Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Point of Sale Systems, what do you use?

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Topic: Point of Sale Systems, what do you use?

William Uhlhorn
Film Handler

Posts: 12
From: Schertz, Texas, U.S.A.
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 12-09-2010 04:55 PM

We have used Sensible Cinema Software for six years. Has lots of bells and whistles. System is rather inexpensive and does not have a yearly fee. The owner of the system, Rusty Gordon, has always been available for telephone consultation.

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Robert D Hall
Film Handler

Posts: 65
From: Abingdon V.A USA
Registered: Mar 2010

posted 12-10-2010 12:50 PM

We have used Ticket Pro for the last 14 years its never let us down.

Ticket Pro

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David E. Nedrow
Master Film Handler

Posts: 368
From: Columbus, OH, USA
Registered: Oct 2008

posted 12-11-2010 02:16 AM

Yeah, I should take a closer look at TicketPro. They run on a Linux box, which means far fewer OS maintenance issues and much less chance of contracting viruses.

Seem like every other system relies on some Windows variant.

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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover

Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 12-11-2010 02:50 AM

quote:
I was unaware they still existed. Granted,

Yes, still being used by Rainbow Theatres.

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Andy Linde
Film Handler

Posts: 19
From: Nelson, New Zealand
Registered: Mar 2010

posted 12-11-2010 05:21 AM

We use Vista Cinema (NOT affiliated with Windows Vista). Its easy to use from both POS and back office aspects, great support, and looks good too.

www.vista.co.nz

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Sean McKinnon
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1712
From: Peabody Massachusetts
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 12-11-2010 07:09 PM

How about Pacer? Does anyone still use it? My vote is for the Automaticket system very easy to use [thumbsup]

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Gordon McLeod
Film God

Posts: 9532
From: Toronto Ontario Canada
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-11-2010 08:01 PM

Omniterm is also used by empire and cineplex odeon- galaxy as well as many independents up here

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Brad Miller
Administrator

Posts: 17775
From: Plano, TX (36.2 miles NW of Rockwall)
Registered: May 99

posted 12-12-2010 12:06 AM

quote: Sean McKinnon
How about Pacer? Does anyone still use it?

Oh man, the memories of Pacer back in the early 90s!!! I used to be able to "jump ahead" on the keyboard such that I could up/down/tab/tab/enter/down/down/enter/whatever-it-was and have the system run every report...once it finally caught up that is. It took something like 15-20 minutes for the reports to process and run, but only 20 seconds of effort on my part. [thumbsup]

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Jerome Holmes
Film Handler

Posts: 35
From: San Jose, Ca
Registered: Nov 2008

posted 12-12-2010 01:17 AM

quote: Robert D Hall
We have used Ticket Pro for the last 14 years its never let us down.

Exactly how big is your theatre that you've never had issues with TPro? 12plex here, been using it for 4 years myself, and find the program is not very reliable. A lot of unimplemented features, system crashes once every 2 weeks...

quote: David E. Nedrow
Yeah, I should take a closer look at TicketPro

My advice is to stay away and get something more reliable unless you're running so few theatres it doesn't matter. It may be a different deal if you're not using their concession system like we do. But we've not had much luck while using both.

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Tom Petrov
Five Guys Lover

Posts: 1121
From: El Paso, TX
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 12-12-2010 02:49 AM

quote: Gordon McLeod
Omniterm is also used by empire and cineplex odeon- galaxy as well as many independents up here

OMNI term in no longer used by Empire or Cineplex. Cineplex abandoned Omniterm in 2005 while Empire used it for a while and since left it as well.

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Ky Boyd
Hey I'm #23

Posts: 314
From: Santa Rosa, CA, USA
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-15-2010 03:40 AM

RTS - its not perfect, but its a good value. Note regardless what POS system you are running, you need to run it on at least the makers minimum required hardware. One of the problems RTS has with the upgrades many of us want is an installed user base using older equipment. RTS has always been very responsive to me in terms of customer support. And it is remotely accessible for reporting and monitoring purposes.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-15-2010 11:55 AM

quote: Ky Boyd
RTS - its not perfect, but its a good value.

I've been disillusioned with the price of it lately. When we got it, it was $250 a year per station. Then a couple years ago it went to $250 for one station, $895 for 2 stations, then $250 per station after that.

The reason for this is obvious -- they know that almost nobody would operate with just one station, but most places would probably use two or more, so it raises the price per station by quite a bit unless you are using a lot of stations.

I wouldn't mind it but there have been no visible upgrades or changes in the last 5 years at least. If I'm going to pay a yearly fee of almost a grand, I'd like to see some work being put into the product.

Quickbooks is doing the same thing though. We use their payroll service at our store, and for years it has included a software upgrade as part of the deal. Now all of a sudden this year, the price is the same but no upgrade.

I guess things are tough all over.

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Jack Ondracek
Film God

Posts: 2348
From: Port Orchard, WA, USA
Registered: Oct 2002

posted 12-15-2010 08:06 PM

quote: Mike Blakesley
I've been disillusioned with the price of it lately. When we got it, it was $250 a year per station. Then a couple years ago it went to $250 for one station, $895 for 2 stations, then $250 per station after that.

True. However, they did take off the charge for credit card processing, and stopped taking part of any "convenience" charge for online sales.

They've also dropped the setup charge that was, until this year, pretty steep.

As for the large 2nd-machine upcharge... My read from them was that jumping from one machine to 2 or more put you into network territory, where more than a few operators are technologically illiterate. As the license fee includes full-time support, I suppose they need to pay for the help somehow.

I have 8 licensed machines & several others on the network. I look at the annual charge the same way I do xenon bulbs & other booth supplies.

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Mike Blakesley
Film God

Posts: 12767
From: Forsyth, Montana
Registered: Jun 99

posted 12-15-2010 09:13 PM

I get your point about the networking. But, once you're set up, you're probably set up. I would much rather pay once and then pay for a service call if necessary. I've only had to call their help line twice in all the years we've had this system and I'm no network expert by any means.

quote: Jack Ondracek
However, they did take off the charge for credit card processing

That's good, because the rates from Mercury Pay are ridiculous. We've been taking cards for 2 years and have never paid an RTS fee for it.

The worst part of Mercury is the $14.95 per month charge to print and mail me a 2 page statement. (No, you can't opt out of it as far as I've been able to tell) And, there is a big annual "maintenance" fee, $90 or something like that. Counting those, our monthly CC charges run over 5%, which is way more than the industry average. So if RTS added their own fees on, it probably wouldn't be worth it to take cards.

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David E. Nedrow
Master Film Handler

Posts: 368
From: Columbus, OH, USA
Registered: Oct 2008

posted 12-16-2010 09:20 AM

quote: Jack O.
However, they did take off the charge for credit card processing, and stopped taking part of any "convenience" charge for online sales.

They dropped the $1000/year fee to use an existing CC processor? That was the biggest reason I never pulled the trigger on RTS. I din't like feeling as though I was being extorted into using Mercury Pay.

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