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A Square outage left Bay Area businesses struggling to make sales without access to its payment platform.
In the current situation Posted on their websiteSquare said it began investigating the outage associated with its data center at 11:47 a.m. As of 4:48 p.m., the San Francisco-based company said it was still working on the fix.
Aaron Berg, owner of Calloways Spirits. In Paso Robles, he said he noticed the disturbance around noon. In the next three hours, his company generated nearly $1,000 in sales — all without the ability to process credit card payments.
Instead, employees wrote down credit card numbers to collect fees later or do business with cash, limiting the amount customers could spend, he added.
In his five years on the job, Berg said he has never experienced a power outage at Square lasting longer than a half-hour. Even in those cases, the platform will still allow companies to record credit card information. This time, he couldn’t even log into his account, he said.
Berg said that when he tried to call Square’s customer service line, all he got was an automated message about an outage. Square said the disruption led to longer wait times for its helpline.
“We are taking a huge risk by letting the product walk out the door with the possibility of having its card declined when we try to process it,” Berg said.
Contact Megan Van Munce: [email protected]
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