WarmGlass.com

Hi all,

I know I've seen this topic discussed before but the Search function didn't turn up anything and my browsing didn't find it either. Anyway, now that I have a lovely iPhone and iPad, AND the local art fair scene is picking back up, I want to consider accepting credit cards at the fairs. I know I lose some buyers who don't have cash/checks with them. I signed up for Square as they give you a free credit card reader. However the reviews about actually getting your money seem to indicate that they aren't very good at processing nor at customer service. I'd like to hear from others as to your experiences with Square as well as other services. I want to accept credit cards at the few shows I do a year and don't need it the rest of the year so I don't want to sign up for a monthly service.

Thanks.

Those might be very early reviews; as I recall they had some issues in the first few months after starting. But I've had a Square for almost two years now, and I've never had a problem. The money's in my account usually on the next business day. They do (or did--you'll have to check their rules now) put a 30-day hold on payments exceeding $1k in a 7-day span, to avoid fraud. It's not a problem as long as you plan for that, and as you build history with them they reduce/remove it. Or I understand that you can apply to have it lifted.

Customer support is by email; as far as I can tell they don't do phone support. I generally get a response between 24-48 hours, but mostly the service just works so I don't have to ask for CS.

I know there are a couple of folks on this board whose experiences are less positive, so they can give the flip side of this. And if you're regularly selling at high volume you can probably get a better rate from a different merchant account.

I was one who commented negatively initially.
I am now a happy camper.
As far as I am concerned, square has its act together.

Barry

As a side bar, PayPal is now getting smart phone card swiping also.


https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/product-selection

https://cms.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/marke ... chant_fees


I know a lot of people like to bash on Paypal, but in all the time I have dealt with them, they have been nothing but a pleasure.

I use PayPal, and they're great as long as nothing goes wrong...but look out when it does. I got stuck with a fraudulent deal on eBay where PayPal flatly refused to do anything, including assisting the police, and I know of at least two cases--one involving a friend--where PayPal assisted in fundraising for worthy causes and then refused to release the resulting funds.

In my friend's case, she held an auction to raise money for her son's cancer treatment, did very well with it, and then PayPal refused to release funds because the auction had been in her son's name and he was a minor. (Although PayPal had set the thing up that way). She finally had to refund everyone's money and ask them to resend checks directly to her, wound up losing some of the money she'd raised, and added a lot of grief to an already difficult situation. In the other case, the family raised such a stink with the media that PayPal backed down and released the money...but only after a lot of agony the family didn't need.

So...if I suspect there will be anything unusual about the transaction I stay the heck away from PayPal. I certainly wouldn't use them for my own merchant services unless it was the only option.

I use Intuit's GoPayment. It's very similar to Square but there's live help online or via phone, which was the deciding factor for me. GoPayment is also slightly cheaper at 2.7% vs 2.75%, although this is pretty nominal. They will also raise on the dollar limits for charges (e.g. $1000) if you set your account up as a business account. There are two options: no fee, 2.7% or $12.95 monthly 1.7%. When I signed up, the customer service representative suggested that I sign up for the monthly fee account as they were running a promotion where they wave the monthly fee for 2 months so I could get the lower rate of 1.7% and then switch to the other option afterwards (no fee, 2.7%), which I did, all without hassle. Lastly, if you use Quickbooks (which I don't) you can sync up your info.
http://gopayment.com/how_it_works/

I've been using Square since just after it came out and have no complaints. Money appears in my account within a day or two at the most and I've never needed customer service.

I did two weekends' of open studios recently and even on 3G the transactions were fast enough that no one complained. And customers LOVE signing their name with their finger!

I just used it as a customer at an art fair this weekend...it was pretty slick. The gal I purchased from said she loves it, has never had a problem with it, the money is always in her acct. the next day and the fee rate is the same for all, I think she said 3%, but no other fees or different rates for each kind of card like some do. And yeah, it was kinda fun signing my name with my finger!

Nicole

Use it, love it, no problems with it (knock wood).

Dana W.

Love the Square and have never had a problem.

John H

I'm thinking about using square - however I know that a show I do is in the basement and the receptions is lousy- what do you do then? Ask for check or cash or is there anyway i can do a knuckle buster the old fashion way? I went to the square up site and could not find a "support" email. Any advice much appreciated.

-Terry O.

Terry,
You can use the knuckle buster to get the credit card imprint and then go home and manually enter the CC # into your square account.
I would never do a show and require check or cash. Most people don't carry much of either.
Barry

Terry, you can continue to use Square, just hand-entering the numbers, which will be uploaded later when you have service, I believe.
The downside is that you don't get instant authorization but you won't have that with a knuckle buster either.

I love square... Need i say more?

I have used GoPayment (from Intuit - the QuickBooks people). Works OK but their card swipper is kind of iffy. Anyone else have experience with GoPayment?

Barry Kaiser wrote:Terry,
You can use the knuckle buster to get the credit card imprint and then go home and manually enter the CC # into your square account.
I would never do a show and require check or cash. Most people don't carry much of either.
Barry

I just got this off the square site:"The Square Card Reader and Square Register apps require an internet connection at all times to function properly. This can be either in the form of a WiFi connection or a data service on your phone (such as 3G, 4G or EDGE). For security reasons, there is no way to take payments at an off-site location and then upload the information at a later time."
This seems to be a potential problem here - I'm not sure if the site says you can not enter data later but some of you can? Can someone tell me if they have been able to enter a sales after the client has left?

I think that was a possibility originally, and I did it a couple of times when I first got it. From the question in that FAQ it appears that's no longer the case. https://help.squareup.com/customer/port ... s-offline-

What you can do, as was suggested, was use an old-fashioned knuckle-buster or something to take all the information on the spot. Then you'd enter it in the Square and upload it when you got to a place that gave you a connection. You'd also have to pay the additional percentage for non-swiped transactions, I'd imagine.

I was mistakenly under the impression that Square is a swipe only service.

While they do accept keyed in sales, They only pay out the first $2002 a week in their usual 36 hours. The balance of your sales that week have to wait 30 days for payout. This makes it essentially a swipe service with a few alternatives possible.

https://help.squareup.com/customer/port ... e-deposit-

So the good news is no monthly CC processing fees. The bad news is that you have to be in a venue with wifi, or have internet service on your phone, and a strong enough signal.

Most interesting quote from their web site:

"The Square Card Reader and Square Register apps require an internet connection at all times to function properly. This can be either in the form of a WiFi connection or a data service on your phone (such as 3G, 4G or EDGE). For security reasons, there is no way to take payments at an off-site location and then upload the information at a later time."

Well this may be their policy, but we did just that last Wednsday!!! The only hitch was they required the billing zip code of the card. Charge went through fine. Have the deposit in our account.

Barry

watching from Canada where we don't have square, what about the issue of chargebacks? Anytime a card is not present during a transaction and in Canada a pin number is not entered, you are at risk of a chargeback. Sure the money will be in the account only to possibly disappear later.
The other issue with having someone's numbers is credit card security. I don't want someone's cc numbers. Then nobody can say I was the source where their cc was compromised.
The bigger the sales transaction, the bigger the risk of chargeback especially if the 'purchaser' thinks they can readily resell/flip your items into cash.