Anyone else having chip reader problems

[10acimport]

Chip reader sometimes will not connect for no reason , and then also battery is dead when not used for a couple days.

Does this thing need a permanent plug attached to it ? Why did they not put an on off switch ?

I have had to go back to using the slide reader because the chip is undependable both for connecting to the phone and battery issues .

I wanted to get an iphone but they no longer have 3.5 mm jacks in them .

This chip and contactless reader is junk .

[EcoAutoClean]

They are very finicky for sure! We have had issues with ours as well. I've gone to 100% invoicing.  This feature may not work as well for you, but a great back up to have.  I believe there was an app update to that was supposed to help the communication between the reader and the app. 

[Sean]

I'm so sorry to hear about the experience with your readers! This definitely shouldn't be the case. While I'm happy to point you in the direction of our general troubleshooting steps, it might be best to work individually with a supporter over the phone to make this process as easy as we can for you. 

If you haven't already tried these steps, please do. You can also reach us by phone by logging into this webpage: squareup.com/code.

Thanks for sharing!  

[PeteLobert]

I have had terrible problems with these.  I'm actually on my THIRD one.  They absolutely will not stay connected to the tablet (ie bluetooth).  The first one started working better when I bought  the base and had it constantly charging but then it quit connecting, too.  There are time I might open the square app and it's connected, then a client actually wants to schedule before paying so I switch over to the calendar and when I switch back to square it's not connected anymore and won't reconnect.  I'm not on my third one with the same issues.

I thought that perhaps it was my tablet (Samsung Note 10.1 32GB, 2014) but my colleague uses an iPad and she had the exact same issues.  

I'm considering just going back to the regular reader that plugs into the headphone spot.  Super frustrating, somewhat embarassing, and time consuming if your meeting has already gone over and you're trying to get the next client in.

[Sean]

@PeteLobert -  So sorry to hear! If you'd like, you can reach out directly. We'd be happy to take a closer look at your setup, and then see if we should escalate things to our engineers. This definitely is not the expected experience! 

[Wildartsweb]

I had my contactless reader set up but it went down very often. I deal with cruise ship traffic coming on buses that are on a very tight timeline so no time to wait for me to get back on line or transition from one reader to another. When i tried to go back to the slide reader i had problems and i had to totally delete the contactless reader.

i thought that you could use the slide reader SIMULTANEOUSLY  and at the same time as the contactless reader so if the contactless reader is NOT working I could just plug in my slide and do that. Is there a way to do that??

[Chad]

Hello @Wildartsweb! I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you've experienced with your Contactless and Chip Card Reader. 

You are able to use the Contactless and Chip Reader and Magstripe Reader simultaneously, but there are some rules to this. If the Contactless and Chip Card Reader is connected and you try and swipe a chip card a prompt will appear on your app asking you to insert it into the chip reader. If a chip card fails to process three times in the chip reader you'll be able to swipe the card. 

If you don't want to insert a chip card you can process it via magstripe, but there is a higher risk associated with this. 

[Wildartsweb]

thanks Chad!