Taking payments through appointments

[Coral88]

When I go to close an appointment and take the payment it goes through to link with square but won’t connect. So I can’t take payments through appointments and close the appointment. I’m having to go into square and put it through that way. Connects fine to the reader when I do this. But won’t connect to reader when I put it through appointments. 

[Seamus · Accepted solution]

Hey @Coral88,

Thanks for getting in touch and sorry to hear you're having trouble connecting the reader to Appointments! Just to check, are you using the same mobile device for both the POS app and Appointments app?

On the Appointments app, if you go to Settings > Card Readers does the reader appear here at all?

[Coral88]

Thankyou so much! That’s where I was going wrong. All fixed 

[Seamus]

No worries Coral88, glad you got it working 🙂

[philipholland]

Hi, Seamus,

I have the same problem - I am using the same mobile device for Square and Square Appointments. When I follow your advice above "Card reader" does not appear in Settings. My Square reader does appear in the Bluetooth menu and shows as being connected but still doesn't work with Appointments. Any suggestions?
Cheers,

Philip Holland

[Arie]

Sorry to hear you ran into this issue when trying to pair your reader, @philipholland - are you able to select More > Settings > Hardware in your Appointments app? 

Ps. Welcome to our Seller Community 👋 

[philipholland]

Hi, Arie,

Thanks for helping me with this.

The Square app works perfectly with my Square Reader. I have tried removing the reader and adding it again - works like a dream, but when I try to connect Square Appointments the reader does not appear as a payment option. It appears as connected on my iPhone Bluetooth settings but not with Appointments. I am totally expecting you to point out some simple thing I have done wrong but I have tried so many ways without success.

In Appointments I go Settings>Hardware>Square Reader>Connect a reader>then follow the instructions for holding down the button until the orange lights appear then leaving it tp pair but it never does 😱

Heeeelllppp!

[Arie]

How frustrating @philipholland! 

Just to rule out that it's the reader itself - is this the same reader that successfully connects to the point of sale app? If yes, try these steps:

Reader reset:

1. Hold the button on the bottom of the reader for 15 seconds.
2. When you see 4 red lights, release the button. They'll flash orange first - keep holding til red.
3. Tap on the button one time to get green lights.

Forget the reader from your iPhone settings:

1. Open the settings on your device.
2. Tap on Bluetooth.
3. Locate the reader under "My Devices".
4. Tap on the blue "i" next to the reader.
5. Tap on "Forget This Device".
6. Exit the settings without tapping anything else (we will reconnect the reader within the Point of Sale App itself in a later step).

Once you've done this, go to Settings > Hardware > Square Reader > Connect a Reader again and let me know how you go! 

[VanityHouse]

Hi team, I would like to offer a % deposit to be taken when booking online rather than full up front payment or card option only. is this feature ever coming? Timely used to have this and It was preferred by clients as they did not have to pay full balance up front

[Arie]

Hi @VanityHouse,

Thanks for getting back in touch with us 🙂

While we don't currently have a percentage based deposit, you can specify a dollar amount - either a flat fee, or custom amount for each service, with Booking with No-Show Protection. You can edit this in your dashboard under Appointments > Settings > Payments & Cancellations. 

Let us know if this could be a suitable workaround for you! 

[VanityHouse]

yes we have done this but we cannot take that part payment unless the appointment is a no show or cancelled. we want to be able to debit it from their card as a deposit. is there a way around this?

also, some clients are still able to book online and the booking says there is a card attached but when we go to take payment there is no card on file to take payment from?????

[Seamus]

Hey @VanityHouse,

At the moment the ability to take a deposit for an Appointment isn't yet available - you can set your Appointments account to take a full pre payment, but not a partial amount. Hopefully this is something we'll see some to Square Appointments in the future.

For no show protection, customers will enter credit card details at the time of the booking. Because they agree to the no show policy when booking, you'll be able to later charge that card in the event of a no show, for the amount stated. This won't save a card on file to their customer directory, but it will allow you to charge for a now show.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[VanityHouse]

Can the client remove the card from file once it’s saved ? My concern is that they can and then not show up and their card has been removed 

[VanityHouse]

This is a really big concern for me if they can remove the saved card details once entered

[Seamus]

@VanityHouse Customers cannot remove their card details once entered and they agree to your terms of the Appointment. You'll be able to charge the agreed upon no show fee to the credit card they used when making the booking.

At the moment there's no way to make a partial payment or deposits through Square Appointments - if there was a solution here we'd definitely let you know! I'll pass your feedback on to our product team for consideration.

[borntobewirthy]

Hi Seamus,

I had a client no show so I went to charge a cancellation fee and it declined, thats fine I know I have up to 2 weeks after the Appointment to charge but I had a client remove their card details and can no longer charge a cancellation fee, I have never experienced this before and now I am at a loss of income.

The reason I pay for a Square Account is to prevent this from happening.

Thank you,

Brianna

[Arie]

Stepping in for @Sheamus here @borntobewirthy 👋 I noticed it's your first post, welcome to our community! 

I hear your frustration having lost out on this cancellation fee. While we're not able to take a closer look at your Square Appointments settings, or the customer profile in question, this is something our support team can help with. If needed, they can also file a bug with our Square Appointments team. You can call support on 1800 760 137 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Melbourne time), or contact us via online chat or email:

1. Sign in to your Square account

2. Head to our contact page https://squareup.com/help/au/en/contact

3. Click on any topic, then "I don't see my issue"

4. Click "Message us" or "Email us"

Or, if you see the new chatbot help flow, type "support" to bring up a list of contact methods.

[borntobewirthy]

Thank you Arie, I reached out here as I couldn't contact Support as it was out of their business hours!

[VanityHouse]

Also, is there an option to split payments and that way they can pay part payment as deposit and then we can put the balance on file for future payment? Is that an option yet or soon?

we used to have this option with timely 

[VanityHouse]

Hi, did you see my last response ? I need help please 

[VanityHouse]

 how and where do clients SAVE their card when booking online? we cAnnot ask them for their card details to protection and for deposit payments if the card details are not saved for us to use