Saturday, June 15, 2024

Square Storefront Closed

Hi, All!

This is just a quick post to let you know that I've shut down my Square storefront for the purchase of signed, shipped copies of my books. I'll explain the reasons in my next IWSG post, because they come with a warning for folks who use Square, and I want people who could be impacted to see it. If you're friends with me on Facebook, I've already posted it there on my personal account.

If you tried to order a signed, shipped copy from my Square storefront since January 31 and ran into problems, it wasn't just you, and I'm so sorry you had to deal with that. From your end it would have looked like a declined credit card. It wasn't your card. It was an error on their part that has cost me a lot of money, possibly new readers, and deeply impacted my last book launch. So far, their handling of it has been lackluster and borderline offensive. Both the storefront and my in-person processing were impacted.

While I figure out what to do, I've added PayPal checkout links to my books on the Publications tab and I've ordered a PayPal Zettle card reader for the event I have coming up next Saturday. If you have a reader or storefront you're happy with, I'd love to hear about it. I don't want anything with a monthly charge. And I won't have anything to do with Square again if I can help it. 


I'm also hoping to debut an updated website soon! Hopefully by the next IWSG.

*Cat Sad Clip Art by OCAL, clker.com



9 comments:

Natalie Aguirre said...

So sorry that you had so many troubles with Square and that it affected your recent book launch. Good luck with your website redesign.

Patricia JL said...

I had to go look at my square and there were a ton of declined between January and March but the amounts were ridiculous. It made me think they were fraud or stolen cards. I tested buying something and the payment went through, and I also had 2 sales in February and March, so I'm not sure what all those canceled ones are as I don't see any way to dig into those more.

Shannon Lawrence said...

Natalie, thank you!

Patricia, Mine were all identifiable since all my books are a different price, and all the purchase attempts were the exact amount of three of my books, including the new one once it was up for sale, with tax. And all in-person ones were declined, as well. I'm sure we all have some fraud attempts from bots or something online, though.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Shannon - I do hope things sort themselves out for you - all the best ... cheers Hilary

DMS said...

Oh no! I am so sorry to hear about these problems. It totally sucks when something out of our control impacts our book sales negatively. I hope everything has been sorted out and things are better now.
~Jess

cleemckenzie said...

I'm so sorry, Shannon. It's hard enough for authors today without technical glitches on supposedly reliable support.

https://cleemckenziebooks.substack.com/p/something-new-this-way-comes

Jacqui Murray--Writer-Teacher said...

Just awful. I have never tried Square and now, probably won't.

Sherry Ellis said...

I'm sorry you had so much trouble with Square. Sounds frustrating!

Anonymous said...

What a let down. It's a major effort to move from idea to published book. Then to be betrayed by Square is beyond the pale. I wish you total success as you move forward.
Lynn
https://la-vita.us/insecure-writers-support-group/