Pet Extreme Enjoying the benefits of Upgrading to Retail Pro v8.6 and PCCharge

Below is a letter from our friend, Brad Drayton, over at Pet Extreme. Pet Extreme has moved successfully and flawlessly through the process of upgrading to Retail Pro v8.6. They have also switched their credit card processing to PCCharge and are now fully PCI Compliant. We wanted to share Brad's comments with you in the event it may give you some helpful information:

"We now have RPRO v8.6 and PCCharge Server installed and operating in all locations. All of the odd functions that we were initially concerned with, e.g. corporate data, corporate merging, etc. went off without issue and were well addressed with v8.6. Following our initial plan, we used the newer installations as training resources for the later installations.

And of course the PCI compliance requirements being met are very important as well, similar to maintaining a good insurance policy. The pole displays that we added everywhere were apparently perfectly timed as well, since our Turlock store had a recent weights and measures inspection and customer displays were the first compliance items checked, even before looking at the scales. The inspector was in and out of the store in 12 minutes!

Reliability of PCCharge vs PPM is like night and day. Annoying PPM "timed out" and "resource unavailable" errors have literally disappeared with the elimination of PPM, and we have had only one duplicate card charge with PCCharge, which was tracked to human error. I haven't looked into it yet, but the Sacramento store reported NO errors with Costco-issued AMEX cards, so PCCharge combined with the v8.6 upgrade may have had something to do with it.

The batch auto-settle function is something we had always wanted as well, however decided to eliminate in favor of manual settlement. With no errors at day end, the batch can of course be settled, but more importantly, manually settling allows the designated store closer(s) to hold a batch in the event that an error is detected. This provides the ability for an authorized store manager to correct a potential error prior to automatically sending an incorrect batch for processing.

Additionally, manually processing at day end gets the batch out of our system about eight hours earlier than auto-settle.

It may also be worth noting that our business insurance carrier now includes electronic transmission security and PCI compliance as a part of their planning and rating review, and this includes our out-of-division locations as well.

As the Pet Division moved forward with PCCharge our first goal was to get it operating directly on each store's dedicated server, just for the additional reliability and security that a server provides vs a backroom workstation.

Paul at BHD worked hard locating and testing the PCCharge Client installation, and it's operating smoothly with exactly the same setup at every store - so we are now exactly where we wanted to be - PCCharge is operating in a reliable server environment with limited direct access, and accessed "remotely" via PCCharge Client from selected backroom workstations only. And for me personally, the number of "problem" calls have decreased signigicantly, allowing me to concentrate on my time more effectively on other projects.

And when it comes to service and undersanding, BHD has always been on TOP! We had a recent firewall issue on a Sunday morning at one store and Steven had the problem corrected in less than 15 minutes.

This is great! Thanks for everything!

Thanks, Brad

PET EXTREME, INC.
Brad Drayton
(209)656-1023x2202
(209)656-1413 fax

Tech and Training Lead Times

TRAINING:

Phone appts starting 10/6
Onsites starting 10/12

TECH:

Phone appts starting 9/28
Onsites starting 10/7

Retail Pro Software Rental

The prices for renting Retail Pro software have changed. Please call your BHD Sales Representative for more information. The software can now be rented for a minimum of 3 months and a maximum of 6 months. Please feel free to call if you have any questions regarding this at: 800-377-7776.

Reversing Credit Card Charges in Retail Pro

Reversing credit card charges in Retail Pro does not void the original sale. It will run a "Return" on the customer's card and may result in a processing fee in addition to the sale (depending upon the credit card processor being used.)

In order to avoid this processing fee and void the sale, you must void the sale transaction manually. This must be done by an employee with the appropriate rights. The procedure for this will differ, depending upon the credit card software being used. As always, please contact a Big Hairy Dog Tech if you have any questions. 916-368-1070.