Another wonnerful, wonnerful night in the Magic Kingdom of Bingo. I spent all day gearing up and psyching myself out to be nice to the peasants and not throw the mini me infernal machine into the moat.
The King and his crew met upstairs around the round table for sustenance to improve our countenance. It seemed to have worked. We were all geared up to not care what happened.
As the peasants crowded in to get their winning tickets with the perfect numbers on them, we slam banged the cash and sent them to the dungeon to secure their lucky spot at the table, moving chairs around until they had their favorite to sit in. The peasants are serious about Bingo. I would be too if I spent that much money on it every week. They average $300 a month, some upwards of $500.
When we discovered the King was leaning towards getting a "square" to run all those debit cards, I jumped up in protest. This is a huge business, between lunch every day of the week and dinners twice a week for upwards of 100 people. We really need a professional system.
We put our heads together. The light bulb went off in my head. Why don't we find a business in town ... possibly a restaurant ... and see what they use. Who has a wireless system?
You may not have heard of them, but we have a company called Prime Time Car Wash. The guy literally went from washing cars for people in his back yard to a huge business with many locations. They use wireless point-of-sale. Why don't we talk to him?
So of course I was nominated to check out their system. I have all of 36 hours to gather info before presenting it to the Lodge Board. Otherwise, I'm going to be stuck with the square.
I also instituted the happy rain dance, required to be performed by every peasant with a plastic card. At least we have less canceled transactions that way and it kept our spirits up. You would be surprised how many peasants complied. Instead of mumbling and grumbling (and that's just from me) we had the whole line laughing right up to Bingo time.
With no exercise for two days now, my hip is back to acheville, so I'm off to hit the pavement. Wish me luck on the quest for a new debit card system.
Always nice to keep the peasants in good spirits makes you day go much smoother and more fun.
ReplyDeleteSounds like it went pretty smoothly. hopefully your search for a better system has great results, good luck.
It takes concentration to keep a smile on my face!! The majority of nice people always make it better!!
DeleteOur favorite laundry place in Citrus Heights has POS for each washer and dryer and they have security cameras, keypad locked door on the bathrooms, and keypad locking door for front door from midnight to 6 am. "IF" they can do all that, I am sure you can find a POS for Bingo. After all, how many restaurants are now bringing a gizmo to the table to run your card so they don't take your card away from you???
ReplyDeleteDave
DeleteSome of the restaurants you referred to won't do a sales transaction unless it's on that Inferno table machine
A lot of the service waitstaff don't like it because it keeps track of their tips you have a bill you may want to throw a $10 bill as a tip but that machine gives you three tip options 10% 15% or 20% you may personally like the service andwant to throw down 25 or 30% it doesn't have that feature
Wow Dave ... thats some laundry!!! I've no idea what the tip option will be, but I'm sure they can work it out.
DeleteI know people happily using the square but they don't do nearly your volume of business in your time frame.
ReplyDeleteThat's true Linda, I've used the square myself. I'm just not sure it will be easy to run 50 or more transactions through in a couple hours, not to mention you have to hold it with one hand while swiping with the other. My second hand is already handing out tickets and cash.
DeleteYour POS square made by Apple you can use an iPad mini totally wireless
ReplyDeleteThe draw back feature is they're not cheap
If you try your local bank that the castle does business with they may give you a better deal,, but make sure that whatever you do get. doesn't have a Service fee
When you go to a flea market and you use your credit card there a lot of vendors used the wireless phone Square it's only about an inch by an inch by three eights
Plugs directly into your iPad or phone
A lot of businesses around here are switching to the square for a service business they're really neat because you could spinet around to the customer and they could add the percentage of tip they want to leave
Or enter a pin or signature depends on how it's set up
If you have a notification on your credit card as soon as you make POS it pings your customers phone The transaction went through
If you have a restaurant in the kingdom and a bar in the kingdom
DeleteThe square would make more sense because you can run all of those as well as the biingo without having a separate system
Just a software system isolation
I've used those too Ed. I'm afraid they are too expensive. The other thing is we cannot print out a debit card receipt. With the square, you have to enter an email address .... way too much time consuming for us when 100 people are waiting in line.
DeleteWhen I worked the Santa Photo booth a year ago I used the square on a tablet mounted on a swivel. Worked perfect and never crashed. Always closed out perfect and we had lines 30 deep and took orders quickly. Not sure of the % charged per transaction.
ReplyDeleteI think they work efficiently, but we need a system for the restaurant and bar area also. It would be nice to have a wireless system where the staff can take the unit right to the table and run the card. Ever heard of Prime Time Car Wash? They do it all handheld wireless.
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