Troubleshooting Issues with Notices

Occasionally, patrons may report not having received an automatic noticed from Polaris.  This document contains suggestions for determining the cause of the issue.

Please review the Polaris Notification Schedule.  If activity occurs in Polaris that makes a notice no longer necessary, Polaris will remove it from the queue. For instance, if a patron checks out a hold or returns an overdue item before the notice job runs.

When a Patron Doesn't Receive a Notice

Check the Patron's Account:

• In the patron's account, check that the notice appears
  • Client: Patron Status, under the "General" tab (the red "G")
  • Leap: Patron's account, under "Notices"
• If the notice is listed in this table, that usually indicates that Polaris did send a notice to the patron. 
  • Selecting a particular notice will open all notices (1st Overdue, 2nd Overdue, etc.) related to the item.
• If the notice is not listed, it's a good indication that Polaris did not sending anything to the patron
• In Patron Registration, ensure that the Notification Option is set correctly and that the patron is not excluded from receiving any notices ("Exclude from Notices and Reminders").
  • If any boxes are checked, the patron will not receive that notice type

Check Reports in Polaris

• Check the Delivery Failure Reports in Polaris
  
  • Email Delivery Failure Report
  • Phone Delivery Failure Report
  • TXT Delivery Failure Report
• These reports typically list notices where the contact information is incorrectly formatted or the recipient rejected the message.

Hold notices will not go out if the item is no longer on hold (patron has already picked up the item). 
Overdue/Almost Overdue notices will not go out if the item is no longer checked out.

Issues with Phone Notices

Check the patron's account

• Ensure that the phone number is formatted correctly. Hyphens are ok, as are parentheses around the area code. Extensions or letters cannot be used in the phone number.

Issues with Email Notices

Check Reports from Polaris

• Check the Summary report that is emailed to each library as notices are sent out.
  • This report will list all patrons that were sent messages for each run of the notices job.

Verify Settings with the Patron

• Ask the patron to check their spam/junk folder and email settings to confirm that the email client is not blocking incoming messages.
• Suggest that the patron add the library's email address to their contacts list:
  • Fountaindale: help@fountaindale.org
  • Joliet: circjpl@jolietlibrary.org
  • Lemont: circnotices@lemontlibrary.org
  • Plainfield: bws@papl.info
  • Shorewood: circnotices@shorewoodtroylibrary.org
  • White Oak: circ@whiteoaklibrary.org
• Send a test eReceipt to the patron to ensure that they can receive notices from Polaris.
  • In Patron Registration, change the eReceipt option to Email
  • Check out or renew an item
  • The patron should receive an email within a few seconds.

Issues with TXT Notices

Check the Patron's Account

• Ensure that the phone number is formatted correctly. Hyphens are ok, as are parentheses around the area code. Extensions or letters cannot be used in the phone number.
• Verify the patron's cell phone carrier using FreeCarrierLookup.

Check Reports From Polaris

• Check the Summary report that is emailed to each library as notices are sent out.
  • This report will list all patrons that were sent messages for each run of the notices job.
    

Verify Settings with the Patron

• Ask the patron to contact their phone carrier to determine if they have filters set up to block automated messages.
• Check that the patron could receive texts when the message was sent. If the patron was roaming, had a full inbox, or is on a metered plan, receipt of the message could fail.
• Send a test eReceipt to ensure that the patron can receive notices from Polaris.
  • In Patron Registration, change the eReceipt option to TXT.
  • Check out or renew an item.
  • The patron should receive a TXT within a few seconds

When Escalating an Issue

When all steps have been taken and the patron is sure that they should have received a notice, the issue should be escalated to a Supervisor or to Pinnacle Staff.

When escalating an issue, please make sure to supply:

• The patron's information
• The steps already taken to determine the problem
• The specific notification and title(s) that the patron should have received
• Whether or not the patron has received other notices before or after this incident.