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Wireless Credit Card Terminals for Delivery

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Anybody else using them? It makes things alot easier that I can just have the driver deal with it and not tie up the phone lines, but it gets tricky when you only have 1 machine but mutilple drivers. The other guys have the manual imprinters. I know chargebacks could be an issue but i havent had one in 3 yrs now and our market is upper middle class so I rarely have a problem. Any better ideas?
 
I have a few problems with the idea of wireless/mobile credit card machines. First being the idea of having a machine for each driver as I have days where over 40% of my sales are crdit cards. The upfront cost of the machines is prohibitive, as would be the batch cost per machine each night(my processing company charges 50 cents per batch). Also don’t know if I would pay statement fees for each batch. Then, think about loss, stolen, broken machines. Second problem would be the signal the machine sends/recieves. Just last week I stoped for gas during a thunderstorm at a station that uses a satelite signal to process(at least thats what they told me). They had to swipe my card because they were getting no signal. I know that nextel also does cellular processing, but we all know how hard it is to get a cell signal in some places. Lastly, what do you do when you take a $30 order, get to the door with the food, and the credit card is declined. It sucks to have a loss like that.

My store did over 300 deliveries today and 125 credit card orders on 2 dial up machines without any screw ups with the credit cards. It seems like sometimes the new technology is just unessesary.
 
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They seem like a great idea, whose time has not quite yet come.
I was steered away from them by credit processing vendors based on the same issues mentioned - up front cost and likelihood of drivers breaking them…
 
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I’ve looked into the wireless route several times and can’t justify it. In both of my stores the terminals run off my network so I don’t tie multiple phone lines. Not to threadjack, but what I am interested in is the Nextel GPS phones where you can track the phones online. I’d love to be able to track my drivers that way. That may cost an arm and 2 legs though.
 
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My justification was that any extra costs associated with the machines (besides the purchase price) incl. batch, stmt., & usage fees they should be offset by better rates by swiping instead of keying in, especially if it is debit. It has only been a month so I do not have enough experience to test my theory yet.

The main reason for the terminals was to not tie up phone lines and by that I do not mean the time it takes to process a transaction on our lines (we have a separate dedicated line for that) but rather the painstaking process of having somebody recite those 15 numbers and inputting. I currently take 95% of all delivery & take-out orders and have it down to a science with most orders finished in less that 20 seconds. Processing the cards in-house would triple that time.

Coverage obviously depends on your area and although we have some dead zones, you are able to store the info in those cases and provide the customer with a recept. The transaction is then processed when you are in service again (chargebacks could be an issue, but we have never had a problem).

Damage could be an issue also, but we opted for a damage protection program with our processor for all our terminals which covers us for a reasonable charge.

I think I am sounding like the guy who is trying to convince everybody that online ordering is great even though I thought it was dumb! Oh well at least I made a good choice with Nextel 2 way calling for drivers.
Thanks everybody
 
I use a wireless terminal for debit (interac) but not credit card. The customer pays $1.50 for the transaction of which I get $1.00 to off set the cost of the terminal.
 
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I have 1 machine from Moneris. It cost me nothing up front they maintain it even if I drop it (which I have about 20 times but it keeps working) I have only hasd no service about 3 times in 3 years and I can take debit and credit cards on it. What I do if it is busy is senf it out on the debit orders and have the other delivery drivers use our manual machines for the Credit card Transactions and then put them through the store terminal when they get back. If you are only useing them for Credit cards I say dont waste you time use the manual machines or use your store terminal and do a pre auth. and then ring them in later. I really dont know why anyone wouldnt use the for Debit though more and more people dont cary cash and they are willing to spend more if you take debit at the door. Stats show you will gain about 10% more if you take debit compared to cash. As far as declined Credit cards if you take debit they have another option.
 
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Do you add a fee to cover the cost of the machine? Most of the places around here are $2.
 
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Actually, your merchant agreement does not allow you to "add"a fee. You are on the other hand allowed to offer a cash discount, so you need to word this properly. I did have one pain in the a$$ customer somehow notify my processing company over this issue.
 
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No I dont. When we first got it I charged .50 but once I had it paying for its self (about 6 months) I stopped that practice. The rent for the machine and transaction fees that I am charged is only around 100.00 per month so it is actually quite affordable.
 
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I work for Vericomm so If anyone wants to take a serious look at this I will be more than happy to privately discuss it with anyone that wants to. It’s not really appropriate for me to do a sales pitch here. But with 48 month leases from $89 and a built in pin pad that allows you to seperate the debit cards from credit cards, ( you pay a flat fee $.59 cents on debit card transactions instead of your usual high percentage), Visa/MC Credit transactions at 1.69% instead of the higher percentages many businesses pay now, and 8 second transactions, smart card ready. Lots of businesses are telling me it is very cost effective.
 
The credit card merchant agreement does not all for a charge but the debit card agreement does.
 
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