The card reader at my register died at 5:47pm on a Friday and I had to hand write every order

Victor Black · 2026-10-03T19:20:03.708331+00:00

Last Friday our only working card reader froze up right in the middle of the dinner rush. I hit the reset button three times and all I got was a spinning circle for two full minutes while a line of about 15 people backed up to the door. My manager was in the back doing inventory and the other register has been broken since January, so I grabbed a pen and started writing down card numbers on receipt paper like it was 1998. One guy started yelling that he had somewhere to be, and a lady at the front of the line offered to pay for the person behind her in cash. We got through 22 orders that way until the thing finally came back on around 6:30, and of course the first tap after that went through fine like nothing happened. Do any of you keep a backup Square reader in your apron just in case your main system decides to quit? I'm seriously thinking about it after this mess.

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The card reader at my register died at 5:47pm on a Friday and I had to hand write every order | Behind the Counter - Talk Freely