Outage At Square Prevents Small Businesses From Accepting Credit Cards

The financial services platform Square is experiencing a widespread outage, causing many small businesses around the country to switch to cash only. From a report: In a statement posted to their website, Square said it began investigating a service disruption linked to 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 a fix. Aaron Bergh, owner of Calwise Spirits Co. in Paso Robles, said he noticed the disruption around noon. In the three hours following, his business did about $1,000 in sales -- all without being able to process credit card payments.

Instead employees have been writing down credit card numbers to charge later or done business in cash, which has limited how much customers can spend, he said. In the five years he's been doing business, Bergh said he'd never experienced a Square outage lasting more than half-an-hour. Even in those cases, the platform would still allow businesses to record credit card information. This time, he can't even log into his account, he said. Square is posting updates at issquareup.com.

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