Thank you so much for posting this! Before I switched to a free subscription, I deliberately made duplicates in my Google calendar for upcoming appointments. You saved me so many headaches by making it known that this would happen. I am disappointed that it also removed entries from the past. This is a huge oversight.
I switched to Amelia. It meant laying out a few hundred dollars, but I've eliminated the middleman, and it's a one-time cost. Also, it has not only Google Calendar but a Zoom integration, so when clients book me for a Zoom session, they automatically get sent a Zoom link.
For the past few years, I've asked Square to put a location choice for Zoom meetings, since so many of us have gone online, and they've been tone deaf and done nothing about it. Amelia also creates a really beautiful catalog for your website, so that each service can be colour-coded and have an illustrative photograph to make it easy for clients to differentiate between your various services.
I found the Amelia support staff very responsive when I needed some assistance getting set up. It also doesn't slow my site down at all.
If you prefer to have clients pay you at their appointment instead of in advance, you can do what I did, and add the Woo-Commerce option of cheque payment, but modify it to say "E-transfer or pay in person". This way, my clients can use credit cards or PayPal to pay in advance, or send me an e-transfer or pay when they see me. I love the versatility.
Yes, it's an initial outlay, but it's not an ongoing cost, like the Square Appointments, for something that frankly isn't as attractive or as well-integrated with features that matter to my clients.
