photographer

[Kathyg8811]

I am a Nature Photographer and I sell my pictures at fairs and I have had trouble with Square for the last 4 shows. I don't know what to do. I have a really big fair tomorrow and I think I might just end up manually typing the CC numbers into my phone or iPad whichever I end up bringing. 

I have tried just using the part that I can plug into my earphone spot. It doesn't work. Although it worked at home when I tested it out before the fair to make sure it would work then it didn't work when I tried to use it to get paid. Good thing I knew the person.

Any suggestions??

[TheRealChipA]

@Kathyg8811 A couple of suggestions.

1. Have you plugged anything else into your headphone port (ear buds for example) to be sure it isn’t the phone hardware that is malfunctioning?  Stranger things have happened.
2. Open your Square app before plugging it in.  I believe that if the app recognizes the reader, you will get a message saying that the reader is connected.
3. If all else fails, you can always delete the app and reinstall it on your phone.  That will force you to reenable all of the permissions and should fix any internal app glitch that could be causing the problem.  Of course, you will have to re-do some settings that you might need, but that’s a small price to pay.  I had to do that a few times early on in my Square days, on my old iPads with headphone ports.

I hope one of those works for you.  I’d hate for you to manually enter a lot of card numbers, since they cost more money.  Lastly, order a few spares from Square.  These things happen!

Regards,

[Kathyg8811]

Thank you 🙂

Would it take too long to send an invoice to each person? I was looking around on the website and I saw that. I have done an invoice before so I kinda know how to do it..

What do you think??

[TheRealChipA]

That might be more trouble than you want.  But, wait!  There’s more.

There are new payment options that you might be able to use.  If you have these on your POS, customers could pay:

1. From a link you send to them
2. By Cash App
3. With a QR code.

So you have more options, if these are available to you.  If you’re going to use them, I’d recommend any iPad POS.

[Kathyg8811]

how do those work?

[TheRealChipA]

The first one sends a link to the customer (usually via text or another method), and the customer can use it to pay “online.”

The second one displays a QR code which the customer scans with their phone to pay through Cash App on their device.

The third one displays a QR code which the customer scans and it takes them to your Square Online store to pay there.

[Kathyg8811]

 I have all of those on the app on my phone.

[TheRealChipA]

Perfect!  That should give you plenty of options, and of course you can invoice if all else fails.  I hope you have a highly profitable weekend!

[Kathyg8811]

Thank you for helping me. 🙂

[Candlestore]

@Kathyg8811 ;

Some of the newer cards, chip or wifi (tap cards) want you to try them 3 times as those preferred methods before trying it as a magnetically read card.  Supposedly more security features are built into them.    The other thought is to make sure the device you are using with the headphone reader is connected to the internet.  The Ipads I have only connect to the internet through WIFI and not cell towers.  So your reader worked at home with the Headphone reader since it was on the WIFI, possibly, but at the fair was not connected to the internet.  If you have a hotspot on your cell you could set that up to use the Ipad instead of your cell phone.  Just some things to also check, because taking a payment with card present has lower Square Fees then card not present, or typed in through an invoice or possibly some of these other ideas.