Oppikoppi payment experiment

I got scammed with the blank card swop. In addition, it took much longer than cash to process. You could not as a group all give some cash to buy a round, etc, etc. queues building up... half the bars closed due to "stock take", and on it goes... In my humble opinion, it was a disaster. They may as well have given us all debit cards. Whats the point of RFID on the payment side if you still need to manually ring up drinks and print out receipts.

*tinfoil hat on* : I did, however, notice a chopper circling above attached to which seemed like a very tech RFID scanner. *tinfoil hat off*
 
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The entire transaction process was exceptionally fast and, provided the vendor deducted the correct amount and you had money on your card, a painless experience.
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um no! The process took frikken ages... The bars were so full all the time and it was impossible to just buy a round and have everyone pay separately unless you were willing to stand there and wait another 10 minutes while each person gets their cards read and billed for the correct drink/drinks... which would no doubt aggravate others who were also thirsty.

Its a cool idea for the most part but a way to improve would to have a screen up with what ever is outstanding for the bill and then you drag each item to the payment column and then when you put your card down it asks for confirmation and then that amount gets deducted and the rest of the items will stay in the "To be payed" column. This would be really easy to implement and its not like people would be unable to use a simple touch screen interface once the waiter/waitress has billed everything.
 
what was the point of the card system though? was it so that vendors didn't have to carry large amounts of cash?

They said on 702 that 40% of the bar staff resigned after the first day because they normally rely on tip to supplement their low wages. Now, obviously, with the cards, there was no change.
 
lmao at the tip thing.. see that's where debit cards etc work against people, the service industry will need to change somehow which will lead to fixed tipping which people complain about or increased cost per item to cover it.
 
How do phones offering NFC work?
Do they become the card or something?
 
I missed Oppi this year so wasn't part of the experiment, however what bothered me reading about the cashless system was the fact that money left over on the cards wouldn't be reimbursed directly but would be converted to mimoney or some kind of bank-specific award system. I don't use mimoney & surely don't want to sign up for it - I simply want my unused cash back, either in an electronic transfer or cold hard currency. Period.

This would have meant I couldn't just load up a grand and spend away in the knowledge that I'd be able to get the unused portion back, I'd have to micro-manage the card which sorta defeats the purpose for me. Just a thought for next time as I plan to go next year.

Oh yeah, and think about the bar staff!
 
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Well I just now sent my sms to get my mimoney voucher.

There was definitely problems! I'm not so vocal but my girlfriend hated it and I basicly ended up micro managing my money.

Also the bars was a mess but luckily I only tried the last day to get something to drink and failed only to beg for something from some random strangers who was early kind to share his drink!

Will see how it goes next year but I don't understand why they could take my credit card directly.

Now what to do with R 100+ mimoney?
 
Dolby said:
How do phones offering NFC work?
Do they become the card or something?
Click to expand...

This is suppose to be a really nice tech. ...

UsesEmerging NFC standards allow customers to quickly purchase products and transfer secure information by touching devices. NFC allows companies to reduce staffing, printing, and point of sale costs. Globally, 100 million people use mobile payment outside the U.S., but only 3.5 million use the technology in the U.S.[6]

[edit] Social networkingNFC simplifies and expands Social networking options:

File Sharing: Tap one NFC device to another to instantly share a contact, photo, song, application, video, or website link.[7]
Electronic business card: Tap one NFC device to another to instantly share electronic business cards or resumes.[8][9]
Electronic money: To pay a friend, you could tap the devices and enter the amount of the payment.
Mobile gaming: Tap one NFC device to another to enter a multiplayer game.[7][10]
Friend-to-friend: You could touch NFC devices together to Facebook friend each other or share a resume or to "check-in" at a location.[11]
[edit] Bluetooth and WiFi ConnectionsNFC can be used to initiate higher speed wireless connections for expanded content sharing.[12]

Bluetooth: Instant Bluetooth Pairing can save searching, waiting, and entering codes. Touch the NFC devices together for instant pairing.[7][12]
WiFi: Instant WiFi Configuration can configure a device to a WiFi network automatically. Tap an NFC device to an NFC enabled router.[12]
[edit] eCommerceNFC expands eCommerce opportunities, increases transaction speed and accuracy, while reducing staffing requirements. A Personal identification number (PIN) is usually only requried for payments over $100 (in Australia).[8]

Mobile payment: An NFC device may make a payment like a credit card by touching a payment terminal at checkout or a vending machine when a PIN is entered.[8][7][13]
PayPal: PayPal may start a commercial NFC service in the second half of 2011.[14][15]
Google Wallet is an Android app that stores virtual versions of your credit cards for use at checkout when a PIN is used.[13]
Ticketing: Tap an NFC device to purchase rail, metro, airline, movie, concert, or event tickets. A PIN is required.[8][16][17]
Boarding pass: A NFC device may act as a boarding pass, reducing check-in delays and staffing requirements.[8]
Point of Sale: Tap an SmartPoster tag to see information, listen to an audio clip, watch a video, or see a movie trailer.[11][12]
Coupons: Tapping an NFC tag on a retail display or SmartPoster may give the user a coupon for the product.[11][12]
Tour guide: Tap a passive NFC tag for information or an audio or video presentation at a museum, monument, or retail display (much like a QR Code).[7][11]
[edit] Identity documentsNFC's short range helps keep encrypted identity documents private.[12]

ID card: An NFC enabled device can also act as an encrypted student, employee, or personal ID card or medical ID card.[12]
Keycard: An NFC enabled device may serve as car, house, and office keys.[12]
Rental Car and hotel keys: NFC rental car or hotel room keys may allow fast VIP check-in and reduce staffing requirements.[

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My experience with the card was radical. Bought myself a hakisak, bangles, food, dops no hassle.
It could be improved yes, but as i said for me it was brilliant.
 
Asked whether the inability for vendors to reverse transactions was a limitation on the system, Herman Singh, CEO of Beyond Payments, responded that “while the system is indeed capable of reversing transactions, this facility was not offered at the request of the organisers.”
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Come on! It's the same as some vending machines that "don't give change" - it's a way to make extra cash!
 
I was not there, but some of my thoughts regarding the issues:

1. Cannot put cash as a group to pay for a round - never an easy one to resolve, but a thought is to each put in R100 or R200 onto a common card which is used to buy drinks for the group.

2. Tips, do what you do with credit cards when paying a bill - add some extra for the tip - but this would require the cash register system to be able to sort out the tips for each waiter

3. mimoney thing - not cool, should be cash for cash
 
In my experience I think the problem really was the lack of machines. The system was not exactly light speed, so the only way to improve it would be to have more machines available to use at each store.
The cards were not so much as "tapped" but rather handed over to the vendor, where the vendor placed the card onto a card reader, typed in the amount, waited 20sec for the transaction to process and then gave you your card and receipt back. In all, this would have taken the same amount of time to accept cash and give a customer their change, old school style.

With regards to the bars, I chatted to a few bar men during my many waits, the problem was that each bar had about 4 barmen to one machine. I often saw them queuing to use it. Making the entire bar process incredibly slow.

As far as I am concerned this can all be fixed by just supplying more equipment. Each bar should have had at least one payment machine per barman and the bigger food stalls should have had a second machine.
This would not only have made the waiting times shorter but also would have help prevent the need to hand your card over to the barmen.

A few stations for checking one's balance would have been extremely helpful too. Its hard to remember how much you have left in the mornings.

Finally there should have been a hell of a lot more loading stations.

So once again, I think the system could work really well, they just need more equipment to ease the load.

As for the tipping issue, it was really easy to tell the barman to add on an extra R5. Either people didn't know about it, or just didn't want to after the wait.
 
Oh, so it wasn't tap-and-go? Why does everyone in the articles refer to tap-and-go when it wasn't?
 
Easiest solution to the card swap would be just to pair a card with a bracelet via "ID" numbers (Aka bracelet and card holds the same number).
That way you can immediately see when you get your card back if the numbers match.

If you cant read the numbers because you are too "inebriated" , well then maybe you shouldnt have another drink :D
 
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St3baS said:
um no! The process took frikken ages... The bars were so full all the time and it was impossible to just buy a round and have everyone pay separately unless you were willing to stand there and wait another 10 minutes while each person gets their cards read and billed for the correct drink/drinks... which would no doubt aggravate others who were also thirsty.

Its a cool idea for the most part but a way to improve would to have a screen up with what ever is outstanding for the bill and then you drag each item to the payment column and then when you put your card down it asks for confirmation and then that amount gets deducted and the rest of the items will stay in the "To be payed" column. This would be really easy to implement and its not like people would be unable to use a simple touch screen interface once the waiter/waitress has billed everything.
Click to expand...

Pretty much my experience, and it [together with the ****ty bands] ruined koppi for me.

I walked all the way to the stone bar [at 8pm] and got told "sorry, our system is oflline" no beer for you.
 
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