IWSG - Square Issues & So Much News!

Welcome to the first real post on my new website! I detail my issues with Square where they cost me hundreds of dollars at the end, because it's long. It's an important read if you deal with--or plan to deal with--Square.

It's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group.

The IWSG occurs the first Wednesday of each month. Created by Alex J. Cavanaugh, the IWSG allows writers to give and get support about their various writing insecurities. Anyone can join. Simply click on Alex's name and sign up.

This month's co-hosts are: Feather Stone, Kim Lajevardi, Diedre Knight, C. Lee McKenzie, and Sarah Foster.

This month's optional question is: Do you use AI in your writing, and if so, how? Do you use it for your posts? Incorporate it into your stories? Use it for research? Audio?

My answer to all of the questions above is no. Just no. I have no interest in using AI to usurp my own creativity.

I have some news this month! If you've been around here (well, The Warrior Muse) awhile, you know that I had set aside short story writing and submitting due to lack of time and energy. Then near the end of May I did some submissions of stories I'd already written that were sitting around in limbo. Well, I got an acceptance! One of my stories will appear in the Tiny Terrors anthology next April. 

Then I suddenly had some time and energy at the same time, and I wrote a new short story over the course of two evenings, edited it on day 3, and submitted it to an invitation I got a few months ago, and boom, I have a new story out in the first issue of Twisted Tropes!

Twisted Tropes is only in digital, and can be purchased on Amazon. (This link is an affiliate link.)

I've also had an opportunity to join a new local literary periodical as a writer, and I'm working on my first two pieces for that! I'm hoping at least one of those will appear in the September launch, so I'll update you guys when I have more information.

Finally, today a podcast on which I was interviewed releases! Author's Alcove.

You can listen on Spotify and Patreon or watched on YouTube. Plus, my book appeared on her Recommended Books list! Click there to check out other recommended books, as well. If you're interested in being a guest on her podcast, shoot me a message through my Contact Me here on the blog and I'll send you the link to sign up.

Before I wrote that new story, it had been MONTHS since I last wrote. I was in a bad place with writing and feeling a bit hopeless, so it wasn't just lack of time and energy. A few big things had derailed me, and I really struggled to come back from it. So it felt amazing to get some writing done, and then to get that immediate acceptance. 

Really quick, here are my submission stats for July:

2 submissions

2 acceptances

0 rejections

10 currently on submission

ISSUE WITH SQUARE

Now I'm going to touch on my Square debacle for those who are curious about it. If you use Square, I recommend reading. Same goes for if you're considering using it. They lost me a lot of money that I'll never get back (because they're being disgustingly non-ethical), and my hope is to at least spare other people a similar issue. I also have a couple recommendations of alternatives at the end. However, I don't know how to tell you about what happened without giving you as many details as possible so you can make your own decisions regarding Square, so it's going to be long.

When I was getting set up for my book launch in March, I pulled out the Square, which I hadn't used since the end of January, and ran through to make sure everything was good and to enter the new book. There was a message in the Square app saying some information was needed and that I would not be able to transfer money with Square, but that my ability to process credit cards would not be impacted. I quickly filled out the information they requested and got an email message that they'd let me know when they'd processed the new information.

This message also reiterated that there would be no impact on the processing of credit cards, only transfers of my funds to my bank. Even then, it took only a short time before I got an email saying I was all good.

To be very clear, I never got an email saying this information was needed, so there was zero notification until I actually signed into the app that they needed anything from me.

At my launch party, all credit cards came up as declined when I tried to use my Square. My husband ended up scrambling to set up an account of his own, and we signed me out of my account and into his. This is the only reason I was able to make any sales at my launch party. (And I'm grateful to the folks who stuck it out while we did this).

The problem was that I also had a Square storefront, and I had only sold one one copy of my new book back in January (presale). I was actually really depressed about that, because I was appearing on all these podcasts, other people's blogs, etc., and had even offered a special with bonus items for the first five people to order Wendigo Nights from my storefront. That last sale on January 31 was the only one. It didn't make any sense, but because I was already in a rough place mentally, I didn't even think about it being a problem with my storefront. I just thought nobody was interested, which sunk me deeper into a depression.

DECLINED

Well, when I started digging around after my launch and what had happened there, I found a report showing declined orders. I pulled the report from my last order on January 31 to present. It, of course, showed all the declined cards from our attempts at the book launch, but it also showed an additional  30+ pages in pdf format of declined cards, and the declines had started right after that last order on the 31st.

Over 30 pages of declined purchases! And not ONCE did Square notify me there was an issue. The amounts of the declined purchases were exactly the amounts of different books on my storefront, but primarily Wendigo Nights.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

I posted to a forum they have, asking for technical help and to see if anyone had this same issue. I searched through forums and such for answers, but couldn't find the same issue. I finally found where I could put through a support ticket and did so. I kept checking back in their forum, and people were viewing it, but no answers (it shows the views/likes).

When I just got the email confirming my support ticket, but didn't hear back from anyone, I called them instead of waiting longer. The tech pulled up my ticket and started looking around. Eventually, she told me she'd send me an email with the information, but needed more time to look at things.

Instead of an email, I got a phone call back. She said it was because of the request for information, but tried to tell me it was supposed to have shut down the credit cards. When I read their own email to her, she backtracked and tried to say that it just took them longer to process the information I'd turned in than expected. To which I told her I had an email saying everything was back to normal and my information had been accepted, as well as a screenshot of the date-stamped notification within the app that my information had been accepted. And that was a moot point, anyway, as their own messaging had said I could continue taking credit card transactions as normal, and they would not be impacted. So it wasn't supposed to have shut off the processing at all.

At this point, she told me it was working now, so the issue was resolved. She was also forced to admit it had been an error on their end.

I asked how they would guarantee they would not have another glitch like this one, and she told me she couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't happen again. 

I said I did not accept that resolution, that I had suffered a major loss of income as a small business, and I asked how the company would make that right. She told me she would escalate the issue.

I never heard a word back from them.

My post on the forum was mysteriously deleted.

My ticket has been closed.

I consider their behavior deeply unethical. I never even got an apology for their error. At the very least, a supervisor should have contacted me back. And to be extra clear, I was polite on the phone and in my written interactions, so it wasn't misbehavior that kept them from helping me.

SQUARE ALTERNATIVES

There is no way I could ever leave my business in their hands again. I did a bunch of research, and was able to create a business PayPal account and get a reader from them. For right now, I'm using PayPal in my new online store (located on this website for the time being) and the reader (Zettle) for appearances. I've had no issues with their reader. I will say, though, that it requires wi-fi to use, and offline sales cannot be completed.

As a response to that (though I could use a hot spot on my phone), I've decided to also get the SumUp Solo and keep PayPal as a backup (I will never depend upon one vendor for this again). The SumUp has its own SIM card, so you don't have to have wi-fi. I have only tried the Zettle, so far, so SumUp will be tried next time I have an event. 

There are other readers out there. Both the ones I've decided to go with have zero monthly fee or setup fee (you do have to buy the reader if you need to), and charge comparable transaction fees to Square. Also, they each take additional payment methods over Square and different from each other, so I could actually have a use for both at events, depending upon how people are wanting to pay (examples include Apple Pay, Venmo, etc.)

I do have friends who are using Venmo and PayPal QR codes and not using readers at all, and this works for them. I prefer having a reader, which is why I've gone with the options I have.

A common response I get from people on this is, "I've never had any problems with Square." Cool, neither had I. I used it for years with no issues. I even recommended it in my craft book. But they lost me hundreds of dollars, new readers/customers, and made no effort to apologize for a technical error on their end and my lost revenue/customers. Had they made any effort at customer service or tried to assure me in any way that this wouldn't happen again, things might be different. But they didn't, so buyer beware. 

What are your insecurities? Are you using AI? Do you use Zettle or SumUp? What do you think? Have you been submitting? What do you think of my new blog/website?

May you find your Muse.