Hill Cards Swiping Fiasco Resolved
By Annie Renz
After nearly 96 hours of technology complications at multiple dining locations across campus, the Department of Business Services announced Tuesday night that the “point-of-sales outage” has been resolved.
For four days, students have waited as long as an hour to pay for their food at Lux Cafe, Gigi’s, Dunkin and The Hill. After students scanned their Hill Card’s barcode to pay, the computer system did not automatically record the payment, causing a delay between student payments.
A Lux staff member told Summit staff that a student waited an hour and 10 minutes to pay for their sandwich.
Business Services sent out a campus-wide email on 8 p.m. Friday night alerting the community that complications with “Point-of-Sales" equipment would impact order processing and making payment operations for the time being.
Attention signs were posted at the dining locations across campus alerting students that “orders may process slower than normal until a solution can be found.”
Students felt that impact immediately when paying for their meals.
“I timed it at Gigi’s [Monday], and it was a minute and forty-five seconds between students’ swipes,” said junior Emma McGrory.
“I got a grab-and-go bagel from Lux, and I waited in line for 30 minutes to pay with my hill card,” said freshman Natalie Meighan. “It was really frustrating because I had class at 10 a.m. and I didn’t get out of Lux until five minutes before my class.”
Other students said finding times to beat the typical rush hours of the day didn’t make for quicker experiences.
“I got to Lux before it opened, like probably a few minutes before it opened, and I didn’t leave there for another 35 minutes,” said junior Allie Sougaris.
Senior Lindsey Brown knew about the delay, but she didn’t expect how drastic the total wait time would be at Gigi’s.
“I was aware of the swiping issue when I walked in because they had it on board, but I didn’t think it would take that long. I ordered my food, and the line was about 45 minutes to swipe,” she said.
Brown said Bon Appetit system’s complications are frustrating for athletes who find themselves with little time to get from class to practice or lift. Usually, Gigi’s is a quicker option to pick up and bring to Spoco, but that wasn’t the case over the past few days.
“As an athlete, I had to go to lift. I was most likely late. It’s unfortunate because there’s not easy access to go to Commons when you’re in a time crunch,” she said.
The technology delays also impacted The Hill. Workers told Summit staff the backup computer was down, so cooks weren’t receiving all the orders.
According to The Hill employees, they could not process bowl and chicken wrap orders. They said quesadillas, burgers, chicken tenders and mac and cheese were the only orders going through.
An Ace’s Place employee told junior Meghan Dowd that workers heard Bon Appetit’s headquarters in Las Vegas was experiencing technology issues that was causing the delay at Stonehill.
Junior Alyson Guerette timed her Gigi’s experience.
“They did ten people in 30 minutes, and they normally do that in five minutes,” she said.
Senior Kayla Cassidy had a similar experience at Ace’s Place.
“I was just trying to get a coffee, and there were 15 people in front of me. I literally waited forty-five minutes,” said Cassidy.
Mid-afternoon Tuesday, Business Services sent their second campus-wide email, the first since it happened on Friday, saying that dining team members will manually record Meal Swipes, Dining Dollars and Hill Dollars transactions.
In the email, Business Services said, “Regarding a timeline for resolution, our team continues to work with our point-of-sale vendor to restore functionality as quickly as possible... We recognize the inconvenience that this has created. We thank you for your continued patience. We remain committed to minimizing disruption and ensuring dining operations can continue effectively.”
A Lux staff member told Summit staff that the system tracks the number of swipes students use at dining locations other than the Commons. As the system goes, students have a maximum of three swipes per day at Gigi’s, Lux Cafe, The Hill, and Ace’s Place.
With the system bugging out, it was difficult for Bon Appetit staff to track students’ swipes. One Lux worker said she noticed students starting to take their bagels or sandwiches and leave without swiping because of the long lines.
Guerette said Gigi’s adapted to the continuing technology struggles on Tuesday by not making students scan their Hill Cards. Instead, she said students just showed their barcode to prove they were students at the College.
Even with the frustrations that the system’s complications caused, students recognize the food service members’ diligence to work with what they had.
“It was a very unfortunate turn of events. The staff did the best they could about the problem,” said senior Frankie Melendez.
It wasn’t until nearly 8 p.m. Tuesday night when Business Services sent out their third email of the fiasco, saying “all systems have been restored to normal.”
As they had previously communicated, Business Services said they appreciated everyone’s patience and understanding during the outage.
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