Was in a coffee shop last week. Old boy in front of me had a wallet full of notes and tried paying for his coffee and cake but they didn’t have enough change in the till. Said he didn’t use plastic. The woman serving let him off paying. Thought about trying the same but I actually had a wallet with no notes in it. Havn’t had for months.
I went into a convenience store the other day to buy a bottle of water, and had to use cash as they had a minimum charge of £3 to use cards!
I had similar opposite the red barn, wanted me to spend three quid to use my card or charge me 99p to take my own money out of their cash machine.
In theory this should be no problem at all as long as there are no connectivity issues as others have already said.
Have been to the cricket at Canterbury several times this summer which is completely cashless and on each occasion they've had trouble with the connection to the reader at the bar behind the big screen and actually ended up having to close it at one of the games as they couldn't take any payments. Frustrating for the fans and can only guess how much money they missed out on, especially as it was a Friday night against Surrey.
As a Surrey supporter I am used to this, The Oval went cashless in 2019, too many complaints. For parents one issue is children could not go to the food and drinks kiosks on their own unless the parent trusted them to keep the debit /credit card safe and not over spend what ever limit they had been told, so parents have to go with them each time, which a bit much for an 7 hour day.
It’s a gamble for the food/drink franchise as I’d guess 80%+ of the business is done in the 15-20 minute half time interval. Only need a connection problem to occur then and (if they don’t offer to take cash) they are left out of pocket with a shed load of pies.
A village pub I go to occasionally started doing contactless during the period they were allowed to open for outdoor table service but not to serve people at the bar. It went great, until the rules changed and they were allowed to start serving at the bar again. At which point they found the card readers couldn't get a signal through the walls of the pub.
Do worry that the general move to cashless is potentially leaving a lot of particularly vulnerable people in society behind. For various reasons, some don’t even have bank accounts and there are many people, not just the elderly, who are simply not as tech savvy and understanding as the likes of @WSS and @Rothko for example in this thread. We have a high number of elderly Matchday attending supporters to consider though.
As for Charlton (or businesses like Charlton), I don’t really understand the strategy. I do get that the strategy is to make your process lines as lean as possible, but with so much reliance on turnaround in short period of times, any potential shocks to the system (like a wifi or network issue) will quickly not just see your profit margin fall but lead to a heavy match day loss.
That’s the big risk, the smaller risk of people doing PiNs wrong, staff entering your purchase wrong etc quickly way into time. I ate in a restaurant yesterday where the bill was wrong and it took over 5 mins of discussion and tapping into the computer to resolve.
If a venue doesn't stipulate that it's contactless until I go to pay, then I'm getting my wares for free. Will argue that I have no card(s) on me as wasn't informed when booking, or online, that cash wasn't accepted.
Has happened a few times and each time the venue has accepted responsibility. Next day they have signs up and have amended their website to let people know.
If a venue doesn't stipulate that it's contactless until I go to pay, then I'm getting my wares for free. Will argue that I have no card(s) on me as wasn't informed when booking, or online, that cash wasn't accepted.
Has happened a few times and each time the venue has accepted responsibility. Next day they have signs up and have amended their website to let people know.
That’s because you have Millwall tattoos on your knuckles
If a venue doesn't stipulate that it's contactless until I go to pay, then I'm getting my wares for free. Will argue that I have no card(s) on me as wasn't informed when booking, or online, that cash wasn't accepted.
Has happened a few times and each time the venue has accepted responsibility. Next day they have signs up and have amended their website to let people know.
That’s because you have Millwall tattoos on your knuckles
Do worry that the general move to cashless is potentially leaving a lot of particularly vulnerable people in society behind. For various reasons, some don’t even have bank accounts and there are many people, not just the elderly, who are simply not as tech savvy and understanding as the likes of @WSS and @Rothko for example in this thread. We have a high number of elderly Matchday attending supporters to consider though.
As for Charlton (or businesses like Charlton), I don’t really understand the strategy. I do get that the strategy is to make your process lines as lean as possible, but with so much reliance on turnaround in short period of times, any potential shocks to the system (like a wifi or network issue) will quickly not just see your profit margin fall but lead to a heavy match day loss.
That’s the big risk, the smaller risk of people doing PiNs wrong, staff entering your purchase wrong etc quickly way into time. I ate in a restaurant yesterday where the bill was wrong and it took over 5 mins of discussion and tapping into the computer to resolve.
Based on the number of times I'd got the wrong change there I can see the reasoning!
But have to agree, I think they may regret the decision, aside from those who don't do cards (my dad although long departed only used cards, and credit cards, for large purchases) and losing those sales, one day of the tills going down will badly effect takings and that's before the charges they will get from MasterCard/Visa etc.
The only saving I can see is not having to bank cash (assume they had some sort of security collection for that at cost).
It’s a gamble for the food/drink franchise as I’d guess 80%+ of the business is done in the 15-20 minute half time interval. Only need a connection problem to occur then and (if they don’t offer to take cash) they are left out of pocket with a shed load of pies.
Exactly. I dont see why you cant just have cash and card like some shops. 4 tills card only. 1 or 2 cash or card. Because when it does all go tits up it doesnt make life easier for anyone. You get people standing around with cash to spend but cant buy anything and you get the business standing around waiting for the connection to restart unable to sell anything. Just offer both forms of payment.
Financial inclusion is a thing that bothers me at work on a daily basis, and it's something we need to address a country as a whole, to use Sweden as an example, they have done a lot of work bring the part of society which are going to be harder to bring along, and force for example banks (and regulators) to be less extreme in account openings. It's a thing I think every day for example on a service we run to allow families to send money to prisoners, and how we ensure people aren't financially excluded, and the research we've and the Prison service have done is that digital payments make it far easier for that money to get to those, even from what would be vulnerable people. It's never been easier to open a bank account for example.
I don't think those of an older vintage is that digitally excluded in terms of payments except at the really older end of the demographic range.
I suspect the club has worked out 10 minutes down time is more profitable than handling cash.
The pandemic has seen a massive shift in the types of people using contactless and electronic payments, 7m people downloaded banking apps in the first 6 weeks after lockdown last year, and the fastest-growing banks in this country are both mobile-only.
It’s a gamble for the food/drink franchise as I’d guess 80%+ of the business is done in the 15-20 minute half time interval. Only need a connection problem to occur then and (if they don’t offer to take cash) they are left out of pocket with a shed load of pies.
Exactly. I dont see why you cant just have cash and card like some shops. 4 tills card only. 1 or 2 cash or card. Because when it does all go tits up it doesnt make life easier for anyone. You get people standing around with cash to spend but cant buy anything and you get the business standing around waiting for the connection to restart unable to sell anything. Just offer both forms of payment.
It's been like that for a while and a massive bollo k ache.
5 mins of no machines, would be a fraction of what they lose week in week out with messing about with change. Literally every week I saw someone walking away from the bar with a smile after buying 3 pints, handing over a score and getting £10 change.
People mentioning 5 minutes of down time not being an issue.
Have you not seen the outages that have happened many times over the last few years where people from certain banks haven't been able to use their cards for hours?
Who needs to declare a physical war on a country now when someone could hack into the country's banking system and put them on their knees?
It’s a gamble for the food/drink franchise as I’d guess 80%+ of the business is done in the 15-20 minute half time interval. Only need a connection problem to occur then and (if they don’t offer to take cash) they are left out of pocket with a shed load of pies.
Exactly. I dont see why you cant just have cash and card like some shops. 4 tills card only. 1 or 2 cash or card. Because when it does all go tits up it doesnt make life easier for anyone. You get people standing around with cash to spend but cant buy anything and you get the business standing around waiting for the connection to restart unable to sell anything. Just offer both forms of payment.
It's been like that for a while and a massive bollo k ache.
5 mins of no machines, would be a fraction of what they lose week in week out with messing about with change. Literally every week I saw someone walking away from the bar with a smile after buying 3 pints, handing over a score and getting £10 change.
Yea agree 5 mins wouldnt be a problem. I have been to restaurants where it's been down all day and we have had to go over to a cash machine.
I just cant understand why they cant have a backup when it does go tits up as it might not be just for 5 minutes.
Why people choose to, ever more than very occasionally, buy mediocre and overpriced fayre from the kiosks especially at half time has always been a mystery to me. Buy elsewhere / bring your own (non alcoholic).
If only there was a drinks token, that could potentially be used incase of a fuck up with the machines !
I know this was said with tongue in cheek but few years ago I was at a Feyenoord game, you have to buy literal drinks tokens from a tent then hand them over when you get to the bar. Whole system worked really well, short queue to exchange money for the tokens but once that's done very short time queuing for drinks.
Do worry that the general move to cashless is potentially leaving a lot of particularly vulnerable people in society behind. For various reasons, some don’t even have bank accounts and there are many people, not just the elderly, who are simply not as tech savvy and understanding as the likes of @WSS and @Rothko for example in this thread. We have a high number of elderly Matchday attending supporters to consider though.
As for Charlton (or businesses like Charlton), I don’t really understand the strategy. I do get that the strategy is to make your process lines as lean as possible, but with so much reliance on turnaround in short period of times, any potential shocks to the system (like a wifi or network issue) will quickly not just see your profit margin fall but lead to a heavy match day loss.
That’s the big risk, the smaller risk of people doing PiNs wrong, staff entering your purchase wrong etc quickly way into time. I ate in a restaurant yesterday where the bill was wrong and it took over 5 mins of discussion and tapping into the computer to resolve.
Based on the number of times I'd got the wrong change there I can see the reasoning!
But have to agree, I think they may regret the decision, aside from those who don't do cards (my dad although long departed only used cards, and credit cards, for large purchases) and losing those sales, one day of the tills going down will badly effect takings and that's before the charges they will get from MasterCard/Visa etc.
The only saving I can see is not having to bank cash (assume they had some sort of security collection for that at cost).
Surely the benefit for the club is that it should speed up transactions. Staff not having to spend 30-45 seconds faffing around trying to get change, especially when most aren't exactly Rachel Riley when it comes to maths, means more people can be served in the same time.
Can’t be far away from automated dispensers. They already have card payment vending machines at stations etc that dispense bottled water etc so no reason they can’t do bottled beers. Also don’t think it’ll take much to have something similar to card only petrol pumps to dispense draught beer.
In the pst few years i cant remember anywhere where it hasn’t worked or gone down.. only the chinese delivery on the apple contactless pad in an area with no signal.
Comments
Would be surprised if the program sellers don't have machines to tap your card by now, buskers and charity collectors have been using them for years.
I went to the pub and spent £4 on a pint instead.
Have been to the cricket at Canterbury several times this summer which is completely cashless and on each occasion they've had trouble with the connection to the reader at the bar behind the big screen and actually ended up having to close it at one of the games as they couldn't take any payments. Frustrating for the fans and can only guess how much money they missed out on, especially as it was a Friday night against Surrey.
Only need a connection problem to occur then and (if they don’t offer to take cash) they are left out of pocket with a shed load of pies.
Has happened a few times and each time the venue has accepted responsibility. Next day they have signs up and have amended their website to let people know.
But have to agree, I think they may regret the decision, aside from those who don't do cards (my dad although long departed only used cards, and credit cards, for large purchases) and losing those sales, one day of the tills going down will badly effect takings and that's before the charges they will get from MasterCard/Visa etc.
The only saving I can see is not having to bank cash (assume they had some sort of security collection for that at cost).
I don't think those of an older vintage is that digitally excluded in terms of payments except at the really older end of the demographic range.
I suspect the club has worked out 10 minutes down time is more profitable than handling cash.
The pandemic has seen a massive shift in the types of people using contactless and electronic payments, 7m people downloaded banking apps in the first 6 weeks after lockdown last year, and the fastest-growing banks in this country are both mobile-only.
5 mins of no machines, would be a fraction of what they lose week in week out with messing about with change. Literally every week I saw someone walking away from the bar with a smile after buying 3 pints, handing over a score and getting £10 change.
Have you not seen the outages that have happened many times over the last few years where people from certain banks haven't been able to use their cards for hours?
Who needs to declare a physical war on a country now when someone could hack into the country's banking system and put them on their knees?
I just cant understand why they cant have a backup when it does go tits up as it might not be just for 5 minutes.
Hardly going to give them
my card.
Ok for teenagers with card perhaps.
you get to control the spending and can get notifications every time it’s used and for how much
contactless pad in an area with no signal.