Square could be its own downfall

Frothycoffeedud — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 16:12:58 GMT

So after multiple recent squarer reader failures in a 24 hour period and the back order being ridiculous, I have now become the community Guinea pig.

I had no option but to sign up for SumUp and Zettle and buy their readers.

so I’ll use all of them.

is there anything you want to know?

My take so far as a mobile coffee van of very nearly 11 years trading, 9 of which have involved card payments.

Square, simplicity of app but expensive processing, and really silly 1% surcharge for getting my money same day.

SumUp to be discussed.

Zettle PayPal backed so not a fan let’s see if it works.

I started back in the day when cash was king but I had several blue chip oil companies that wanted to pay by card. So I had to get a wifi dongle and connect my elavon reader to it.

it was clumsy but it worked, daily website login to get my money eventually 3/4 days later. And tedious industry BS sold as PCI.

After a couple of years PayPal here became an option and to be fair it was awesome. Cheap rates, cheap reader, loans based on your projected sales.
free daily payout. Yay!

paypal went into meltdown during 2020 April lockdown after not coping with the fact I have a dormant limited company. The govt, taxman, my bank and my accountant can cope with that but PayPal couldn’t and chose to get all threatening and unresponsive. Never a good combination with me.

so I found square.
it’s simple, it’s expensive compared to PayPal, it mostly works.
I do like the app I don’t do an item story board. I’m lazy a small coffee is £…

syrup, decaf, alt. Milk is extra.

I’m 5 minutes per stop ideally in all weathers with regular clients.
ooh look it’s bob he’s a latte and a sarnie. I don’t need a story board for that, it will slow things down.

I like the cheap reader, it works until it doesn’t so I buy a new one.
that £20 reader has made me £60k this year. I’d like a screen but I prefer the confirmation beep as most people have a banking app that shows them I haven’t charged them £89 for a latte and 90% of my customers are return customates.

that’s probably enough from me.
so if you want a direct comparison between platforms, let me know.

Edit: 2010 I was 97% cash, today I’m 92% card. Evolve or die. I’m amazed when I encounter a cash only vendor these days.

Re: Square could be its own downfall

Twiggy — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 16:22:45 GMT

Just saw this as scrolling around.

You don't have to buy a new reader - Square offer a free swap back - as long as you send the cable back and you've troubleshooted everything. Sometimes they just stop working - hence we have 3.

to srat again - click Forget reader - go to to bluetooth settings - make sure the readers are not listed - if it is remove it and set up as new reader in the app - normally works.

If this still palys up - go to hardware in the app and troubleshoot it will have all your details. Otherwise go here https://squareup.com/shop/hardware/us/en/return

It's sometimes good to screenshot your serial number.

Re: Square could be its own downfall

Twiggy — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 16:23:41 GMT

I wish we could edit these replies...... typos....sorry..

Re: Square could be its own downfall

Frothycoffeedud — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 18:34:42 GMT

Hi Twiggy

thank you very much for the info

thread Square could be its own downfall in Payments Troubleshooting

Square could be its own downfall

Re: Square could be its own downfall

Re: Square could be its own downfall

Re: Square could be its own downfall