Credit Card Terminal Troubleshooting

Many of our Members own companies and use Credit Card Processing services and have terminals for swiping or reading cards. When these stop working, it causes a great deal of stress and potentially cause a loss of Time, Money, and Peace of Mind.

Prerequisites: Experience with troubleshooting CC terminals. Assisted lead 3 times.

Difficulty Level: Member • Nerd • Platypus

Estimated Time: 15 min

Expected Outcome: CC machine connects to servers. All lights indicate good. Cards can be processed.

Tools Required: Phone with camera and access to HubSpot.

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Steps to Perform

  1. Collect all tools needed for Visit - Badge and Phone
  2. Call Member before driving to their facility to confirm appointment day and time
  3. Arrive on-time and in a Gizmo state-of-mind
  4. Ask Member your vehicle is good where you parked or if you should move it
  5. Ask Member if you should remove your shoes
  6. Compliment Member on their location and facility
  7. Ask Member how they’re doing...other than the problem at hand
  8. Perform your tasks quickly
    1. Verify that the cables are securely connected to the correct port on the terminal and the router.
    2. Confirm that the credit card terminal’s amber and green lights are active (illuminated). These lights may be located where your Category 5 (Cat 5) Ethernet cable is connected to your terminal, or on the terminal’s display screen.
    3. Try rebooting your router and/or terminal.
      1. Disconnect the power cable to the terminal and router.
      2. Unplug the CAT 5 cables connecting the equipment.
      3. Wait approximately 30 seconds. Reconnect the cables and the power on the devices from the wall to the terminal.
      4. Allow 60 seconds for the terminal application to reboot and establish a connection with the router.
    4. If your establishment uses the same router to connect to a PC, you should attempt to visit a website to verify that the router is working properly.
    5. Lastly, to verify whether the port is working properly, connect the terminal’s Cat 5 cable to the port on your router.
    6. Connecting Your Dial Terminal
      1. Confirm that the phone cord is plugged into the correct port of the credit card terminal and in the wall jack or splitter. Plug a regular phone into the wall jack or splitter to ensure there is a dial tone.
      2. Move the terminal to another wall jack or phone line and reattempt the communication.
      3. Confirm that you are using the correct PBX Access Code (for example, dialing “9" first to reach an outside line) in the terminal. Sometimes adding pauses prior to the phone number can correct communication issues.
      4. Make sure the call waiting feature is disabled, as that can interrupt the communication.
      5. Digital Services Troubleshooting
      6. Telecommunications companies are increasingly offering only Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone service, which converts traditional analog audio signals into digital data for transmission over the Internet. In place of a standard dial analog phone line, you might opt to use VoIP communication for processing transactions. But, you should be aware of these limitations beforehand:
      7. VoIP services could experience issues performing downloads. We have seen downloads incur some difficulty completing successfully, based on the amount of information being transmitted to the payment device.
      8. If you are using a dial-only payment device with VoIP communication, you may need to locate an analog phone line in order to perform downloads.
      9. If you are using a dual-communication device that is currently set for dial with VoIP communication, it is recommended that:
      10. You either perform a download using IP-based (high-speed) communication, orYou perform a download using an analog phone line.
      11. VoIP services could experience issues performing transactions. Not all VoIP services are compatible with stand-alone POS devices. Manufacturer recommendations call for use of an analog phone line.
      12. If you are experiencing failures with VoIP communication, it is recommended that:

The business must perform transactions using a IP-based (high speed) communication, or perform transactions using an analog phone line.