3rd Party Gift Cards

[Antithesys]

The talk in the other thread about the lousy POS system reminded me of a trick I thought about trying during the last days of our store.

The 3rd-party gift cards are useless until we scan them. Upon doing so, a "retrieving data" window pops up as the system calls the gift card manufacturer saying "hey, activate this card." When it's finished, it activates and charges the amount.

If the customer then changes his mind, you have to do a void. When you scan the card to void it out, it sends another data request to the manufacturer saying "so now the dope doesn't want it," and the card is deactivated.

But suppose you scanned a card and let it activate.

Then you restarted the station.

a) would the charge for the card disappear? Presumably, yes...everything else does when you restart, as long as you don't hit TOTAL first.
b) would the card's activation be canceled? That's the big mystery. Frankly, I don't think the computers are smart enough to do that.
c) would there be any record of the sale? Is there a report somewhere that says "3rd party gift card sold", regardless of whether the transaction was completed? Does the manufacturer get a message saying "card sold at store BBVXXXXX but not paid for?"

If the answer to those questions are, in order, yes / no / no, then...I don't think any further explanation is necessary.

Obviously the cards would be missing at inventory (unless you made the bold move of writing the numbers down and leaving the cards, which would mean scratching off the security seal), but lots of random things are missing at inventory.

I'm asking for a friend.

[underemployed]

tell your friend not to steal stuff that isn't his. But if I had to put money on it I'd bet the activation would still be valid.

[zooworker]

Originally Posted by Antithesys

I'm asking for a friend.

Sure you are

Just try it and destoy the card.

[SuspectRoll]

Originally Posted by Antithesys

The talk in the other thread about the lousy POS system reminded me of a trick I thought about trying during the last days of our store.

The 3rd-party gift cards are useless until we scan them. Upon doing so, a "retrieving data" window pops up as the system calls the gift card manufacturer saying "hey, activate this card." When it's finished, it activates and charges the amount.

If the customer then changes his mind, you have to do a void. When you scan the card to void it out, it sends another data request to the manufacturer saying "so now the dope doesn't want it," and the card is deactivated.

But suppose you scanned a card and let it activate.

Then you restarted the station.

a) would the charge for the card disappear? Presumably, yes...everything else does when you restart, as long as you don't hit TOTAL first.
b) would the card's activation be canceled? That's the big mystery. Frankly, I don't think the computers are smart enough to do that.
c) would there be any record of the sale? Is there a report somewhere that says "3rd party gift card sold", regardless of whether the transaction was completed? Does the manufacturer get a message saying "card sold at store BBVXXXXX but not paid for?"

If the answer to those questions are, in order, yes / no / no, then...I don't think any further explanation is necessary.

Obviously the cards would be missing at inventory (unless you made the bold move of writing the numbers down and leaving the cards, which would mean scratching off the security seal), but lots of random things are missing at inventory.

I'm asking for a friend.

Congratulations. You've just figured out the reason why LP officially does not allow the use of the restart locked station to clear transactions.

The card would be activated. Blockbuster would pay for the card during our normal payment cycle to the third party. It would be a loss as Blockbuster never got the money back for it as no one paid for it in the store.

[HelloItsMeMOM]

The same for the Trans World computer system. It happened to me, I just destroyed the card on direction from the DM. The card was validating when the system crashed.

[MrJ2006]

Wouldn't the amount stay on the account, even if the account is NM? I remember restarting a workstation and having to restart due to it freezing and the total still showed up after I pulled it up on another workstation to finish the transaction for the customer. Granted it's been a couple years since I worked with the company and I may be wrong.

Anyways, tell your "friend" to not bother. Granted Blockbusters LP is not that great, there will be a paper trail and it's not worth getting caught and having that on your record.

[BUYMECAR]

didn't Antithesys' store close already? i highly doubt he has a time machine to go about stealing tons of gift cards.

[Antithesys]

Wouldn't the amount stay on the account, even if the account is NM? I remember restarting a workstation and having to restart due to it freezing and the total still showed up after I pulled it up on another workstation to finish the transaction for the customer.

You probably hit TOTAL. That "auto-saves" the transaction or whatever, making it impossible to clear without credits.

BTW, I never took a dime from the company. But my creative side spent long shifts thinking of ways to get away with things. Working from that angle, I caught three coworkers stealing things.

[Veruka_Salt]

Originally Posted by Antithesys

I caught three coworkers stealing things.

Did you shake them down?

[munnman84]

no he listened to his sexual harassment module and exchanged them getting fired, and/or arrested for sex.