A glitch in the system between Wilf’s and the OneCard office meant that last semester many students’ accounts were not immediately charged for their purchases.
After the problem was discovered in December, the charges were put through in early January.
There is currently a $3,000 deficit that has not been recovered, as students who were unaware of the charges that did not go through may now have insufficient funds to pay off the total amount owed.
“We don’t know if it is going to be recoverable, we feel that it might not be,” said general manager of the Wilfrid Laurier University Students’ Union Mike McMahon.
“If it appears that somebody visited … where they didn’t know they didn’t have any money and they are still probably unaware that anything was amiss … those types of people I don’t think we will be following up with.”
McMahon explained that in a situation where a certain student number is recorded visiting the restaurant on several occasions, despite knowingly having no funds, they may conduct a follow-up, as they have student numbers and signatures from all transactions, even if they did not go through at the OneCard office.
Despite uncovering the problem over the Christmas break and charging the student accounts in January, students were not notified that there was ever a problem with the system or that they would be charged all at once for the transactions they believed to have already been processed.
“There isn’t a feasible way to notify students that there was a problem with our system. The students dined weren’t charged while they were there and then were charged at the first possible opportunity,” said McMahon.
The union is now looking into making sure that the system is working correctly to ensure that there are no further problems of this nature.
“What we’re trying to do right now is ensure that the integrity of the point of sale system is secure,” said McMahon.
“We’ve had great follow-ups from our technology partners … and we believe that the problem is fixed.”
