'Payment failed, so not posted' is the most common error. It can mean the payer has insufficient available credit on their card, has entered incorrect card details or that their card has for some reason been flagged by the card issuer.

In the case of incorrect data input, the payer may make multiple attempts to pay and may get it right eventually. However, the payer may also be prevented from multiple submissions by any limits you set up when creating the payment request or link. Once prevented from additional tries the payer is likely to contact you for assistance.

When the payer contacts you, look for notifications you have received from TransForm to see what type of error the system reported. AVS (address verification service) and CVV (card verification value) failures mean that the card data was entered incorrectly. Keep in mind that the system deliberately does not specify to the payer precisely which field is incorrect, since doing so would aid any potential fraudster. In cases where the issuing bank has not accepted the address, it is recommended to create a support ticket at both b4 and your gateway.

Advise the payer to confirm they are entering the same address details that appear on their credit card statement.

Use this list of AVS response codes to help you determine what specific address error may have been made.

In the case of a decline due to the card being flagged the payer must contact their bank to investigate further.

'Payment approved, but not posted' means the transaction has been approved by the payment gateway and the funds have been taken from the card to be deposited in your bank account — however, something technical is not working and has prevented the payment from being posted to the PMS.

Common reasons for this include but are not limited to:

The reservation was open on a workstation terminal when the payment was attempted. Opera cannot update a reservation when it is open on a workstation. When a payment request has been sent, ensure you have closed the reservation display.

Confirm the status of the reservation. TransForm can post to reservations, in-house and checked out bookings, but only when the folio is open. If the reservation is checked out and the folio is closed, the payment will not be able to post. If the charge was approved, the payment will have to be posted manually on the reservation.

Another common cause is when updates to OPERA and/or the Kiosk interface are made, but have not been communicated to b4 — such as if you migrate to OPERA Cloud or make a change in Kiosk settings — such as the OWS username and password. You must always provide the updated details to b4 so we can update your configuration and run tests to confirm the new setup works correctly.

Similarly, any configuration changes to the PMS payment codes (the two-letter codes in OPERA) must be communicated to b4. If for any reason your card payment codes change, you must advise b4 so we can make the same changes in your TransForm setup, as payments will not post if we are looking for the wrong card codes in the PMS. When these change, provide the updated codes to b4 so we can update your configuration in TransForm and run tests to confirm the changes work correctly.

Disruption in service from Oracle can cause posting failures. If an OPERA outage has occurred, create a ticket at OPERA Support and make test payments once the PMS issue is resolved. OPERA downtime is also likely to result in some transactions that you will need to correct, where you have obtained the payment in your bank account, but OPERA does not know the payment has been taken. You have a couple of options ...

Refund the guest - IHG properties have access to the FreedomPay (NGP) directly.

Refunds can be issued for transactions that have been processed.

To refund a transaction, locate it on the View Transactions page, select the OPTIONS drop-down button, and select Refund:

This will display the transaction details screen.

There are two options for refunds: Full and Partial.

Select ‘Full’ to generate a refund for the full amount of the original purchase
OR
Select ‘Partial’ to enter a specific amount to be refunded.

After selecting the type of refund and clicking REFUND, a confirmation message will be displayed.

Select OK to complete the refund. You will see a Success message and a request ID that can be copied and searched to confirm the refund.

You also have access to the Marketplace site for additional information on NGP. https://www.ihgmarketplace.net/marketplace/ngp_get_started.php?holidexCode=DENSB

Use manual credit card posting codes - If you do not have these already, you can have them created in your system. These are set up to work like the CASH payment code used to tell OPERA you have obtained the money, and to enter the payment amount into OPERA to balance the folio. This will also allow you to see the payment in OPERA reports. The payment from TransForm will be visible in IHG reporting as well. Refer to https://b4checkin.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/LIBRARY/pages/2968649729 for more info.

Another possibility is that the card details were not captured in the PMS. TransForm does not store credit card details itself, but tries only to relay those details directly into your PMS. Should the relay have failed, you will need to manually collect missing card details, but in a PCI compliant manner. To remain PCI compliant, rather than collecting card details by telephone or fax or paper forms, collect an ‘authorization’ using TransForm. An authorization collects the card details from the payer and confirms the validity of the card by processing a small amount, and then immediately voiding that amount so the payer does not lose any of their available limit. This method keeps the card info secure, and demonstrates that you take the safety of card data seriously, as your payer personally enters their card details and you never see those details.

FreedomPay - https://b4checkin.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/LIBRARY/pages/472678503

Shift4 - currently not available

Global Payments -

Elavon - https://b4checkin.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/LIBRARY/pages/3053453313

While it may be tempting to take the credit card details by phone or fax, doing so seriously reduces your position during chargeback disputes. If at any time a member of your team sees and handles raw card details, the transaction is categorized by the banks and payment processors as “high risk”. This costs you higher transaction fees and significantly reduces your chance of winning the chargeback dispute. Best practice is to collect all card details only through TransForm, so card details remain invisible, masked or tokenized.