Progress Marches On - Despite the Faint Trumpets

One of the annoying things about operating a business is that progress continues on, despite desires and bank accounts. Last week's sale was successful - at least I think so. I never did get final numbers from DH, and may have to look into the books to see the totals. But I think it was a good week. Which is lucky, because mid-week I had received notice from our credit card processing company that our terminal had to be updated within two weeks or we would no longer be able to process credit card transactions. 

I guess this is what our new terminal will 
look like - quite different than what we've been 
using for the past 10+ years. I'm crossing my 
fingers that it will work with our set-up. 

No credit cards? That's the "Gong of Doom" to any business these days. With all of the customers paying via actual card or telephone payment systems such as "Apple Pay", electronic transactions are an operational necessity. And yes, our terminal was old - but it was reliable and we owned it, so it was doing just fine. *sigh* I phoned our credit card processors on Tuesday to arrange for a new terminal. 

We accept Visa, MasterCard and Discover cards, 
but not American Express. Although AMEX may 
have changed their policies over the past ten+ years, 
they used to be too expensive for a small store like 
ours to accept because they held onto your funds for 
up to 30 days before releasing them into your bank 
account. As a small business, that wasn't feasible. 

One of the major difficulties for us is that we don't offer Wi-Fi at all. We don't have Wi-Fi available at the shop. We were hard-wired for our transactions, and they transmitted through a telephone line that was/is shared with our Fax machine (operational, but hardly ever used any more). We needed a terminal that would work with our type of system. 

There are a lot of credit card machines out there, but 
most of them rely on wireless to do their transactions. 
We run a wired system - it's old fashioned, but it's 
actually more secure in many aspects. I'll have to 
have our new machine hooked up and operational 
within two weeks. Just one more thing, right? *sigh*

After a long conversation with a very nice young woman, she came up with a terminal that will work for us, so I ordered it and it should arrive today. It's setting us back almost $450 dollars, and there will be a monthly "Network Access" fee of $25 that we'll be paying the processing company for the types of transactions we'll be doing. *sigh*. That's business - we bring in extra funds through a sale, and those funds immediately pull right back out because of operational expenses. 

Remember the old "knuckle buster" machines for credit 
cards? I'm sure I still have one of these in my storage 
cabinet for emergencies. When I first opened the business, this 
was how we did credit card transactions. The credit card 
processor sent a booklet every week of CC numbers that 
weren't valid, and you had to look up each credit card in 
that booklet before imprinting the charge slip and 
getting the card holder's signature. Slow, clunky, and 
not always accurate. Lots of problems with this type of 
system. Electronic was a BIG step forward, and we moved 
into that with the Mall of America store. 

At least yesterday's errands and cooks were successful. I now have eight individual stuffed peppers packed and ready for my dinners, and nine containers of baked pears ready for my breakfasts. I'm set for more than a week. I'm not remembering exactly what DH has me making for Super Bowl Sunday's meal, but it's easy, so no concerns there. I still have Friday to catch up in the kitchen, and I desperately want to wash the floor in the kitchen and do some dusting in the living room. The house just isn't super clean right now and it's driving me a bit crazy. LOL 

Our current credit card terminal has lasted 
for almost 20 years. It's been very flexible, 
even accepting contactless and "Apple Pay" 
style payments without a problem. Getting 
the software updated from the processor was 
always a challenge, however. That was never 
a smooth transaction. I hope the new machine 
will be better for that. 

So, off to the pool to work off a bit of this frustration. I'll see about getting that credit card terminal installed within the next week, and we'll be "cooking with gas" once again. But it may be a slightly bumpy road for a few days while we get used to the new system. I hope you have a lovely Thursday, I'll be back tomorrow - Slava Ukraini and חיים למען ישראל.