Yes, feel free to take it personally.

Trixie · #1 03-01-2013, 11:10 PM

So today all of our registers decided to freeze up and needed rebooting. Luckily they weren't actually down for very long and we weren't very busy. And very luckily most people were nice about it. For about two hours we couldn't accept debit cards or activate any gift cards. Of course if things went completely smooth I wouldn't be here.

Right when the things first froze there was a mother and daughter in line. I was able to ring up the daughter but not the mother. When Mom realized it was going to take more than 30 seconds for things to get sorted out, she pushes her stuff across the counter and says "Forget it, let's get out of here". Your loss lady.

When we were sort of back, of course that's when people come up with all kinds of gift cards. Again with another mother and daughter team buying phone cards. I explain that I may not be able to activate the card but I tried anyway because it might work. It doesn't. I proceeded to get the third degree.

"So it's not going to work?"
"This means we can't get them?"
"How about in pharmacy?"

No, no and no all the registers are on the same system. Again the Mom tosses her phone card across the counter. So sorry but good luck in your search! But, bless you Tom and Nancy you were very nice when I explained things.

And finally, rang up a lady and see her pull out one of our store gift cards. I explain blah blah annnnnd got the cat-butt face, a disgusted sigh and this comment "But I have a few gift cards. I really didn't want to pay that." Oooohhh, aren't we so special!!!

So to all these people and others who had their days ruined because our registers decided to crash go ahead and take it personally. I woke up grumpy today and threw out to the universe if there's anything that can be done to severely inconvenience people please make that happen and make my day! And it happened. Thanks universe!

Opalin · #2 03-03-2013, 11:12 PM

We had that happen at our store once. Our store gift cards were working, but everything else simply wouldn't work. It felt like everyone suddenly wanted to buy all the cards. I don't envy you, and I really wish you could get people to realize its every bit as annoying and troublesome for the store & employees as it is for them.

Trixie · #3 03-04-2013, 03:05 AM

Luckily that sort of thing doesn't happen very often but yeah when it does it sucks beyond anything sucking.

mattm04 · #4 03-04-2013, 04:24 AM

We had a similar incident once. At the tine all the registers were on a large central UPS that fed power to the computer, monitor, scanners, etc. Said UPS was backed up by the stores generator.

No one ever bothers to check the health of the batteries or UPS itself. Then the power went out. The generator takes 8-10 seconds to take the emergency and optional loads, the UPS batteries could only keep the registers and back room servers up for 4 seconds before they were depleted. oops.

When the generator restored power the server wouldn't boot up. We had to wait for a tech to come to fix it. We were down for a hour. Not fun. The next morning several suits and a electrician were in. The next day, the old UPS had been removed and new ones installed.

raudf · #5 03-04-2013, 04:51 AM

Never had that happen at the Wart of Mall, but at Monkey's Ward? The repair center did everything via network to the store. Yup, the store in a mall, which was a good mile, two miles away from the repair center. Soooo... the power goes out to the mall that the store was in and our system couldn't process cards due to it. Thanks guys. I still don't see why you couldn't have put us on our own loop, but that may be why you're closed now..

That meant the only thing I could take was cash. You read that right. Cash. Only thing. As Gravekeeper has stated, people simply do not hear the word "only." And the ones that did, got ticked because we couldn't process cc or check payments. Not my fault folks that one of your idiot brethren decided a telephone pole was a fine place to take a scenic route.. and took the power with him/her.

No, I will not release your tractor with your credit card info on file. You'll just have to wait until the electricity fairies get done transforming the pile of scrap back into a transformer and the other fairies get the breakers replaced. Or you could come back on Monday, because we're open 'til 5:30 then. Yes, I just helped the gent in front of you. He has a service contract, so he doesn't have to pay to pick it up. You do. No, I can't run a service contract right now, because.. and lets say it together now, I can ONLY TAKE CASH RIGHT NOW.

That day, I started drinking coffee. Booze was still out of the question due none being in the breakroom at the time.

Pixilated · #6 03-04-2013, 05:56 PM

The system at My Favourite Cafe decided to take a vacation last week.

There was a sign in the door saying debit and credit cards couldn't be taken, we're very sorry for the inconvenience. I started to walk to a nearby bank to get some cash when one of the servers came out and called me back, saying the system was back up and she'd just forgotten to take the sign down. Okay, cool.

Except it crashed again while I was eating.

Luckily the bank was still there ...

Amajean · #7 03-04-2013, 08:14 PM

I had a similar situation when I first was on register at my new job. The system crashed throughout all stores for about 1-2 hours. We lost two customers. We had a line going nearly to the door for both registers, so not much of a loss. Except for the two, everyone was pretty chill about the scenario after things were explained. Two ladies were very patient because they were ready right before we realized the system crashed.