Mobile ordering outage affects multiple dining halls
Pictured is Rendezvous West, one of the dining halls that was scheduled to transition to mobile ordering this year. (Daily Bruin file photo)
By Dylan Winward
Sept. 25, 2023 4:31 p.m.
This post was updated Oct. 5 at 12:57 p.m.
UCLA Dining’s mobile ordering faced systemwide outages earlier today, preventing students from ordering.
The Transact Mobile Ordering app allows students to order food using their meal plans from UCLA’s takeout dining halls, including The Study at Hedrick, Rendezvous and Bruin Café. The university planned to move all takeout dining options to mobile ordering starting this fall, with mobile ordering operational at Rendezvous and The Study during move-in weekend.
[Related: UCLA Dining to expand mobile ordering to all takeout dining locations]
The transition to mobile ordering was designed to reduce line congestion and help students order food in advance, according to a UCLA Dining statement from earlier this year.
In an emailed statement, a UCLA Dining spokesperson said the outage was caused by capacity issues with the BruinCard servers because of the high volume of transactions since move-in. They added that UCLA has added more staff and payment stations during the outage.
“While the BruinCard office works on a permanent solution, we will be suspending Transact Mobile ordering for all mobile ordering areas for one week, from Monday, September 25th to Saturday, September 30th,” they said in the statement.
An Oct. 5 statement from UCLA Dining said the server issues have since been resolved and mobile ordering will be phased back into dining operations. The statement added that mobile ordering will be reintroduced at Epicuria at Ackerman on Oct. 10, Bruin Cafe on Oct. 11, The Study at Hedrick on Oct. 12 and Rendezvous on Oct. 13.
On Sept 25., students at The Study were told to order food with a staff member at the market section rather than doing so through the Transact app. All mobile ordering options on the app currently display a message stating that the service is unavailable and advising students to visit the dining hall in person.
According to the UCLA IT Services website, the outage will require a fix with the vendor that runs the Transact app. The website also said mobile ordering will likely be unavailable until at least Tuesday.
“This impacts Housing and Hospitality Dining Services customers,” the UCLA IT Services website said. “IT Services is aware of the issue and is working toward a resolution.”
