Failure of 1 part of split payment voids all trans...

Smithward · ‎03-25-2021

Using Terminal, if one transaction on a split bill fails, all the the previous transactions are voided.

For example, a table splits the bill between 3. Payments 1 and 2 go through fine, show as approved with a tick. 3rd payment fails e.g. due to declined card, then the first 2 payments are also retrospectively failed.

This is very awkward as customers have already seen the Terminal say their payment has been approved, and in some cases, have seen the payment go through via their banking app. We then have to try to explain that, because of 1 failed transaction, we have to 'charge' everyone again!

We're starting to reconsider offering split payments, which was one of the reasons to switch to using Terminal in the first place...

Seamus · ‎03-25-2021

Hey @Smithward,

Thanks for reaching out.

Is this something you're seeing happen on numerous occasions? I'm wondering if the payment might be timing out here?

When you enter the first payment as a card payment, we place a pending authorisation on the card (and subsequent cards) - this is what your customers will see on their banking apps, which is a little different to a full transaction going through. If the split payment isn't completed in time, the pending transactions will void. The timeframe here is around 5 minutes - I've heard of that happening before when a table might be chatting and slowly making their way through the bill

This is essentially the same thing that occurs with non-split payments if your internet were to cut out just as the transaction started processing, there's a limited time window we can keep that pending authorisation before we get timed out. With that said, not being able to look into the transactions, it's possible it may have also been a generic decline, or a decline followed by a time out void. I've not heard of a generic decline automatically voiding an entire split transaction outside of a time out - but it may be possible. Usually the time out is the explanation though.

If you want to get a little more context into the specific transaction though I recommend getting in touch with support, who may be able to see a little more about what happened with the specific payment.

Sorry I don't actually have a better solution here - the time out issue I've described has been a bit of a pain point for restaurants from time to time, though from what I understand it's not something we are able to change.

For more on the decline, you can call support on 1800 760 137 (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm Melbourne time), or contact us via online chat or email:

1. Sign in to your Square account

2. Head to our contact page https://squareup.com/help/au/en/contact

3. Go to "Other"" then "I don't see my issue"

4. Click "Message us" or "Email us"

Thanks again for your contributions to the Seller Community!

Seamus
Square, Australia
Sign in and click Mark as Best Answer if my reply answers your question.

Smithward · ‎03-28-2021

Thanks @Seamus it appears to happen every time a transaction fails when doing a split. It's definitely not a timeout. Example the other night - 1st customer in split paid (approved), 2nd customer in split had card declined. Instead of just being able to try the second payment again, the first payment was also cancelled automatically. This meant trying to explain to first customer that, despite seeing their payment had been approved, it hadn't actually gone through and they would need to 'pay' again.

This has been a significant issue when splitting a bill for a group - four people successfully pay but the fifth gets declined and we have to start again and go back around the table.

On occasion it has also meant a customer has left without paying their part of the split because our staff have assumed all of the splits have been successfully processed. We do ask staff to double check the whole bill has been acquitted after a split but this can be a challenge during a rush.

I'll send this through to Support.

Thanks for your reply

Seamus · ‎03-28-2021

@Smithward I just checked in with a product manager on this one and it looks as though this is actually a known bug that may be fixed in a the very recent (or forthcoming) 4.29 OS update for Terminal.

Are you able to confirm which version of Terminal you're currently using? We started rolling out this update late last week, but it may not have been rolled out to all sellers yet.

Seamus
Square, Australia
Sign in and click Mark as Best Answer if my reply answers your question.

Smithward · ‎03-31-2021

Thanks @Seamus we're still on 4.27.0039. I've just manually started the update, will monitor splits going forward to see if that's done the trick

Karmix · ‎03-02-2024

Have had the same problem happen today and the issue still exists. 4th split was not paid on time (they left cash) and thus voided the whole transaction and by the time we found out, the customers had left. THis would be an easy fix to capture the payments of all the splits individually - because if the customers have tapped their card, they know they have paid - especially when the tick mark appears. Its totally unreasonable that the last splitter can thus ruin the whole thing.

Sineaid · ‎03-04-2024

Hi @Karmix Thanks for your post and welcome to the community! It’s unfortunate that your first post here is a negative one, but I will do my best to offer a workaround.

As Seamus mentioned previously, it’s not possible to edit the amount of time after which a payment will timeout. And as you know, a split payment isn’t considered complete until the entire amount of the sale has been collected and there’s no remaining balance. So it is expected behavior that the previously collected portions of the bill would void on timeout.

As an alternative, you could opt to instead split the bill rather than the payment, which allows you to separate items from one bill onto a separate bill. The 5 minute timeout would still apply on each individual new bill, but it could be useful when collecting payment for larger tables where each diner wants to individually pay for what they ordered.

To split items onto a separate bill, tap Actions > Split.

I appreciate it might not be an ideal option for your business, but you can read more about Splitting a Bill vs. Splitting a Payment from the linked support article.

Karmix · ‎03-04-2024

Hi @Sineaid thank you for the quick reply. I was not even aware that there was an option to split the bill. Thank you for that.

Failure of 1 part of split payment voids all transactions