Recent changes to checkout experience on Square for Retail, and Square Online stock issues

[MrsMuttons]

The title of this thread has been edited from the original: What's going on with Square lately?

I have used Square over the last 10 years over 4 different hospitality venues, and have always spoken highly of it to customers and peers, but over the last year they are making changes that are wrecking the user experience. So incredibly frustrating. I now hate the  workflow, and have to change. 

1. We're a bottle shop and bar. I used to be able to scan the  barcode of a beer can and select my Takeaway or Dine in price. You now can't select a second price. Their solution was for me to generate a 2nd barcode, (buy a printer) and label a second barcode sticker on every can. How mental is that??!! Thousands of cans. Every time you receive cases of beer, I'd have to re label every can. Who made that decision? I thought the   point is always about quick service, customer experience. We now have to type in the  name of beer. And if we had 6 different people, getting a 6 different beers to have in-house its cumbersome. 

2. Recently something changed where typing in the  name of the beer, say 'Frankland Estate R', you could then select that and a drop down box would appear, select Takeaway or In House. But you cant, it wouldn't let you select the second item. Like what happens with barcode. You had to type in more words Frankland Estate Rocky Gully, then 3 individual prices would pop up TA, In House, By Glass.  A very long and cumbersome process. 

3. I wanted to use online. And this is dumb. You can't de-select 'Wine by the Glass' or 'In House' pricing. So if you were buying a bottle of wine online to be delivered, you see wine by the    glass price. Doesnt look professional. Should be an easy thing to do. 

4. Stock inventory. I just want to sell the stock I have in the  shop, online. But they have to be 2 separate stock levels. I dont want to be transferring stock back and forth. the whole point with Square is to make things seamless. Reduce work. Also I don't want mistakes to happen. It should be linked to my Square Retail Plus account. 

There were a couple of other little things to. I had contacted Square but it's the same answers normally. 'It's not in our forecast.. yada yadda' 

So my question is has there been a shift in the last year with management?  Short staffed? New direction? Whoever is designing the back end > POS is not doing it for the  betterment of the    user experience. It's getting worse. 

I really want the  scan bar code, select pricing back! Was the quickest and most logical way. That should be the starting point Square. the in-house is not a 'seperate product' as I was told my Square last year. 

[Katie_SQ]

Hi @MrsMuttons,
 

Thank you for sharing your feedback with us. I can certainly appreciate how frustrating these recent changes must be for you, and I'm committed to helping you find solutions that will benefit your business. To do so, I'd like to get some additional information. With these details, I'll be able to escalate your concerns to the appropriate teams, so we can work towards suitable changes.

Choosing a Variation When Scanning a Barcode or Searching for an Item by Name

• Could you please share a video demonstrating your current setup and how the process unfolds in real time? Additionally, please specify the device and scanner you are using (e.g., Square Register, Retail Plus, USB Barcode Scanner model).
• On your Square Dashboard, when you click on an item in your item library and scroll down to Checkout Behaviour, is Skip Item Details Screen turned on?
  • If 'Skip Item Details Screen' is enabled, the first item variation and any preselected modifiers will be applied automatically when the item is added to the basket, bypassing the item detail screen.
  • If you disable this option, does it allow you to choose between your dine-in or takeout variations?
    
    

Set Up of Variations 

Regarding your current setup, how are your variations configured? For example, if your variations are set up as:

• Variation 1:
  • Dine-In
  • Takeaway

Does creating separate variations for each option allow you to select one when scanning the barcode?

• Variation 1:
  • Dine-In
• Variation 2:
  • Takeaway

De-selecting Wine by the Glass or In-House Pricing

• Do you only sell bottles of wine online, or do you offer both wine by the glass and in-house pricing? Please let me know which items are available for sale online, and I'll explore possible solutions.
  
  

In-Person and Online Stock

• Have you encountered any issues with stock levels when attempting to sell and manage stock under the same location? Is this due to selling items by different units? (i.e., by the glass, by the bottle etc). 
  
  

Thank you. I'll keep an eye out for your reply.