Keeping our Money is not “Square” with me, Square holding onto 30% of customer payments during the pandemic

Jack Dorsey — the notorious founder and CEO of Square ( also co-founder and CEO of Twitter) — has been praised for corporate activism during the COVID-19 Pandemic crisis and has reportedly donated nearly a third of his wealth to pandemic relief. However, this spotlight is taking society's attention away from the fact that at the company Square he is facing many unhappy customers. The customers of Square are a wide-ranged group of —hair stylists, restaurants, legal consultants, construction firms, etc. — with this one thing in common that Square is holding back up to 30 percent of the money collected from customers. The NY Times noted that such withholdings came with little warning from Square and that Square asserted the right to hang on to money for the next four months. Square's rebuttal was that this action was done to protect against risky transactions or from customers who wanted their money back. However, this claim was proven faulty when the numerous businesses affected by this new Square withholding action provided documents to The New York Times. These documents served as evidence that the businesses did not have any returns or risk flags — thus Square has been deceiving its businesses and the public in a time of crisis.