Square Chip Card Reader all green, then all orange, then all red

[HiRiseHive]

After several hours of steady transactions Sunday without any problem or issue, the chip reader disconnected, well before the 2-hour inactivity period said to prompt a sleep mode.  Pressing the button, we saw all green lights, then all orange, then all red.  After fussing about with the reader, the phone (a Sony Xperia running Android) was rebooted, but all to no avail.  The reader refused to communicate.  The payment had to be keyed in due to this equipment failure.

 The reader was plugged in and had what seemed a full charge (two passes of orange "chase lights" followed by 4 green lights), so we can rule out a discharged battery.  The phone was fine, it was able to bluetooth connect to a bluetooth speaker the moment it got home.

We cannot have this sort of disruption in the middle of trying to simply process a payment, so in the future, we will use the mag-stripe readers as backups for the chip readers (we have 2 of each) if the chips readers fail again.

But the lack of adequate documentation and the breezily brief pablum one finds in the support site tends to make me think I need to return this reader as defective, and let Square deal with the cost of debugging their flaky hardware.

The distance between the phone and the reader is never more than a few feet, the bluetooth connection quality on the phone is very good - good enough to support Spotify streams at highest quality to the car stereo.  The only wild card here is the card reader, which has no diagnostics other than the LEDs, and no documentation to explain even the sequence we saw when struggling to make the thing work, bringing a new dual meaning to the phrase "The Card reader is a POS".

So, (1) how to exchange this POS POS before it kills sales? and (2) How to get a "keyed" sale fee refunded and rebilled at the chip-inserted rate, as I am not about to pay extra for the dubious privilege of having problems with the device.

[RHatch]

Hi @HiRiseHive,

There is a bunch of help document for the reader including this troubleshooting document and this FAQ that tells you what all the lights mean.  Try holding the power button down for about 20-30 seconds to reset the reader and see if that will work. 

Also, Chip and Swip transactions are the same fee.  So as long as you are swiping the cards when the reader is down you are fine.  Just make sure the app doesn't think it is connected or it will not allow you to swipe it will tell you to use the chip.

[puka]

Hey @HiRiseHive - It sounds like a compatibility issue with your phone. Since the Sony Xperia isn't included on our list of tested devices, we are unable to guarantee compatibility between your phone and the reader. Feel free to give the troubleshooting steps that @RHatch mentioned above a try to see if that helps, but if not, you can reach out to our Support team to proceed with your return.

[HiRiseHive]

Of course the troubleshoot steps were tried.

But my question, which remains unanswered, has to do with the flashing light sequence of green, orange, then red.  If no one knows what that sequence implies, does this mean that (a) we are the first humans to see this phenomena? or (b) that no one at Square has any idea how the device works, or what it is trying to tell us when flashing its lights in that manner?

What utter nonense... Android is android, no matter what phone hardware THAT'S THE ENTIRE POINT OF ANDROID.

If you feel you have to test with each and every phone, you need to fire your enture programming staff.

It is breezy unhelpful replies like that one that make "tech support" a mirage since 2010.

Yes, Square WILL eat this device, and replace it with a brand new one, as I don't have time for non-responsive "support" from employees who SHOULD be able to answer such a basic question about device behavior.

Now, about crediting the over charge, must I make a phone call for that too?  Is there ANY purpose to posting a message here at all, or is this unconnected with any actual "technical support"?

[puka]

RHatch linked a help article in his response above which explains the lights. The reader was powered on and fully charged (green), attempted to pair with your phone (orange), but failed to pair (red).

While we do support many Android devices, it is entirely possible that different devices will have different versions of the Android software dependent on the manufacturer. In other words, the operating system of a Samsung device will not always function the exact same way as an HTC device (or Sony, LG, and so on). Even devices from the same manufacturer will have varying features of the Android system which is why tests are done as we cannot assume that our app and hardware will work with them all the same way.

The main purpose of the Seller Community is for Sellers to engage with one another and provide a space to share ideas and insights on how they use Square to run their businesses. While we do offer general support here, any account specific questions such as yours will need to be directed to our Support team. Because the Community is a public forum, we won't discuss account details here for everyone's privacy.

If you want to get in touch with them via phone, you can reach them at 1 (855) 700-6000 on Monday - Friday from 6am - 6pm PST. Please note that you'll need to have a Customer Code to get through to them.

[HiRiseHive]

With all due respect for your efforts, you don't have a glimmer as to what you are talking about.  You are spreading misinformation, misleading others who might read this thread.  Bluetooth pairing is the subject of a very detailed spec, ajnd is designed to be backwards compatible with prior Bluetooth versions.  The ENTIRE IDEA behind bluetooth is to allow devices from a wide range of manufactures to pair and exchange data. 

So, the device exhibited a persistent inability to pair, and needs to be replaced, as Square's device is somehow failing to follow the spec when pairing.  Victims of this problem, forced to key in the card number, need to be credited the difference for the transaction fee between the chip/swipe rate and the keyed number rate.

Square needs to have a reliable device.  It isn't.  Not yet, anyway.

[RHatch]

@HiRiseHive, 

This could simply be a defective unit or it is not compatible with your phone.  What exact model of Sony Xperia and what version of Android are you running?  

The Square contactless and chip card reader is supported on most Android devices with the following:

• Your Android device must be running Android 5 or higher.
• An updated version of the Square app: Version 4.70 or higher for Android. 
• Built-in Bluetooth Low Energy.

Currently there are NO Sony phones listed as compatible with Square contactless reader.

As stated previously if the contactless reader will not pair then you can still swipe cards,  You don't have to manually enter them.  

So there is no miss information, in your previous post, you stated: "Android is android, no matter what phone hardware..."  This isn't entirely true.  Google releases a version of Android. The hardware companies then install that into their phones, however, because every phone has different, speakers, camera, processor, network cards, etc. the hardware companies must add drivers to make them interact.  Many manufacturers add other programs and tweak functions and features to make their phones unique.  These additions and changes can cause issues.  These changes and tweaks are also the reason many Android phones are not upgradable to the current Android version.   This is the reason you need to test multiple devices.

When it comes to Bluetooth, it is backward compatible to a point.  A new phone can still use old Bluetooth devices but an old phone cannot use new Bluetooth devices. Not all Bluetooth hardware will work with every phone or device.  A phone's Bluetooth is programmed with a profile.  This profile controls the connections to your phone.  Not all phones have the same profile.  Your profile may not allow Bluetooth keyboards to be connected to it or health devices, or even a credit card chip reader.

From one user to another I hope you find a solution to your problem.

[VanKalkerFarms]

as a Square user that also follows app development news and podcasts and I have made some programs, I can tell you 100% Android is not Android is not android.  There are literally hundreds if not thousands of versions of Android, even within the same version of Android there is so much variation between screen sizes, processor, ram, memory, and each manufacturer makes a version of Android for their own phones based off the core android.  Some run bootloaders or skins over android making fundamental changes to Android.  There are 1,000s of big-name apps that don't support every phone.  Take for example the newest Google Pixel xl 2, they changed a library call that has affected app screen rotation and detection causing lots of apps to crash because they use what has been the standard library function call, not the tweaked version.

This is where the benefit of the diversity of Android can also be its Achilles heel.  

As for my experience with the Bluetooth reader, we have 5 that we have had from day one of its release and have had 0 problems over 50,000 + transactions.  

if the Bluetooth reader doesn't work you can still swipe to get the same rate, and yes because of the liability shift the burden of cards has moved to the card acceptor, in all honesty, most people will never have someone try to swipe a hacked credit card.

[HiRiseHive]

So glad to hear you have not expereinced any problems.

Here's a link to the Bluetooth spec, you may find it informative.

https://www.bluetooth.com/specifications/bluetooth-core-specification

This thread is about how to deal with a specific problem, not a debate as to whether the problem exists or not, so there comes a piont where "contributions" that do not offer a specific solution are non-productive heckling.

[Jim_V]

Hi 

I had a similar problem with my Sony Xperia Z. The card reader would not connect. After fooling around with it for about 10 minutes I found a video on Youtube that showed how to "reset" my Bluetooth.

On my phone I went to Settings then Apps then All. Found the Bluetooth Share and cleared the data.

Loaded up the Square App and did the Card Readers and the card reader paired right away.

I've found that turning off the Bluetooth then back on the reader still has trouble connecting. I have to close out of the app completely then restart it for the reader to work again.

HTH

Jim 

[HiRiseHive]

So to summarize, there is little to no support possible for these throwaway chip readers, despite their additional complexity, so one must have a Plan B for the possible failure of the device to function, presumably an older mag-striper reader.  The problem with using the mag stripe reader is that using it makes you 100% liable for any fraud.

So despite meeting all the requirements RHatch listed (except for the brand of hardware, Sony, which Square apparently has not tested due to the small percentage market share) and desite cache clearing for the bluetooth stack, as Jim suggested, the bottom line here is that more work is needed to make these devices relaible.

Square will replace chip readers that seem defective, so perhaps the later versions have a few bug fixes in their firmware.

But be advised - you cannot trust these chip readers.  Mine failed after less than 500 uneventful transactions.