Square outage: Local businesses unable to take card payments

Widespread outages affecting payment tech and point of sale platform Square have stretched past the morning rush and into the afternoon, leaving many small businesses across Australia unable to process card transactions.

The San Francisco-based company suffered significant technical problems early on Friday morning, limiting transaction services for businesses at home and abroad.

Australian cafes and retail traders operating on the Square platform reported they were unable to process card payments during the morning rush.

Those challenges appear to have carried into the lunchtime trading hours, posing major challenges for businesses which are only equipped to handle card or digital wallet transactions.

Taking to social media, some frustrated business owners claim their Square systems are transacting, but it is unclear if payments are actually entering business accounts.

Rachel Weekes, operator of Wollongong’s Cakes by Rach, took to the Square Australia Facebook page on Friday afternoon to share her concerns.

“I currently have no idea if I’m paying staff at 2 cafes to give everything away for nothing… Am I better off closing or not?” she wrote.

“It’s one thing to have an impact to services it’s another thing to be under the assumption that we’re taking in sales only to find that the payments are not being received.”

Square engineers have been working to find the cause of the problem since early Friday morning.

“We are actively working to resolve the disruption affecting multiple Square Services,” the company said at 12.45pm.

“We thank you for your ongoing patience as we await further updates on our team’s progress.”

Earlier, Square confirmed “degraded performance” across its network of payment acceptance and backend services.

We are currently experiencing issues with multiple Square services. We understand how important it is for your business that our services be up and running, and we are actively working toward a fix.

We’ll keep you updated at https://t.co/tZnnkr57aK as we learn more.

— Square (@Square) September 7, 2023

“We are currently investigating a disruption with one of our Data Centers that is causing an impact on multiple Square Services,” the company said just past 5am.

“At this time, reaching our Customer Success team may be a longer wait than normal. We’ll be back to update as soon as we receive more information from our Engineers.”

The company recommended Square sellers remain logged into their accounts and avoid logging out through the disruptions.

Some businesses which were affected, like Geelong’s Porter Avenue Pies & Cakes, reported Square services came back online around 10am.

However, card acceptance among Square clients still appears spotty as the tech giant addresses the core technical issues.

As merchants manage the outage, others say the experience has highlighted the importance of cash acceptance.

Rhiannon Druce is the general manager of Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory, which uses Square payment technology.

“Eighty percent of our customers pay with card and that isn’t happening today because of technical issues with Square that’s being felt across the country, forcing businesses to ask customers to come back and pay with cash,” Druce told SmartCompany.

“We understand technology comes with its limitations but I think this highlights why cash still has an important place in our society.”

“We already have Telstra here fixing internet issues following storms last weekend and now we don’t know how long we will be unable to take card payments from our customers because the Square platform is down.”

Cash App, the Square sister company specialising in money transfers, also reported outages on Friday.

The turmoil at Square appears to have caught the attention of competitors in the POS sector.

Inbound customer inquiries to Zeller doubled on Friday compared to normal volumes, the company claimed.

Joshua McNicol, director of growth at Zeller, said the local Square rival was prepared to work with merchants caught out by the technical disruptions.

“Heading into Friday night and the busy weekend it’s critical that small business owners are set up to accept card payments, and Zeller is here to support in any way we can,” he said.

SmartCompany has contacted Square for comment.