Small Businesses Impacted by Square Outage: Revenue Losses Reported
On Thursday afternoon, small business owners across the United States were left reeling as Square, a popular financial services platform, experienced a significant outage. Square and its subsidiary, Cash App, were inaccessible for several hours, causing disruptions in payment processing, employee clock-ins, and other crucial operations. The outage not only frustrated users but also resulted in substantial revenue losses for affected businesses.
Adam Blackbill, the owner of Urban Churn, a central Pennsylvania ice cream shop, expressed his concern as he realized his three stores were not receiving sales reports. With Square being the primary payment processor for his business since 2014, Blackbill was accustomed to occasional outages. However, as time went on during this outage, he grew increasingly worried. Unable to input orders or send invoices to wholesale customers, Blackbill estimated his company lost between $8,000 and $10,000 in revenue.
Similarly, Harry Coleman, the proprietor of Empanada Harry’s bakery and Smoke and Dough smokehouse in Miami, watched sales slip through his fingers throughout the day. As cashless transactions have become the norm, he expressed frustration with potential customers walking away when they couldn’t pay electronically. Coleman estimates his smokehouse alone lost around $2,000 in sales due to the outage.
While some businesses could utilize Square’s offline mode to process payments, which allows transactions to be processed when the internet service is unavailable, complications still arose. Blackbill reported that approximately 30 of his offline transactions appeared to go missing. This further added to the frustration experienced by business owners who were already left in the dark regarding the cause of the outage. Many learned about the problem through online platforms like X (formerly Twitter), rather than receiving formal communication from Square.
Square later emailed some users and posted a message on X, acknowledging the outage and referring to it as a systems outage. However, numerous business owners felt that Square’s response was inadequate. In addition to an apology for the disruption, some users called for compensation to mitigate their financial losses.
Vincent Shay, the owner of the Mermaid Market in Avila Harbor, California, expressed disappointment that he received no notification from Square regarding the issue. Assuming the problem was with his own Wi-Fi connection, he wasted several hours before realizing the extent of the outage. Shay even had to close his shop early as it became impossible to process sales.
The outage has left many business owners contemplating the future of their relationship with Square. For Blackbill, the recent large-scale outage has raised doubts about whether he should continue relying on the platform. Considering a potential switch to other payment processors, he highlighted that these extensive disruptions had never been experienced before.
While Square claims to have resolved the issue by Friday morning, the impact on small businesses cannot be overlooked. The revenue losses suffered by these establishments, combined with the lack of communication and support from Square, have left many feeling frustrated and let down. As they try to recover from the financial setback, business owners like Coleman hope that Square will not only offer an apology but also proactive compensation to demonstrate its commitment to their success.
