Micros accepting giftcard problem

[posuser123]

Hi all, I am part owner of a reasturant and have found a fault in our POS system. We have Micros 3700. I have found out today as an experiment that our machines can overcharge the balance of a prepaid visa giftcard. Heres what i did, i opened a check for 5 dollars. Credit authorized it and the giftcard had 9.26 on it, so you would think there would only be 4.26 left to tip. Well i charged 30 dollars, way over the balance and post tip which was 25 dollars. It went through. Now i am worried that if word gets out and servers start doing this, the restaurant would have to pay for these false tips. How do i fix this and how can i tell if people have been doing this. Will i get notified that the amount has been reject somewhere down the road. Sorry for how long this post is just kind of worried about this. Thanks for any input.

 

[MZ117]

posuser123,

Under Configurator, there is an option under Pay Types Gift Card (where you set the servers for VISA/MC/AMEX/DISC/CASH/etc) and there's an option that says something to the effect of "enter amount." If you uncheck that feature, it will only auth the gift card for the correct amount. (Sorry don't have the Configurator in front of me to give you the exact option.)

One catch with this work around: Gift Cards won't be able to leave tips. We were hesitant at first (year or so ago) but as I started paying attention (and using various gift cards at local and corporate places) many of them don't let you enter tips, either so (apparently) its not that uncommon.

Hope this helps!

 

[Moregelen]

If you disable that, they can still enter an amount I think. As long as they enter the amount before pressing the key. Does this apply to when you do an authorization, take the check to them, and then close the credit card later? I don't think removing the 'require amount entry' will affecting anything really, give that I uncheck that at all of the sites I've installed MICROS on.

I hadn't actually realized that you could do that with those gift-card credit cards... I'll have to try that out and see how it works.

 

[Moregelen]

From what I'm reading, this shouldn't actually be happening, because the Credit Finalize function does a secondary authorization before closing the card for the final amount. Which functions are you using for credit cards?

 

[MZ117]

I guess I should stress too that we use Gift Cards through FirstData and use a SIM to process (not through GSS)... That SIM in the config (INI File in the folder) has an option that will disable tips (which also the FirstData rep told us was how their old fashioned manual CC readers work as well).

That said... Moregelen --- On our Aloha sites, (about 2-3 years ago) we had the exact problem and got a call from FirstData asking why we were over-authing gift cards. When we first put the 3700 system, the exact same problem occurred again. I don't know why/how, but I do know that I've seen an "over auth" on both Aloha and Micros (again both using external gift processing, so not sure if that is a factor or not)?

Should have clarified!

 

[Moregelen]

He isn't talking about normal gift cards. He is talking about credit card gifts cards, which you just process like a normal credit card. You don't process it through your gift card provider. You know, like a visa gift card?

So are you talking about credit cards or gift cards?

I've never seen any additional settings for the credit card driver that allow that (you can disable tips, but NOT for only the gift cards). The credit card gift cards are indistinguishable from normal credit cards from what I've seen so far.

 

[MZ117]

Yes, I was referring to NON-CC Gift Cards. Which, I have (and I know at least 3 other restaurants) which have had problems of over-authing Gift CC....

With a VISA Gift, I don't know how it could either... unless VISA or MC or whoever allowed the system to do a higher pre-auth (like gas stations) than the credit line BUT--- that would be VISA's problem [or the merchant] at that point (if they were allowing a higher pre-auth)

----

Our Aloha receipts (not sure if there's a way to do this on Micros 3700 or not, bc the 3700 does NOT do this) always print the "Remaining Gift CC Balance" on VISA/MC Gift Cards; that's the only way we've ever known it was or not (unless it had a holiday logo or something on it).

Of course... (off topic), now with AmEx BlueBird and stuff like that, I would assume those work similar to gift cards, as well, even though they're (kind of?) not? Oh well!

 

[Moregelen]

The crazy thing about the visa gift cards is that I've never seen a way for the credit card drivers to return the remaining balance. Which is really annoying because, from experience, I know it won't let you over-auth, and will return declined... Without telling you how much is on the card. Those damn things are a pain in the ass; it is what the airport has started issuing as rewards/refunds, so a lot of my sites have been seeing an increase in them. I don't know if you can close them out over-authed though; the credit finalize button is supposed to do secondary auth for the final (+tip) amount, which would then return a decline message (though I've never tested this).

 

[MZ117]

Well, in regards to the CC Final doing a second auth... I have heard (rarely, but have had disputes [we won all of them because it was the customer's fault]) of customers getting upset because they had "x" amount (say "$ 75" credit available) ... they go and charge $ 74 (CC Auth) ... Signs receipt and calls it a day. Server goes to CC Final for say $ 90.00. Our machine will auth it and the customer will go over their credit line.

Now... I've always talked through FirstData when this happens and they (FirstData) said its their policy that a customer is responsible for a tip (and restaurants will pre-auth for an additional 15% hold and gas stations will pre-auth for a 25% hold). They said the card will go through, but can still be finalized as not to penalize the (in this case) server for the customer being irresponsible.

Again, that's what FirstData told me last time we had this discussion (maybe 6-8 months ago) and it seems to make sense on what I've seen in the past. SOOO... I wonder if the CC Final truly does do a secondary auth? Because, if it does, what happens when the customer leaves and we have a "legal contract (receipt)" that the customer agrees to pay the merchant?

To your point about Gift CC's... I agree, and I've seen a large number (our sites are close to major business areas and one airport) more recently and get e-mails often of customer's gift cards being declined (funny --- most of them when I research with the CC companies have expired because they all charge like 4.95 a month or something and customers keep them in their wallets for like 12 months and all the money is gone)

 

[posuser123]

Hi thanks for all of the replies guys, i sort of have a clearer idea. I was refering to the cc gift cards (prepaid visa, prepaid american express...). If the bill is $25 and the card has a balance of $30 dollars the auth will go through, get back to the customer and if the customer put a tip of $25 or an employee(fraud), letting the total be $50, which is $20 over the Prepiad visa balance, it will go through and the server will get the $25 tip. Does this come out of the company pocket or visa's. And is there any way to track it?

 

[Moregelen]

It might be possible to change the Close Credit Card button to a macro to force a re-authorization for the higher amount; I know for a fact that if you try to authorize a visa gift card with $10 on it for $20, you get a declined message. It sounds like the credit finalize isn't actually re-authorizing. Part of the problem of course is that if they write out a tip for more than they have, if the card is declined for the additional tip, the server is shit out of luck. You can't hold the customer to pay money that simply isn't there, especially considering a tip is 'optional'; this isn't like a normal credit card in that there is no one held responsible for it. The credit card company usually doesn't even know who is using it. I'll see about picking one of the cards up from the grocery store and playing with it.

I'm sure there is a way to at least prevent it from being logged into the system if it isn't there. Sucks for your servers if that happens to them, but that is just how it is. Can't be held responsible for a customer who likely just didn't know how much was left on the card.

 

[TobeThor]

If you're set up for server banking then I would assume that tips (whether CC or GC) come out of the cash owed at the end of the servers shift which would mean the house is paying the tip; not Visa. I would also assume that Visa would only forward you the amount that was on the card ($30) despite your ability to put in a tip that exceeds the GC value. Scary if thats how its working because the house gives the server $25, gets $30 from Visa, so house gets $5 for a $25 meal.

 

[posuser123]

Correct we are set up for server banking. If a server were to exploit this is there a way i could find out about it. The excess amount that went uncollected because the prepaid cc balance wasnt enough, is there a way i would get notified about that or is there a way i could look for it and therefore link the check went with that exact transaction and find the server name from the check itself? Would it show up as uncollected on our accounts recieveable since the company ended up paying it?

 

[Moregelen]

I went and asked someone who has been around longer than I have, and he said the reason we aren't seeing this problem is that we keep the credit card drivers up to date on our systems.

Looking through the documentation, I can see that with RES 4.3 HF 2, the pre-paid credit cards were introduced to the driver. This was added to the TVC driver in v 4.7.20.2065. If you aren't using the transaction vault driver, you'll need to check to see if there is a new driver out that fixes the problem.

If you are using RES 4 lower than 4.3, the updates are free so long as you can get to them. Though having a dealer install them isn't free. The credit card updates are free as well.
For the most part, these updates are reliable so you probably don't need your dealer for them anyway.

 

[TobeThor]

If a server were to exploit this issue... the server shift end financial report shows a "Tips Paid" amount...Yes. You should also have a charge tips total; do you know if the pre-paid Visa Gift Card tip amount is going into the charge tips total? If it is not, you have the ability to compare the charge tips amount vs. paid tips, the variance is the exploitation.

 

[TobeThor]

I have to admit; this issue really has me scratching my head. How does a gift card (albeit pre-paid) actually authorize for more than what is has in value? I understand that CC's and pre-paid GC's will automatically add a % to the total being authorized because a tip is expected. But it doesn't appear that's what is happening here based upon the #'s you presented. Is there any chance the GC's are not actually contacting a 3rd party (via dial or internet) and verifying there is a balance available on the gift card? Is it possible the GC Redeem button is set up like a CC button BUT it doesn't contact the bank; IOW it just takes the amounts the server inputs as valid. That's how CC buttons are typically set up when you have a stand-alone CC terminal vs. verifying the CC thru the POS. Just reaching for straws at this point. Is it possibly just a programming error the way the GC redeem button has been set up?

 

[Moregelen]

Actually, most cards DON'T pre-auth for tips (Visa doesn't like that if I remember correctly).

And they aren't talking about it AUTHING for more than they have, but CLOSING for more than they have.

And no, when you run these credit card gift cards, you press the Credit Card button, and it goes through your TransactionVault (or whatever you are using) driver out to your credit processor.

The issues seems to be that the Close Credit Card isn't doing an auth to make sure that the final amount is actually available, not that the Authorize Credit Card is getting it wrong.

 

[TobeThor]

Thanks Moregelen, re-read previous post and stand corrected. As explained then, the GC processor would forward the business the $30 GC available balance and the house (server banking) gets stuck subsidizing the $20 tip (if they don't catch it). Curious thou when the business performs their CC batch... is the GC in ? rejected? Is there a charge back? Does the GC/CC processor simply ignore the $20 overage? Where does the record of the $20 "decline" show up if anywhere?

 

[Moregelen]

If you have the updated Res and TransactionVault driver, it should show up when you close the card. However, it will decline the entire thing, without telling you how much is on the card. The only option then is to close the card at $0 tip.