I feel for Queensland newsagents who have been under the pump today with what appears to be a poor switch in lottery product sales technology. Many have been without a working terminal all day. Those who can get their terminals working have had operational problems frustrating them and, more important, their customers.
Calls to Golden Casket (Tatts) for assistance are not getting through apparently because of the call volume. This is causing newsagents to call anyone who may have an answer for help.
Are QLD getting the same technology that NSW suffered with ?
Yes Max
in fairness, apart from the outage first up this morning, we have had no other real problems. fingers crossed and touch wood
Agree Rick, no real problems initially and it’s a better system for customers, but it’s a lot slower system for us to use, so customers sometimes need to wait longer and more staffing is required than before.
Been there and done that. And it was a nightmare for the first couple of months till things settled down. Main frustration was that when there was a high volume of users because of big draws – the system kept crashing! All good in the end but frustrating to loose income.
Golden Casket have made a good effort to communicate with many updates on Agents Web on how to handle the various questions. If we have answers the customers understand and are being patient. No real problems that we cannot handle.
Jenny,
Can you explain how “it is a better system for customers”?
Customers don’t want to wait for service, so in my opinion slower is definately not better.
The differences between how many games customers can autopick vs filling in a coupon – definate fail there.
More staffing = more cost to you
The system WILL go up and down with no warning. The old system was a lot more stable for NSW.
The system changes are now done during trading hours. Not overnight like they used to be. We were down for almost 1 entire sunday due to an update being done. Can’t sell product while system is down = no customer sales
The amount of button pushes to sell something compared to the old NSW Lotteries hardware is just rediculous. Slow for us to sell = Slow service to customers
In addition to poor customer facing service, the following are the poor agent side of it.
The reports that we used to get for Scratchie sales are no longer available on the “new” system. Instead of printing a report from the machine so we can compare what scratchies were sold during the day, we have to now keep a manual spreadsheet to compare to our POS systems. We can’t cross check quickly beThis takes the technology back about 20 years.
We can’t even do a report of the number of transactions done. We have to rely on our POS systems for this now, but there is no way to cross check.
The touch screen is about the least responsive that I have ever used. I have already had it replaced once and no improvement was found after this.
The checking of winning/losing tickets now has to be done one at a time, where with the previous hardware you could put them through a lot faster with one hand one after the other.
The continual re-scanning of registration cards after EVERY coupon throughout the sale to the customer is rediculously time consuming
All in all, the more we use this “new” system, the more we dislike it.
piece of junk , well thats my opinion today hopefully that will change tomorrow . Will not scan half of the cards put through will not take syndicate tickets ,customers are getting pissed that they have a prize and cannot get it becAuse the card will not scan …. FIX IT
My favourite car – I didn’t say it is a better system for us, I said for customers. They like the forwarding buying and the changes to multi weeks, self checking their tickets (the oldies love that aspect) and if they lose a winning registered ticket they dont lose their money.
It is slow for us, far too many buttons to push, my staff constantly winge about it and I don’t serve lotteries if I can avoid it , but customers will queue for always queue for lotto and they don’t complain.
Definately appears to be a step backwards so far from our operational perspective. As mentioned alot more button pushes per transaction though they have said that some of this will change with future updates. Not sure if they simply couldn’t put on more staff this morning or all the staff available were on but having to phone through 10 or more times to finally get through and not get hung up on after an automated message was pretty ordinary customer service from Tatts.
Will be interesting to see what the future weeks bring !
shauns
the system will not scan the really old winners circle cards for some reason. I have been manually inputting the number and ordering the customer a new card
As with anything new there will always be hicups , but it should have set up to go live on sunday when it is not so busy
Our password had to be reset manually and we could not get through until around 2pm. there were so many calls clogging the system Many of our customers come into town once or twice a week so not happy with so many million up for grabs this week. Then our very first card would not scan but went to new feature and ordered her a new card. Tatts tech email telling about the issue which is now resolved came through at 3.55. I was expecting a flood of emails all morning. Short and sweet updates like our Memos would have kept us in the picture. Also finding checking tickets to be very slow.
If anybody has trouble balancing tonight check for “syndicate” prizes paid. The system hasnt accounted for any of these and it will look like you have been underpaid. GC is aware of this problem and will no doubt cause a huge influx of calls to the centre tomorrow. All should not be lost though, I suggest calling your rep about this as they are now aware of the problem.
Cheers
Al
Just heard that a problem might exist with scratchies as well.
Actually it may just be on most entries/sales/payouts……..
Sorry guys, Scratchies are correct. Check your payouts though, if they are incorrect it will more than likely be any store/group syndicate payouts.
Would help if I could actually check syndicates
I wonder if any of these probs where found while we have been training on them for the last couple of months
Thanks Allan !
I was just trying to work out where 93 odd dollars had disappeared off to and that has answered the question as I suspected it may have.
Tomorrow I may be carrying out experiments to see how far one of the new terminals flys….
Just a comment from a NSW’er.
It is HARD WORK at first ! Yes, there are more button pushes, but then again 12 yrs ago my 8 yr old could touch type like I couldn’t believe with absolutely no lessons , my younger staff just whizz through the touch screen, and I’m pretty good now too( aged 62).
But now, we like the new system as it has evened out our lottery business over the week, big weeks like this week Oz 20 mill, P/Ball 50 mill and an upcoming Sat Lotto next month ( And a Public Hol on Thursday !) are not a big stress anymore staffwise, because we can sell ahead so nicely to regular customers with registered picks. We still have big weeks, but they are not queues out the door, so it is actally a staff SAVING.
We are having no trouble now with the
administration, but it is a learning curve. And it is not perfect !
Look after your customers so they will come back to your store, because they WILL go elswhere if you can’t deal with them PROFESSIONALLY. Don’t get too stuck in the admin tomorrow worrying if your scratchies have been counted right tonight, hoot and holler and sell OZLOTTO and POWERBALL!
BTW, one other thing to be careful of.
If you have a Winners Circle card that doesn’t scan and you have to enter the numbers manually and the customer then has a win on a coupon that you scan you’ll be unable to payout the prize and the system generates a prize claim which requires the customer to either send in a prize claim form or go into Golden Casket to claim even very small amounts. It was something thats only apparently come up today .
Paul, perhaps your registered customer can just wait for a cheque in the mail to? I doubt they have to go to Golden Casket Brsbane in person…..
As a customer said today you where happy to take my money now where is my payout , they do not care for excuses .
Subaru,
The new system does have a reasonable learning curve (especially for the less technologically inclined), but once it’s learnt it is much better than the old system.
It may take a few more button presses but there are generally reasons for this. In some instances this is designed to reduce mistakes, in others it allows for more flexibility in what can be selected and sold.
The system definitely allows you to do more. Syndicates, players club and favourites all allow for greater control and options.
The fewer autopick options encourage people wanting to buy a smaller number of games to increase their purchase to the next level. This won’t always happen, but by and large we’ve found the majority do.
The re-scanning of players club cards is a much welcome security feature. It’s annoying to begin with but once you work out a rhythm it isn’t that much of a hassle. We sit the card flat on the counter and simply shuffle it in and out of the scanning area.
We only had trouble with the connection going down for the first month or so. We’ve hardly had an issue with it since.
Having said that there are some downfalls.
The type of touchscreen used is poor. I believe it is resistive and not capacitive which reduces its ability to register touch from fingers easily.
Scratchie management is incredibly poor. This however is not a reflection of the system, but Tatts wanting to get their money for scratchies quicker.
touchscreen -I successfully use my fingernail in a gentle tap, not the pad of my finger.
h,
Yes using your fingernail will get a better response, but a screen intended to be operated as a POS should use more suitable technology.
Yes the system may be slower than the old NSW system and constant scanning of players card a pain, but on the up side is the self checking scanner. We insisted from the start all unregistered customers use it and this does save time endlessly running through losing tickets and the customers seem to enjoy using it.
Can serve several customers while others check their tickets.
Anyone that uses a handcream will also find the touch screen does not respond well so the girls tell me.
I would like to see them linked into our POS but am told they think it could be a secuirty risk. don’t see how if it was just for the sales data. Although we have only been on line since 2pm yesterday we are seeing some advantages and no doublt will see more. Re-ordering faulty cards is great. Getting the total of your scratchie order when you order is great. End of day report will take a bit of getting used to. It is slower though and this will show when everyone is cueing 10 minutes before closing on big Jackpot days. Over all happy .
Don’t get me wrong, there are some good points like the ticket checker, the extenal facing screen, and the draw date entry choices.
But there are quite a few bad ones as well.
I do come from a technology background. I guess that is why I am annoyed with the choice of touch screen, and the fact that the system is slower, and the reporting of sales is so lax.
By scanning the last scratchies at the end of the day, I was able to know 2 things:
1) If I want to know how many scratchies I sold, on the old machine, there was a report. I could then cross check this report to my POS system. This way I could tell in about 2 seconds flat if scratchies were being stolen by customers grabbing them, or (even worse) by staff.
Now we have to do a manual process ourselves to check this, and it takes much longer.
2) If we were broken into over night and had scratchies stolen, the system KNEW where we were up to, and could stop the REMAINDER of the books that were open.
Now, the entire book is stopped, and the customers that had legitimately bought tickets from that book are treated like criminals until the mess is somehow sorted out. This did happen to our customers when a neighbouring N/A was broken into. We had a message saying stolen ticket, so we called the police like we always had in the past.
Syndicates are another problem. I run very few of our own syndicate any more because of the fact that a customer can come in and cancel their syndicate entry 5 minutes before we close, thereby not giving us any time to sell that entry to someone else. Do you know who has to bare the cost of this now unsold syndicate entry? Thats right, the newsagent.
In our busy shop, we sell plenty of other things other than lotto. Stationery, magazines, newspapers, and so on.
When the counter service is slowed down due to lotto, its the other customers that get pissed off, and this can lead to them not buying the items that they came in for.
How does this help the rest of our business?
As far as syndicates go how often would someone come in with 5 min to go and cancel thier ticket i would say very very rarley that would happen , from my own short experience in 6 years i have never had anyone cancel a sundictae ticket
i would not cancel it for them with 5 mins to go, or even 5 days to go for that matter. If they change their mind, well sorry too bad. We never had a good scratchie system in Qld to start with so we are not miossing what we never had. Does sound like a good idea tho.
Is the new system perfect, well no of course not. Is it better than the old one, everything considered, i would say yes. I also think golden casket have done a pretty good job with communicating to agents. I have not even bothered to call them when ive had an issue, the reason the help desk is overloaded is because everybody is ringing up, so have been working it out best i can, whats the alternative, being stuck in a phone que, being frustrated and still having to work it out for myself. Luckily for ue there have been no serious issues like not being able to log on.
The more we learn the better it gets, and remember the glass is half full and keep smiling 🙂
I have been comunicating via email with retail teritory manager and i must say i am very impressed . Ask a question and get a reply back within a few minutes , couldn’t ask for much more than that
I have experience in rolling out new technology en masse. very supplier should get on board with more time efficient training and better QA prior to roll out. It should not be this problematic.
Did QLD get time to play with the new system in training mode?
We got a fair amount of time to play with the new system alongside our old one when it was implemented in NSW.
The training provided was relatively good and the manual better than many I’ve seen.
Not providing extensive scratchie stock/sales management like the old system is how Tatts can justify changing the way in which they charge agents for scratchies. Instead of hiding behind excuse that “the new system doesn’t manage scratchies” they should have just been upfront and said we’re charging you when you open a book and kept the management facilities.
Jarryd,
Sorry, but the manual was one of the worst I have seen !!!
Having the new system in training mode ( when it was working ) , while we still had the old system, was great though. I will give tatts top marks on that point.
Hi Jarryd,
Not sure which state your in but I thought in QLD Golden Casket always charged you for the Scratchies when they process your order.
Sam,
NSW. I believe we used to get charged based on what we had sold. Each scratchie book was scanned into the termal at the end of the day. It not only made cash-flow better, but it allowed you to see how many scratchies you had sold each day (and subsequently allowed you to reconcile it with your POS). Having that recorded in the system also ment that there was a record of exactly what scratchies you had in case they were stolen (it also ment NSW Lotteries could put a stop on those scratchies).
Sam i am in qld and we get charged when the process (pack ) the order , i would love it if they where charged when you activaye the book , that would mean you would never run out of stoock and could always carry extras on hand . Now it is a 3 day turn around and it is getting harder and harder to forcast what you are going to sell especially with these big jackpots around and the extra customers
Jarryd Moore, yes the old NSW system for scatchies was a lot better not only for reconciliation, it also allowed you if you ran out or another agent needed a new book we could supply or swap with one another while waiting for a new supply. The new system will not allow this.
why will it not allow it , i did it yesterday ?
woops are you talkin NSW or QLD ,
Why are they different anyway
NSW shauns, I tried to do it a couple of months ago and was told by tatts you are not to do it as books are asigned to agents and a record keep of the book number you recieve, told this was for security reasons. The book number is recorded on your packing slip.
In my view the new Tatts terminals should have a scratchie reconciling facility. In 2013 we surely must be able to write this facility into the software without causing too much trouble. Obviously it would make it less labour intensive to reconcile our scratchies to track lost or stolen ones and goes to overall housekeeping.
Pardon my pessimism however I can’t help but think that it has been purposely left out for some benefit further up the chain i.e. cost of writing and implementing software, database space savings etc. I think it should and must be included as a general housekeeping tool for everyone to benefit from.
p.s I’m not holding my breath.
Gregg,
NSW used to be able to do transfers with the old system, definately not with the new.
Angelo,
The scratchie management was written into the old system. Didn’t think it would be too hard to copy and paste it into the new system. No cost to write it if it was already there…
I’m not holding my breath either. I have even been in contact with George Soris and Office of Gaming in NSW and they aint helping either
Angelo, Subaru,
Yes, the software would have to be written into the new system (you can’t just copy and paste – software doesn’t work like that). But the cost of adding such a basic feature would be minimal (if anything assuming that they have a permanent software development team on staff). The additional database space would be so tiny it would cost next to nothing.
Maybe the insurers should be made aware that Tatts has actively and knowingly not included a basic feature that would assist in reducing the cost of claims.
Qld. Re the speed of processing on the new machine. while the old and new machines were both running side by side we ran off a smallish batch of tickets as an experiment and while the old machine got them through in 10 seconds, the new machine took 25 seconds. It has got no faster over the past week. We are hoping it will speed up as we go! No good putting on more staff. They are standing in front of the machine waiting for it. Maybe we will have to put in a second machine. Only got one at the moment and it is definitely causing increased lineups in the shop. Hope the new ticket checker will help when we get them. Trying to stay positive.
scratchie management why is it not there?
As for transfer of books happy not to.
But other then that the Old terminals were outdated and these IMO do every thing way better.
And Lotteries are One thing people are happy to wait for, So no more staff needed.
speaking of scratchie (mis)management, I can’t even check scratchies at the moment – so we can’t even do payouts for people…and there is nothing on their website about any problems…
anyone else having problems?
No problem here checking instants. Have the scratch-it books been activated ?
problem seems to have resolved itself within half an hour…maybe the guys at Tatts are reading this blog.
If so, it might be faster to post it here, than to call them up and wait in a very slow phone queue