1.5      Advanced Staff Operations

1.5.1      Renew Member Card

Renew Member Card extends the date of expiry of the member’s card. This function is useful only when both card and iBonus Terminal are using fixed date expiry mode. To renew a card, the staff chooses the request renew member card function and present the member card to be renewed. The iBonus Server waits for about a day for the data synchronization from all terminals and check whether the member card is blacklisted. If the card is not blacklisted, the iBonus Server will send back a reply to the origin iBonus Terminal. The staff chooses renew member card function and present the member card again, the card is renewed. The new expiry date is calculated as follows:

If the mode of expiry is set to be fixed month mode, for example month of expiry is set to December, (i.e. the exact date of expiry is 31 Dec.), and the expiry date on the card is 31 Dec 2004, within the period between two months before the expiry date to two months before the expiry date of the next year, (i.e. 1 Nov 2004- 31 Oct 2005), the date of expiry of the card will be extended to 31 Dec 2005. If the card renewal is earlier than two months before the date of expiry (i.e. 31 Oct 2004 or before), the card won’t be extended.

If the date of expiry assignment is relative to card initialization day, for example 12 months relative to the card initialization day. The date of expiry will be extended by 12 months based on the card expiry date. For example, if the card expiry date is 31 Dec 2004, within the period between two months before the expiry date to two months before the expiry date of the next year, (i.e. 1 Nov 2004- 31 Oct 2005), the date of expiry of the card will be extended to 31 Dec 2005. If the card renewal is earlier than two month before the date of expiry (i.e. 31 Oct 2004 or before), the card won’t be extended.

Action sent back to iBonus Server:

Request Renew, Renew

Since the iBonus Terminal only keeps the blacklist of the cards which are not yet expired. To renew a card, the iBonus Terminal has to check with the iBonus Server whether the card is in the blacklist. Therefore, there are 2 steps for renewing a member card: (1) Send Request to iBonus Server for Member Card renewal and (2) Renewal of Member Card after the request has been sent and verified by iBonus Server. The new expiry mode and date of the Member Card will follow the setting on the Terminal. Transaction actions will be logged.

1.5.1.1     Timing Issue

After receiving the Request renew transaction, the server will wait for all transactions to be sent back to server before letting the authorization of the renew transaction to be available for the request originating terminal to download, so that the Server will know whether the card is blacklisted very recently.

If one of the Terminals is not connected to the server, Server will wait for 3 days (by default) since last visit of the Terminal. After 3 days the Terminal is assumed not in service. Server will not be waiting for the Terminal and will send back the correct status of the corrupted card back to the request originating Terminal.

Therefore by default, it will take longest 3.5 days to have the card renew. In an unstable network, if you want to shorten the maximum card renew time, you can set Limit Visit in iBonus Server to be a shorter time. The trade off is that the card may be able to be renewed even it is blacklisted recently.

To send renewal request to iBonus Server:

After several minutes to one day (depends on the network architecture). The renewal can be performed as follows:

1.5.2      Repair Member Card

Repair Member Card fixes the data corruption problem of the card. To repair a card the staff chooses the request repair function and presents the corrupted card to the Terminal. The Terminal tries to read the serial number of the corrupted card. Once successful, the Terminal sends to the iBonus Server a Request Repair with the card serial number. If it fails, staff should use Replace Card function instead. The server waits for the data sent from the other iBonus Terminals so that the most updated transaction on the card is collected. It sends back to the initiating iBonus Terminal the card information. The next day, the staff chooses the repair function and presents the corrupted card again. The Terminal tries to write the most updated information to the card. If it is successful, the action Repair is sent back to server. If fail, the staff should present a brand new card to the Terminal, so that the card is replaced instead of repaired and the action Repair by Replace is sent back to server.

Action sent back to iBonus Server:

Request Repair, Do Repair, Repair by Replace

1.5.2.1     Timing Issue and Card Salvage Value

After receiving the Request Repair transaction, the server will wait for all transactions to be sent back to server before letting the information of the corrupted card to be available for the request originating terminal to download.

If one of the Terminals is not connected to the server, Server will wait for 3 days (by default) since last visit of the Terminal. After 3 days the Terminal is assumed not in service. Server will not be waiting for the Terminal and will send back the corrupted card status back to the request originating Terminal.

Therefore by default, it will take longest 3.5 days to have the card repaired. In an unstable network, if you want to shorten the maximum card repair time, you can set Limit Visit in iBonus Server to be a shorter time. The trade off is that the Terminal, which lost connection with server might have some transaction of the card before it is damaged. The status of the repaired card might not be able to reflect the latest value of the lost card.

To send the request for repairing:

After several minutes to one day (depends on the network architecture). The repairing can be performed as follows:

1.5.3      Replace Member Card

Replace Member Card reissues a lost member’s card. To replace a member card, the staff chooses request replace member card function, enter the customer ID or member’s ID and optionally date of birth of the member. The reference number is displayed on the LCD screen and jot down by the staff. If a printer is connected, a receipt with the reference number is printed. The reference number is for referring the replacement process. After receiving the request, the iBonus Server waits for a day for the data synchronization from all terminals. If the most updated card information shows that there is only one match of the information and the card is not blacklisted, the card information will be sent back to the origin iBonus Terminal. The staff chooses the replace member card function, enters the reference number and presents the brand new card. The card information is written back to the card.

To enable the replacement function, the following condition has to be met.

1. The expiry function is active and there is an expiry day on the lost card.

2. Either unique customer ID is stored on the card (At least one transaction about the card is sent back to the server) or unique member ID associate with the lost card is stored in the iBonus Server’s database.

iBonus Terminal does not write anything to disable the card. Whenever a staff finds that a member card is marked as blacklisted when trying to present it to an iBonus Terminal, the staff is supposed to confiscate the card.

Action sent back to iBonus Server:

Request Replace by Card ID, Request Replace by Customer ID, Do Replace

In order to enjoy the glory of this function, the following requirement has to be met:

1. The expiry function is active and there is an expiry day on the lost card.

2. Either unique customer ID is stored on the card or unique member ID associate with the lost card is stored in the iBonus Server’s database.

There are 2 steps: (1) Send Request for Member Card replacement and (2) Replacing of Member Card after the request has been sent and verified by iBonus Server. Transaction actions will be logged.

1.5.3.1     Timing Issue and Card Salvage Value

The server updates a blacklist including the lost card. By default, each terminal downloads the blacklist from the server 4 times a day. It means that it takes at most 6 hour for all Terminals to prohibit the use of the lost card. Server needs to see if the card is used within that period. Server will return to the request originating Terminal the status of the lost card done before the card is blacklisted in time. If the connection of every Terminal is fine, it will take at most 6 hour for the lost card detail to be ready for download for the request originating Terminal. Every terminal prompts the server for lost card detail once every 6 hours. So it takes at most 12 hours for the lost card status to be downloaded to the request originating Terminal.

If one of the Terminals is not connected to the server, Server will wait for 3 days (by default) since last visit of the Terminal. After 3 days the Terminal is assumed not in service. Server will not be waiting for the Terminal and will send back the lost card status back to the request originating Terminal.

Therefore by default, it will take longest 3.5 days to have the card replaced. In an unstable network, if you want to shorten the maximum card replace time, you can set Limit Visit in iBonus Server to be a shorter time. The trade off is that the Terminal, which lost connection with server might have some transaction of the lost card before the card being blacklisted. The status of the replace card might not be able to reflect the latest value of the lost card.

To send request for Member Card replacement:

After the request is sent, the iBonus Server verifies the validity of the information and the card is not blacklisted. After several minutes to one day (depends on the network architecture). The card replacement can be performed as follows: