hey everybody!
square...(squareup.com), an interesting way to accept credit cards via your smartphone. they even provide a free card reader that plugs into your phone. any shopkeeps out there using this gizmo? curious how everybody loves/hates it.

be well,

sage
the coffee hound
laurel fork, va.

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why yes gentlemen i do have a link!

https://www.perkville.com/about/

 

it does require a seperate ipad(may or may not pose a cost issue ) but that seperate ipad can also be used by the customer to get directions real quick or watev maybe. Square does has a habit to drop wifi a little on the frequent side but we * just switched to Beta and it pretty much never happens. we did so because under Beta it makes off-line purchases doable and simple and accurate with out the ;take payment-nosignal-suspend transaction-try again-cancel thing that was happening.

Mr.Square introduced me to perkville. give me a day dudes and ill put together some actual info for you all !

 

p.s Free Trial! is totally available for Perkville for something like...3ish months, for those of you curious and in the SF area drop by 715 brannan _Showplace Cafe_ and i'd be more than happy to show and tell with you ... buy a cup tho :D

 

oi- contact marty@perkville.com he'll answer what ever  question u have & he not a pushy sales dude.
I have a question for the square users.  I tried to figure it out on the square site, but it seemed unclear:  the device comes with its own POS right?  Is it possible to use the square swipe with a different tablet POS?  Square seems fine, but there seem to be better POS's out there. I'd like to use Shopkeep with the square swipe action.  Possible?

It would be possible. You could use Shopkeep to ring up the drink, as your POS, and then you would have to use an iPhone or iPad equipped with the Square swiper to run the Credit Card transaction by manually entering in the price that Shopkeep gives you. Which is not really that different than establishments that use a normal cash register and then have a Credit Card machine. Make sense? 

Is it purely based on getting the great rate through Square?



christopher myers said:

I have a question for the square users.  I tried to figure it out on the square site, but it seemed unclear:  the device comes with its own POS right?  Is it possible to use the square swipe with a different tablet POS?  Square seems fine, but there seem to be better POS's out there. I'd like to use Shopkeep with the square swipe action.  Possible?
The rate is sounding good, and the device is free and simple to hook up.  You can buy a credit card swipe that works with shopkeep and ipad, but there doesn't seem to be any reason to if you can just get the little square jack for free.  Also not sure if you have to plug those other swipers in to electric (we're doing a mobile unit, so the less things to plug in the better)

Square is a good solution for a lower volume shop...when it comes to cost per swipe, arguably the best that I know of.  If you want a low cost merchant account processor, check out Gravity Payments http://www.gravitypayments.com/.  They operate on a cost plus set up (interchange rate plus the processor rate), not on a tiered system that can absolutely devour you in unforeseen extra costs, fee's and rates that are hard to understand and seemingly arbitrary. 

 

I am trying to remember and correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think square allows for a "card not present" transaction, meaning if you try to swipe a customer's card and for whatever reason the magnetic strip isn't reading, you have to manually key in the card info.  This would cost you a different rate on a traditional merchant system as it is "riskier" for the cc company.  A customer doesn't really care what your swipe fees are, they want their freakin' cup of morning coffee stat, so if square can't process their card...unhappy customer. 

 

my $0.02

i want this ish forever....go pennsylvania...rip ryan dunn.

does it support text to order?

I have Square on my iPad, I downloaded it to play around with it and you can set it up for multiple items, sizes, etc. pretty easy. It would work great for a mobile set up, or farmer's market, but in a normal shop it would be extremely limited and unpractical. The only difference between Square and Shopkeep is really more on the back office side of things. The usability for ringing in drinks and cashing out is really pretty much the same. You should just download Square and play with it. For your mobile it might be pretty great. The rate they have is pretty good. No swipe fee is HUGE! 

christopher myers said:
The rate is sounding good, and the device is free and simple to hook up.  You can buy a credit card swipe that works with shopkeep and ipad, but there doesn't seem to be any reason to if you can just get the little square jack for free.  Also not sure if you have to plug those other swipers in to electric (we're doing a mobile unit, so the less things to plug in the better)
Yeah, we are working towards a full cafe, and was thinking of shopkeep more for that.  We still want to be on top of the back end stuff.  We will be open on another business's property 5 AMs a week, so it's a bit more than a farmer's market, but we want our accounting to be tight.  What do think? Can it talk to quickbooks at all?  Thanks for the input, setting up and testing it out sounds like the way to go.  Will do...once we pick up that ipad.

i checked into it, but it seems like they'll only pay out $1000 every fifteen days, or something.   I do a $1000 in credit card sales every day - I would get killed if I wasn't getting that money into my bank account immediately!

--Sean

They increase daily payout dependent upon sales, $1000 is the start.  But it does take time to "adjust" these payouts, so it won't work for everyone.  Again, as has been repeated often in this thread, Square is probably not the best solution for a high volume shop. 

 

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