did anyone experience problems using square on Nov 1 & 2

[funtimefoods]

I have been using Starlink for almost a year and have experienced zero problems getting payments to process quickly in my food concession trailer. This past weekend however I had problems both saturday and sunday and actually lost some sales because I could not get the payment to go thru even using the offline mode. Anyone else have this happen? 

[Laurie_]

Hey @funtimefoods,

I’m sorry to hear you had trouble processing payments during those dates. Could you share a bit more detail about how you were taking payments so we can determine the best next steps?

1. What hardware are you using to process payments?

2. What issues did you experience with offline payments? Did the issue occur when entering payment details, or later when reconnecting to the internet to capture the payments?

3. What kind of internet connection do you have in your food truck, and how do you usually connect to it?

4. Were all cards and digital wallets affected, or did the issue occur sporadically?

Once we have a clearer picture of how you were processing payments, we can recommend troubleshooting steps to help prevent similar issues in the future.

It’s also helpful to keep the issquareup.com website handy for real-time status updates. If we’re ever experiencing any kind of disruption, details will be posted there.

[funtimefoods]

1. I use two of the Square Terminals. One at each of my serving windows.

2. As far as I know both had been updated before the incident. Usually when I connect to the Starlink they will come on and if there are any updates they will upload at that time.

3. I am not in the same place each time I set up. I do festivals on the weekends mostly so I will be in a different location each weekend. This past weekend I was at a different location. This place is notorious for horrible cell service and one of the reasons I started using Starlink. It is the first time I was there with Starlink. My terminal had only one time it sort of stalled for about 10 seconds. However my helper had about every other transaction on hers stall and the circle go round and round until it would finally say it could not be processed then she would hit the retry and in about 5 seonds it would complete the transaction. I sell items that are quick to make such as ice cream, smoothies, frappes, pretzels, italian ice, slushies so I do not have the time when I have finished with a customer to now be messing around with waiting for a payment to go thru. I am opposite of most food concessionaires, I do not collect my payment until the end of their order and them receiving their items. This is because half of the time they change their mind or add on extra items because now one their group has decided they want something.

I did go to the Starlink website during this week and see what they might suggest could cause a disruption in connection. They suggest making sure the connections are clean and that the cable has no damage--even a little tiny nick. So I changed out my cable to a new one. So not sure what else I could do from their end. Their software is very simple. Put the stand up with the dish on top, look for obstructions using their app on your phone and align the dish according to how it shows it needs to be on the app. I also am using their unlimited plan because I was not sure how much data I would use doing these transactions. So it is not that they are throttling me because I am on a limited plan.

I search for literally years and tried every kind of hot spot, booster, router, that you can find on the market and nothing has some close to Starlink. Even up in the mountains under the shade of a lot of trees it performed perfect this last summer. This is my first problem and I was hoping it was just because of a weird bunch of happenings on the previous weekend. But with it happening again...don't know what to think now.

[Laurie_]

Thanks for providing these details, @funtimefoods! Thanks for your patience, we know this reply took a bit longer than usual.

Okay, so a few things here. First up, since you’re using Square Terminals, you have 24/7 access to phone support for any hardware issues, no matter where or when they come up. I always recommend reaching out to Support as soon as you notice something unusual, most of the time they can walk you through a fix over the phone, since they have direct access to your Square account and device settings once you verify your details. And if that's not an option, you'll still be able to connect with someone at any time before or after your trading period. Just something to keep in mind for the future! You can reach our US Support Team at 1-855-700-6000, Monday through Friday, from 6 AM to 6 PM Pacific Time.

So, just to clarify: you’re setting up a portable Starlink router and connecting your Square device to that network. Is your device connecting to Starlink wirelessly, or are you using an Ethernet connection? 

Either way, we’ve included troubleshooting steps for both wireless and wired setups in our online guide, so that should help you run through the basics.

If the connection issues continue, I’d also recommend reaching out to Starlink with the network requirements for Square hardware (or checking these yourself), just to rule out any potential issues on their side.

You can also run a free online internet speed test (just search "internet speed test" in your browser) to check whether there are any broader connectivity issues happening on your end.

Hopefully, you can resolve the lagging issue with the above steps. If you start noticing any specific error messages on your Square Terminal devices, please reach out to Support Team with those details, so they can take a closer look.