I have a question for those of you who use the Square to take credit cards. I just bought a phone and set up the Square account only to find that the show which starts Dec. 1 in not in an area with cell signal! I know it says you can enter some items by hand, but the amount of information they are requesting seems like it will take a long time to copy down. I am also not certain customers are going to feel comfortable providing all the info. Has anyone else had to deal with the Square in an area without cell capabilities? What did you do?
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Here is a new article about the square. This involves Illinois users of the square.
http://socialtimes.com/square-hit-with-cease-and-desist-order-and-m...
It says that a cease and desist order has been requested to be issued for those using the square in Illinois and that the square faces the possibility of some very huge fines! It says up to $1000.00 per transaction.
I do not know how this would apply to out of state artists using the square from an Illinois location, but might be worth checking into.
I must be a little dense here, but I do not understand why they are forbidding use of the Square with fines attached. It would seem that any machine which processes a credit card would be vulnerable to this same action. If anyone can make this any clearer to me, I would appreciate it. I don't do business in Illinois, but would like to understand this in case it spreads to other states.
You also need to consider the issue of a signature being required. Even if you key in the CC data later, I believe the Square app still requires a signature. You could copy the signature, I suppose, but if a customer disputes the charge, you might lose, even if you have their signature on a slip. Send a tweet to Square about this.
I process the knuckle buster slip just as I would the phone. Fill it completely out, have my business card which prints when their charge card does, take all necessary information and then have them sign it. With everything filled out and signed, I think it would be considered a legal receipt.
I got a pay as you go cc machine with store/forward as a backup if you cant use square. It only cost me $50 for the machine and nothing else if i dont use it. I've only had to use it once. I got it from 1st national who advertises on here. Also, there was an internet hotspot thingie i was gonna check out, and i think it had daily rates, for this situation. I think it was at Best Buy and maybe called Choice or something like that. or maybe Clear. Not sure if it would work everywhere or not, I was going to try that until I added a hotspot on my phone, but I don't know if that works if your phone doesnt get service.
Unfortunately, a hotspot uses the same signals as a cell phone. If the phone does not have signal, neither will a mobile hotspot.
Living in rural Maine...most of my State is without towers and signal. I live in an area where we have coverage, but if I travel a half hour away in ANY direction, nada. Most of my venue areas will have coverage, except the extreme Northern and Mountain areas. Precisely why I kept the knucklebuster and paper system. I, too, have run into this problem...and fortunately kept my knuckle buster/slips. I just use that and imprint the card, have the customer sign and provide their address with zip code, write down the security code from the card, get a phone number or whatever other ID you are comfortable with and then hand enter each transaction when I had a signal. Fortunately, most of my customers will still happily write checks too. Technology is great, but there are limits...
Thank! That is good to know. I do have one, might just take it along and try it.
If you still have time get the Knuckle buster and slips on e-bay if not write a receipt with all the info on it and keep your copy to enter it all later when you are in phone range-thats about your only option.
Mark
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