DirtRoads Posted December 12, 2014 Report Share Posted December 12, 2014 In 20 plus years of retailing, taking in $20M plus and loads of $100's, I've never seen a counterfeit. I mean loads of cash ... $50K plus in cash deposits was common place during holidays and no counterfeits. And most of it was from mall stores, a place you might expect to see a problem. Seems like I did have some of those pens at one time but never used them. My brother calculated our returned checks once and it was way less than 1% .. something like .004. No where near credit card fees. In 4 years in this pottery business I have had one returned check for around $25 and no counterfeits. I don't think the customer group that buys pottery is at risk for these problems. I've found both of these risks to be less than minimal. Like I said, not even close to the 2.75% for credit cards. I do have the square and appreciate the savings. I recommended Square to this retailer I've been working with, who added a 2nd location and has an internet business. They use the ipad screen. You know you can use barcodes with Square too. And Square is a decent point of sale/inventory monitoring system too. And costs tens of thousands of dollars less than something like Counterpoint. Not quite as detailed but ample information for inventory management. I won't disclose how much I spent on point of sale systems/equipment in my retail lifetime ...... I see Square as the most cost effective business tool I've ever seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elaine clapper Posted January 16, 2015 Report Share Posted January 16, 2015 This was my first year selling work at art festivals. I used the square for all three shows and was very happy with it. In fact I would have lost many sales if credit cards were not an option. Sales were about half cash and half credit card via "the Square Card". I also really appreciate the record keeping info square provides. I know how many pieces were sold, what category, how much sales tax collected..... So I am sold on the square card. The % they charge is nothing compared to selling my work at the gallery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PSC Posted January 17, 2015 Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 I use the square and CCs are about 1/3 of the payment methods. Last show i had one card get declined but that happens often down here in florida with the snow birds, their card's security notices the buying outside their usual location and locks the card down and often they have to call more than once to get the card working again. The lady just offered up a check instead so no sale lost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Red Rocks Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 Mark C Can you please expand upon the Amazon reader that you are using at 1.6%? I did not know they had one. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldlady Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 PSC, one of the advantages of living in a small town is that the bank manager knows me. when i ran into the problem you described i was embarrassed to hear for the first time ever, "sorry, your card doesn't work". this was in a store selling parts for mobile homes. i was buying a skylight and stuff to put it in with and my contractor was standing next to me. (since he has worked for me for a long time, he was not worried about my ability to pay.) a call to my bank manager at home fixed it within 5 minutes. what is funny is that it was only because the amount was so much more than what i normally spend in a florida store that it triggered a stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark C. Posted January 30, 2015 Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 Mark C Can you please expand upon the Amazon reader that you are using at 1.6%? I did not know they had one. Thanks Amazon sells their own card reader-its called local. http://localregister.amazon.com Another potter told me about it. They ran a promo special if you signed up before Oct 31st last year you locked in at this low rate-not sure about current rate-I know it will stabilize for me in 2017 at 2.5% for all cards. The reader is a bit larger than square ups square one. I like some of the features software wise and they have 24/7 support on the phone .It also has some drawbacks such as you set up the deposit schedule so its not instant money in your account. Its not an issue for me but it is for many.I do not have to have the $ right now. Just knowing when is really all I need. It has a few other negatives but on the flip side some features are better than square. I like both and having two readers is also handy-Amazon and square both are free after you use them. I'm an amazon user so its a smooth transition for me and the fees are lower.This adds up over time over higher fees. Right now the square is 2.75% I have used it all fall since Sept with good results. I think its14$ which they take off from you fees as you use it. I think like the square they will dial it in better over time-the square is on their second card reader for example. Amazon will improve as they try to capture market share. Still my customers seem to be more familiar with square as they where the 1st for smart phone capture-but they all know Amazon just not the reader. Amazon local was a bit harder for business users, as they had personal users and corporate users set up very easy but as a business under my business name I had to jump thru a few more hoops-I'm sure they will streamline this-I have made some suggestions to them on my issues- If you use your personal banking account for business they have it very easy for you to sign up-I do not use my personal account for business so that was hoop one. The deposit schedule is hoop 2 and so on. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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