Square for Retail

Gestão de estoques e PDV para empresas de varejo

Classificação geral

4,7 /5
(467)
Relação qualidade/preço
4,5/5
Recursos
4,6/5
Praticidade
4,7/5
Suporte ao cliente
4,4/5

95%
dos usuários recomendam este app
Classificar por

467 avaliações

Carina
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Software
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Mensal durante Avaliação gratuita
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 5.0 /10

Vendas

Avaliado em 29/01/2023

Boa

Vantagens

Fácil de usar só deveria ter mais opções

Desvantagens

Mais opções pra vendas e marketing e campo

Maddie
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Saúde, bem-estar e condicionamento físico
  • Porte da empresa: Profissional autônomo
  • Usado Diariamente durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Square for small business retail

Avaliado em 22/08/2018

Square was a cheap way for me to reach a larger demographic of people at the markets, it adds to my business's professionalism and I would recommend it to anyone.

Vantagens

I love the convenience of swiping a card, I love that it pays out quickly (far quicker than over my website) and it keeps peoples information from past square interactions they've done so you can send them a receipt.

Desvantagens

I would love to have an offline setting so it could save the cards and charge when you reconnect. I don't always have a connection at the markets I'm working. I'm working currently with the smallest square phone connection so I also look forward to updating to the version that accepts debit cards too

Daniel
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Gestão de organizações sem fins lucrativos
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Semanal durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 8.0 /10

Excellent Software with Hardware Shortcomings

Avaliado em 29/04/2021

Overall, Square for Retail is a powerful software that allows you to take sales portably with a very small footprint. However, the hardware has catching up to do.

Vantagens

Square easily handles transactions for our church book stall. It provides up-to-date inventory and online reporting for tax purposes. You can easily add sales, promotions, and other tailor-made functions.

Desvantagens

What I like least about this software is the hardware. We utilize the Square Terminal, which was attractive as a portable register in that it takes credit cards via swipe and chip, but also prints receipts. The optional scanner is even nicer to use. However, for the scanner to work, the terminal must be plugged into an outlet, which robs it of its portable nature. Additionally, adding inventory via the Terminal is cumbersome and slow. Imagine typing in inventory titles using a small smart phone that is slower than a smart phone.

Alternativas consideradas

Clover

Razões para mudar para o Square for Retail

Square for Retail was a more reputable brand with better rates via the Terminal and had more attractive hardware in its Terminal product.
Carrie
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Saúde, bem-estar e condicionamento físico
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Mensal durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 3.0 /10

Terrible Customer Service

Avaliado em 16/11/2022

Square has served it's purpose and opened a new way for transaction processing. Luckily there are now many other options.

Vantagens

Simple enough to add products and check out.

Desvantagens

After using square POS for a few years, we switched to Shopify bc we also had an online store and needed to consolidate systems. We continued to pay for Square for a year although we were no longer using the system for anything other than to access old orders. When our office manager canceled the paid account, Square no longer allowed us to access the account at all. Our office manager spent several hours and finally got access. We were not informed that all other user accounts would be closed and that the only way to access old records would be through the owner email account. I called square to ask about being locked out of my account and the customer service rep ([SENSITIVE CONTENT]?) was incredibly rude, unhelpful, and sarcastic. I'm happy that we no longer use Square solely based on the customer service. Additionally, the processing fees went up drastically for us when we began offering one CBD product (THC free) out of several hundred products in our store.

Katie
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Saúde, bem-estar e condicionamento físico
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Semanal durante Mais de um ano
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Easy and Quick for Merchandise Sales

Avaliado em 17/02/2023

Vantagens

We use this for merchandise sales in the gym, primarily for retail like hoodies and T-shirts. It’s also great for use offsite, anytime we might be doing a pop-up event and selling merchandise there as well. Very easy for both the consumer and seller to use.

Desvantagens

I haven’t had any issues with this software. Being on both the end of the seller and customer, it provides a very seamless experience.

Alex
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Alimentação e bebidas
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Diariamente durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 8.0 /10

The Only Way To Accept Payments For Small Business

Avaliado em 05/08/2019

I recommend using Square for small business purposes only. That being said, they have a wonderful option for POS.

Vantagens

The Square plugin was super easy to use and fit most devices. The application is simple and adjustments were easy to make changes to. Paperless receipts are the best way to go about transactions.

Desvantagens

The price was a little high for the software. Using the plugin had its disadvantages if you use a phone and that phone has a protective case. The application sometimes froze.

Alternativas consideradas

Venmo

Razões para mudar para o Square for Retail

The popularity among companies meant ease of use.
Trincell
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Serviços ao consumidor
  • Porte da empresa: Profissional autônomo
  • Usado Diariamente durante Mais de um ano
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Easy Sales and Storefeont

Avaliado em 30/07/2021

I was the one assisting a friend with setting up her storefront while working on mine as well. Through mine I invoiced to accept payment for items on hand or orders personally placed with me.

Vantagens

User friendly platform to load your storefront with products. Present templates that are also customizable to your liking. Integration of an inventory model to track what you have left on hand.

Desvantagens

Have a plan for your products of offering multiple size and/or color options before entering on the site. It's much harder to edit and change the categories once it's set. Know what your page intent is as well ahead of schedule.

Alternativas consideradas

PayPal e Venmo

Razões para mudar para o Square for Retail

Added alternative means for my customers to pay and shop.
Lauren
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Automotivo
  • Porte da empresa: Profissional autônomo
  • Usado Diariamente durante 1 a 5 meses
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Game changer!

Avaliado em 10/12/2019

I love it! I was searching for months and researching all different types of POS software and hardware and always came back to Square being the best bet. The quality is just there. The ease of use, the sleek feel, great customer service and great rates. I trust Square with my business and so should you!

Vantagens

I love how easy everything is to setup and use. No crazy long instructions to try to figure out and there aren’t multiple steps for just one thing. So user friendly. Love that everything is in one. Checkout features, inventory, clocking, card processing everything. They offer so much more too than just what I use. Amazing!

Desvantagens

The cost of hardware is kind of pricey but honest the value and quality is there so I can’t really complain!

Alternativas consideradas

Clover

Razões para escolher o Square for Retail

I felt like Square was more reliable.

Razões para mudar para o Square for Retail

Again, the overall quality, reviews, rates and great service.
Michelle
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Gestão de organizações sem fins lucrativos
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Outro durante 1 a 5 meses
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 9.0 /10

Square Use by Non-Profit

Avaliado em 13/03/2020

We chose this software because we needed a way to take credit card payments that didn't involve opening up a web browser on a computer and hand entering in numbers. We use the readers and software to take in person payments at events. This has been such a great improvement to how we used to do it. It has sped up the registration process a lot. it has also given us an easy way to take payments for t shirts and pins at events where we could only take cash previously.

Vantagens

This was one of the least expensive options for taking credit card payments at events. When we signed up we even got 1 credit card reader for free. (Note that you do need reader 1 fore android phones and 1 for iphones). It was very easy to sign up and we got our card readers very quickly. The software is easy to use. I like that you can have multiple users. Also, a lot of people recognize and trust square so they have no issues providing their cards for scanning.

Desvantagens

We haven't used the service/software for a long enough time to encounter any major bugs. Some cards (older, worn down) have a harder time scanning than others but that is a card issue, not an issue with the scanner.

Eric
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Telecomunicações
  • Porte da empresa: 51 - 200 funcionários
  • Usado Semanal durante Mais de um ano
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 8.0 /10

Small little POS at your finger tips

Avaliado em 29/06/2022

Its what we needed in a pinch to get sales orders working on the field at events. It worked well for conferences and venues.

Vantagens

It was easy to setup and start using when you need it. You connect it to your phone and use it as a normal POS you would in a store

Desvantagens

Support isn't always easy to get a hold of and it wouldn't integrate it with our system. This is more for small business use and not for tracking and reporting on analytics.

Shanna
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Varejistas
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Semanal durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Easy to Use / Track Sales!

Avaliado em 21/02/2022

Overall it is easy for all of our team members to use!

Vantagens

We use square daily to keep track of sold items / integrate inventory / keep track of customers purchases.

Desvantagens

We do not have any cons that come to mind!

Itzak
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Esportes
  • Porte da empresa: Profissional autônomo
  • Usado Mensal durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Perfect POS for small business owners

Avaliado em 28/10/2021

Incredibly user friendly, nicely designed interface and overall no issues.

Vantagens

Square pretty much takes all the leg work out of setting up a POS system for any business, but I'll speak specifically as a small business owner.
-If you're a first time small business owner, save yourself the headache and just go with Square; you might be able to get a lower merchant fees rate with another service, but then you have to deal with the hassle of setting up a separate POS register, possibly a separate app you'd have to setup on an iPad if that's what you plan to use, setting up the merchant account, etc. With Square, it's all wrapped into one easy setup.
-Easy to setup on an iPad, create a catalog of items to sell and process payments
-The item catalog screen is very user friendly and customizable
-Doing refunds is easy
-Reports are incredibly easy to run
-Square integrates with QuickBooks online, so it's been seamless to link all my Square sales to my accounting books and makes my tax filings much more accurate
-Creating invoices is also easy and gives a professional look to my invoice emails
-Ability to create forms that require signature, so no need for another digital signature service (unless you need more details, see Cons below)

Desvantagens

-I wish you could have the same virtual terminal on the iPad on desktop as well. There have been times when my iPad crapped out and had to use my laptop, and it's not the same experience.
-If you're using the signature service for forms that you need to send out, it only records the signature itself and nothing else. Either it's a user error on my part, or they need to update it, but it needs more customization.

Michael
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Medicina alternativa
  • Porte da empresa: Profissional autônomo
  • Usado Diariamente durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Let Square free You

Avaliado em 02/06/2022

I Get paid without having to run around the office

Vantagens

I love that I can use my Square terminal anywhere. Whether I am at an event or in the back room, I can get paid.

Desvantagens

I do find that sometimes the payouts can be confusing

Alternativas consideradas

Elevate

Razões para escolher o Square for Retail

cost ease of use. I got tired of going to my computer to check patients out

Razões para mudar para o Square for Retail

Cost and ease of use
Elizabeth
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Varejistas
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Diariamente durante Mais de um ano
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 7.0 /10

Square Payments Processing is a good credit card processing system

Avaliado em 16/10/2019

Square is very convenient specially attending off-site events. We were able to get it up and going at any time. Other Points of Sales software is very clunky when it comes to a mobile application. Because of the versatility and ease of use, we do recommend it for small businesses.

Vantagens

Square is a payment processing system with supporting systems such as Point of Sale. We initially did the trial period to determine if it meets our requirements. It was very user-friendly and easy to use. The training was easy for the staff. If we had any issues, customer support from Square was always available. Sometimes we did have a short wait, but issues were always resolved.

Desvantagens

Square didn't have a many features as other Point of Sales software. Reporting and analytics were pretty limited. The software did have some, but not as much as we needed.

Support was available, but sometimes we had to wait to get help.

Edgar
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Serviços e tecnologia da informação
  • Porte da empresa: 1 001 - 5 000 funcionários
  • Usado Diariamente durante Mais de um ano
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 9.0 /10

Small business turned Large with Square

Avaliado em 11/01/2022

Square has helped my business scale to greater heights, more than I could have imagined. The POS is a great addition. My favorite feature is the management of customers, receipts, and automated thank you messages. If I was not using Square but ran into someone using it, I would surely be jumping ship.

Vantagens

Square is free and easy to maneuver. With no experience, Square appointments made it easy to start my business and manage it. Customers can book on the platform and I can manage appointments and inventory, as well as run my website.

Desvantagens

Square is easily the first choice for anyone trying to start a business. However, some features may seem a challenge to access without any guidance or guide. An example is learning about taxes being applied the first time I used the POS system. Coincidentally, the party I was conducting business with was a tax-exempt business and I had no idea how to bypass the tax.

Kelsey
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Varejistas
  • Porte da empresa: 11 - 50 funcionários
  • Usado Diariamente durante 1 a 5 meses
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Praticidade
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

First time Square user

Avaliado em 25/01/2022

Work for a company that only exists for 2 months of the year (winter seasonal), and was very easy to have people trained on it in a short period of time. Easy for customers to use online

Vantagens

Use this product for just 6 weeks, was very very easy to learn and had people using it that were generally not good at computers. They also had an easy time using it. Easy to change product description at one location or across all locations. Really enjoyed the reports, easy to manipulate

Desvantagens

Really really challenging to use on a ipad for scheduling and adjusting people's time cards. Was very slow and would regularly crash. (This was specific for this app, all other functions on the ipad worked fine and quickly).
Online orders, loved that when they came through you could update the progressed. HATED that you could not undo it. Would like to see the function that you could go forward and backwards, not just forwards.
Online orders - customers would enter address online and it would go to the shop "closest" to their location. However this was closest as the crow flies, not closest for driving directions. Would love to see it function off of driving directions. Frequently, a people would make a curbside order and they would end up going to the second or third closest location to where they lived due to this

Elena
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Organização cívica e social
  • Porte da empresa: 201 - 500 funcionários
  • Usado Outro durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 9.0 /10

Calling All Scout Troop Leaders: Square is great for your booth sales! (and other small...

Avaliado em 05/12/2018

I'm a Girl Scout Troop leader, and using Square has revolutionized our cookie booth sales. Now when someone says they don't have cash, we can give them the option to pay with a card,w which has gotten us a tom of sales we would otherwise have messed out on. We make a tiny margin on cookie sales as a troop, but Square's charges are so reasonable that it still works out very much to our benefit to use it. I highly recommend it for any kind of booth-style vendor, whether you're a troop, a church holding a bake sale or rummage sale, or a small business person vending at farmers' markets and craft fairs.

Vantagens

Super easy to set up, easy to process payments, easy to generate receipts, and easy to track sales. Plus it's a very reasonable cost and lets you be much more accessible as a seller - no more juggling tons of loose cash!

Desvantagens

It can sometimes be glitchy, and obviously only works if there's a good internet connection. I had some initial problems with my chip reader that forced me to hand-enter a lot of cards, which is time consuming. But on the plus side, that option exists for when there's a problem with the reader.

Steve
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Instituições religiosas
  • Porte da empresa: 11 - 50 funcionários
  • Usado Semanal durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Square - Useful for Churches as Well!

Avaliado em 12/01/2020

We have used Square to help facilitate receiving CC payments from our "customers" in both our church's coffee shop and book resource center, and it has been great! I would definitely recommend this to any church trying to open a coffee shop or book resource center of their own.

Vantagens

I appreciate how Square has so easily integrated into our church's in-house coffee shop and also our church's book resource center (like a small book store). Square just makes the running of our coffee shop and book resource center so EASY!

Desvantagens

The only drawback that I can see is that, in our church, we have a population of individuals who may be unfamiliar with the idea of swiping a credit card through a device attached to an iPad... I can see how the "newness" of this tool might be daunting to some individuals (and thus potentially hinder them from using it), but on the whole, this is a very SMALL concern. So far, the "pros" have FAR outweighed the "cons"!

Russell
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Entretenimento
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Diariamente durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Recieve Your Payment In Any Form With This Innovative Software

Avaliado em 11/06/2020

I utilize Square for Retail anytime that I am selling my merch in the streets. For example, if a customer is not carrying any cash, I simply will let them utilize their credit or debit card to make their purchase on the spot.

Vantagens

The thing that I liked most about this particular software is the fact that it makes it possible for you receive any form of payment no matter where you are. It's simply the epitome of convenience.

Desvantagens

There were no cons with this particular software; and I can guarantee you that you would have an extremely hard time finding any as well.

Kahlil
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Atacadistas
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Diariamente durante Mais de um ano
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Best POS system on the market today!!!

Avaliado em 31/05/2021

My overall experience with Square for Retail has been great. Compared to other services it is head and shoulders above the competition and it seems like it will remain this way for the foreseeable future.

Vantagens

Square for Retail adds a professional look to any small business. It helps raise the sales of your business while finding unique ways to reduce costs. It is a highly customizable app that can be tailored to the specific needs of your small business.

Desvantagens

The only thing that I dislike is the processing fee payment structure that they offer. It is a bit higher than other platforms, but the convenience and ease-of-use of the platform makes it worth it.

Avaliador Verificado
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Varejistas
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Outro durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 8.0 /10

Great POS for Small Business

Avaliado em 13/01/2020

Overall we are pleased with Square and its features. We would like to see Square integrate better with other platforms.

Vantagens

Square is great for small business it allows the merchant to just pay a fee when a card is swiped rather than a monthly service fee and the percentage charged for swiping a card. They do have an inventory tracking system which is great if that is the only platform you use for inventory. You also get the benefit of free hardware if you choose not to purchase the Square POS system. Square deposits are quick, no holding funds for long periods of time like PayPal. Overall Square is very versatile and we have been very happy with it.

Desvantagens

The inventory tracking system is cumbersome and doesn't work nicely with QBO or Shopify. It cannot sync with our Shopify store which ultimately means we have to keep both platforms updated which is a real pain.

Matt
Classificação geral
  • Usado Diariamente durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente

One of my core software solutions

Avaliado em 10/07/2018

Vantagens

I use Square almost daily for my coffee roasting company. Its easy to use, easy to train others to use, and easy to customize for my ever changing inventory.

Desvantagens

Sometimes I wish the Square app had the same functionality as the Square website. For example, invoices are easier to work with on the web vs. working with them on the app. You can't print invoices from the app, yet you can from the web interface. Just little things like that. Not huge, but minor annoyances.

Avaliador Verificado
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Serviços jurídicos
  • Porte da empresa: 201 - 500 funcionários
  • Usado Semanal durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 7.0 /10

Gets the Job Done

Avaliado em 16/08/2020

It easily satisfies our need for a payment processor, but we struggle to get it to do much more than that even after years of use. We've had trouble updating inventory and printing barcode labels. I'm not sure it justifies the monthly subscription price point.

Vantagens

Square is an easy payment processing solution that we have been able to integrate into our retail store operations. I appreciate that it can keep track of inventory, but the process of adding items can be overwhelming. It's big strength is in it's reporting functions and it's ability to easily track YoY.

Desvantagens

We have a lot of glitches with the program, despite updates. We will have to restart and re-login. It is also difficult to add individual inventory items. Also the register display format is not customizable, you are limited to the defaults.

Brian
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Gestão de organizações sem fins lucrativos
  • Porte da empresa: 2 - 10 funcionários
  • Usado Semanal durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Relação qualidade/preço
  • Praticidade
  • Suporte ao cliente
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Great Cost Effective System for Small Business Use

Avaliado em 18/02/2022

We love this system and have had no issues. We've been using it for about 4 years and it has met every need, saving us time, and is cost-effective for the features it provides.

Vantagens

The ease of implementation of the square system was excellent. Once implemented, managing and controlling items and inventory is simple and efficient. The POS system is easy to manage and use, easy to train our staff on, and customizable for all of our needs. The reporting system gives us all the information we need to summarize our sales data, run sales tax reports, and more.

Desvantagens

There is not much to not like. For our small business the software works wonderfully, if we had a large variety of items the POS system might get more complicated, but not for us.

Devora
Classificação geral
  • Setor: Clínica de saúde mental
  • Porte da empresa: 5 001 - 10 000 funcionários
  • Usado Diariamente durante Mais de dois anos
  • Fonte da avaliação

Classificação geral

  • Praticidade
  • Probabilidade de recomendação 10.0 /10

Square improved my business

Avaliado em 10/10/2018

My overall experience is beyond satisfactory. This software is a mus for any business. Quick and easy to use and works without any glitches.

Vantagens

The software is user friendly, quick and easy. I love their simple and straight forward layout. They literally contributed to my business growing!!!!

Desvantagens

I can't think of any negative thing to say, except at the beginning I had some problems that turned out to do with poor internet connection.