Setting hours for QR code orders?

[rumi]

Hi,

Today, two customers ordered via QR code before we opened. We had to call them to cancel and refund their order. We thought it would automatically apply the same business hours as everything else. Does anyone know how to make sure QR ordering defaults to Square Online hours?

[AdamB]

Great question, @rumi - thank you for asking about this.

There are a couple ways to prevent that from happening:

1. Use time-based categories so items in those categories are not available outside of the hours you set. This applies to all methods of fulfillment, including QR codes.
2. At the close of business go to Settings > Checkout of your Square Online overview page and toggle off Accept orders online. At the start of the next business day you can toggle it back on.

The main difference between the two approaches is the top one is automatic and the second approach is manual.

[rumi]

Thanks!

With time-based categories, can people still order for pickup/delivery later? Say we're open at 11am, can someone place a pickup order at 10am to be picked up at noon?

[Joe]

Hi there, @rumi 👋 I can step in for Adam on this one!

Items in a time-based category will show the hours of availability on the order online page. When viewing an item outside of the available hours, the add to cart button is disabled and shows the hours of availability instead.

To be eligible for purchase, items in a time-based category must be ordered with enough time to allow for fulfillment within the selected location’s pickup and delivery hours, including prep time and delivery estimates. Customers can purchase items in a time-based category until one minute before the scheduled end time.

Let me know if this answers your question!

[rumi]

Thanks for the information. If they can't add items to cart, then that'll hurt us. Enough customers order for pickup or delivery later (i.e. at 4pm for 7pm pickup; 15 minute or 30 minute prep time). We can't take away that option from customers.

Why don't QR codes use the same hours as Square Online to allow ordering? Seems like they allow orders 24/7.

[pieous]

Because whoever designs the interface spends zero hours thinking about how users need the system to work.

[pieous]

I’d like to chime in…time based categories, although a great idea, don’t work well. We would like to use them, but for online orders, people don’t set the pickup time until the end of the order. 

I really wish the first thing people did, when placing an order, Is set the time of pickup. 

also, qr ordering should only work based on our hours….can’t figure out which genius thinks allowing orders via QR outside of normal business hours makes sense. 

[riseandshine]

Chiming in on this one having gone round and round with chat and phone support, this seems like a really easy one to accomplish.  Square is assuming two things, 1) people are onsite scanning QR codes to order self serve and 2) that the special online store they access is only accessed by scanning the code.

On item 1, some of us still aren't allowing sit down service and the QR code enables customers to order online easily if they happened to walk up.  Regarding item 2 . . . I just navigated to my online store after not having scanned the QR code in weeks and was given the self-serve options.  

Please give the option to apply business hours to all orders, including self-serve or create an option to turn self-serve ordering on/off automatically based on hours set by the business.  Setting up time based categories didn't keep me from ordering items in that category after the business is closed.  Turning off ordering manually is also a terrible option for businesses because somebody will forget to turn it back on and accessing the toggle isn't easily done from the POS.

[HolaLuna]

Time based categories doesn't even stop my orders coming through outside operating hours now.. I've got all categories set to my business hours and I'm still getting orders coming on after hours. Is the only option really manually turning it off and on each night/morning?? 

Should be an easy thing to automate on squares end. 

[Arie]

Hey @HolaLuna,

Thanks for taking the time to reach out to us here on the Seller Community 🙂

I'm so sorry to hear about the trouble you are experiencing with your online orders- you should be able to only receive orders during your opening hours.  

It's difficult for us to troubleshoot this issue without taking an in-depth look at your settings in Square Online. Would you mind flagging this over to our Support Team? We can take a deeper dive with you there. 

[HolaLuna]

Bump

Self serve orders are coming in after hours once again