I used to work at a retail outfit that used the really old-fashioned credit card system involving carbon paper slips and handwritten amounts, which would be entered into a credit card processing system at another location at a later time. We could have essentially charged whatever amount we wanted, and this was fairly apparent to anyone who paid via credit card. And yet, out of every thousand people who go to pay with a credit card, I could probably count on one hand the people who express any serious concern about this fact.

Businesses have an incentive in maintaining their reputation and not getting into trouble with payment processors, and I generally think people assume any business approved by a payment processor is probably sufficiently low-risk to give a credit card.

any business approved by a payment processor is essentially zero-risk. if you ever get an unauthorized charge on your credit card, it is trivially easy to have the charges reversed.

and I wonder how many of that handful would realize that paying by check has even larger issues?

Every time I've had someone swipe my card via Square in a coffee shop, the barista has turned the iPad towards me to view my order/sign, which is more than what happens with a standard POS setup.

I'm not sure what else you would expect here?

When you would normally sign a printed receipt, you sign with your finger on the iPad with the Square app (most implementations I've seen have iPads on a swivel stand that turns around to face the customer). In the example video they show a customer being charged via Card Case which is the more integrated form of transaction but not the common case.

I've seen this a handled a few ways, depending on the merchant.

1. They show me the price before submitting it. I ask for a receipt sent to my email, which they need to type in, but I get it on my own phone immediately. The clerks I've seen do this HATE having to type in my email address because they invariably type it incorrectly.

2. The ipad swivel. I sign with a stylus, type in my own email address and choose to send the receipt that way. The whole time I'm talked through it all by the merchant. I prefer this method.

3. The clerk just rings me up and never bothers to offer the receipt, but I ask anyway, because, like the grandparent post, I don't quite trust these things for some reason yet. The clerk has no idea how to do it, so I end up showing her and then tell her about the swivel mounts and the stylus.

From my experience of paying with Square, I only had to manually enter my email + phone number the first time I paid. Every time since then it's been automatically populated. Swipe, sign and the receipt is in my email second later.

I didn't see a swivel in the video.. they really should show that part.

I see what you're saying. In this particular video they don't show that part of the experience, and you're right, they definitely should.

How is this any different than a traditional POS? The only exceptions would be cash registers with pole displays, which are limited to big box retailers that can afford them.

Not sure about where you're at, but it's a rarity to come across a register that doesn't have a customer facing display, with at the very least, the total you are being charged for your goods and/or services.

Many small shops have a separate credit card terminal where they enter the amount to be charged.

From a cursory google image search it looks like you're right, I suppose my routine skews towards merchants that don't have one of those.

On a per store basis it's extremely rare since only bigger stores have that.