Do *not* buy a POS terminal from these people...

[jecook]

Note: This is opinion, based on my (crappy) experiences with the devices, and their support)
x-posted to my personal journal


So at $WORK we have a number of "all in one" flat panels systems made by Belview Technologies, specifically their PP6500 units.

While the idea is nice, the implementation is less then ideal.

First off, it's a plastic case. This leads to broken screw mountings, and other fun issues with assembly and disassembly, like broken screw mounts. Plus the system hangs from the back plate, so I can imagine what repeated abuse will do to the back of the system chassis. In addition, the cooling of the chassis is less thought out then the vent holes would lead you to believe. There's one fan to cool everything: CPU, chipset, and the chassis itself. While a single fan system is achivable with clever design (look at the IBM SurePOS 532 for an outstanding example), there's no clever design here. I have, in fact, one of these buggers sitting on my desk that's back from RMA and it's going right back to them, as I can't keep the system up long enough to put out image back on it. I booted into the BIOS and pulled up the hardware monitor and watched the CPU temp go right up to 109C before it stop-clocked itself. The SurePOS has a heat pipe mounted to the processor, and a heat sink that takes up the entire top third of the interior space in that chassis. The chassis is designed around that sink to pull air through it in from one side and back out the other side via one dinky little fan. It's quite impressive, really. This does not have that. The heat sink itself on the processor is a short passive sink that (obvious) does not do the job without assistance.

Lastly, their service sucks. We sent both units out for warranty repair back in late October. We got them back yesterday. They also formatted both drives, when all that was wrong was the heat sink, which means additional work for us because now we have to re-load our custom image on there. Plus, the units has loverly "void if removed" stickers on them, which is useless because the company does not apply them correctly to begin with. (I cracked this one open twice with no visible damage to the sticker) Still, a *month* to replace a fan? Recockulous. And it certainly didn't require them to wipe the drive and re-load it, either.

While they do sell all metal units, they look pretty fugly for use in a cashier type enviroment in which we use these units.


So, anyone else here have an Point of Sale hardware horror stories?

Comments

[tth.livejournal.com]

I worked for a credit card processor. It used to be an average size company until their now parent company acquired them and it became part of the largest credit card and electronic processor on the planet. I was working on their tech desk that dealt with both the processing side and the software and hardware from third part companies. I have dealt with some very good and some very piss poor POS systems.

The one that really pissed me off was a third party software/hardware pos company that stated they could synchronize and system together. Well when they released their new version of their wonderful (dripping with sarcasm) their new manual on page three informed their customers that if they had any questions with using X, Y, Z and A though W processors that they should call 1.800.xxx.xxxx option 2 and ask for ___ you guest it Me or one of my other techs. In addition they printed my direct line in their manual as well.

1) it was not our software
2) My unit and company did not and still does not support their software
3) We have never seen their software
4) The company that sold the software did not ask permission to use my full name in their manual
5) They never bothered to inform my company they did this
6) Denied that they ever did this.

I hade one of the customers fax me the page of their manual that listed the support numbers. It was printed in the manual as part of their manual text. I first thought one of their sales reps might have penned in the number. NOPE: my direct line was part of their manual.

My upper management allowed me to call this software vender to deal with this. When I told them they had a problem their only comment was sorry we do not have the time to adjust this or desire to adjust this as you are serving our customers well.

I turned this over to my company’s legal department. When the pos company called my direct line and asked for the other co-worker they had listed I informed the pos company that he was dead. They asked who can their substitute in the manual. Again I provided my legal department with the information and since we are a data center we record all of our calls. I sent them a copy of the recording of the call.

The other person who had their name in their manual just laughed as he pointed out that he was no longer going to get the calls and that I would. I hated when he was right.

I no longer work for the credit card processor. I haven’t for almost five years now and I am informed that once and a while the tech desk gets a call looking for me to help out with this particular POS software.

This software is written in Q-basic and Visual Basic and can not hold more than 15,000 records without a patch. Every retail store that I know that uses this software runs about 20,000 + records. Every two to three hours they need to shutdown everything and come back up. The software company has the patch that will only run on a unix box. Most of the machines are dos or windows based. The software company fired their windows and dos programmers.

I love software companies at times.

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

When the pos company called my direct line and asked for the other co-worker they had listed I informed the pos company that he was dead.

+1

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

he pointed out that he was no longer going to get the calls and that I would.

What, you aren't telling callers that you're dead too?

I dunno. I just see it as an opportunity for loads of fun. Specifically, tracking down the home phone numbers for the software company executives and telling callers to phone that number and ask for $execname.

Or merely screwing with the callers. "No, that software isn't supported because $company is about to go out of business, although I hear that if you phone $companyExecName on nnn-nnn-nnnn and demand a refund, they have to give you one. Better make it quick, though, they're running out of refund money."

[tth.livejournal.com]

SNIP
Or merely screwing with the callers. "No, that software isn't supported because $company is about to go out of business, although I hear that if you phone $companyExecName on nnn-nnn-nnnn and demand a refund, they have to give you one. Better make it quick, though, they're running out of refund money."
SNIP

I could not do that. Yes It sounds like fun but in the end those customers using that POS software were also my customer as they used our processing service. I did tell more than one that there are other software products out there and where to get the list of the software that would work on our hosts and their type of business.

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

When I see "POS", I don't think "Point Of Sale"....

[110billion.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[jecook]

Oh, absolutely.

To prevent people from bypassing their crap-tastic warranty sticker, they've also hot glued all the connectors and what not into place. ::rolls eyes::

[bekscilla.livejournal.com]

So the other POS definition well and truly fits, then

[mouser.livejournal.com]

It does with all of them.

They all suck, some just suck less.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

Weird - that looks a lot like one of the older Posiflex systems.

[sunnylioness.livejournal.com]

Those kinds of stories make me grateful that we almost exclusively use the SurePOS for our stuff. The few attempts the company has made to go cheap with POS terminals were generally miserable, like when we had Javelins in the field for about a year after the company abruptly quit sending parts in to the country. So we ended up collecting all of the trade-ins to cannibalize for remaining customers for about two years until we finally coerced everyone in to upgrading.

Only semi-consistent problem I ever see with the SurePOS is when they fry the touch screen because the exhaust vents are near the top of the unit, where customers always tape their little notes and where the dust, grease, and nicotine all settle in their environments. At least IBM service rocks and they always know exactly what to swap on site.