Gilbert man wants $25K returned after Square account frozen

GILBERT, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- A small business owner in Gilbert wanted to expand and began accepting credit and debit cards for purchases. So, he began using a popular payment method called Square, and it didn’t take long to have a $25,000 problem.

Brandon Anderson designs commercial kitchens for restaurants. “Basically, a kitchen architect is what I do,” he said. He decided to expand his small company by selling kitchen equipment for his newly designed kitchens.

Anderson started accepting credit cards to accommodate his clients and planned on using a payment method called Square to swipe the cards. But when he made a sale for more than $25,000, there was immediately a big problem. “They sent me an email saying they deactivated my account,” he said. “And they’re going to hold the money for 90 days.”

Square wouldn’t explain why they closed the account or why they would hold on to Anderson’s money for three months. The issue put Anderson in a huge financial pinch. “I borrowed some money from family at first, and then I realized it wasn’t going to be nearly enough,” he said. “So I had to take out a personal loan to cover the rest.”

Ninety days came and went, and Anderson says that’s when he got another email from Square saying they were keeping his $25,000 for another 30 days. So he contacted On Your Side, and we asked Square to investigate the problem. They did and immediately released all 25 grand to Anderson.

In an email to On Your Side, Square states, “Square’s policies and systems are designed to protect both merchants and their customers. We monitor the activities on our platform and, based on our ongoing assessments of merchants’ businesses, we may take steps in accordance with our policies to ensure the safety of our platform and consumers, including requesting more information about a transaction or holding funds to protect against the risk of chargebacks.”

So Anderson finally has his money, more than $25,000, and he’s thankful to On Your Side. “We are extremely happy that we called you,” he said. “My wife keeps rubbing it in because she was the one who pushed me to do it, and I’m glad we did!”

We thank Square for quickly taking care of this issue once On Your Side got a hold of them. As for Anderson, he says he may insist his clients pay him by check from now on.

Copyright 2023 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.