Consumer complaint received 2021-11-04
Company: Square Inc
State: IL
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Complaint:
I attempted to make a very important, large purchase using my Cash Card, and I accidentally used the wrong expiration date, so the payment was declined. I tried again and verified my information before submitting the payment. Declined. Merchant reached out to me to inform me the failure code was showing that it was declined due to credit limit. At this point I contacted Cash App, and of course they could only be reached via chat. I attempt to call their customer support line, and I got the standard, We are experiencing higher than normal call volumes. I returned to chat, and the so-called advocates told me it was declined due to incorrect expiration date or cvv even though I informed them that I attempted the transaction more than once. They claim they could not help me because they only could see one transaction and suggested I try again no matter how many times I told them that I did. I asked if it was being declined due to my credit limit because thats what the failure code is showing from the Merchant, and they said no I have a {$7000.00} limit. I asked if it was due to my card being flagged or restricted for fraud because of multiple high-dollar charge attempts, which they said no and claim that it not an issue on their end because there appears to be nothing wrong with my card or account. Their only suggestion was try another card. Throughout this entire experience, I repeatedly asked to speak to a manager or a direct phone number to someone who can help find more answers because the conversation via chat was getting nowhere. They informed me I could try calling or chat with a manager, which I requested and attempted to call the phone number once more. However, I had to request a call back and got nowhere with the manager via chat. I kept getting told theres nothing wrong with my account or card despite the failure codes for the merchant POS showing otherwise, which I provided to them multiple times in black and white. After trying a few more times, I sent a screenshot showing the failure code again specifically saying declined by bank and instructing me to contact the bank associated with the card. I kept getting the same responses. The advocates claimed they were unable to see any transactions other than the very first one that failed due to the wrong expiration/cvv. They continued to just blame it on the merchant POS and offered no solutions. This all went on for a duration of 5 hours with no results.

I informed Cash App this is unacceptable, and I am not going to play the blame game. Also, not a single person through chat offered a solution or suggested to put a ticket in to address a potential glitch or system error. They just repeatedly blamed the merchant POS. 

After asking them to cancel my Cash Card because it clearly was rendered useless, I was told that I would have to do that myself and was instructed to report it lost or stolen, which I was not going to do because my card was not lost or stolen. I am also not doing Cash App any favors for their financial reporting and accepting blame for a useless card. After ending the chat, I received a call back from another representative who I told I have very little patience already dealing with Cash App, so I dont want her to waste my time- no due respect to her personally. She encouraged me to tell her whats going on, so I gave her a chance. This woman was the only redeeming quality about my experience because she listened, was empathic and did not treat me like an XXXX or XXXX. She tried to get answers by contacting the department on the back end, which got nowhere because they claim they are only able to work with the transactions they see. She did say it could be a delay in their system causing the other transactions not to come through, but her hands were tied basically. She was the only one to remotely even accept partial responsibility. 

To sum it all up, I attempted the same exact transaction with a different card, and the transaction went through. Obviously it was not an issue with the merchants POS. Like any other large company, Cash Apps customer service is useless and terrible. I tried to use the Cash App card merely out of convenience because it was somewhat of an emergency, and I did not have the time to wait for the payment to be posted, nor did I want to pay a large fee to have access to the funds instantly when I have a Cash Card - which by the way is the whole selling point of their card. What good is a card you cant use?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation