Create Discount Codes that mirror how they were in Square Online

[DinaLRosenberg]

I was told to create a feature request for this, however I do feel like this is more of a bug than a feature request as the discount behavior I'm "requesting" has been the norm in Square Online couponing.

For years and years (four) we have used coupon code to take a discount of the customers entire purchase. We have created the discount on eligible categories and selected ALL categories except one (events/classes).

For the purpose of our website and business, our events/classes are listed as products/items and not through appointments (we just don't love the integration at this time).

Recently, we've noticed that customers have been placing orders using the discount codes that should give them 15% off their entire order only to see that they're receiving 15% off the highest priced item.

Of course, because we advertise the discount as off the entire order, we then need to refund them the rest of the discount, which we have been doing which led us to try and figure out what changed.

We know that coupons will be moving to Square Marketing in august.... but it seems that they are already taking precedence over the online coupons.

When I reached out in community about this- I was told this behavior was "expected".

I'm confused as to why we wouldn't just mirror the coupons as they have always worked especially since coupons were just supposed to be "moved" not "changed" as it was explained to me.

My issue is we have easily $2,,000 worth of marketing materials that state "take 15% off your entire purchase" which not are useless.

We send between 50-100 of these postcards out with our orders daily. 

Please fix ASAP.

[Burnsville-Hemp]

I am having the exact same issue with the new "updated" coupons through Square marketing. The way the coupons used to work was perfect. I now can no longer give a customer a discount on a specific item and have it apply to their entire order. It only applies to one item in their order. This is a huge issue for my business and is going to cause me to lose sales. I use these coupons very frequently in my business and now there is no way to correct it. I submitted a help request and was told this is just how the coupons work now. It is very frustrating that Square would "update" the coupons by removing most of the functionality and features of the coupons. 

I was instructed to post to square community and then instructed to post in this thread as a feature request in hopes that Square will fix the issue. 

I have not been happy with the way Square functions in a lot of other ways and this seems like another step in the regression of Square. Hopefully they are willing to fix this issue ASAP as it is causing their customers to lose time and money.

[DinaLRosenberg]

While I am not glad you are having this issue I am glad we aren’t the only one having an issue with this absolutely RIDICULOUS change.

Sometimes it feels like changes are made without understanding the full ramifications and then, instead of fixing it, we get a “this is how it is now”

we knew for a very long time coupons were moving- there was never ANY communication that functionality was changing. 

as a retailer it is CRUCIAL that we can discount categories. 

[NorthfieldYarn]

I agree, this is a TERRIBLE change. I sell yarn, some of which comes in 50+ colors. Now to create a coupon for a yarn I have to chose every single color from the dropdown individually to add it to the coupon?! That is COMPLETELY UNWORKABLE!  The discounts are always on any of the colors, and I do not have time to do such a tedious task every month when our newsletter deal changes. And I thought that creating a category for the yarns would be a work-around, but since that discounts only one item, not all the items in the category, that doesn't accomplish what I need, either. 

It's just so maddening -- how often does a retailer want to offer a discount on just ONE of something that they are trying to move with a discount? And how often does a retailer want to discount only ONE color or size of something? I suppose those situations might arise, but this is by far the less common scenario. 

And does Square realize what a customer relations nightmare they have created for us? Now I have customers contacting me constantly about coupon codes not working, and it is never fun to tell people that they can't enjoy a certain deal anymore (not to mention the money I've spent printing up cards with codes on them that are now useless).

I think the part that bothers me the most is that it takes away our ability to choose to offer the deals that make sense for our businesses. My software should be a tool that helps me run my business, not a limiting factor that ties my hands!  

[MH82]

Has anyone gotten a response from Square on this? This change is poorly thought out and executed; it's very concerning. Changing the parameters for how the coupon tool is applied without giving an alternative way to replicate current customer experiences and ACTIVE promotions is just reckless. 

[helpme23]

I'm having issues as well. I cannot apply my coupon to certain items instead of the entire sale. I received a message saying that "said coupon code" does not match a valid coupon code or gift card. Are there any updates on this?

[DivyaWP]

I also agree with all of this. The functionality of the coupons in the marketing is trash compared to what it was and the annoyance of not being able to delete old expired coupon codes to unclog the list is annoying. 

[BushNVineFarm]

I agree. I am getting very frustrated with all of the updates but Square doesn't think through how they affect us as small business owners. Very frustrated. Maybe we need to start looking for another POS system.

[TrioTackle]

I agree. When Selling Fishing gear we built our categories so we could discount entire categories not just one Item. Also having to create new coupons is terrible in the past if we kept our coupons simple and would turn them on and off to match our Marketing Campaigns.  I Need to start looking for another POS system.

[BradenSQ]

Hi everyone, thank you for sharing your feedback and concerns about the recent migration of Square Online coupons to Square Marketing, our email marketing tool. I understand your frustration.

I’ll start with some context on why we made this change. The coupon migration is part of a broader effort to make it easier to manage your online and in-person sales together, eliminating repetitive workflows and saving sellers time. That broader effort will also bring improvements to the speed and reliability of your online stores, and you can learn more about it here. Details of how the coupon migration worked, the changes that came with it, and recent improvements to Marketing coupons can be found here: Seller Community, support article.

As discussed in this thread, one of those changes to how coupons worked after the migration is that item and category coupons now apply only once per order, rather than applying to every unit of all eligible items in an order. While this existing Marketing coupon behavior has some benefits, we recognize that this is something sellers need more control over. We’re exploring adding an option for coupons to apply to all items, and hope to be able to add it in the near future.

Another change mentioned above is that coupons in Marketing currently can’t be edited. While you can get a similar result by recreating your coupons with the needed changes, we recognize that that can take a lot of time if you make changes frequently. We hope to add coupon editing to Marketing in the future as well.

I know that “coming soon” isn’t always a satisfying answer, but we appreciate your feedback and will do what we can to bring those changes to Marketing.

[DinaLRosenberg]

@BradenSQ we appreciate your thoughtful response. 

I suppose the frustration is there was no warning that this change was coming. The only communication we had was that the coupons were migrating- there wasn't communication that the functionality was changing. It wasn't until us sellers had brought up the issue was it even confirmed. 

With no warning, sellers continued to advertise their discount as they had always been. For us, this led to multiple tickets of refunds to bring the pricing our customers paid in line with the discount that was advertised. Not only a time expensive but processing fees that, due to Square's current change, we no longer receive back. 

In addition, we were left with hundreds in dollars of marketing materials and postcards that needed to be thrown out as no official communication from Square was ever released prior to migration that the functionality was changing.

Finally, building customer trust isn't easy. That comes from truth in advertising and communication; our coupons no longer working the way we advertised them lead to an erosion of trust with our customers and, simultaneously, an erosion in trust of Square.

As customers of Square we expect and deserve truthful and honest communication.