Chip reader isn't supported on my device

[SusiG]

I ordered the new Chip Reader in mid fall 2015. It arrived in January 2016 (aproximately). In December 2015, my husband bought me a tablet, a RCA Maven Pro, Android.. I have a Samsung S 5 phone. I'm just now trying to set up the reader.. I sell seasonally at a local market, which starts in two weeks. (with unknown/unreliable WiFi service). Thought I ought to learn about the reader and set it up before then, had no need to earlier. I "assumed" I did not need to open the box til now, closer to my need for it, which IS now, as I "thought" the product would be fairly easy to set up..  (Most of my customers are cash buyers, so I haven't needed or used the old card reader very often. I also discovered today  that I CAN accept cash via Square, which led to the discovery of the problems below.)  

I had NO idea of the potential incompatibility problems with ANY Device, and didn't start looking at the device or the instructions til today. .I've been reading several of your help topics today. I think the tablet is NOT compatible with the chip reader, and I think the same is true with my phone. (the small end of the charging cord fits my phone, but then, of course, there's no way to connect it to the reader, by cord, and I think also by Bluetooth).   I thought the reader was going to work with my phone, as I think it was a model listed on your sales info last fall.

ARE there solutions, or can I get a refund? (I understand I'm well past the 30 day return time, which I also just found out about today.) The reader IS charged, and I've found the last four digits of the serial number. (I can't find where to log those into your system--perhaps because of the compatibility problems?). I DO have Bluetooth turned on on my tablet and my phone.

LOTS of "Catch 22's" lol. Yes, my fault for not opening the box earlier, and checking things out then, or checking that my tablet would be supported, before or even after it was gifted. I had no Idea I even needed to check that compatibility. Lesson(s) learned.

Hopeful you can give me a solution.

Addendum, not related.  I was practicing with sample sales, and could not figure out how to cancel a sale on my tablet.  Finally figured out how to on my phone, but neither system is very obvious, and I haven't yet found a help article on this situation. 

Thanks for your help.  

SusiG

[ArtFairArtist]

I am sorry that no one seems to have a solution for your problem.  

I am experiencing the very same situation.  It was impossible to look into the future last year when we were instructed to get the chip reader, and in the meantime I upgraded my phone.  No message of incompatibility came with the directive to get the chip reader.  

OK, Square people, now what?  Are we stuck with useless readers?

[Kelly]

Sorry for the delay! I definitely don't want want to leave you stuck with an incompatible reader. @SusiG Your phone is 100% compatible with all of our hardware (except for the Square Stand). @ArtFairArtist Before anything else check out our compatibility page to make sure that your device is not supported.

If your device is not compatible, our Support Team may be able to help get this sorted out for you, this thread can help get you in contact with us if you run into any trouble. 

As for cancelling a sale, no matter what device you are working off of, you should see an orange "C" on your keyboard to clear the amount just entered. To clear an entire sale, select "current sale" at the top of your screen, tap the drop down arrow and select "clear items". 

[vipgrooming]

I have the same issue. Ordered 2 readers in Oct 2015. They arrived ~ January 2016. Purchased new Droid Turbo 2 in Feb 2016. The Contactless Reader will not work with my new phone. I've been using the mag strip reader & my clients do not like it! Would prefer a solution instead of switching from Square as I have had only postive things to say about Square.

[ArtFairArtist]

Sorry you have the same problem.  The Droid Turbo 2 is a great phone, but it's still not compatible with the chip reader.  The solution I was able to come up with was that when I bought the phone, Verizon offered an Elipsis tablet for free.  (Actually it was $100 with a total rebate).  The chip reader works just fine with the tablet, so I'm in business.  The tablet runs out of juice pretty quickly though, so you need to be able to charge it up or keep it plugged in all day.  It's a VERY cheap tablet that doesn't do much, but it's an inexpensive solution to the incompatibility issue even if you have to buy one retail.  Verizon charges me $10 a month for its connection.  Good luck.  I've tried other credit card processing companies, and Square is by far the best, so I wasn't looking forward to switching either. 

[Sean]

@vipgrooming @ArtFairArtist - Sorry to hear, and I also wished our reader would work with every device (especially the Droid Turbo 2)! While many device manufacturers do test their products with popular accessories, they don't always consider Square. While I'm happy to channel your feedback, this is most likely the result of some sort of hardware or software limitation with this device. 😕  Do you still have an older device that you can keep around and connected to wifi to take payments? 

[ezpzclevckelly]

Someone said that even if our phones are not compatible that we can still bluetooth to the chip reader, is this true? Or, do we need to find another company for a chip reader?

I have an LG Tribute 2 phone.

[Spenser]

Hi @ezpzclevckelly, your device does need to be compatible in order to pair via bluetooth as well. 

[ezpzclevckelly]

So, I can get the chip reader and pair it with my phone via bluetooth even though it isn't compatible? 

[ezpzclevckelly]

Nevermind, misread comment.

But, then what kind of Chip reader can I get?

[Spenser]

Apologies for the confusion, @ezpzclevckelly. In order to use one of Square's chip readers, you will need a compatible device. You can read more about device compatibility in our Support Center as well. 

[Hamish]

I'm seriously over these compatibility issues with square chip reader. I have the following devices and NONE are compatible! Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 Lite, Lenovo Tab 4 10 plus, Samsung GT-N8020.

And yet my ancient Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will work and my Samsung Galaxy s8+ will work.

I just can't understand these issues with compatibility! Come on Square.... PayPal here doesn't have all these issues and their chip and nfc reader is essentially doing the same thing!

Bluetooth conventions are designed to stop this sort of incompatibility. It seems to me that you guys need to do more for your customers to fix these issues. And in the interim you need to do more to advise people of devices that definitely have issues. You have a list of devices that have known issues but it seems that you guys don't update this even when customers report issues to you.

I now have close to $1000 invested in tablets, printers, router and cash draw and hundreds of hours in setting up all the products on the app only to find I have to go buy more tablets to work with the Bluetooth reader. I'm seriously unimpressed! 

[Seamus]

Hey @Hamish,

Thanks for getting in touch and sorry to hear you're having trouble using Square readers with your Android devices.

For future reference, please see our list of compatible devices in Australia at https://squareup.com/au/compatibility. If a device is not listed here, then it has not been tested as compatible with Square and we can make no guarantees it will work with Square readers.

To provide a little more context, because we're processing sensitive credit card information and using new payments technology such as "PIN on Glass", we are obligated to make sure card transactions are being processed in the most secure environment possible. As a credit card payment system, we also need to make sure we're PCI Compliant.  Because of this, it's unfortunately not as simple as connecting something like a Bluetooth speaker. Android is a highly customisable operating system and allows each manufacturer to tweak how it works on each device they release. As a result, our engineering team needs to test and build in compatibility for each and every Android device we support, in the process ensuring that each device we support meets our strict security requirements.

While we strive to support as many different Android devices as possible, because there are thousands on the market it's not possible to build in support for all of them. Additionally, some Android devices simply don't meet our minimum security requirements due to the way the manufacturer has customised Android to work on a given device.

I know this doesn't help your specific situation, however I hope this provides a little more context into the complexities of supporting Android devices, and why we're not able to support them all. I can't speak for PayPal, however I imagine the fact that they don't use PIN on Glass means their hardware will work on some Android devices that won't work with Square - in the same way that our app will still work on many devices for manually keyed payments, but not for card readers.

[Hamish]

Thank you for the detailed response and I can see now the complexity involved. However this is clearly a problem for users of Square and in turn it becomes an issue for Square as you end up with customers that are upset they have invested money in devices that exceed squares minimum requirements and still don't work. PayPal here has a keypad so if that makes their system able to operate with all devices that meet their minimum standards then perhaps Square needs to adopt this approach? Square has an awesome point of sale app that is let down on this compatibility issue. Perhaps transparency and communication with customers around this compatibility issue would save some angst until Square can resolve the compatibility problem.