: Official Complaint: Unauthorized Charges and Lack of Itemized Billing - Aura

Dear Square Support Team,

I am writing to formally dispute the 2.5% fees deducted from my account during my system testing.

Furthermore, I want to highlight a severe violation of business transparency: Square has deducted these funds from my bank account without providing any itemized invoice or billing statement to explain what these charges were for. Charging a merchant's bank account without clear disclosure during the transaction, and failing to provide a corresponding invoice, is not only misleading but also unlawful.

Here are the facts:

1. No Disclosure: At no point during the gift card testing did the interface show that I would be charged.

2. No Documentation: I have checked my dashboard, and there is no official billing document explaining these specific deductions.

3. Unauthorized Withdrawal: These amounts were taken out of my account without my explicit consent for a "service fee."

I demand a full refund of these fees immediately. I also request that you provide a full, itemized breakdown of all deductions made from my account to date.

I take this matter very seriously. If these unauthorized charges are not reversed, I will escalate this complaint to the AFCA/ACCA and other relevant regulatory authorities.

I expect a response and a resolution within 48 hours.

[Laurie_]

Hi @Aurabeauty,

Thank you for reaching out to share your feedback and concerns. We’ve reviewed your complaint and would like to clarify our findings regarding your specific case.

Following further investigation, we can see that you previously raised a similar concern with our team via private message on social media. We’d like to take this opportunity to provide additional clarification.

Based on our review, the transaction you’re referring to was a $1 payment processed as the first transaction on your Square account after signing up. While we encourage new Sellers to begin with a low-stakes initial payment, all payments are processed as live transactions, whether completed by the Seller or a customer, and applicable fees will therefore apply.

We believe the confusion may stem from the tender method selected. Your first payment was processed using the cash tender option, which does not incur standard card processing fees. However, instead of processing a manually keyed-in amount, an eGift Card was sold for $1. When an eGift Card is sold, a gift card load fee is applied at the time of the transaction, regardless of the tender type selected. The current load fee for Square gift cards is 2.5%, as outlined on our fees page.

Because this transaction was processed using the cash tender method, no funds were collected by Square at the time of sale. As a result, there was no available Square balance or incoming payment from which to deduct the gift card load fee.

Direct Debit Request Service Agreement

Under Square’s Direct Debit Request Service Agreement and Payment Terms, Square may recover funds via direct debit only in situations where a Seller is obligated to pay fees or amounts owed to Square. This occurs in limited and specific circumstances.

In your case, as no funds had been previously collected through Square, the payment was made via cash tender, and there was no available balance or payment to apply the gift card load fee to, Square was required to debit the load fee directly from your linked bank account in order to complete the transaction. This process is consistent with Square’s Payment Terms. Whenever possible, fees are deducted directly from a Seller’s Square balance rather than debited from their bank account.

All of the information you’ve requested is available at any time in your Square Dashboard by following these steps:

• For detailed gift card transaction breakdowns, navigate to Reports > Gift Cards, where you’ll find Load Fees and Load Details.
• For a combined overview of processing and load fees, visit Sales Summary.
• For individual transaction details, go to Payments & Invoices > Transactions.
• We also recommend reviewing the Transfers Activity page by navigating to Money > Balances > View All Transfers, which shows transfer amounts, included transactions, and applied fees.
  
  

We hope this explanation helps clarify why the load fee was applied and confirms that it is standard. That said, we understand how selecting the cash tender option may have caused confusion. As a courtesy, we’ve credited the 3¢ gift card load fee back to your Square balance. This credit is available immediately and will be transferred according to your current transfer schedule.

If you have any additional questions about fees or navigating your account, please don’t hesitate to let us know, we're always available to help.