Beating a Dead Horse but it needs to be: Preauthorization

[FarmAndBar]

We need to be able to preauthorize credit cards when running a tab. Period.  We really enjoyed the low buy in and easy menu development and a couple of the other features, but a bar/restaurant needs to be able to run a tab and preauthorize a credit card.  I've gone back and looked at conversations about it and it appears that this has been a CONSTANT request by users that has gone ignored.

I'd like to know why it isn't available.

[#2]

Pre-Authorization for Bar Tabs Update ⭐
Hi everyone - I'm Hadley, from the F&B product team. First of all, thank you SO MUCH for continuing to share all the feedback here over the years, we know how important the Bar Tabs feature is. For anyone who is not aware, this feature is currently in beta in the US for Square for Restaurants POS. 

➡️ You can join the beta community here and our beta team will enable feature to your account. You can find the support article for getting set up on RST POS here. 

As a reminder, when a feature is in beta, there is still some engineering work happening to iron out the smaller bugs and optimizing the experience for our sellers and their customers. If you choose to participate in the beta testing, please share any feedback (good or bad 😄) to our beta team at betafeedback@squareup.com so we can learn how it is working for you and your staff.  

Thank you!

[1chuck2chuck]

So it happened again the other night.  Some guy comes in and gives us his credit card so we can hold his tab open.  We slide it, it shows his name and he begins to rack up a tab.  

He leaves after his visit without retrieving his card from the bartender & upon closing tabs at night, our bartender runs the card;  DECLINED!  

Thanks to the **bleep**ty system Square has by not letting us preauth cards, the guy gets to eat & drink for free on my dime.  The Square system should, at the very least, not let a tab be opened on a credit card that was cancelled due to theft.  The "customer, thief, dirtbag" (insert whatever fits here) knew that Square allows cancelled cards to be accepted to open tabs and took advantage of that. 

Nice **bleep**ty system you have for protecting your venders Square.  We as venders are making you lots & lots of money, at least you should allow us to preauth cards upon opening a tab.  

I just had a conversation w/ someone from Toast.  Were scheduled to have another meeting on Monday so good chance we'll be taking our business to them

[FarmAndBar]

Going to be looking into Toast since Square doesn't seem to care or offer a solid reason as to why it is still not available yet.  This problem should have been easily solved unless there is some sort of issues in the background that they are not letting us know about that is keeping them from installing the service which calls into question the rest of the system.

To add to this we just had updates a month or so ago that changed formats on our farm market square POS.  I'm fed up.

[JW4624]

We just lost out on a customer's tab because there is no preauthorization! The customer gave us a credit card which we hold on to at the time they opened a tab and we created a saved ticket. We continue to add items to that saved ticket through the night as the customer requests. Then the customer left without closing their tab but left their credit card behind. 

We thought no problem, we'll just run the card and close out the tab. However, the card was declined when we ran it! Square was of no help in recovering the funds or the card issuer. They said there is basically nothing they can do except try to contact the individual and ask them to pay. Like that would actually happen.

As a business, we can't continue to operate like this especially with customers catching on that there is a big hole in this software and all they have to do is hand you a invalid card, enjoy themselves and walk out. Come on Square! Get with it!

[DrumBrew]

All y’all that are looking at toast, look at Arryved instead. We did square, went to toast for pre-auth, went back to square because toasts platform is terrible, now we are with Arryved and haven’t been happier.

[kisutte]

As we've gotten busier and have started to offer food, the lack of pre-authorization and being required to keep a customer's card behind the bar is becoming inconvenient and a nuisance. Square was great for a start up as we began to get our business going, but at this point we're moving to clover. It's more than we need, but it offers the feature we need most which is pre-authorization. It'll be nice to be with a POS service that allows us to grow and manage our employees while offering pre-authorization. I don't think Square is going to ever add the feature unless they actually start losing accounts. If anyone knows other services that offer pre-auth that they like compared to Clover, I'd love to hear your opinions. 

[WFBirmingham]

We just switched from Cake to Square for Restaurants. I was blown away that per-authorization wasn't a feature. It didn't even occur to me to ask about it when we were considering Square. I just assumed it was one of the basics that anyone would have. For what it's worth, my Square Account Manager told me earlier this week that per-authorization "is currently in development to be released later this year for Square's platform."

[Casemoe]

@WFBirmingham our rep told us that as well. That was in 2016, unfortunately.

[Reneesbars]

It’s been years, and it’s quite frankly getting embarrassing because we seem to be the only company without it. 

We run square at two bars, I really appreciate the system but it’s time square allows card pre-authorization. Been asking for years.
We should be able to save a card on file with one swipe, and run a tab on the card and not have to hold it at the register, just like everyone else does. It’s getting old and maybe time to change our system if this isn’t fixed soon. 
also when the feature is added, we should be able to set an automatic pre-auth amount based on our business. 

[Kassi_]

Hey @Reneesbars - 

I have added your post to a thread where other sellers have discussed a similar Feature Request. Adding your voice will show our Product Team how popular this request is among our sellers still. 

Thank you for posting! 

[longtab]

Yep - we had a couple more walkouts this weekend due to the lack of this very common feature.   

Added to Squares premium cost is the added risk associated with an incomplete business solution.   Its beyond frustrating how much we pay  in fees and service charges, but at this points its costing us DOUBLE due to lost sales.  

Square could be the best solution on the market because of all the other things it does well, but this ONE simple feature is enough for me to NOT recommend them to anyone considering it.  And I get asked a lot.  Its just shameful that there's no answer or updates - just the same response of "making our product team aware."  I'm sure they are aware by now, perhaps apathetically over the course of 5-6 years, but they are aware.