With sudden spurt in the number of transactions through the point-of-sale machines in the city, poor network connectivity is troubling the shops and consumers alike. Waiting time at the counters in many shops has increased as salespersons have to swipe the cards multiple times to complete the transaction.
Salespersons in shops, departmental stores and commercial establishments handling these machines found themselves struggling with what is otherwise a simple process.
A sales manager at a departmental store in Kodambakkam said, “We usually have 50-100 customers walking in between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. On Thursday, the crowd was large and in the first one hour we had more than 100 people walking in. After 30 minutes, the POS machine froze and we had to restart it, which took more than 10 minutes,” he added.
The managing director of a chain of restaurants said that at two of his branches, the machines were working very slowly. “One of my associates called and informed me about this in the afternoon. I instructed them to just switch it off and restart again,” he said.
Many shopkeepers on Ranganathan Street in T.Nagar complained that their networks were slow and customers had to wait in queues for a longer time. “It takes 5-7 minutes for us to bill, collect cash and deliver the products to our clients, but today it took more than ten minutes,” said a bangle shop owner on Ranganathan Street. Similar was the case with an electricals store on North Usman Road, with the wireless POS machine not connecting to the network.
More transactions cited
D. Thomas Franco Rajendra Dev, senior vice-president of All India Bank Officers Confederation, said that the increase in a number of transactions coupled with connectivity issues due to rains could have led to this problem. A senior manager at State Bank of India said the first five days of the month when bulk purchases happen the machines are slow.
Salespersons in shops, departmental stores and commercial establishments handling these machines found themselves struggling with what is otherwise a simple process.
A sales manager at a departmental store in Kodambakkam said, “We usually have 50-100 customers walking in between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. On Thursday, the crowd was large and in the first one hour we had more than 100 people walking in. After 30 minutes, the POS machine froze and we had to restart it, which took more than 10 minutes,” he added.
The managing director of a chain of restaurants said that at two of his branches, the machines were working very slowly. “One of my associates called and informed me about this in the afternoon. I instructed them to just switch it off and restart again,” he said.
Many shopkeepers on Ranganathan Street in T.Nagar complained that their networks were slow and customers had to wait in queues for a longer time. “It takes 5-7 minutes for us to bill, collect cash and deliver the products to our clients, but today it took more than ten minutes,” said a bangle shop owner on Ranganathan Street. Similar was the case with an electricals store on North Usman Road, with the wireless POS machine not connecting to the network.
More transactions cited
D. Thomas Franco Rajendra Dev, senior vice-president of All India Bank Officers Confederation, said that the increase in a number of transactions coupled with connectivity issues due to rains could have led to this problem. A senior manager at State Bank of India said the first five days of the month when bulk purchases happen the machines are slow.