The Square over time???? Still happy?

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Permalink Reply by Connie Mettler on February 8, 2012 at 4:05pm

I think we paid about $1500 for our first equipment! This is amazing.

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Permalink Reply by Mark MacKinnon on February 8, 2012 at 4:22pm

it really is a no brainer.. simpler is better- things change and to be reluctant to change puts you behind. imagine you did not have a smart phone/ipad, i know people that don't, and therefore Square does not work for them.. just make sure you capture the customers email address - that way you have a way to contact them for the in case.. i put it into the description field, and it prints out in the report they give you.. the reports are really nice, i can recap my month, and know exactly how much business i did, see at a glance what sold from the description field, and not have to try and understand and can never figure out what nickel and dime charges the merchant account guys charge. those guys and the banks are all making money off you, this Square guy is building a concept, and he will most likely take it public, along with twitter - look at FB! if things change, deal with it when that comes knocking.

and yes, i did not want to wait for my swiper, i went down to Target, bough the swiper for $10, and Square put that $10 back into my account.. i have two.. thing is to remember where you put them:) and yes, i have to swipe several times to get it to work, after awhile you learn best way ...

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Permalink Reply by Jason Wallace on April 14, 2012 at 6:45pm

Just for the sake of comparison, I feel like I have to mention my entire credit card processing history:

I had Propay in 2008 and 2009, Innerfence (Authorize.net & Merchant Focus) in 2010, and I started using Square in 2011 (with no sign of quitting!)

• Propay was tedious because I had to rely on my knuckle-busting abilities and then hand-type every credit card number later that day. Instant authorization was only possible if I called it in -- requiring the customer to stand there for five solid minutes and watch me make a phone call. Then halfway through the year, the imprinter got so weak that I had to rely on the back of my ink pen to make impressions.

• Using the Innerfence app with Authorize.net & Merchant Focus was a bit more "instant" than Propay, but it was still tedious because of the mess of fees. Innerfence charged for their app (which only did the authorization part. I had to rely on another app to do inventory management.) Authorize.net and Merchant Focus both charged monthly fees ($15 and $10, respectively). Authorize.net charged a stack of transaction fees, and then I had to sign up with American Express separately, who also charged a monthly fee (I think $6.95/mo) -- despite only having six Amex transactions that year.

• Square has been an utterly fantastic dream in comparison! Swipe, get money. Swipe, get money. That's it. No monthly fee, no fee for the app, no fee for the little device, no separate fees for different brands of cards. It's as simple as it sounds! And I get the warm fuzzies every time I use it: It feels like a protest against the old complicated way of doing it.. like I'm "sticking it to the man" or something (even though every Square transaction is backed by JPMorgan Chase, one of the largest financial institutions in the universe.)

As for your questions:

1. The main reason why I have to re-swipe cards is that some customers don't take care of their cards -- it's not the card reader's fault. But if you're afraid your reader will wear out, bring a handful of them. They're free.
2. I only had one chargeback in the hundred-or-so transactions I did last year. I contacted Square support by email (and by Twitter just to hammer the point home), and they started looking into it within 24 hours. Within 30 days, I had my money back, and I didn't have to do anything else.
3. I'm not sure what kind of a pickle would necessitate me wanting to contact Square immediately. Maybe if the app wouldn't start, or if I had no cell signal. Then again if it came down to it, I guess I would revert to my old knucklebuster and hand-type them into the Square app later (and eat the extra fee).
4. As far as I can tell, Square has not raised my rates. In fact, they removed the "go over $1,000/month and wait 30 days" restriction! Now I get a deposit in 2-3 days no matter how much I process.

That said, I still see room for improvement:

• Allow us to do inventory management with the iPhone/Android version. Why is that functionality limited to the iPad?
• Allow us to keep the customer's email address. (But for the time being, I kinda like the idea of of putting it in the description line! That's clever.)
• Allow us to "store & forward" transactions when we don't have a cell signal. (The app by RoamData can do this.) The app would need to be rewritten because the biggest draw to customers is that the app in its current state does not store any information at all. Suggestion: If any transaction data is in a stored state (even if it's massively encrypted), disable the auto-login and require the user to log in every time the app starts until those transactions have been forwarded.
• Create readers that encrypt data before it gets to the phone -- just to shut up Verifone.
• How about a tech support phone number! Email and twitter are cute and all, but sometimes I like to talk to an actual person.

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Permalink Reply by Robin Rakarich on May 4, 2012 at 12:54am

Hey everybody, just wanted to give my $.02 cents. Although we have the Square we use the Intuit GoPayment mobile reader for our transactions on our iPhones. The front end and back end work better for our company. They have basically 2 plans to choose from: Pay as you Go with a 2.7% rate, no monthly fee or a monthly flat fee which is 12.95 per month but a rate of 1.7%. The card must slide to get the rate. If you key in the card, then add 1% to the rate. We've had no problems scanning credit cards. We also like that they have a stand alone portal with email and 1-800 support. A cool thing that they have is an option to deposit funds either into your bank account (normal) or you can have them put the funds on a Visa debit card which they supply. But the best thing of all for us is that it syncs and works with Quickbooks. So keeping track on the back end is an automatic process in real time. Our accountant thanks us! If you need any info on this, let me know.

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Permalink Reply by Robin Aronson on May 7, 2012 at 9:24am

I used  the Square this weekend after my regular credit card processor was inadvertently cut off by the company for the weekend.  (I am getting ready to call them and it won't be pretty!!!).  I kind of like it, but wish they would add some other functionality, specifically, the ability to print a credit card receipt on an android system. I found that, especially with with the older crowd, some of them were unable to sign their name on the phone, even with a stylus (works perfectly when I use it, but one woman couldn't get it to make a mark and I finally ended up writing her name for her).  There are also still a lot of people who don't want to give out personal information and don't like to have to give you their e-mail address or phone number.  However, to save the $45 a month, I just might consider changing over. 

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Permalink Reply by deb upright on May 7, 2012 at 1:12pm

My wireless verifone quit this weekend also.  I got out my Square and it worked like a charm.  The money is in my account.  The other machine is kaputt, had to call and get the last batch settled and they are sending a new machine, but  I got to tell you, I liked the way the Square worked.  Tired of paying the monthly terminal fees.  Store and Forward are my biggest concerns not to switch.

Deb

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Permalink Reply by Susan Parry on May 7, 2012 at 6:09pm

I just got back from doing the TACA show in Nashville. One of my customers taught me a trick. She said that her card sometimes doesn't always work on the swipe (I guess because of age/ use) and when that happens, it helps to rub it well with a plastic grocery bag. I tried it and it worked. I don't know why it worked, but it did. After rubbing it with a bag, I re-swiped it and it went through. Go figure.

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