Archived New Card Readers

[PrincessDagger]

We had brand new card readers installed in my store this week. Anyone else get them?

If you have I hope your installation was not as painful as mine. It shut down all of my registers, except for two until 11 am. My Starbucks register would not turn on at all and they were closed until 12:30pm (ETL's very upset they couldn't get their coffee). Pharmacy was down for a while in the middle of the day, and only 1 of my Guest Service registers worked for a while. By the end of the day the registers slowly started to turn on, but it was a long day.

I had a guest I was trying to ring up on a register that had finally come on, as soon as she swiped her debit card the system froze and shut down the register for another 2 hours. I rang her up on another register and the same thing happened. I felt terrible for her, but luckily she was very understanding.

Let's just say there was more than 1+1 at the lanes lol. We made it work though. I was taking guests who only have a few items over to Target Cafe to check out since their registers were working. Some guests I walked back to electronics (gave them apology coupons) to check out since their register was working.

My two favorite parts of the day were the following: 1) the gentlemen who installed the card readers said "it's not our fault your registers suck". Which is true, and it made me laugh. Installing a Linux based device from 2013 onto a POS Windows based system that hasn't been updated since 2005 is going to have problems. 2) of all the days for this to happen, the big guys from Cooperate decided to do an impromptu visit for our Market section (we're a test store for something new) so I got to have a fun conversation with them about the install and stuff since they could see we were backed up and I had no registers to open.

Definitely a fun day to be a GSA and not really having any of our normal leaders in the building.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

what a day for you!

 

[RedCashier]

do the card readers look any different then usual?

 

[AllThingsTarget101]

I believe they are black... I could be mistaken though.

 

[mrknownothing]

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[PrincessDagger]

They are black (I'll get a pic next time I'm in the store), and they are REALLY nice! They are still crashing my registers every now and then, and they also make some of the registers go very slowly. Over all though they are much more user friendly.

 

[AllThingsTarget101]

My home store that I will be returning to in a few weeks for the summer had them installed a few weeks back. I was told the installation went smoothly and they're nicer. I don't understand why they are black though..

 

[B26]

Tell them to bring some to my store! Half the times I need to guest to swipe 3 times until it processes their card and they are so worn down that they are nearly impossible to read!

 

[mrknownothing]

Tell them to bring some to my store! Half the times I need to guest to swipe 3 times until it processes their card and they are so worn down that they are nearly impossible to read!

Or the screens are cracked because people pound on them with the pens! "Gentle contact with firm pressure on the green button isn't enough for me, I have to stab a ****ing hole in the machine."

 

[3LetterDevil]

Tell them to bring some to my store! Half the times I need to guest to swipe 3 times until it processes their card and they are so worn down that they are nearly impossible to read!

Or the screens are cracked because people pound on them with the pens! "Gentle contact with firm pressure on the green button isn't enough for me, I have to stab a ****ing hole in the machine."

Back in pharmacy, the pens don't work half the time so we just tell people to use their fingers for everything except signing....it seems to work much better MOST of the time We have one guest who absolutely REFUSES to use his finger so if the pen isn't working, we have to punch in everything for him....fortunately, he isn't paranoid about giving out his information, just germs~LOL!

I WANT ONE!!!!!! (okay, two) I don't care if they crash our registers or not, our readers are HORRIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ThePATL]

The stabbing drives me insane! On what planet do sharp stabs work on a touch screen? Seriously.

 

[SavestheDay]

I wish our store had new ones. Our current ones are terrible! someone breaks the pen at least once a day & when the pen sorta works it's not well enough for them to sign so they have to sign with a regular pen & paper at the end.

 

[mrknownothing]

One of my GSAs said that the card reader pens can write on receipt paper. I have not yet had an opportunity to try it. Does it work?

 

[OrangeJuice]

I think half our store's card readers require the use of the pen because of all the jamming its been through with said pen. And I think the other half of the card readers require the use of a finger because of all the finger smudge that makes the pen not work at all. It may be confirmation bias, but I swear guests always end up doing the thing that doesn't work on that reader.

"Try using your finger, the pen doesn't work on this particular card reader."

"OK" *pounds at the card reader with pen*

:gamer3:

 

[AllThingsTarget101]

One of my GSAs said that the card reader pens can write on receipt paper. I have not yet had an opportunity to try it. Does it work?

I wouldn't consider it "writing." The pen or other objects like your finger nail will leave a gray marking behind. So essentially it is writing on the receipt.

 

[mrknownothing]

One of my GSAs said that the card reader pens can write on receipt paper. I have not yet had an opportunity to try it. Does it work?

I wouldn't consider it "writing." The pen or other objects like your finger nail will leave a gray marking behind. So essentially it is writing on the receipt.

I'll have to remember that next time I don't have a pen (as in the kind that has ink). Said GSA only told me after I used the help button to request a pen.

 

[redeye58]

You can 'write' on receipts with any pointed/sharp edge because it's thermal paper & responds to heat/pressure.
That's why I always laughed when an ETL asked me about ink ribbons for the receipt printers.

 

[mrknownothing]

You can 'write' on receipts with any pointed/sharp edge because it's thermal paper & responds to heat/pressure.
That's why I always laughed when an ETL asked me about ink ribbons for the receipt printers.

The printers do have ribbons though. When you feed a check, the ribbon is used to print on it (i.e. the register "signs" the check).

 

[Barcode]

Yup, GSTL/GSA maintain the ribbons too, had to replace quite a few.

That is correct though -- it is for checks only.

 

[redeye58]

The check printer, yes.
It's on the bottom but the receipt printer (top) doesn't have a ribbon.
I'd have cashiers show me a receipt that was half obscured ("it's out of ink"!) & I'd flip open the top & clean paper scraps away from the thermal bar. lol

 

[Barcode]

Everytime I came over for a K6 Reprint receipt, I always popped open the door and cleared the receipt printer... Had a few times where I didn't, and the cashier had it all jacked up.

We had these cleaning pens at Photo that were really good at cleaning the thermal bar/etc. on the receipt printers.

 

[redeye58]

I remember our photo guy had some he used.
Those were great!
Yeh, I'd pull out about a foot of wadded up receipts sometimes....

 

[mrknownothing]

Not to derail this thread further, but we've started to get lines on receipts that print out from the more often used registers. That is, white lines where it's not printing. We can't scan receipts from our overnight register because the barcodes are messed up from the lines. Does anyone know how to fix this? One of my GSTLs seems to believe that messing with the ribbon will fix it, even though I tried to explain to her that the ribbon is only used for checks, not for printing receipts.

 

[Barcode]

Swap the printers with the ones on lanes you never use. I did this for one at guest service and it helped a lot. Just don't do this for the coupon printers... The computers send the coupons to a MAC address so even if the printer switches lanes it will print the old lanes coupons.

The white lines is just from printer age. Contact CSC for replacement.

 

[redeye58]

^This.
When the thermal printer bar begins to degrade, the printer has to be replaced. There's no snapping in a new bar, etc.
We used to swab the bar down with alcohol to squeak a little more life out of it but they eventually had to go.
Best way to check printers is do print out a speed slip & look at the large "TARGET". If it's got a lot of white lines through it, it's time to replace it because the slips that it prints out won't scan anywhere.
Imagine getting someone approved for credit or debit & they can't scan the temp slip.