Need better way to take credit cards at Craft Fairs

[Pat Scott]

I had my first Craft Fair booth yesterday, and everything went well except for getting my credit card reader to work. I have a brand new Etsy reader and a brand new chip-enabled Square reader. I was able to get the Etsy reader to read a card swipe ONE time, and never again. I ended up manually keying in the credit card number (and paying the higher fee for manual entry). More than half of my sales were by credit card.

Thinking I had a defective reader, I swapped to my brand new Square reader. My phone wouldn't even connect with the reader. Talk about frustrating when you have a customer standing there while you fumble with your @#$%^ card reader! I tried my wife's phone and had the same results as far as not recognizing either reader.

I had tried both readers at home prior to the show and both performed flawlessly. At the show with my Etsy reader I could do a practice swipe and it would say "Perfect Swipe", but when I did an actual sale it wouldn't read squat. Later I couldn't get it to even do a practice swipe. I tried rebooting my phone multiple times, unplug/replug the reader, tried it with and without WiFi (the venue had free public WiFi), made sure the volume was turned all the way down, nothing. Back home after the show both readers worked great. AAHH!!

I have a bigger Craft Fair in a month and I can't afford to waste time on a reader that won't work reliably. What do the rest of you guys use? Do I need to look into a dedicated credit card machine instead of my cell phone card reader? What models are best? Does iPhone work better with readers than Android?

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[Randy Red Bemont]

Sorry to hear about your headache but great thread. I will be following closely because I will be in need of something reliable soon myself. I hope there is an easy fix. Loosing a sale due to a non-connecting reader is beyond frustrating.

Red

[Dave Lehnert]

Noticed the other day Amazon is now into that type of service.
https://register.amazon.com/

[Michael Mason]

The ones I have used needed the volume all the way UP. That may not be your case but I have not used your brand. I use PayPal Here now, no complaints.

[Pat Scott]

I saw the PayPal reader a while back but it was pretty much the same cost per swipe as what I had so I didn't pursue it any more.
I wasn't aware of the Amazon reader, but since it's cheaper than either one that I have now, I ordered one.

Hmm, I didn't try the volume all the way up because the Etsy hints said it needed off. I might try to contact Etsy tomorrow and talk to them. After yesterday it's hard to trust the reader that I have. I wonder if it's a Wifi thing? But I turned off Wifi and tried 4G by itself and no change. I only had two bars for 4G so maybe that wasn't a good solution either. I felt like I was batting 1000 yesterday.

[John A langley]

Just a thought sometimes those places that you rent the space from Will block the Wi-Fi signal so that you have to subscribe to theirs and pay a daily fee

[Scott Shepherd]

We use Square almost daily when dealing with walk in customers. Works fantastic on most devices. You need to make sure your apps are current, they release updates for it a lot.

I have, myself, just last week, swiped a card repeatedly and gotten nothing. Only to figure out that I had the reader turned around backwards Turned the reader around, it worked first swipe

Someone here has a phone that's got a case on it, and they have problems. Their case is recessed around the jack, but not enough for it to always get a good seat in the plug. If they remove their case, it works fine. Do you have cases on your phones? If the reader doesn't say it's connected with a message on the screen, then it might be that. Just a couple things to think about.

[Tony De Masi]

Been using the Square reader for a couple of years with no issues. Just don't try to answer your phone with the reader plugged in. You would need to remove the reader to use the phone.

[Kent Adams]

I don't know much of anything about these readers, however, in my opinion you're much better off with an iPhone. There is only one operating system for the card readers to have to develop to on the iPhone. Android is messed up with different OEM skins, operating systems are rarely updated, except for the Nexus device etc.

[Pat Scott]

Thanks Scott. I did remove my case but that made no difference. I know that I was swiping the card oriented correctly with my Etsy reader, but now you have me wondering about the Square. It could have been that when I tried it hurriedly in the middle of the sale that I was flustered and had the card the wrong way.

So a general question - all of these card readers will work on either Wifi or 4G signal, correct? If I have a weak or non-existent Wifi, they should still work on 4G? For the vendors Wifi, it was free but like a lot of free Wifi's, I had to sign up and then sign in. Those are always a pain because sometimes I will sign in, it confirms that I'm connected, but yet it still says I need to sign in. I have this happen fairly often at hotels. That's when I tried turning off Wifi and just trying to use 4G.

[Scott Shepherd]

Yes Pat, it should be connecting via 4G. You might even want to turn WiFi off on your phone just do it doesn't try to use that. The square reader is nice, but it really could use something on it to let you know which side faces out and which side the card swipes on. I don't personally use it every day, so about 100% of the time, I have it turned around backwards or the card backwards I really should mark it to saw "this side out" and then show which way the card faces. If they'd hurry up and send that new reader with the chip card reader in it, it would stop all that

[Pat Scott]

Thanks Scott. Funny thing is that I do have the new chip enabled Square reader. I hope I didn't have the card the wrong way! But I remember that I couldn't get the reader to even connect with my phone when plugged in. Made me wonder if it was a setting or problem with my phone, but we tried Square on my wife's phone also and it couldn't connect either. But everything worked perfectly once I got home.

[Ronald Blue]

I can tell you that the Android system does get updated. Not sure where you get that from. I am on the second update in less then a year and it could be the third. A micro USB port is the same no matter what the device. As for the card reader I can't speak to that. However most places I have been that were using a plug in reader were using Android based tablets.

I don't know much of anything about these readers, however, in my opinion you're much better off with an iPhone. There is only one operating system for the card readers to have to develop to on the iPhone. Android is messed up with different OEM skins, operating systems are rarely updated, except for the Nexus device etc.

[Scott Shepherd]

Thanks Scott. Funny thing is that I do have the new chip enabled Square reader. I hope I didn't have the card the wrong way! But I remember that I couldn't get the reader to even connect with my phone when plugged in. Made me wonder if it was a setting or problem with my phone, but we tried Square on my wife's phone also and it couldn't connect either. But everything worked perfectly once I got home.

You've got this thing? I didn't think it was available yet. We preordered it, but ours hasn't shipped yet.

https://squareup.com/contactless-chip-reader

[Fred Belknap]

I use the Square reader and the chip reader. They work pretty good when there is a strong signal. I also found that the chip reader needed to be recharged between sales. The battery in it would go dead after several swipes so when I get a break I plug it in and charge. I called square about this and they didn't have a work around. They need some way to charge the battery while the chip reader is being used, the way it is now it can't be charged while being plugged into a device. I use an Apple mini tablet.