Unitec WashPay

[steve569]

I have Unitec Washpay in my self serve bays. I have trouble more frequently than I would like with it not reading credit cards. Does anyone know if the card readers git weaker over time. We do all the usual stuff as far as keeping them clean.

 

[wash12]

I have Unitec Washpay in my self serve bays. I have trouble more frequently than I would like with it not reading credit cards. Does anyone know if the card readers git weaker over time. We do all the usual stuff as far as keeping them clean.

I literally was about to post this exact same post before I saw yours, my wash pay card readers don't work 50% of the time lately unless its a brand new card it doesn't like it or takes 10 times for it to work. Does yours say anything on the screen when you swipe it such as Card Error? I have noticed today especially has been bad at reading cards, have you noticed today/past week has been especially worse? I also don't know if its the card readers worn and don't want to spend the money to find out.

 

[srr5008]

We have Unitechs for our IBA's, and we periodically replace our card readers. Usually we'll notice a jump in bad card reads when doing our monthly reports, then we know it's time to swap them out.

 

[wash12]

We have Unitechs for our IBA's, and we periodically replace our card readers. Usually we'll notice a jump in bad card reads when doing our monthly reports, then we know it's time to swap them out.

How do you view this report, are you using a site server?

 

[srr5008]

How do you view this report, are you using a site server?

Our IBA's have a setup to print reports on receipt paper any time we want. We also dial in (for our monthly stuff) using hyper-terminal on a home office computer.

 

[steve569]

The credit card readers for the Washpay system are different than the card readers for the auto cashiers. We have one bay with a brand new card reader that I tried to help a customer with today and it kept giving a card read error. The card looked good and he said it worked fine everywhere else. We have this issue quite often.
For what its worth I inherited this system when I bought the wash. I really hate to abandon this system as we have an 8 bay wash and it would be pretty expensive to replace whatever system is used.

 

[JAGraff]

Hi, I work for Unitec. I would recommend that you contact your distributor (if you haven't already) or schedule an appointment with Unitec at https://live.vcita.com/site/StartwithUnitec. Message me if you don't get the help you need.

 

[steve569]

Hi, I work for Unitec. I would recommend that you contact your distributor (if you haven't already) or schedule an appointment with Unitec at https://live.vcita.com/site/StartwithUnitec. Message me if you don't get the help you need.

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my problem.

 

[JAGraff]

You're welcome!

 

[wash12]

The credit card readers for the Washpay system are different than the card readers for the auto cashiers. We have one bay with a brand new card reader that I tried to help a customer with today and it kept giving a card read error. The card looked good and he said it worked fine everywhere else. We have this issue quite often.
For what its worth I inherited this system when I bought the wash. I really hate to abandon this system as we have an 8 bay wash and it would be pretty expensive to replace whatever system is used.

Personally I don't think anything you do will fix it, I have same issues and it is just not very good card readers that they sell. Even with brand new reader I still have issues but can take that card anywhere else and it works fine. It is an outdated system, it blows my mind how behind the self serve car wash industry is compared to all other industries. It is like 1990s software/hardware and I get it being self serves are what a lot consider a thing of the past so these companies don't want to spend the money to upgrade.

 

[Carl]

I have WashPay and my "fix" for the customer is to take a Wal-Mart bag which I always have on hand nearby, put their card into the plastic bag then swipe their card w/ that plastic bag as a "barrier" between the card's magnetic stripe and the card reader's "reading mechanism" and for some reason this finally gets their card to read as "APPROVED" so that they can wash rather than "BAD CARD READ / ERROR". Customer is then very happy they can wash w/ their desired card!

 

[steve569]

I have WashPay and my "fix" for the customer is to take a Wal-Mart bag which I always have on hand nearby, put their card into the plastic bag then swipe their card w/ that plastic bag as a "barrier" between the card's magnetic stripe and the card reader's "reading mechanism" and for some reason this finally gets their card to read as "APPROVED" so that they can wash rather than "BAD CARD READ / ERROR". Customer is then very happy they can wash w/ their desired card!

Thanks I will give that a try.

 

[OurTown]

I have WashPay and my "fix" for the customer is to take a Wal-Mart bag which I always have on hand nearby, put their card into the plastic bag then swipe their card w/ that plastic bag as a "barrier" between the card's magnetic stripe and the card reader's "reading mechanism" and for some reason this finally gets their card to read as "APPROVED" so that they can wash rather than "BAD CARD READ / ERROR". Customer is then very happy they can wash w/ their desired card!

I may try that with our Cryptopay readers as they are not that great for a small percentage of cards either. Years ago store cashiers used to do that trick if the readers would not take a card but I have not seen anyone try that in a while.