I've been having some trouble with my credit card reader lately. It's been balky, and a few times this summer, it hasn't worked at all. This is new because for years it was nearly perfect, even taking payments when there was no cell service.
To be honest, most of my clients are wonderful, respectable people, so if it doesn't work, they're happy to just pay an online invoice later in the day.
Last week, though, when the reader failed, a client suggested we try Venmo, but that didn't work either. We were both stumped until he realized his phone had no reception. It felt strange to me since I've always had service at that boat launch—it's downtown in our small town. The client paid the invoice I sent later, no problem, but these moments of uncertainty are creating a lot of friction in my business transactions.
The card processor claimed no responsibility for the issue, which I understand. But it got me thinking about the connection problem. I remember around the turn of the century when TV went digital so cell companies could have the bandwidth for 5G. We all bought set-top boxes for ten bucks, and eventually, digital TVs. In rural areas like mine, most stations simply dropped their reach, and free over the air TV became a thing of the past. As you can imagine, cable doesn't reach every household here, even in the more populated parts of the state. Now, a quarter-century later, we're still stuck with lousy cell reception after we gave up local television. This feels like a long-standing deception.
I travel enough to other parts of the country to know that Maine seems to have been intentionally left out. Internet connection speeds are much faster almost everywhere else, and cell phones work far more often than not most other places. We are not moving to be sure but those who negotiated for us did not get us much of a deal. At this point not really a big deal for Maine Outdoors but another obstacle for the next generation.
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