Store and Forward

Modified on Fri, 20 Sep at 1:24 PM

Overview

WARNING: This functionality has been deprecated and this documenation has been provided for reference purposes only.  Store and Forward has many inherint risks that end out outweighing any benefits provided by this "offline" functionality.  If you have concerns of credit card reliablity because of unique scenerios of your buisiness, please reach out to our support team to see what options may be available to you.

We want our customers to be able to transact business, even in an absolute worst-case scenario. We want our systems to be "zombie-proof".

Procedure

Since originally building support for this feature a few things have changed:

More and better internet connectivity options are available to more of our customers. Even in remote areas (Starlink / Elon Musk's satellite internet company, for example).
More and better backup /failover internet connectivity options are available to customers.
Most importantly - many credit card processors are provide attachments for cellular phones that allow for backup credit card processing. Often for free or very cheap. Square is one example.

their"Store and Forward" is a great concept but if something happens to the payment terminal while store and forward is active - the credit card money is 100% gone. That is usually thousands of dollars. If one customer violently shoves there credit card into the device it can trigger a "tamper" error - where the unit believes someone is attempting to hack or open it. At that point, it locks and there's no getting the data out. Again, the money vanishes.Forward
Additionally, your risk of fraudulent charges skyrockets - as there is no checking to see if a card will decline.

Considering all the other good options for processing available that keep you "zombie proof" there is no good reason to put your business at risk.

======= NO LONGER SUPPORTED ======= INFORMATION BELOW IS FOR REFERENCE ONLY =======

Credit card terminals can store transactions in a Store-and-Forward (SAF) queue while the host is not available. This allows you to continue processing credit cards in an offline state. Store and Forward is not enabled by default with Cloud Retailer and is only supported by a few processors.

Q: Why is it taking a long time to process a credit card?
A: Cloud Retailer has to wait for a response from your processor. This time can very from a few seconds and up to several minutes.

Q: What are the dangers while using Store and Forward?

A: When processing offline credit cards, you will not know if a card will decline.
Every transaction will be approved until the credit card terminal is batched.

Q: How do I know if a credit card transaction was declined?

A: When you batch the credit card terminal and the payment host is available, you will be notified of any declined offline transactions at the POS.
The Credit Card Processing Details report from the back office is also a good resource to review successful and declined transactions.

Q: If I have a declined transaction, what can I do?
A: You will need to contact your processor and have them attempt to process the transaction again on their end.
If the customer comes in frequently, you can ask them to pay with another form of payment. If either attempts fail, unfortunately the revenue will be lost.

Q: How can I enable Store and Forward?
A: Before using Store and Forward, please review the risk of processing declined cards.
If the risk is acceptable to you, click here to contact us and we can begin with your request.

Q: Can I process a debit card when I am offline?
A: No, you cannot process debit cards. All transaction will required to be run as credit.
***Store and Forward is no longer supported. The risks outweigh the benefits.***
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