Eftpos barrier trips up Force

By RICHARD WOOD

Village Force Cinemas' online and phone booking service at its Queen St complex highlights issues bedevilling ecommerce for the mass market.

On Thursday, Village opened its Seat Smart service for online and phone bookings using eftpos or credit card payment.

While the system does work with credit cards, it has distinct limitations on the eftpos front.

A credit card payment over the phone concludes a sale but, for security reasons, banks do not allow eftpos transactions to be completed on the phone or online.

Seat Smart users who book seats using an eftpos card still have to complete the transaction with their pin number at an eftpos terminal at the cinema 30 minutes before the movie begins.

Joanne Watts, Village Force chief operating officer, described the service as a "registration system" - using the eftpos card number to provide a booking reference and identifier.

She said doing complete eftpos transactions would be ideal, but talks with banks about using pin numbers online had not been successful.

"We've been told different things by different banks for three months. We need the authority from them that they believe it is secure enough."

Existing eftpos terminals use a secure dial-up network to maintain the integrity of the transactions.

"It is a new customer service and we've recognised that more of our customers have eftpos cards than credit cards," Watts said.

Customers using eftpos bookings join a pickup queue. Their eftpos card number brings up the booking.

Seat Smart users can book specific cinema seats for selected viewings by phone or via www.village.co.nz for an additional 50c.

Seat Smart was built by Vista Entertainment Solutions - a joint venture between Village and local IT provider Infinity Solutions.

Village still has a fee-free automated phone booking service using credit cards that does not allocate specific seats.

Watts said customers found that service laborious, and vandals had torpedoed a kiosks trial. Village plans to extend Seat Smart to Newmarket and West City after the trial.