I've had mine for a few months, so not long.  Shoot, it does look like a bad batch. 

Hey all! Really sorry to hear about the trouble you've been having with the Contactless + Chip Reader.

@LoriB - If you didn't see it already, it looks like a team member was able to follow up with you via email with some steps to resolve. 👍🏼

@SabrinaM - Feel free to reach out to our Support team as well and they'll be able to advise on any next steps. Since you've only had it a few months, it sounds like you should still be under warranty.

Let me know if you have any further questions!

Yeah I am in the same boat. Had mine a month or two and now when I try to charge it does the charge lights once then gives a red light and fails to charge. I also have to forget the contactless chip reader on a regular basis and reactivate it for it to function.

Just threw mine in the trash. Can't depend on it to hold a charge.Green light is on and I try to run my personal card and no go after 1 min of the charge. Useless for craft shows. Guess I need to look at other options

That's to bad @greenmtnguy. We could have done a warranty exchange for that reader if you were within a year of the purchase date. The battery on these readers definitely should definitely last longer than one charge. 

I finally found an adapter to use the square while my phone is in the Otterbox and no go with the square. Phone is worth more than the square, so no option there. Not liking all the complaints of batteries not being dependable. Have to look for an option that I can count on. Until I found the adapter, square made an extra 3/4% on all my sales. 

@greenmtnguy have you considered our Contactless and Chip Card Reader? This reader uses Bluetooth to connect to your phone wirelessly! Although you can't accept cards that are magstripe only, but you won't have to fiddle with wires. 

Why does the chip reader I plug into my phone run out of charge so quickly? I use these at my booth during conventions. I can't afford for them to take 2 hours to charge and then they only last a little while

Hello @darkdel, that definitely shouldn't be the case. 

If you're using the Square Chip and Magstripe Reader it should be able to last for a full day of sales. We do recommend unplugging it between sales so it conserves battery life. If you are running sales non-stop it will drain faster though. 

Girl scout troop & PTA parent here that can't keep a fully-charged chip reader (non-bluetooth kind) for more than an hour and a half of selling cookies/event tickets before needing to switch to the free, non-powered swipe dongle.  Occurs both on Android and iOS, latest app version, over wifi and cellular. To add insult to injury, the dongle doesn't pull enough power to keep a portable battery charging in order to charge it on site -- we have to have access to a wall plug or car battery (rarely occurs outside a grocery store).  

Unpluging and plugging in is not a good option in the wild with lots of small hands around.  Too many things get moved around and lost at an outdoor cookie booth and we are running cards at a fairly regular clip.

I'm disappointed in spending $35 of non-profit funds to not even be able to run a full 3 hour cookie stand.  

Thanks for bringing this to us @cerebromater

It certainly sounds like you've done all of the recommended troubleshooting steps thus far, so there might be something happening with the reader itself to cause these issues. The batter should definitely last you through an entire day. 

Head over to our Warranty page and we'll send out a brand new replacement for you.