So you have never programmed a credit card terminal before, and you really have no idea how they work. Well, you’ve come to the right place! One of the best things about this business is that all you really have to do is sell. All of my partners provide customer service to my clients, and, when needed, technical support. When I sell an account with a credit card terminal, it comes with a sticker on the side with their merchant number, a
customer service number, and a technical support number. Any time they have a question or an issue, they have a number to call for help twenty-four hours a day. After the account has been approved, a terminal is programmed and shipped to the merchant, and if it’s within driving distance, I will go out to the merchant’s location, help them hook it up, and train them how to use it. Our partners will do this for us, but whenever possible I try to do it myself just to add that little touch to let them know I care and am very thankful
for their business—and of course for any future business they might refer to me!
After an account has been set up, my partners will program the credit card terminal, ship it to the merchant, explain to the merchant by phone how to hook it up, and then train them how to use it. They will also explain some of the rules associated with card acceptance. If all you want to do is sell, then this will work for you.
Now, if you were smart, after completing the paperwork you would ask about their phone line setup. If they have multiple phones lines coming in but only one jack, then they will need the phone company to come out and split one of them or add an additional line. If they have two or more lines coming in from separate jacks, then you can split one of them to enable the phone and the credit card terminal to work, just not at the same
time. If they have high-speed Internet, you ordered a dual-com terminal, and the merchant can feed a CAT 5 cable to the desired location of the terminal, then you are on Easy Street: All you have to do is plug it in and you’re set. You do have to mark on your application whether or not they will be using a phone line or the Internet, as it is a
different program for each.
So I show up early for my appointment, and since I asked I know that they have two lines coming in from separate jacks. I brought a two-way splitter, and since the terminal comes with an additional cord, I’m set. I unplug one of their phones, plug in the splitter, plug both the phone and the terminal into the splitter, and we are set for a test transaction.
For this example, we will use the VeriFone VX 510. The VX 510 has a built-in
printer, dual-com capabilities, is PCI-compliant, and can handle credit, debit, and loyalty cards. We power it up and swipe the card; it reads the card and asks for an amount. We enter an amount of $0.01 and hit Enter. In a matter of seconds it will come back and tell you whether the card is good or not, and print out a receipt. Based on the merchant preference, it can immediately print out a second receipt, or it can prompt you for a
second receipt.
For same-day transactions or for transactions that have not been batched out (money sent to the bank), you can do a void if needed. While the merchant will be charged a transaction fee if they void the transaction, it will be like it never happened. When you hit the Void button, it will ask for a receipt number, the transaction will appear, and all you do is hit Enter and it will print another receipt for you and your client.
Sooner or later the merchant will need to do a refund. A refund is for a charge that has been cleared to your bank. Hit the Refund button, enter the password, swipe the card, and enter the amount of the entire transaction or of a portion of it. Then hit Enter and the amount will be debited from the merchant’s bank account, or, depending on your processor it will be deducted from the day’s totals. Then it will print out a receipt or two,
and you’re done. The only thing left is to tell the client whether or not it will be auto batched or if the merchant will have to do a manual close. Some people prefer to batch it themselves, and some people like it set on auto. The choice is up to your client, but if it is on manual and they forget to batch out, it could cost them some money in additional fees. Any business that gets tips, such as a restaurant, must do a manual batch or it risks losing all of the day’s tips if it is auto-closed before the tips have been entered.
To learn how to do all of this, you can have the terminal shipped to you directly (pre-programmed, of course) and our installation team will go through it with you if you would like to do the installs yourself. You can also go to the merchant’s location and stand by while the installation team does it all by phone, or you can simply leave it all up to them. The choice is yours.
The last thing I always tell the client is that if they have any questions they should call the phone number for customer service or technical support, found on the sticker on the side of the terminal, but if that does not meet their needs then to call me. Occasionally they ask why they can’t just call me, and I say, “Well, you can, but I’m out on the road half the time, and the people at our technical support and customer service center can see
your account, and that’s all they do all day. Plain and simple, they’re just better at it than I am.” This way the client knows how to get help in the quickest and most efficient fashion while still feeling like I can and will help them if needed.
I will give the owner a call in a couple of weeks to see how things are going, but after that I rarely hear from them. If I do, I jump on it and get it done. Remember, once you make the sale, sometimes it’s the little things that will keep them happy.
Lets get started!
Call James Darle Jones with your questions @ 301 829 3331