FWIW my local coffee shop uses ShopKeep and Perka and they work great!
Square Register
111–120 of 125 posts
Re: Square Register
#112I can't actually remember the last time I swiped my card and signed for anything, because we in the U.K., like most of Europe, use Chip and Pin (EMV is the official name). I wonder if Square will still function when this gets pushed into the U.S. market. Surely this is due soon in the U.S.? http://corporate.visa.com/media-center/press-releases/press1...
Square will be in trouble if NFC takes off. That is why its coming up with what I think is its main product line, the register. The credit card reader thingy is not where it makes money. Once prople get hooked on the analytics it can hope to add the NFC functionality in and still keep going.
It's not really analytics-- it's about creating a deeper relationship between the merchant and payer. Payments are just a means to do this.
Watch this interview with Jack starting at around 16:00. Comments about NFC around 18:00.
http://www.livestream.com/techonomy/video?clipId=pla_98a128d...
Re: Square Register
#113I don't like how, as the customer, I have no way of seeing what exactly is being charged to my card. For all I know, anything could be running on that ipad (foreground or background) and i could be charged any amount without knowing. Sure, I can ask for a receipt, but even the legacy till they replace in the video has a customer facing display, not a shiny piece of aluminum with some fruit. It's interesting that vide…
I used to work at a retail outfit that used the really old-fashioned credit card system involving carbon paper slips and handwritten amounts, which would be entered into a credit card processing system at another location at a later time. We could have essentially charged whatever amount we wanted, and this was fairly apparent to anyone who paid via credit card. And yet, out of every thousand people who go to pay wit…
and I wonder how many of that handful would realize that paying by check has even larger issues?
Re: Square Register
#114Must be an American thing, I guess. Is EFTPOS (ie debit card) less common in the US than in Australia? Seems odd to provide a credit card service by itself. People don't pay for coffee and things on credit, do they?
Credit cards offer more protection for the consumer than a debit card. Using a debit card is just as bad as using a cheque. It's 2012. Use a credit card. Pay it off monthly.
Re: Square Register
#115Did anybody go through the verification process when ordering the device? After I input some basic info (like my birthday and last 4 digits of my SSN), I was asked to answer questions I have no idea how they even came up with. One example is, "What hospital did you live near when you were on RandomName St.?" How did they immediately know what street I lived on some years back, and also that it was near a major hospit…
I suspect they request your credit report with your personal info (if you are a business requesting the report on someone else, you don't need the full SSN) and pull the information from there. Finding a hospital near your address just requires knowing where hospitals are, and those are in public directories.
What I found weird was how out of all the landmarks around where I lived, it picked up on the biggest, the particular hospital in question.
Maybe the question is a standard one, and I happened to add more meaning to it by dumb luck of where I lived.
Re: Square Register
#116No other startup has ever been so primed for an Apple acquisition. Everything from execution, design sensibility, culture and even CEO is heavily Apple inspired but in a different but still complementary industry.
Square is a POS, cash register company. Why would Apple be interested in it?
People said the same thing when they acquired Siri.
Re: Square Register
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its probably about time for them to lose the "headphone jack" idea for commercial systems. Its a cute hack to give Apple the finger for rent seeking the damn serial port when you're a fresh young startup, but they're big boys now. Time for serial or bluetooth.
Bluetooth audio dongle and a robust dock maybe?
With Bluetooth on, I don't see how a store will make it through an entire day without going through at least one iPhone battery charge. It would defeat the purpose.
Bigger stores can probably use an iPad instead, but I don't think we'll see a Bluetooth solution for the above reason.
Re: Square Register
#118Slightly tangential note - Square has the most gorgeous product videos I've seen from a startup. Their jobs section even lists an open position for doing these so I guess they do them in house. Very impressive.
iZettle are eerily similar in that they have - what looks like - great UI design and promotional videos as well.
Shame they require you to have a Facebook account to sign up as a user.
Re: Square Register
#119No other startup has ever been so primed for an Apple acquisition. Everything from execution, design sensibility, culture and even CEO is heavily Apple inspired but in a different but still complementary industry.
Square is a POS, cash register company. Why would Apple be interested in it?
The "POS" acronym is really, really unfortunate.
Re: Square Register
#120That's a horrible logo. I had no idea that was "Square" at all when just looking at the logo.
As opposed to an Apple? I get that the logo is modelled on the dongle (which may or may not get phased out), but it's extremely generic and will probably not work very well for branding purposes in the future.