Lady Di Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 How do these things operate? Do they need any electricity -- like an outlet to plug into? Can they be used at craft shows in the middle of a cow pasture, in the middle of nowhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eugenia Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Manual swipers are plastic with a plate for your company info. You can use them anywhere. I advise re-writing the CC #'s as some can be hard to read.You use them with duplicate receipts. I use one I got on ebay for a song for shows and file the charges on line after the fact. Mine came with the plate and receipts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Di Posted May 31, 2007 Author Share Posted May 31, 2007 Thanks eugenia! I've got one of those. I'm talking about the electronic ones that they use at check out in the stores. Last craft fair I was in was out in the wilderness. I was using the manual swiper and some other people were using those electronic ones that accept/deny the credit cards right away. There was no electricity furnished at this craft fair, so I was wondering how these electronic ones worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Di Posted May 31, 2007 Author Share Posted May 31, 2007 P.S. I, also, phoned my cc sales in later that day (after the show). I got stiffed on 3 of them! I eventually got my money, but this would have been avoided if I'd had one of those on-the-spot-approval-swipers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doris Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 They need a phone line, you can get some that run through a cell phone. And yes, I'm pretty sure they need to be plugged in. (I have one, but someone else always has to hook stuff up for me.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Fields Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 There are many ways to do this. First, you can get a satellite phone device. The next is a store and retrieve device. You swipe the cards and upload later (you don't know if the card is bad, however; but, you do get the swipe rate). Finally, there is the new system that uses your cell phone. dont' know much about that one. The downside to all of these is the high cost. The initial purchase or lease and the monthly charges. Unless you have really high cc sales, I don't think it is as cost-effective as the the manual "knuckly-buster". You do run the risk of fraud, but we found that those were minimal. We never could see upgrading. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mizbizzyb Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 I have a wireless swiper - it runs off the cell phone towers (I think) - I either charge it up or plug it in and I am good to go - but if there is no reception I have to do an offline trans and batch out when I get to service (but that has only happened in one town) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissMary Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 I'm thinking Nextel has some sort of phone that has a card swiper on it, or some sort of attachment, directly off the phone. Not all that sure how it works, just saw it on a commercial during NASCAR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doris Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 You can also use a knuckle buster and call in for authorization using a cell phone. Not highly recommended, but will do in a pinch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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