Mack Converse, a first-year, does his laundry for free in Stanton Hall while the eSuds system is down. (KATHRYN ANDERSON | The Miami Student)
Students may have enjoyed a week of free laundry in February if they got their timing right.
Problems with the eSuds program prompted the university to change the price of laundry after receiving an increased number of complaints about the eSuds payment system.
"That's not the service level we want to provide," Stacy George, director of residential support services, said. "Students have to do their laundry."
According to Steve Thole, director of business systems and technology, problems with the eSuds system began to escalate October 2009. While problems did not occur every time a student did laundry, many students began reporting that when they swiped their student identification cards with the eSuds machine, they received a "network error" message and were unable to use the machine. Students using coins were still able to do laundry.
According to Thole, the eSuds program is run by USA Technologies located in Pennsylvania. They provided the school with the eSuds card swipes and run the system that allows students to check online to see when their laundry has finished. For this system to work, the USA Technologies server that contains the information about the washers and dryers must be able to communicate with the servers on campus that contain the information about student MUlaa accounts. If this communication is interrupted, a "network error" may appear.
At first, the university was not sure what was causing the problem.
"There are lots of other possible errors that can occur," Thole said.
Despite not knowing the cause, the university continued to put up with the problems until late February when complaints seemed to skyrocket.
"It escalated the fact that we were having these issues," George said.
Thole said when complaints increased, the university contacted ASI Campus Laundry Solutions, the company that provides the washers and dryers for the school and who chooses to partner with the USA Technologies eSuds program. They then contacted USA Technologies.
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According to Thole, USA Technologies explained they also work with the Payment Card Industry which includes the major credit cards VISA, MasterCard and American Express. Because of new rules created by the Payment Card Industry, USA Technologies was forced to move all of their servers to a more secure location and it was this move that caused the problems with eSuds.
The university decided there was too many errors keeping the students from being able to do their laundry and removed the charge for laundry on campus. While not all residence halls were affected, George said everyone was able to enjoy free laundry for roughly a period of seven days.
Many were not aware of these problems until the university alerted them either by e-mail, or with signs posted in the laundry rooms.
"I became aware of the eSuds issue through an e-mail from my supervisor which was forwarded from a member of housing, dining, and guest services," Elyse Gambardella, graduate resident director in Richard Hall, said.
Others learned about it through word of mouth, such as senior Melissa Burr who lives in Heritage Commons.
"My friend texted me that laundry was free," Burr said. "I heard it was because the machines were broken, or there was a glitch in the system."
Thole said while it is not something he can predict the possibility of something like this happening again is not out of the question. He also said USA Technologies had assured the university that those problems have been dealt with.
Students are encouraged to report any problems they have with the eSuds program to their residence hall directors.
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