Aloha gift cards sold, but missing from BOH?

[alohaakamai3]

Is there a know issue with Aloha 5.3.x (I think 5.3.26, sorry not sure of exact version) and giftcards ocassionally disappearing from the customer database?

I was planning to write this off as some sort of user error or a one time indicent, but the office person at the location basically proved it to me- she showed me a reprint of the sale where the GC was assigned an amount and sold to the customer (with the GC number showing on the receipt)- and then opened the customer database on the back of house, where no where could that number be found, anywhere.

Now they claim it's happened a few more times.

Any ideas?

 

[TobeThor]

Not familiar with how Aloha does it but on our system the GC is not valid until it is paid for.
Did they prove to you it was paid for?
If so, do any employees have the ability to re-open that paid check and change the original payment method or possibly delete the transaction entirely?
Does your Aloha system let you print GC audit trails that shows all details re: GC transactions?
Hope this helps in some way.

 

[Shift4SMS]

You either found a serious problem in the Aloha gift card application or you have one or more employees trying to pocket some extra money. You should probably open a case with Radiant -- hopefully the system stores enough log detail to create a full audit trail for a few of the instances. If this can't be tracked down, you may want to find out what other options, if any, the Aloha system supports for gift cards.

Steve Sommers

http://www.shift4.com

-- Creators of $$$ ON THE NET(tm) payment processing services

Blog:

http://shift4sms.blogspot.com

 

[alohaakamai3]

Thanks for the replies.

This location consists of very low technological IQ across the board, if you follow me. It's a mostly a staff composed of women in there lates 30s to early 40s that aren't terribly fond of the computers (until they go down that is, hehe).

That's why I suspected user error more than any kind of theft issue. Further more, to completely remove the card from the system, they'd have to have access to the back office (to my knowledge)-which is generally restricted to the owner and his full time book keeper (who is the one who uncovered the problem).

You guys do make a convincing argument when I stop and think about it though. Why would something that has been working pretty much flawlessly for probably 6 years, all of the sudden stop. The server was replaced about 6 months ago, but Radiant dialed in and set the GC portion up.

At this point, all I can do is look for patterns on the cards that are missing (they haven't provide me with that info yet)- to see if they were the same server, etc. And also check to see what actually happens when you reopen a check and delete the payment and the card (the only way I could really see them stealing with no access to the back of house). If Aloha removes it from the system, then maybe we have our winner, and theft is the issue.

Thanks, and keep the suggestions coming.

 

[pasupport]

I know there was a major issue with eCards with version 5.3.25, in fact we had a site open with it and it posted 400,000 to one card and took the whole system down. The last version of 5.x I saw was 5.3.32 and was very stable. It could not hurt to ask for the update. If your dealer sold you on a contract it should not cost you anything.