Ten minutes of 'it's in my email somewhere'
At the gate on a bank holiday, a visitor holds up a phone with a cracked screen. The scanner beeps red. The member of staff tries again, then types the ticket number by hand. The next visitor cannot find the email and is searching their inbox with a child pulling their arm. Behind them, the scanner on the second lane shows 'no connection' because the Wi-Fi at the gate hut is patchy when the car park fills with phones.
Then a ticket scans as 'already used'. The visitor is adamant they have not been in. It turns out they forwarded it to a relative who printed it and came earlier.
Why scanning fails
Each failure has a different cause, and most are outside the scanner itself: phone screens, ticket email delivery, network coverage at the gate, the way tickets are formatted and how duplicates are handled.
Because the failures are handled in the moment, nobody records what went wrong. The general impression is 'the scanners are rubbish', which may not be the real problem.
Fallbacks are often slow. Looking up a booking by name may mean a staff member leaving the gate to use the office computer.
Network dependence is a common hidden cause. Many scanners check each ticket online, so a weak signal on the busiest day, when everyone in the car park is on their phone, slows every scan.
What scanning failures cost
| Cause | Effect at the gate |
|---|---|
| Dim or cracked screens | Repeated scans and manual entry |
| Ticket email not received | Visitors searching inboxes in the queue |
| Scanner network drops | Every scan slows or stops |
| Duplicate or forwarded tickets | Arguments about 'already used' |
| Slow manual lookup | Staff leaving the gate to check |
Diagnosing and fixing the gate
We start by finding out which failures actually happen, then fix them in order.
- For a few busy days, failed scans are logged with a reason picked by staff on the scanner or a tablet, alongside the scanner's own logs from your ticketing system.
- Ticket emails are checked for delivery problems, such as being marked as spam, and tickets are offered as a wallet pass for Apple and Google phones where your provider supports it.
- Ticket codes are checked for size and contrast so they scan reliably from a phone at arm's length.
- Where network coverage is the issue, scanners are set to work offline with a downloaded list of today's tickets, syncing when the connection returns, if your system supports it, or the gate's network is improved.
- Staff get a fast lookup on the scanner or a gate tablet by name, email or postcode, so a visitor without the email can be found in seconds.
- 'Already used' scans show when and at which gate the ticket was used, so staff can resolve the conversation quickly and fairly.
Cases we plan for
- Group tickets on one code for several people, scanned once with a count.
- Printed tickets that are folded or faded.
- Visitors who bought through a reseller whose tickets use a different format.
- Tickets for a different date, where the scanner explains rather than simply refusing.
A bank holiday afterwards
Most tickets scan first time from wallet passes. The scanners keep working when the signal drops. A visitor without the email is found by postcode in seconds. An 'already used' ticket shows it went through the side gate an hour ago, and the conversation is short.
- Failures logged, so fixes target real causes
- Tickets that scan reliably from phones
- Scanners that keep working offline
- Fast lookup for visitors without their ticket
Does your gate struggle like this?
- Tickets often fail to scan on busy days.
- Scanners lose connection when the car park fills.
- Visitors search their email at the gate.
- 'Already used' tickets lead to arguments.
- Nobody records why scans fail.