Triage: Order & pay with a pinpad
Purpose: Work the problems that hit the counter flow, where the order is rung on the till and the customer pays on a pinpad reader. The reader can be a fixed countertop one, or a handheld acting as the counter's reader in Mobile Terminal mode.
When to use this: You ring the order on the counter and the payment is taken on a reader attached to that counter.
If the reader is a handheld in Mobile Terminal mode, set up IP reservations before anything else: most of the issues below trace back to the reader's address changing. Have the VitaPay Event Viewer filter ready too.
Issues specific to this mode
Timeout: payment taken but the check doesn't close
What it means: The card was charged on the reader, but the approval didn't get back to the till in time, so the check stays open. On Mobile Terminal this almost always means the counter briefly lost the handheld (a network or address problem).
Fix:
- Don't re-run the card yet. The customer may already be charged. Confirm before doing anything that could double-charge them.
- Check whether the payment actually captured: in the cloud portal, open Transactions and look for the charge by card, amount, and time.
- If it captured: close the check to that tendered amount on the till without re-charging the card. The money is in, the check just needs to be settled.
- If it did not capture: re-run the payment on the reader as normal.
- Stop it happening again: confirm the handheld's IP reservation and that the workstation's Mobile Terminal IP still matches it (see Setting up Mobile Terminal). Confirm both are on the same network and the handheld isn't going to sleep.
- Read the VitaPay Event Viewer log around that time for the timeout entry, and use Upload Logs Now so support can see it.
Verify: A counter test sale prompts on the reader, approves, and the check closes on the till on its own.
The reader won't wake, "Timeout waiting for PinPad"
What it means: The customer didn't act in time, or the reader went to sleep.
Fix: Wake the reader and run the payment again. If it won't wake or keeps timing out, run EMV PAD RESET and restart the payment service, see Terminal & EMV management. If the reader is a handheld, also check it isn't on battery saver.
Issues that can happen in any mode
- Can't connect to reader, including "Failed on Com Port" / NAK on a counter reader.
- Reference transaction not found when voiding or adjusting an earlier sale.
- Services not starting: the counter can't take payment at all (and any Mobile Terminal handheld goes dead with it).
