Can your POS Software get a false DECLINED card message ?

The dreaded card declined transaction that the processor charged anyway... If you are a merchant and you accept credit or debit cards, whether through your POS Software or a stand alone terminal on the side, you and your customers will experience this annoyance from time to time, simply because the internet isn't perfect. In very rare cases, for a very small amount of merchants (less than 1% of merchants), there seems to be an issue where a credit card is swiped and a DECLINED result is displayed on their POS System, after which the merchant simply tries again and the card goes through at the second attempt, but it seems that the processing bank charged both swipes successfully (double charged) even-though they reported the first attempt as a DECLINED outcome. We can certainly try to explain this phenomenon to you, no matter what POS Software you are using, as best as we can, and give you some tips on preventing it, however, we must point out that this is not a problem on anyone's side, it is not a problem that can be addressed by the developers of the POS Software, because they don't own/create/control/understand the credit card processing part (even the credit card processing software code within their POS Software) - it belongs to the respective credit card processors. But also the credit card processors are not to blame, read on for the explanation as to why this is happening and how to best remedy it in the future... Most lower level support staff at the processor's tech support does not even have the capacity to understand this problem and they will give you the standard answer [an answer they use for whenever they [...]

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3 common hidden costs of POS Software

It is logical to think that when you purchase a POS Software (aka Point of Sale Software), the price of the software is your true and only cost, granted that the pricing plan is simple, perhaps a one-time payment and no additional monthly or ongoing payments are required. You could be wrong. 1. SMS If your chosen POS software offers to send SMS messages to your customers, as one of its features, which is very useful in most cases and even necessary for Salon Software users (for appointment reminders) and Restaurant Software users (for announcing a table has become available - to people waiting for a table outside of the restaurant), and then the SMS marketing that POS Software users choose to resort to, you may find yourself using the SMS service feature of this POS Software, heavily. If the POS Software you chose is using a feature for SMS service, which simply integrates to another company's SMS service, that means the developers of the POS Software took the easy way out and instead of programming their own device for sending SMS from scratch, they use another company's service and that automatically means you will pay for every single SMS your POS Software will ever send. And chances are the developer of the POS Software will also get an affiliate commission on every SMS you send, from the 3rd party company that they forced you to use with their POS Software. So everyone wins, but you lose. Why ? Because there are POS Software developers, that program their own SMS features, completely independent form any 3rd party companies and use the Internet and your email account, to send the SMS messages for FREE. So you [...]

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How to choose the right POS or Receipt Printer ?

The printer technology for most of us (home/office users), generally boils down to two technologies: laser and ink-jet printing. However, in the Point of Sale industry, the printer technology has two different dominant choices, which are a great unknown to most novices. The choices in the POS printer technology are : thermal and dot-matrix. Yes, you heard right, dot-matrix, one of the oldest (if not the oldest) printing technologies in home and office printers, which was long abandoned in the office/home computer industry. So why are these two choices different in the home/office industry and in the point of sale industry ? First let's concentrate on the benefits / drawbacks and differences between thermal and dot-matrix and the special needs of the point of sale industry and that will actually answer the question of why these technologies are different in the POS industry comparing to the home/office computer industry ... Thermal Printers are probably almost always the obvious choice for all retail and fast paced establishments that operate under normal circumstances. Thermal POS printers, print by burning on the paper with a hot printing head. Special thermal paper is used so that the burning has sharp edges and high resolution impressions can be made. The thermal technology offers these advantages: - Fast, really fast printing, faster than laser - Quiet, really quiet printing, quieter than laser - High resolution, really high resolution - No need to change the toner or ribbon, no ink to run out of, nothing to replace but paper Drawbacks: - Thermal paper is really sensitive to heat (because of its properties to be very responsive to the hot printing head). So if you work outside, on warmer days or in a [...]

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Should your POS Software be on the Cloud or on your own PC?

The most objective answer: It depends on a few factors and also it depends on what kind of a person you are and your personality. - It depends on whether you are the type of person that likes to Lease or Own their own car. It is well known that the math is against you leasing a car that you will never own, you just rent it, pay the most for this way of obtaining a vehicle, but millions of people still do this and prefer this method. Same with POS Software. So If you are the type of person that is always drawn to leasing and not owning, the equivalent to that is your Point of Sale software being on the cloud, because you do not own a copy of the POS software or a license to use the POS software on your PC forever (like the case is with regular desktop software), but you rent and once you stop paying, you have nothing. - It depends on whether you are the type of person that trusts authority or not, if you are the type of person that trusts the government or not (if you trust all of your sensitive data, your business info, to be in the hands of a bureaucratic entity). So if you are the type of person that has no problem with another entity having full access to your business data and keeping your business data, and if you trust some private company not to misuse your POS Software's data for marketing purposes (like see what you order the most, at what supply cost and then sell that info to another company that supplies what you buy in your business [...]

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What’s the deal with all of those FREE POS Systems (that mostly banks offer)?

OK, a free POS System sounded very tempting to us at first glance as well, and since only banks were offering them at first, we knew it had something to do with forced lengthy contracts, at a "not so competitive rate", for credit card processing with a certain processor (not a processor of your choosing). And that deal doesn't sound too bad either, when you consider we are discussing a full POS system, meaning you get the POS Software and you also get the POS computer hardware, all together, all free of charge, so how bad can this credit card processing deal be, right ? But if you thought that it sounds too good to be true, then you guessed it, it is.... We called a few of these companies offering this kind of a point of sale system for free and here's what we found out (the story repeated to the minutest detail for all of these companies)... I. Yes, you get a free pos computer, but that computer is closer to a tablet than a proper computer, with proper hardware and computing power. No big deal, it is free, so we shouldn't complain about this - just thought you should know. II. Yes, you get a free pos software, but that basic POS Software cannot compare with software that has hundreds of features and integrates with a ton of POS Hardware peripherals and other equipment, these things can mostly support only a barcode reader, and a printer and literally just replace a cash register (no extensive business management or employee management functions there). So it won't be a POS Software that you run your entire business on, it is just a fancy cash [...]

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