Shift4

The business I work for unfortunately uses Shift4Payments to read credit cards and operate their POS. The amount of issues with this system is absolutely unacceptable. Yesterday we had to close down the store for 2 hours while I sat on hold with support. And today, I was given a call by another manager to let me know that the store was closed AGAIN today because the credit card reader failed again. We're currently waiting to find out how long this latest attempt to fix it will take.

I have been working for this company since October, and it is now June. So in only 8 months I've had to call Shift4 support upwards of 10 times, and it's been a lengthy ordeal each time. The past two times I called and they were working on the issue for hours, at the end of the call they "resolved the issue" by instructing me to unplug and replug in the receipt printer (that was the first time) or to blow into the credit card reader hole (the second time). I find it hard to believe that as tech support you would literally exhaust all options before having a customer try something like that. I was completely willing and able to comply with anything that would help make it go faster, and I stated so. Blowing into the card reader should have been the first thing they told me to do if they thought it would fix the issue. In my opinion, they were being disingenuous, and truth is that the last time they put me on hold to try something, they actually found the issue, and just had me blow into the card reader for their own benefit so that it would seem as if the issue was all our fault because we let dust get in there. Since I've spent 2 hours on hold twice now only for the issue to be put back on me, I believe that they are lying. The machine was not even behaving the same way that it usually does when you insert a card, which would indicate a software issue (in my limited experience).

Not only this, but the card reader has a consistent issue that the company has complained about multiple times and it seems they are unable to or unwilling to fix it. Every single time a customer inserts their card into the reader, we either have to tell them to " answer the tip prompt on the card reader screen before you even insert your card". Or " when the machine tells you to pull out your card, wait 5 seconds before you actually pull it out, because it will tell you to take it out too soon". The reason for this is that if you don't answer the tip prompt first, before you even insert your card, the machine will tell you to remove your card too quickly, and the screen will flash between. Do not remove card and please remove card and authorizing very quickly. It causes us to constantly have customers leaving without paying it all, because we forget to check that they finished the transaction. It causes us to have to start the transaction over constantly, because when they pulled their card out too soon, the card reader locks up for about 45 seconds, so you have to wait almost a minute before you can even send the order back to the reader. Telling the customer to answer the prompt before they put their card in is rude as well because it's drawing their attention to the fact that we want to be tipped. Tipping should be passive, we shouldn't be forcing them to focus on it.

We literally have to train new employees on all the issues this register system has. The time and money this company has wasted because of this horrible system is probably immeasurable at this point. We're currently working on getting a new system, and absolutely cannot wait for it. The other night, I had to stay at work until 1:30 a.m because had to do inventory and then the register went down so I couldn't complete it in time. I had started at 9:30 a.m. that day. Not only is it costing the business a lot of money, it's costing employees their mental health and free time.

I hope anyone considering buying this system will think twice about where they're spending their money, and the damage they're doing to their future business and their future employees as well. There's no reason to opt for this service when it's counterparts in the industry can perform better by leaps and bounds. I have no idea why the business I work for chose this system, but it obviously proved to be a mistake.

The only redeeming quality is that their customer service reps keep a friendly tone even when I am irritated (and rightfully so).