Help some of the Baking community!

[BeeGalvin]

I do not speak for all, but I speak for some. I am a member of the baking community that uses square. I sell decorated cookies. Often for holidays we "Pre Sell" our items so we can gather sales with enough time to prep them fresh for our customers. 

Before Weebly, Square didn't have an option for your check out to be labeled with a date (via prep time calculations). Customers would presume their pick up by their choice of set modifier, and  the check out notes we leave. 

However now, Customers are constantly confused with when their order is ready because the check out and emailed receipt reflect a date that wasn't their selected choice. 

For example: I set my modifiers for each item to be Monday 10/26 or Friday 10/30. They choose Monday, they read the information given for time.  In checkout , the cart is listed as "your order will be ready for pick up on Friday 10/30 after 3pm" because I HAVE to set my prep time for two weeks ahead, and I HAVE to add hours. I can not select "available "no prep" time" because then they get an email OR TEXT that reads "your order is available now" which it isn't.

Yes,  I can constantly remind my customers to pay attention to their choice. Yes, I can email them back when they have concerns that their email reads a different date on the top of their receipt. I use square, so that I don't have to do this.  I share square with fellow bakers so that they can also streamline their process. 

I have read countless comments about this on threads. I have googled to the point of headaches, I have clicked around trying to find a solution. Every answer is " we are working on it", but it didn't need to be worked on in the first place from the prior Square Online Store for some of us.

In conclusion, I ask.. please help us to removed a prep time. Allow a "non applicable" option. Help us remove the "your order is ready by..." in check out. and Please let us remove hours if we need to.  I do my best to sing your praises for the options you have allowed us, but since Weebly, its been very frustrating.

[baker]

Couldn't agree more!! The holiday season is coming up and now, with the pandemic firmly entrenched in our society online ordering is more important than ever!   

I own a bakery and I am dreading how I am going to address online ordering of Thanksgiving Pies this year.   I can't set as an option to have the customer order for either the Tuesday or Wednesday before the big day.  Instead I have to do the embarrassing, completely unprofessional and prone to mistakes and confusion on the customer's end work arounds that you suggested in your post.   

You would think the pandemic would have been a big motivator for square to work on their on-line ordering system.  I am really and truly scratching my head wondering why this hasn't been addressed yet!  

[BeeGalvin]

I know they’ve done many changes for restaurant style square services. while making some things more complicated for those who had great success before Weebly. Which great for the restaurants, food trucks etc, but has left some of us in the dust. 

It absolutely sucks to “jerryrig”

the system to get it to say the date you want, especially when you’re offering 2 days etc.

I don’t know about you, but scheduling also isn’t an option for some. I don’t want to enable an that feature because I’ve already decided what days I am available for such a sale. 

Some baked goods just need more attention, so we can’t use a “quick turn around” style system. 

still hoping to hear of a resolution 🤞🏻

[baker]

Agreed.  -  Scheduling doesn't work.   Square needs to look at the problem from the business owner's point of view, not the customer of the business owner's POV.   There are a number of days on the calendar that are "baking holidays"  - days that customers order specialty items.  I want to set the date for pick up that the customer can choose from, not have the customer set the date that could be anytime from now to 6 months from now.  That. Simply. Does. Not. Work.  

I have seen this complaint time and time again on this forum, especially artisan bread bakers that only do maybe three or 4 big bake offs in a week.   They need to be able to set the date and I agree with them and with you.    Square, if you are reading this - you really need to fix this.

[BeeGalvin]

Baker!!! 
someone mentioned add the item and change it to a “service” under type and then use the modifiers to address your pick up date options!! 

I did a test and it might just work!! Ahhh!! 

[baker]

I just tried the work around you mentioned and I believe that will do the trick!!

Thanks a lot!  Much appreciated!  You saved Thanksgiving!

[BeeGalvin]

Fingers crossed!! I also noticed that they aren't auto sending the custom receipts you can modify in the settings from dashboard! So when you get your orders you can go to each one and click "Send receipt" and add any notes on that custom receipt for what you want them to know in an email. Obv that could be annoying going one by one, but hey..anything to avoid telling people to read 😛 and ignore things! 

I hope this works for you! And me! Best of luck, Baker!! ❤️ 

[fikathreelakes]

Will this really work?! I'm pulling my hair out over Thanksgiving! 

[BeeGalvin]

Hi! It worked okay for me! I did a test run as myself buying. The one main difference is losing the note section on your “thank you for your order” email that Square auto sends. However you can add some personalized notes on your receipt (from the settings> account > business) if you need to! Then you go to each order and click “send receipt” for them to receive if needed! 

[fikathreelakes]

So I created a category "Thanksgiving Menu: and then each item in that category is now switched to a Service... but the entire category is missing from my website once I publish. Is there something else I need to do? Do I need to start using Appointments? This seemed like it would be straight forward! Customer service has yet to respond... 

[BeeGalvin]

Just asking to see if maybe this is it  > 

if you go to your “preview” at the top there is a “shop” button, if you click that is there a menu or does it redirect to your items?

sometimes if you don’t have them as “featured items” they won’t show up right on the first page 

hopefully this is the issue? If not, I can try searching around ! 

[baker]

I am in the same boat.   When I made the change to service and published the whole category disappeared from the website.  Couldn't figure out how to bring it back so finally had to change the category type back to a physical item, not a service.  

I went back to doing the workaround by creating a modifier where the customer can choose either the Mon, Tue, Wed before Thanksgiving to pick up the pie.  So we are back to the ticket saying the order can be picked up in 15 minutes or whatever you have the prep time set to.  A bummer but I can't figure out a fix that can be published on the website.

[BeeGalvin]

Sorry to hear about the trouble! I dont work with categories and usually just list mine and add them to "featured items" because I only for a limited time and dont use my site for anything other than holidays. 

I did try to look up some work arounds but I cant seem to find any. 
I really miss basic Square and wish going to the Weebly version would have been an opt-in 😞 

[fikathreelakes]

So I talked to someone over chat and it's the way our sites are set up- our Online Order page is set for food/beverage and so it shows physical items only. That means services won't show up. So the work around is to keep your regular categories as is and then create a separate page (mine is called Thanksgiving Menu) and then link it from the top navigation bar. If you need a screen recording of how to do it let me know and i'll record it!
So far it's working fine, though it does mean you can't collect tips which is unfortunate. I think I'll test it this way for the next week and possibly switch for Christmas, though at least this way I don't have to make notes in 14 different places about ignoring the pickup date you get at checkout.