Guapo's Tortilla Shack Refuses to Suffer in Silence When POS Company Is Unresponsive

A restaurant on Cape Cod lost thousands of dollars last week when its point-of-sale systems failed, causing problems for customers placing orders and putting strain on the staff, according to the Cape Cod Times. Guapo's Tortilla Shack in Orleans was left high and dry Thursday night when its ordering and credit card payment methods crashed. Initial efforts to get help from Oracle Hospitality and Upserve, the companies behind the system, were unsuccessful.

"Financially we took a hit, and our staff took a hit," Guapo's owner Kyle Parker told Eater on Tuesday.

Parker said he knew of other restaurants that had similar issues, and he reached out to the restaurant's providers for help. Eventually, he launched a social media campaign to get the attention of Oracle Hospitality and Upserve. "I think that that's what inspired us to think outside the box — that so many of my restaurant friends have experienced something similar," he said. The restaurant's employees posted photos on Facebook and sent messages to the companies on Twitter to try to solve the issues.

Thanks to the Twitter activity, Upserve's CEO Angus Davis responded and provided the full support of his IT and tech teams on Saturday night to repair that piece of the puzzle. "Within an hour and a half of Angus reaching out to us, we were up and running with a band aid," Parker said. "Without Angus we would have been dead in the water." But without a fix from Oracle, the system was in danger of crashing again.

On Monday, still without a response, Parker drove to the Oracle's Bedford office to plead his case in person, but he was "invited to leave" since he didn't have an appointment.

"We finally got their attention it seems," he said today, noting that he had just spoken with Oracle and they planned to send someone to assist with the issues.

Parker said he understood that systems do fail.

"That's okay that those things happen, but to go unacknowledged by one of the largest firms in the country, it's outrageous," he said. Parker said he would look into alternatives for the services Oracle currently provides for Guapo's.