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Pro tip: Stop treating your payment processor like it's 2010 | Free Speech Finance - Free To Speak

Pro tip: Stop treating your payment processor like it's 2010

I was at a small vendor fair in Portland last fall and watched three different sellers lose sales because they only took cash or cards with a clunky Square reader (the old ones). One guy even said 'Venmo is for kids' right as a customer with a phone in hand walked away. When did you last update how you actually take payments from people?

3 comments

3 Comments

patricia2624mo ago

Right, because nothing says "I know how to run a business in 2025" like treating a payment method like it's some sort of moral failing. I watched a lady at a craft fair last month pull out her phone to pay for a $45 scarf and the vendor actually said "I don't do that tap stuff" and just stared at her until she put her wallet away. Congrats man, you just taught a customer that their convenience is less important than your principles about... plastic rectangles with chips in them?

emeryj664mo ago

My little brother still pays for gas with a crumpled $20 bill and gets annoyed when the pump asks if he wants a receipt. It's honestly impressive how many ways there are to make buying something feel like a chore. I'm with you @patricia262, that vendor basically told that lady "your money isn't welcome here" without saying it. My mom tried to use her phone to pay at a garage sale last weekend and the guy just kind of squinted at her like she was trying to pay with invisible beans. She ended up digging for exact change and I just stood there thinking "congrats, you made a paying customer do homework." Maybe these people are running little social experiments on us and we're the test subjects.

murray.cora4mo ago

The 'Venmo is for kids' guy sounds exactly like my friend's uncle who runs a booth at the Ren faire. He lost a $60 sale last summer because he wouldn't take Apple Pay and the customer just shrugged and walked off.