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Square Terminal

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Re: Square Terminal

#101

Post by DominikD »

Slartie wrote: post #98
techsupporter wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect a lot of comfort with what happens with credit cards in the United States comes from people believing that their card issuer will simply handle the problem if any fraudulent or merely unauthorized charges appear. There's no risk from the card going out of sight if the card is useless because the card issuer will reverse charges upon request. (Moving to chips, even with signature, is supposed to alleviate th…

You are probably right, but that comfort comes at a price, and the price can be seen right there in the original article: 2.6% + 10 cent credit card payment overhead. And that is considered "cheap"! By contrast, in the European Union there's a cap of 0.3% on credit card interchange rates and 0.2% on debit. Of course that's just the raw interchange fee; a small merchant has to pay more than that to its card processor,…

Is this actually the case though? Even if your card is taken by the staff and you don't see being charged, you are still being charged and some entity is processing the payment. I find it hard to believe that there are no fees just because terminal is stationary.

Re: Square Terminal

#102

Post by DominikD »

NewsAware wrote: post #43
harryh wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as an American, I've always found at-the-table swiping to be kind of strange, at least for higher end meals. It puts the commerce part of the evening a little too front and center for me. Or maybe I'm just not used to it.

Living in Germany: In most high-pricing restaurant situations I experience the person making the payment for the group would briefly before the last drinks are empty, approach the waiter/bar and make the payment away from the table. Also to avoid debates such as "let me pay, no let me pay, no you can't etc etc"

Mobile terminal doesn't prevent you from doing that. :-) That's what I do if I want to skip on the "no, lemme pay" banter. What I find curious though is that there are places in Germany where one can pay using plastic. ;-) It's always a complete PITA that most places I visit in Germany take cash exclusively.

Re: Square Terminal

#103

Post by balls187 »

DominikD wrote: post #100
spilk wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ideal solution here is to get rid of tipping, but I don't see that happening in my lifetime.

The ideal solution would be to tip adequately so that one doesn't have to be embarassed during payment.

The ideal solution is to build in living wages into the prices of food so tipping isn't used to subsidize restaurant owners.

Re: Square Terminal

#104

Post by balls187 »

peterwwillis wrote: post #60
balls187 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's way more convenient. In the US, primarily, you either ask for the bill, you wait until they bring it, you give them your credit card, wait for them to charge it and bring back your card and the copy to sign, then you are free to leave. In the EU, you ask for the bill, they bring you the bill and the credit card machine, and you are charged right there at the table, where you have to sign (because you have an US…

It's embarrassing for Americans because they're squeamish. They have to leave a tip, and if the server is doing the payment right there, you have to actually face them when leaving your embarrassingly inadequate tip. In the American model, payment is processed away from the customer and the bill is left for tip-adding after the server has left, to save the sensitibilities of cheap customers who tip badly.

Not a European expert by any means, but I've found that when you pay with CC there usually isn't a place to leave a tip. Tipping is done with spare change left on the table.

Also, I thought tipping itself isn't necessary, as many european countries have social programs to offset low wages.

Re: Square Terminal

#105

Post by nikolay »

The design is pretty ugly. I'm not sure why each device Square sells has different processing fees. They didn't use to charge a fixed fee ($0.10), but now they do on all new devices, which gives me no incentive to upgrade. Their rate is pretty much 1% higher than you can get from a merchant account and even more when it comes to debit cards. My long-term bet is on Clover and even Stripe. In a very short term, Square launched a bunch of devices, but most don't work with Bluetooth barcode scanners, so, their mobile promise is unfulfilled and this actually is their niche. They also push for the super expensive Socket barcode scanners - you can buy a better one for a tenth of the price, but Square won't work with it, because they want to sell you the expensive Socket. Last, but not least - Square does not give nonprofit discounts. Both Stripe and PayPal gave our nonprofits half percent off from the processing fees.

Re: Square Terminal

#106

Post by flamtap »

techsupporter wrote: post #9
bpicolo wrote: post #7

I hope this takes off solely so I can pay with a credit card directly at my table at restaurants instead of having them take it to back of house. Much of Europe has been doing this correctly for a long time now

I'd even be happy if the United States can go one step prior to this and actually have the customer-facing portion of the terminal (the bit with the slot, keypad, and NFC reader) actually face the customer . I'd use tap-to-pay and such far more often if I could reliably use the part of the terminal that's supposed to be for my use and if it said up front if tap and insert are supported. Instead, right now we get this…

In Canada, the server generally just brings a terminal to my table with the bill. They put in the amount owed, and I use the terminal to add tip and complete the transaction.

Re: Square Terminal

#107

Post by pfranz »

kmm wrote: post #67
zaksoup wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One thing to keep in mind is that in many states tipped minimum wage is significantly lower than hourly minimum wage. As low as $2.50 an hour. Tipping is bad for everybody, including the workers involved, but framing tipping as purely a response to “performance” isn’t always the whole story.

In no state is the minimum wage the employee takes home lower than $7.25 an hour. The employer can pay them less only if the tips make up the difference, down to $2.13(!) an hour. Of course, most waiters and servers end up making quite a bit more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage

This is not legal, but often if you're a waiter/waitress and report you're making less than minimum wage and want to get paid the difference they take that as you're not performing well enough and will fire you.

Re: Square Terminal

#108

Post by cornel »

Interesting fact: Square terminal does not support pin entry. Chip and sign or on device cvm for high value Mobile payments (apple and google pay).

Re: Square Terminal

#110

Post by parliament32 »

cornel wrote: post #108

Interesting fact: Square terminal does not support pin entry. Chip and sign or on device cvm for high value Mobile payments (apple and google pay).

Probably because PIN entry devices have a lot of security standards that you can't emulate on a touch screen.

It's a shame because basically everyone except the US has moved on to chip+pin, and the US will transition in the next few years, so this product won't be around for long.

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