Howler Cashless system Vendors **** you

I recently went to the 5FM NYE party in Cape Town called Summer Secrets. On arrival we found out they were using howler cashless card service, where a patron will load on money on the card which will be used to pay for drinks and food.

Sounded like a real cool concept and was excited to know that the cues and lines would go faster when ordering drinks. I went to the bar to buy 2x Coronas @ R45ea and a bottle of water, the bartender quickly served me my drinks, I gave her my Howler card she put it in the machine and gave it back to me. Without taking note and knowing the price of the drinks I didn't second guess what was going on. Later on I went to get a 2x burger for R75ea, after that I tried to get some water to find out I had no more money left on my card. I went to howler vendors to discover that my card had R60 left on it. I initially loaded on R500 on my card, my sister who was with my also got a howler card and was also out of money after 2 rounds of drink which consisted of the same rounds.

I later discovered that the bar tenders were over charging the patrons and adding on tips, I paid R270 for 2 Coronos and a water, my sister paid similar amounts. The bar staff do not show you the amounts on the hand held devices and when you request it they get abit "****y"

I reloaded my card twice and my sister reloaded her card 3 times that evening, I was really upset on how the whole system works, it doesn't even SMS you when money goes off your card, you can never truly know how much you are being charged and I believe that we weren't the only patrons at that event who were ****med when buying drinks. The card system has its perks but can be abused even more easily then the bar staff *****ing cash, the system should sms the user after each purchase, how much they paid and how much the tip was and which vendor and ID put through the sale, this way patrons will know if they are being ****med by vendors.

This I believe is a huge shortfall for cashless services.