Adventures in wifi
Aug. 5th, 2019 09:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrBecause my phone is only smart-ish, I can't really run my credit sales over it. Virgin Mobile's coverage is spotty, and Square's card slider doesn't work on my Kyocera's phone jack. I get around this by using my much smarter, somewhat spendier Samsung tablet, connected to wifi.
Some art fairs provide wifi coverage for all their vendors; sometimes it even works. Most times, not so much. It's theoretically possible to configure my cell phone into a hotspot, but again, smart-ish; I've never managed to make it work. So for several years, I've been using a mobile hotspot and cheap data plan (five to seven bucks a month for a gig of data, unused amount to carry over to the next month) from FreedomPop.
Three days before I leave for Anacortes, I get an email telling me that FreedomPop is no longer associated with Sprint, and my account was going away unless I migrated it over to Ting. Their website is surprisingly easy to follow, terms and conditions actually in plain English, and it's not like I have a choice, so I kiss my accumulated 7 gigs of data goodbye (I only use the hotspot during the show season), and start the process.
I'm hampered a bit by the fact that my hotspot doesn't seem to have a phone number, nor any kind of identifying number on the case or in the interface, but fortunately, our pack-rat tendencies pay off, as I find the original box buried on the kitchen table and am able to use the MEID number to transfer my account. Once Ting confirms that I am, in fact, a Very Good Boy, I test the device. It first tells me I have the wrong SIM card, but after I press OKAY, it still finds a cell signal and lets me connect my tablet. Whew! I have coverage! With a day-and-a-half to spare.
Things go fine in Anacortes until late morning. Then the signal drops, and wouldn't reconnect no matter what I tried. Fortunately, Square will continue to take transactions offline, swiping the magstripe and storing them locally until I have internet again. Except.
The offline transaction limit seems to be $100. This isn't usually a problem for me, but I get a couple of sales where the tax bumps us over the limit, and I have to run them slowly through my phone, typing in the card number, expiration, CVV and billing zip code.
Around 3 pm the wifi comes back, and all twenty-some transactions upload. We finish the day fully connected, and it isn't until I'm tallying up sales that night in the motel room that I discover that one of the transactions was declined. It's also one of two transactions with the same amount, so I need to figure out who, and whether there's anything I can do about it.
Fortunately for me, I've set up my check-out with buttons for all my items: soup bowls, tall mugs, casseroles, whatever. This makes check-out easier, as I can just select the pot and let the program plug in the numbers. This also means people who want an email/text receipt get it itemized. And it means that I can tell which $47.83 transaction bounced, and zero in on the sales slip. Where by a staggering bit of good luck, I have recorded the email address.
So I send them an email, ask them to call me on my cell, and about 20 minutes later, they do. Their credit card company, in a fit of protective frenzy, was happy to let them purchase airline tickets two states away from home, but apparently a $44 casserole at an art fair was beyond the pale. They reauthorized the transaction, but Square won't re-send it.
Saturday morning, it happens again. Wifi until the day heats up, then gone again. I'm beginning to think it may be the local cellular signal, as one of my customers reports the same spotty coverage in their boat. I wind up asking a very nice young couple if we can split their order in two to keep under the $100 limit, and everything else is fine. Once again, around 4 this time, the signal returns and this time, everybody clears.
And Saturday night, searching for a way to re-submit the rejected charge (Square doesn't seem to keep info from declined cards taken offline, so I guess I'll be getting a check in the mail when they get home) I discover that the $100 limit is a manufacturer's default value. I can set it wherever I want, so I bump it up to $200.
Sunday, the signal goes down again. And the customer in my booth has just hit $198 in pots, before taxes. I start to explain about how I'll have to take her transaction in two payments, because Square-wifi-evil spirits-yadda yadda.
Don't worry, she says, I'll be paying cash. And proceeds to pick out another $100 worth of bowls.
Some art fairs provide wifi coverage for all their vendors; sometimes it even works. Most times, not so much. It's theoretically possible to configure my cell phone into a hotspot, but again, smart-ish; I've never managed to make it work. So for several years, I've been using a mobile hotspot and cheap data plan (five to seven bucks a month for a gig of data, unused amount to carry over to the next month) from FreedomPop.
Three days before I leave for Anacortes, I get an email telling me that FreedomPop is no longer associated with Sprint, and my account was going away unless I migrated it over to Ting. Their website is surprisingly easy to follow, terms and conditions actually in plain English, and it's not like I have a choice, so I kiss my accumulated 7 gigs of data goodbye (I only use the hotspot during the show season), and start the process.
I'm hampered a bit by the fact that my hotspot doesn't seem to have a phone number, nor any kind of identifying number on the case or in the interface, but fortunately, our pack-rat tendencies pay off, as I find the original box buried on the kitchen table and am able to use the MEID number to transfer my account. Once Ting confirms that I am, in fact, a Very Good Boy, I test the device. It first tells me I have the wrong SIM card, but after I press OKAY, it still finds a cell signal and lets me connect my tablet. Whew! I have coverage! With a day-and-a-half to spare.
Things go fine in Anacortes until late morning. Then the signal drops, and wouldn't reconnect no matter what I tried. Fortunately, Square will continue to take transactions offline, swiping the magstripe and storing them locally until I have internet again. Except.
The offline transaction limit seems to be $100. This isn't usually a problem for me, but I get a couple of sales where the tax bumps us over the limit, and I have to run them slowly through my phone, typing in the card number, expiration, CVV and billing zip code.
Around 3 pm the wifi comes back, and all twenty-some transactions upload. We finish the day fully connected, and it isn't until I'm tallying up sales that night in the motel room that I discover that one of the transactions was declined. It's also one of two transactions with the same amount, so I need to figure out who, and whether there's anything I can do about it.
Fortunately for me, I've set up my check-out with buttons for all my items: soup bowls, tall mugs, casseroles, whatever. This makes check-out easier, as I can just select the pot and let the program plug in the numbers. This also means people who want an email/text receipt get it itemized. And it means that I can tell which $47.83 transaction bounced, and zero in on the sales slip. Where by a staggering bit of good luck, I have recorded the email address.
So I send them an email, ask them to call me on my cell, and about 20 minutes later, they do. Their credit card company, in a fit of protective frenzy, was happy to let them purchase airline tickets two states away from home, but apparently a $44 casserole at an art fair was beyond the pale. They reauthorized the transaction, but Square won't re-send it.
Saturday morning, it happens again. Wifi until the day heats up, then gone again. I'm beginning to think it may be the local cellular signal, as one of my customers reports the same spotty coverage in their boat. I wind up asking a very nice young couple if we can split their order in two to keep under the $100 limit, and everything else is fine. Once again, around 4 this time, the signal returns and this time, everybody clears.
And Saturday night, searching for a way to re-submit the rejected charge (Square doesn't seem to keep info from declined cards taken offline, so I guess I'll be getting a check in the mail when they get home) I discover that the $100 limit is a manufacturer's default value. I can set it wherever I want, so I bump it up to $200.
Sunday, the signal goes down again. And the customer in my booth has just hit $198 in pots, before taxes. I start to explain about how I'll have to take her transaction in two payments, because Square-wifi-evil spirits-yadda yadda.
Don't worry, she says, I'll be paying cash. And proceeds to pick out another $100 worth of bowls.