Aloha and EMV Cards 2

[juancruzhurtado]

Hey Everyone,

So, what's the procedure to install EMV card readers for Aloha?
Does the software need to be updated?

Any help or links or anything at all will be very much appreciated.

Juan

 

[PosGuyUS]

It's possible it is the processor you're with that won't be ready. There are 4 levels of certification and some haven't made it past the first level. On top of that, the process can get really expensive due to the labor involved.

 

[RokStar]

Orders are being taken now for hardware that ships in April (So May at the earliest, lol)
There's a choice of 4 different devices, 2 are Verifones, like the MX915, which is ubiquitous.
You will have to have "Connected Payments" which is (I think list is) $75/m/s. Connected Payments replaces EDC.

 

[PosGuyUS]

I would recommend buying into an insurance plan with your processor. Some are offering plans that will take care of chargebacks up to a certain amount as long as you go to EMV within 6 months or so. That will give you time to figure out what you're going to do and also give you time to not be the Aloha guinea pig.

 

[SpicyTips]

I checked with my NCR/Aloha vendor. They told me the wired versions will be ready in May/April but not wireless/pay at table. Still telling me Fall. They did mention the $75/m/s fee for connected payments but won't provide pricing on anything else. Honestly, I just think they don't want to do it ... they are telling me to look at third parties. I am on WorldPay for CC but third party for Gift Cards.

I still have questions regarding NCR/Aloha solution. How does split checks or split payments work? Do I hand out multiple devices? After payment is complete does the server print receipts and hand out to table. What are the specs for wireless? How many is standard per store? Is it all still running through EDC? Gift Cards are probably at the terminal still ... what if it's split with gift card/credit card. Drive-thru to-go order pickups?

Right now my vendor can't/won't answer any of the above questions.

So .. I am going to hunt down third parties and head that direction for now.

TableSafe
Ziosk
Buzzfeed - I heard they were working on a solution. Formerly NTN the gaming and trivia company.
Humm - They are supposed to be working on solution combining their real time feedback with pay at table.

Any others to look at?

 

[PosTech72]

Pay at table solutions are in the future for sure. The first groups are going to be certain processors and with no modifications. Essentially certain quickservice locations who do not adjust tips. Table service is predominantly fall or early spring of next year I would almost bet on because they will be making adjustments. The transition I believe is going to make EDC phase out. You would still use edc for 3rd party gift cards/terminals and the portal/emv devices for CC. I think they were mandated to push this technology out to fast by the credit card companies. It is kind of a shame as most people don't even have chip cards yet.

 

[juancruzhurtado]

Hey Everyone,

I thought I'd check if anybody has any news about NCR releasing an EMV solution.
We tried using Verifone terminals separately, but it is just a nightmare, too prone to errors and extremely cumbersome.

So the owners of the restaurant decided to just risk chargebacks for now.

Is that what most people are doing?

Juan

 

[MenulinkMan]

The company I work for is holding off for now. We might get a few chargebacks a year per site, but it is still cheaper than upgrading sites to what little EMV hardware exists, especially since it will end up probably changing again in the near future.

From what I have been told, NCR wants to roll their Cloud Connect product with EMV so they can push people off of EDC.

 

[PosGuyUS]

We're moving forward, there is no reason to wait. Some more hardware is on the way but for the most part, what is out there will do fine. Speed of transactions has been the only issue we've seen and we're having that addressed in the coming weeks. The problem with speed is that many of the readers need you to wait before you put the card in and you cannot take the card out too early.
Pushing Apple and Google Pay is helpful as well.
Visa and MC are coming out with newer chips.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...y-to-speed-chip-transactions-after-complaints

We're also about to move forward with some new security checks we've added for non EMV sites so for folks that don't want the EMV readers yet, we can give them another way to avoid taking a fraudulent card.

I don't know why NCR would wait any longer, nor any other POS company.

 

[MisterAloha]

If you aren't implementing a solution that supports both chip/signature & chip/pin, it may be worth waiting since you'll still be responsible for chargebacks on chip/pin cards if they are ran as chip/signature. Also, given how expensive EMV is to implement, I'm not sure it's worth a full rollout until the restaurant industry adopts a standard payment flow that table service guests are comfortable with. Quick service restaurants will have a lot less concern because guests are already getting used to the EVM checkout procedure because of grocery stores and other early adopters.

 

[PosTech72]

I foresee a lot of other payment methods gaining traction such as apple pay, samsung pay, google wallet etc mainly because of the transaction time it takes to run a chip transaction. Quickservice owners will see a huge slow down in the flow of customer transaction times. In busy locations this equates to lost potential revenue. Time will tell though!

 

[SpicyTips]

I was at NRA this year and some other conferences. I talked to basically every POS company and every potential vendor for EMV. I have multiple high volume locations and for Aloha, EMV pay at table just isn't ready. I am now hearing next year for stable solutions. Some third parties are still promising this fall but I am not jumping on the early adopter wagon.

I'm not saying nothing exists, but I don't think anything stable and fast enough is ready. Just my opinion. We will be waiting to see how things shake out and take the chargebacks for now or look at chargeback 'insurance'.

 

[POSPaymentsPro]

There are several good restaurant POS systems that have full support for EMV today. Restaurant Manager by ASI probably has the best EMV solution which is deployed at thousands of sites. Micros has several EMV solution available by third parties though most (but not all) of them are getting poor reviews. Restaurant Pro Express, Dinerware and Digital Dining all have a direct EMV integration with the PAX S300 - it works OK. Then there are smaller systems like SmartPOS by Aegis Foundry and even Comus (which is a DOS based system that's been around since the early 80's or maybe even earlier). These systems have good EMV solutions.

Below is a somewhat crude video demonstrating EMV Pay at the Table with Restaurant Manager POS. The solution in this video also works with Micros and it's being integrated with Aloha as well. Each of these systems also support traditional payment transaction workflows that mimic the traditional MSR workflow except that a networked payment device is used to read the card instead of an MSR attached to the POS station. The solutions fully support traditional tip adjust and are fully EMV compliant.

http://paymentlogistics.com/pay-at-the-table

For multi-site restaurant chains or high volume restaurants, the company that makes this EMV solution has been known to agree to absorb a restaurant group's EMV chargeback liability when the restaurant moves their merchant account to them. This gives the restaurant time to roll-out EMV in a controlled and orderly fashion without having to rip the band-aid all at once and make operational matters even more challenging. This can also give a restaurant group that uses a system like Aloha the opportunity to wait for a good EMV solution to be available while immediately eliminating their EMV chargeback liability. Plus the merchant ends up with a single provider for both their merchant account service and their payment technology which breeds accountability in the service relationship.