Hey guys,

We currently use printed gift certificates and now that we are finally thru the holiday season I am going to make a push for switching over to mag gift cards. So, what I need to know is:

1)where do I get the cards
2)will any mag reader work

We recommend getting your cards made by Luke Lingle at Plastic Printer he can be reached at (800)808-7472. You will need a card reader that reads both track 1 and 2 data; your best bet would of course be to by one from us

Kbird-
From your post & reply regarding successful credit card acceptance, you should be set with the readers unless you're talking about different locations.

On one of the computers with a mag stripe reader, simply open up notepad or word pad and swipe an atm or credit/debit card through and see what comes up on the screen. Amongst the other sentinels and characters and gibberish, if you see your account number and name repeated (two appearances) then you have a reader that can read both tracks 1 and 2.

Of course in compliance with Visa and MasterCard security guidlines for merchant acceptance, as well as your own protection, do not SAVE this information that you just displayed on your screen. Remember, recording and storing mag stripe data from bank cards is forbidden by regulation and is subject to penalties and fines.

Unfortunately, we only use RTS for ticketing so we don't use the integrated credit card with RTS but stand alone Verifone machines. (Hope to convince the owners at some time in the future to go full blown RTS). Anyway, thanks for the help. I'll start doing some searching for mag card makers and readers and hopefully I can convince the owners to at least make the switch as far as the GC's go. I also see that RTS has an awards program built in as well so that will be on my list as well. Wish me luck!!!

Here's to great 2006,
Ryan

Is there any documentation on how these programs work? I know gift cards can go across theaters etc, but can one theaters CC server process the other theaters CCs as well?

This is the only way I can convince home office to do CC, as they dont want to purchase tripple the equipmen/software to start with?

Also, besides listed above for gift card vender etc - what are the requirements for gift cards if we choose a different vender. I have no clue how the numbering and prefix is supposed to be setup - and there is no information on the website of in the help file to "guide" us to these decisions.....

Tony

I'll let RTS or someone better versed on gift cards reply on those parts of your questions.

Credit cards require a merchant account for each "store" location. This isn't a limitation of RTS, Mercury Pay Systems or any particular bank. It is to correctly identify for a whole host of legal, financial, and other industry reasons that the Visa and MasterCard associations require this.

Take for example you have theatres scattered across several locations in the state. In the event of a chargeback, fraud, federal investigation (Amber alert/child recovery) it is necessary for the specific location to be identified.

You still need swipes and communications at each location, the only perceived savings would be the extra gateway fees.

I'll be more than happy to provide support to your home office on the pro's of accepting cards. Card acceptance done correctly is a profit center, not an expense. (See other post in this forum). This is the biggest hurdle I see many many theatres facing.

Consider this: Millions of dollars of MasterCard, Visa, Discover and Amex gift cards were issued by banks and opened this christmas. Without card acceptance, this money is spent everywhere but your business. They don't come with PINS and can not be used for cash at ATM's! If you think not many were sold in your town, I encourage you to inquire at some of your banks. I think your home office will be surprised at what they hear!

Where i'm at up here on the plains, checks and paper gift certificates have only recently given way to plastic as loss/fraud isn't as severe and yet the card sales this year were phenominal. I had several bankers reply on the fly doing no research "yeah, XYZ company came in and bought 400 $50 cards" and the like.

B&B Cinemas in their post in these forums said it best, if you're not accepting plastic, you are losing money.

I recommend that you stick with Luke Lingle @ Plastic Printers. One location I help setup with GC's had a problem with the cards when they arrived, after much back and forth with Plastic Printers, it turned out it was NOT Plastic Printers fault at all, but they were great in trying to help resolved the issue, even by sending us cards again.
They know the setup required for RTS.

Your home office is being too overly cautious and in the mean time, they are missing out on the extra profits.

We switched from Gift Certificates to Gift Cards middle of last year and our holiday Gift Card sales soared this past Christmas! People have been trained to the Gift Cards by Wal-Mart and the like. Why do you think Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot have them hanging at every turn in their stores. The other little secret about GC's is that just like rebates, some NEVER get used.

Our credit card portion of sales have now reached 10-12% of our daily gross. I consider that to be for the most part, 10-12% of sales we would not have had if we still didn't take CC's. A lot of Gift Card sales was paid for with CC's.

I would wager that if your company changed to RTS for gift cards and CC's it would pay for itself by this time next year. It did for me.

By the way, as a side benefit, switching to RTS for CC's will dramatically speed up your service time to customers over the use of the standalone terminals. It's as fast or faster than cash with RTS.

Another point of view is that gift certificates are more appropriate for younger kids than cards. My kids were more excited to get a booklet of coupons from McD's than they would have been over the cards they sell. The same is not necessarily true for adults though. That's why McD's offers both and so do I.

Another point: How can someone determine how much is remaining on the card without having the theatre swipe, search, etc.? If it takes too long to look up a members card, certainly this is a burden also.

Just my perspective.

Excellent points Jason...

Checking balance on a plastic card does seem to be a drawback. RTS has done things to pro-actively combat this including the ability to force a receipt with redemption which shows the remaining balance as well as it displaying in the transaction window.

A few recommendations I would suggest for RTS to consider regarding balance checking would be:
1. Make a check balance screen available on the Kiosks (Maybe this is already done and i'm unware)
2. Since all of us have older computers that still have life, but aren't necessarily fast enough for ever more-hungry applications, now that RTS uses it's own file server a simple stand alone application could be designed to make use of one of these machines as a balance checking terminal? (just a thought)
3. RTN (Ready Ticket Network) making it possible to check the info through the same system that links to purchase tickets online.

quote:

Originally posted by Jason:
Another point of view is that gift certificates are more appropriate for younger kids than cards. My kids were more excited to get a booklet of coupons from McD's than they would have been over the cards they sell. The same is not necessarily true for adults though. That's why McD's offers both and so do I.

Another point: How can someone determine how much is remaining on the card without having the theatre swipe, search, etc.? If it takes too long to look up a members card, certainly this is a burden also.

Just my perspective.

Good ideas, RHEUS. I know several places that offer gift cards have the ability to check the card info via their websites. I wonder if that could be implemented into our personal websites outside of RTN. And can it be done securily?

So far, we have not had a single request for someone wanting to know much is left on a GC.

I do have many people that come in and have the receipt we gave them prior taped to their card.

As far as kids and Certificates vs GC's. I would say that in our case 60% of GC cards are being redeemed by kids. And we sold a ton more GC's than we ever did with Certificates. And had MANY positive comments about our change to GC's. Easy to carry, less likely to be damaged, if it goes thru the washer it survives, etc.

We use to sell the Gift books, or at least we tried, no one was interested. I know of a couple of theatre owners that stopped the Gift Books as well because of lack of interest.

If you decide to not get your mag cards made from Plastic Printers, please email me jnbischoff@rts-solutions.com I will need how many mag cards you will need the numbers for, if they will be shared (remote mag cards) with other theatres. If they are going to multiple theatres but NOT shared (i.e. NOT set up for remote mag cards) then I will need how many are going to each theatre.

RHEUS is correct there is no way multiple locations can use the same Credit Card server.

This is what I dont understand and can not find any information about - do they cards have to coexist with RTS and other theater chains to not cross numbers etc.

If they are just a XX number of digits why does it make a difference where and how they are purchased.

I am getting the impression that there is some special hidden formula or something.

We have a local company that does this type of product but needs specs on the cards to see if they can do the format required.

Tony

quote:

Originally posted by Nicole Bischoff:
If you decide to not get your mag cards made from Plastic Printers, please email me jnbischoff@rts-solutions.com I will need how many mag cards you will need the numbers for, if they will be shared (remote mag cards) with other theatres. If they are going to multiple theatres but NOT shared (i.e. NOT set up for remote mag cards) then I will need how many are going to each theatre.

RHEUS is correct there is no way multiple locations can use the same Credit Card server.

The data encoded is simple and direct. RTS can give the specs for anyone to produce them. There is "a formula" to the numbers. They aren't sequential or random. Just like credit cards, there seems to be a method of check digits to make valid numbers.

It is smart that these codes are not published broadly. Consider for a moment, if this information was published, or they just used sequential numbers, a person would be able to get one gift card, use it up, then re-encode the stripe with the next # down the line and so forth using up another customers money. (Encoders aren't that expensive anymore)

I'm sure this is a fraud control/security.

That said, I also have a local source for cards with a bank that produces private label gas station / commercial fleet cards, etc / in addition to atm / debit and credit cards. If you have the expertise, you can have anyone produce them.

Luke with plastic printers is prompt, already knows how they need to be encoded and is in line with others pricing. I'm sure RTS is trying to prevent jamming their tech support with a variety of card printers needing some specific encoding details in addition to the serial numbers for shorter one-time jobs.

Thank you RHEUS, you are 100% correct. There is no way I can post mag card encoding information to a public forum. Please email me and I will be more than happy to get the information to you.

Here are the specs.

Track 1 ABA.
Track 2 un-encoded.
I strongly suggest that the 16 digit card number be printed on the card.
Card numbers are generated by us and are not sequential.

Having the card number printed on the back of the card like Plastic Printers does has really helped me. Cards go bad and if they have not been registared it will be impossible to look up the balance if it was a gift card.

I agree, Dave. Also, PP used to put the number on the front but then switched it to the back. This is good because, for whatever reason, the front tends to wear more. It must be how the customer stores the card in their wallet, etc.

I had one 'genius' punch a hole in the card to attach to a key ring. Not only would it be cumbersome to deal with the keys but she punched the hole through the mag strip.

Will this mag reader work?

http://www.waspbarcode.com/point_of_sale/magnetic_stripe_reader.asp

Personally, I would use a USB reader if possible. Pulling power off a keyboard port is sometime unreliable.