Help me sell some knickers

November 4, 2006 2:57 AM

I'm having a one-day lingerie sample sale in Edinburgh, and am really struggling to work out the best way to process credit cards on the day.

I've set up my merchant account (streamline) and that's all great, but the actual Point of Sale terminal is driving me crazy. The standard solution for "mobile" retailers is a GPRS device, but the sale is taking place in a subterranean nightclub which will definitely not get a signal. That leaves me with traditional POS equipment - either a regular terminal, or one of those chunk-chunk carbon swipe things.

The bank offered that I could hire a terminal, but only with a 36-month contract (!) so i've been looking elsewhere for options. I'm also trying to find those carbon swipe machines like we had back in the day, but can't seem to source any.

Excepting eBay (i'm already looking there), would anyone know somewhere, anywhere in the UK that I could buy a used Ingenico Chip and Pin machine, and/or one of those credit card swipe machines? Bonus points if you can just tell me what the industry calls the carbon swipe machines. Help!

posted by ukdanae to Work & Money (9 answers total)

well, explain to your customers the reception problem and just fill in the details on the credit card slips manually. i do this sometimes, should be ok, but check with card processor first.
posted by londongeezer at 3:13 AM on November 4, 2006

Is it possible to get/rent an antenna and cable for this GPRS device? Run a cable up and out a window perhaps?
posted by chillmost at 3:43 AM on November 4, 2006

All the delivery places here use carbon slips. They don't have machines though, the driver just places the carbon over card and rubs it with the side of his pen then fills out the price information.

Rather than the side of a pen I'd find a nice heavy paper weight or something with a straight rounded edge.
posted by Mitheral at 6:09 AM on November 4, 2006

They're called Point of Sale (POS) Terminals, Zon Machines, or just "credit card machines".
posted by headspace at 6:54 AM on November 4, 2006

Echoing Mitheral: You don't need a machine to do the carbon slips. Just put the card down on a table, position the slip on top of hit and rub it with something. I actually think a pen works pretty well (if it's straight lengthwise, not contoured, and it's better if it's round rather than octagonal or something).
posted by winston at 7:10 AM on November 4, 2006

I was suggesting the paper weight for the asthetics, winston is right though a pen is fully functional.
posted by Mitheral at 7:59 AM on November 4, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks for all the comments! I didn't realise that you didn't need the machine to use the carbon slips, that will be perfect. Thanks for taking one thing off my to-do list!
posted by ukdanae at 9:54 AM on November 4, 2006

Just for the record the correct term for the chunk-chunk device is an "imprinter".
posted by AmbroseChapel at 1:37 PM on November 4, 2006

Imprinters are really cheap, I would get one of those if you can. I have the Paypal terminal thing, which rocks, assuming I can get a signal, but a lot of the time I can't, so I use an imprinter and just make sure I get all the info that paypal wants. (More than most transactors need.)
posted by dejah420 at 6:14 PM on November 4, 2006