This article will guide you through understanding gift card errors in ClubReady.
Card Validating
When you return to the POS cart after adding a gift card and closing the Manage Payment Profiles dialog, there is a short period of time where the status of the cart item will be ‘Card Validating’. At this point, ClubReady is checking with Factor4 to make sure that the card swiped is indeed a Factor4 gift card and is available for activation. This status will not take but a moment so you may or may not see it.
If the cart item stays in this status, then something has likely gone wrong in the communication to the Factor4 gateway. The exception would be if there are a large number of cards in the cart. In this case it may take a minute to validate each card. That said, validating an individual card is fast as long as all communication pathways are running well.
If you click on Checkout while the card is validating, you get this error message.
If a card is stuck on the Card Validating status, the best course of action is to remove the card from the cart and try again. If the problem persists:
- Ensure the computer’s internet connection is up
- Make sure the Factor4 gateway is defined and active
- Contact Factor4 support to see if their site is down
Invalid Card
If a card fails to validate for any reason, the status will change to ‘Invalid Card’.
There are several reasons a gift card may not be valid:
- The gift card has been previously activated
- The gift card is not a Factor4 gift card
- The gift card is for a different brand
- The gift card number is not valid – either entered incorrectly or an issue with the card magnetic stripe
If you attempt to Checkout with invalid card, you get this error message.
If a card fails validation, the best course of action is to remove the card from the cart and try again. If the problem persists, here are a few things you can do:
- If the card is swiped, double check the number in the Card Number field to make sure it actually matches what is on the card.
- Check the card’s balance at https://getyourbalance.com. If it has a balance then you know the card is not validating because it has already been activated and has a value.
- Ask the customer to send a picture of the front and back of the card. Make sure it is a Factor4 gift card and is for the correct brand.
- If all else fails, discard the gift card and try another one.
Card Fails Activation
Gift cards are activated and loaded with the appropriate funds after payment is taken during the ‘Complete This Sale’ process. It is highly unlikely, but still possible, for a failure to occur in the gift card activation process. The cause could be an interruption in internet service or the Factor4 site has gone down.
Should a gift card fail activation, the following e-mail is automatically generated and sent to support@clubready.com.
When this error e-mail is received, it is likely that the customer's credit card was successfully charged but the gift card was not activated and loaded. The proper steps to take are:
- Confirm the payment transaction completed successfully in CR.
- Forward the error e-mail to support@Factor4Gift.com and ask them to activate the gift card indicated by the "Last4” field and load it with the amount shown in the “CardLoadAmount” field.