Call for Artists, Making Money at Juried Art Fairs, Craft Shows and Festivals
The Square over time???? Still happy?
I'm updating the Square discussion, as I am concerned about how it and the company performs over time. I talked to my current provider and they were (predictably) full of doom and gloom about the Square.
1. One thing he said was that the Square won't hold up, its ability to read cards is limited and it can take repeated swipes to get it to read a card.
2. He mentioned that the company won't protect in case of fraud. Any problems with stolen cards, charge backs, customer complaints, etc?
3. How is customer service if you are in a pickle at a show and need help?
4. And the final thing was will the rates stay the same, or now that the Square has so many sign-ups will the Square start upping the rates?
Right now its a shiny new thing & I am mighty tempted to get one, but my provider has been a good one and I don't want to throw him out until I know this Square really really works.
Since most of the replies on the other Square thread are from new Square users I wanted to see what people who have used it over several months & shows-over a year, now think of the Square and the company?
Any long time users out there?
Thanks.
Carla
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Michael Reimer on -
Barry - sounds like the square is working for you.
I don't get the part about paying the 2.75% on tax or not - I can't see how you can avoid that. I don't think any credit card merchant cares how much of the amount you are getting from the customer is tax. They get their nut on the total amount. This is from Square's web site...."Note that Square's fee is taken out of the total amount of each transaction, including applied tax."
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Permalink Reply by Barry Bernstein on -
Michael, thanks for the heads up. I missed that one. It hardly seems fair that we have to pay an additional percentage on the tax, but, it isn't that much money and it probably helps keep the overall rate down. The last of my charges from last weekends show got deposited into my account, this morning.
Of all the advantages of using the square over traditional merchant services, 2 things stand out: 1)The remote CC machines still requires you to pay a monthly fee to connect to their network, usually $20 and you can't use it for anything else. I pay $30 for my 2 gb from Verizon. For an additional $10 I have access to so much essential info that art fair artists need while traveling to shows. I saved at least $10 in gas alone by using the Gas Buddy app, which told me which exit off I-75 had gas for 20 cents less per gallon. 2) I love the fact that I received an email after every sale and I have a sales history at the Square web site. It doesn't store names or CC #'s, etc. just a transaction number and an amount. They tell you exactly how much they are taking out and I received an email when they transferred funds into my bank account from my Square account. My merchant services account never did that. In fact they tried to charge me $10 per month for a paper statement which came 2 weeks after they took out their monthly fees. I will never go back to using a merchant services company. If fact, after seeing the possibilities, I would rather not take credit cards than have to deal with those people again.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Brady on -
One other thing to watch out for is being in an area with no internet/wireless service whatsoever. This happened to me last summer when I did a show in the middle of Idaho, up a valley that had zero cell phone coverage. Another Square-using vendor was certain that there was a way to store transactions within the phone, but that was not the case, so I had to do the knucklebuster routine and enter all those numbers when I returned home. If you do this, be SURE to get not only their card number and expiration, but also the 3-diget safety code on the back and their zipcode (and phone number for your own use in case you record anything incorrectly and have to call them back). Without those four sets of numbers, you won't get the transaction to go through no matter how much you plead with the nice folks at Square.
Happily, most festivals locations have good cell phone coverage, so you can just swipe away on this wonderful fast and easy device!
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Permalink Reply by Mark MacKinnon on -
I have a couple merchant accounts, and square now. while I was waiting for my swiper to arrive I manually entered sales, works fine, but they limit to $1000 per week. They raised it to $2000 per week, and now after one month, I requested and they raised to $5000. They held funds for the first month that I was not happy about.. but I can understand that. It's pretty cool, but I want to capture email addresses.. so i input them into the description line, and sometimes it puts that email right into the receipt filed..
My merchant provider of course, told me all about how it was just a start up, and look for chnages in the futuer, and if I look long term he would be better.. depends on your VOLUME.. at 2.75% and 3.5% for manual entry is is higher than the 2.25% he will offer, regardless of the other fees... And he waived the PCI compliance fee after I complained. Of course there is the different % on cards, AMEX, reward cards, and nickel and dime issues.. Then he wanted to charge me $450 to cancel my account, which I signed up for if I cancel within 3 years.. so I decided to keep it, get a swiper with his deal, and have a back up.. I have two bank accounts anyway.. time will tell..
He also claims SQUARE is building accounts, so they can go Public - and then raise rates... and fees... and right now is not making $$....
I will say I'm pretty happy with the service for the month I have been using it...
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Permalink Reply by Alison Thomas on -
I got the same song and dance from my provider when I cancelled. He started out with "I guess you don't care about your customers credit card security" So I looked into this. Apparently the problem with Square is that it translates the card data into sound with the reader and that means "I" could write an app to take those sounds and translate them so that "I" could create duplicate credit cards. So it all comes down to "Do I trust me?" Well, yeah... And if it goes public in the future and the prices go up I'm sure there will be somebody else out there to offer a good deal.
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Permalink Reply by Connie Mettler on -
This discussion has ben going on for so long and I'd never looked at it because I'm not traveling any more and have an in house system, but I see it going on and on and on so I thought there must be something going on here that was not about the "Square" -- I just monitored the discussion. Nope. It is only the square. I looked at the Dalton's link that takes you to Gadget Lab and now I want to know what company makes this baby and where I can buy stock.
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Permalink Reply by Barry Bernstein on
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Connie, save your money and buy the Facebook IPO when it comes available.
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Permalink Reply by Linda and Jim Dalton on -
Squareup is the company, it was started by the guy who founded twitter. It has not gone public yet. There is a good article on them in a recent issue of Wired. http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/05/mf_qadorsey/all/1
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Permalink Reply by Jan Raven on -
I have been using my Square exclusively since the middle of last July. I have no complaints about the service or flat fees. I love the fact that I can now accept Amex and that the card is approved/disapproved on the spot. Taking Amex allowed me to make a $900 sale this past weekend, something which would not have been possible with my old merchant account. I typically have 20 to 30 credit card transactions during a weekend, so I get to test the system a lot! The only trouble I have ever had was when I was buried deep in a building where cell coverage was quite marginal. People with the older wireless terminals also had connectivity problems. I managed to get most transactions to go through, but failing that, people gave me checks or cash. I am still happy!
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Permalink Reply by Barry Bernstein on
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Everyone here should read that article that the Dalton's linked to on their post. Jack Dorsey mirrored all the things I had been saying about the credit card companies and the banks. It used to be that we had no choice. We had to pay the CC companies whatever fees they imposed on us, all small, but added up to a lot. We had to pay a monthly fee whether we used the machine or not. We would have to pay $500-$700 for a machine that was a glorified piece of plastic with a sim card that should have been more like $50 and even that would have been too much. It's in the merchant service companies best interest, not yours, to try and scare you into using their service and not The Square.
Btw, Connie, I want to buy this IPO when it becomes public, too.
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Permalink Reply by LISA WHITENER on -
Works perfectly and I have not had any problem swiping cards, receiving money, or anything else. At one show a representative of Square came to my booth to introduce me to the device. When I told him I already had one he took my picture and gave me an extra reader. There is no doubt in my mind that if the device quits working you can always get another free of charge. Additionally, and of course, you can always manually put in the credit card numbers without the reader at all. A friend of mine takes most all of his payments over the phone and rarely has the card in hand. He loves the Square too.
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Permalink Reply by Ray Hartl on -
I've been using the Square ever since the head of the company walked into my booth and gave me a handful of card readers. It costs nothing to set it up and try it. I have used many devices and systems over the years and this is the best and the cheapest by far. If you loose your reader they are available at Radio Shack for 10.00 and that will be refunded by the company. No expensive equipment that will be obsolete in a few years, no hidden expenses, no waiting for your money, no brainer.
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