Muir of Ord business criticises card company after delays in payments over festive period
A Highland businessperson has voiced his disappointment after discovering that payments made via Zettle by PayPal before Christmas have been delayed.
Bad Girl Bakery, which has a bakery and cafe in the Victorian Market Hall as well as a cafe at Muir of Ord, is among the businesses affected.
Due to an issue, which has now been resolved, all card payments scheduled for December 23 in the UK were delayed and will not arrive in merchants’ bank accounts until today (January 2).
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Douglas Hardie, co-owner of Bad Girl Bakery, criticised the card company.
“I am very disappointed for two reasons,” he said.
“Firstly, an organisation the size of Paypal having that sort of catastrophic failure and not having back up is surprising.
“They had one job to do and they have not been doing it during the busiest week of winter.
“Secondly, the failure of communication - people were not alerted directly. That is always going to be disappointing.”
He said there had been a delay in payments worth thousands of pounds to his business but many other small businesses would be affected.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Bad Girl Bakery said: “We will be demanding compensation for late/missed payment fees and stress. I’d suggest everyone else does the same.”
In a post on X on December 27, Zettle Support acknowledged an ongoing delay for payouts scheduled for the 23rd of December in the UK.
It apologised for the inconvenience and advised customers to keep an eye on its website for further updates.
On December 30, it posted: “This issue is still ongoing. All bank payouts have been processed on our end, and we are in contact with the payment provider to identify the cause.”
Later that day, it posted: “Our payment provider has resolved the issue.
“All delayed deposits from December 23rd have been processed today. Due to bank holidays and processing after the cut-off time, funds will reach merchants' bank accounts on January 2nd, 2025.
“Thank you for your patience.”