Square, a company that supplies point of sale (POS) systems to small businesses that allow for credit card processing, has been down all day Thursday, affecting users in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, France, and Spain. Square is one of the largest suppliers of POS systems to all kinds of businesses, like restaurants, salons, tattoo parlors, boutiques, and much more. According to the website, Square is “Trusted by millions of businesses worldwide.”
Without the ability to process credit cards, many businesses have reported turning away customers who don’t have cash—or taking an enormous risk and writing down credit card information to process later, not knowing if the card will go through. Despite Square’s customers losing thousands of dollars per hour, their customer service line was shut down and goes directly to a voice message that says the service line is unavailable.
Square has posted very few updates on its Twitter/X account, with no information about what caused the issue or when it will be fixed. “We are currently experiencing issues with multiple Square services,” they wrote on Twitter/X. “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 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 t.co/tZnnkr57aK as we learn more.
— Square (@Square) September 7, 2023
PJ Media reached out to Square for more information on what happened but did not receive a response as of the time of publishing. If they do respond, we will update our article.
Square isn’t the only credit card processing service that is down. CashApp, which is owned by the same parent company as Square, was also down on Thursday, along with reports of Venmo, Apple Pay, Zelle, and other digital payment apps that were reported to be malfunctioning.
What’s going on here? And why isn’t it national news?
h/t Coastie Patriot