Jimperfections

The past few days have been exciting for this remote worker. But before I get into the fun stuff, I should give you some background into how this all came to be.

My company can be a little late to the party when it comes to technology. Case in point, credit card machines. While most of the civilized world had turned to customer facing pin pads to process transactions, we were still using stand alone machines that required us to take a card from the customer, go to wherever the machine was, and swipe the card for them. This then resulted in two separate receipts. One from the POS system with the itemized goods, and one from the credit card machine.

Maybe 8 to 10 years ago, we did finally adopt a new system that brought us out of the stone age. It worked okay. It allowed for tap to pay, insert to pay, and all the various NFC methods (ApplePay, GooglePay, etc). It relied on this thing called a Redbox. This was quite literally a small, red box with the electronics to handle the security and communication to the banks and credit card companies. Most every corporate location had it installed. And some independently owned locations also jumped on board. But most stores still used the old stand by.

About 4 years ago, the company that manufactured the Redbox informed us they would no longer be doing so. There was no replacement. At this point, the folks at HQ did what they always did. That is, drag their feet on figuring out a replacement. For three years, we had to tell anyone who asked for the system that we couldn’t get it for them. Both company owned and independently owned. This sucked.

They eventually came up with something. And we began installing it in company owned stores that already had the previous system last year. It does not rely on a Redbox or any similar device. It also has better security and can do more than the previous system. It does have one big drawback (if you ask the stores anyway). But we’ll get to that later.

When the new system was about to be rolled out, the folks at HQ figured the store managers could handle the installation. We, of course, knew better. And despite not having the manpower we used to, lobbied hard to have us visit the stores to do the job. They reluctantly agreed. And when they saw how we could knock them out with speed and expertise, they allowed us to continue.

So, now that we got that out of the way, let me move to more recent events. Each company owned location is part of a district. Those stores are serviced by a distribution center, and attached to that is what they call the main store of the district. It is usually the largest store. One of the main stores in my territory, which has not received the new system yet had their Redbox give up the ghost. This was Wednesday. They had no way to run a credit card. You might ask why. And this is a good question. As we were installing the old system, we would tell every store to keep their old stand alone machine for emergencies. Did they? Some did. Most did not. This store didn’t.

The company that supplies the Redboxes is not the manufacturer of said boxes. They are supposed to have a handful of them available for this situation. They also can see the writing on the wall, and aren’t always quick to respond these days. On top of that, our own support folks don’t always act accordingly. Frustrating. So, no new Redbox was coming, and the store manager kept reaching out to me.

This store was on the schedule to get the new system. But not until June. It was decided, however, to move them up significantly. This would mean that I would have to walk the manager through the process. Exactly what we lobbied hard to avoid. We didn’t have much choice, though. This meant getting new POE switches sent as well as the 13 pin pads they would need. And we would need them there ASAP. It was now the afternoon of Thursday.

I got on ordering the switches as other colleagues arranged the pin pads. It would be close. The switches did get delivered on Friday. But the company that sends the pin pads didn’t make the cutoff. They weren’t making it. Fortunately, we also ordered seven of them from the stash we had at our warehouse. But guess what? They wouldn’t make it by Friday either. Our last resort was to ask other colleagues if they had any extra from their installs. One guy had three. On Friday afternoon, we set them up for Saturday delivery and crossed our fingers.

In the meantime, since the switches did show up (yay me!) and they hadn’t had a usable system for three days, I walked the manager through setting them up to get a big step out of the way. Then we waited.

Saturday morning had the store staff having to run after the UPS truck like it was the last ice cream truck of the season. He did deliver the box. But despite specific instructions as to where to leave it, he brought it way out back to the dock of the distribution center. The store manager had to go on a treasure hunt to find it. She did. She then called me and we got to work.

As we were getting things assembled, she took a phone call from a customer. I heard part of it. Here is where I’ll explain the drawback I mentioned earlier. This particular customer was from a large auto repair franchise. This franchise had a problem paying their bill in the past. So, now they used a wacky system of one-time use credit cards that get emailed into the store. They would manually enter them into the machine at the store. Well, as per company policy, manual entry is no longer allowed! It cannot even be overridden with the new system. This is also another reason we asked them to keep the old stand alone machine.

Anyway, once I talked the manager off the ledge about this snafu, we got down to business. Everything went according to plan, and we got all three pin pads functioning. They were out of the woods and could stop turning customers away that wanted to pay with a card. When the others we ordered arrive, she will get them connected. And all the extra ones she will now have will get used at other stores when I eventually get out there in June.

I now have the fine honor and distinction of being the first to walk a manger through the process remotely. It was even called out by the program director on the Teams chat we use for support on these installs. And while I would love to take full credit, I have to give props to the store manager. She was more than capable, and very patient. This is not (nor would be) the norm. I hope the powers that be don’t see this as a sign they were right.

However it goes from here, I’m happy we finally got them functional again. And I’ll be ready for the next hair on fire experience.