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Comment by joezydeco | Hacker News Reader

So what happens with signatures? I recently visited a cafe where they were using an iPad as a checkout, and the cashier had to constantly swivel the thing around to let customers sign for their purchase.

I know it's not that big an inconvenience, but it just seemed like an awkward conclusion to a transaction that's supposed to be simplified by these devices.

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My coffee shop has a wooden case they made that they flip over for the user to sign and add a tip amount while the coffee is being prepared.

This is just much less ghetto and has a more substantial card reader built into it.

That's a pretty cool idea.

I'm still wary about the whole concept of letting the customer access the POS interface. What's to keep the customer from subtracting a few items off the tab while the barista is away and working?

Flipping the case over and letting the UI switch into a "signature capture only" mode might be a nice way to solve that.

That's exactly how it works. The barista puts in the items and then it goes into signature mode where you choose a tip and sign.

Bolting a second iPad into the system, like a Mini, might solve this problem, where it's locked into the signature mode unless doing something like advertising.

I always found the ritual of the cashier handing you two receipts, and a pen, then you struggling to find counter space to sign it with the non-functional pen, then trying to had back the pen and the receipt without giving them your copy, all with one hand since you're holding a drink in your other hand, to be even more awkward.

Signing a receipt while holding a baby is really tricky. Square is easy to sign just because the ipad doesn't move around like the paper does.

In Canada, virtually all credit card transactions now take place via chip insertion, not swiping, and chip transactions require PIN entry, not signing. Unless they get an external numpad to handle such things, this is going to be a security nightmare.

It's going to useless in Europe as well. I doubt that the credit card companies will approve a terminal of any kind that relies on the magnet strip, rather than the chip.

I actually had a meeting with a guy from a credit card clearing company yesterday. His comment was that the credit card companies have pretty much given up on introducing chip and PIN to the US. They'll just let the US keep the magnet strip and signature until they can replace the credit card with things like VISA Wallet, NFC or whatever the solution will be.

In Canada, most in store transaction are using Interac and not credit cards. I wonder when Square will accept both. I guess europeen countries have something similar to Interac as well (french's blue card?).

I'm not really sure what Interac is, but a large number of European credit cards aren't credit cards, they are debit cards, issued by your bank. The cards are co-branded VISA or MasterCard. Some countries have they own national cards, Denmark has Dankort, the Netherlands have they own, Finland is dropping theirs I think, and I'm sure there's more.

The point is that the European rules for credit cards is EVERY different from the US. Signatures are no longer valid, you need the PIN and a lot of ATM and terminals will only read the chip. New terminals without chip read won't get approved.

Launching a swipe terminal is catering to a dying marked.

Interac is actually the name of a payment services company (they license and operate point-of-sale plastic-handling machines), but the name is most commonly associated with the Canadian variety of debit cards. As in Europe, the cards are issued by the bank, but they're not generally cobranded with any credit card company and payments made with them draw funding directly from your chequing account.

That's not true, at least not here in Vancouver (though a lot of the Chinese here still tend to prefer cash). Many American banks have quite attractive rewards for using credit cards, so many people opt to use credit cards instead.

Buying an iPad stylus makes it a little less awkward than asking the customer to sign with their finger.

Also, some customers probably can't stand touching the surface of an iPad that's been touched by a hundred people before them.

Doesn't that apply to ordinary pens too, though?

My assumption is that it's not as big of a deterrent because greasy smudge marks are so much easier to spot on a screen vs a pen.

I believe if you're a verified business account and the total is under $20 or so, no signature is needed. If it's over a certain amount, then you have to get a signature, which means you're going to be swiveling or handing someone an iPad regularly.

Check out the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5...!

They show the whole stand spins around on a center axis for the signature.

If you have a printer attached they just sign the old fashioned way.

Square asks for the signature on the iPad whether you buy a printer or not as far as I can tell.

they're probably also trying to get more places to use Square, period. in that case, you also have the hands-free pay-with-your-name/face thing that presumably works here too, and means they basically just have to tap your image and it's done.

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