Lost and stolen pagers
How to Stop Guests Walking Off With Your Pagers
Most missing pagers aren't stolen. They leave in a coat pocket, get dropped in a bin with a tray, or end up behind a booth cushion. A few settings and a closing count stop most of it.
Stop the losses this week
- 1
Turn on the out-of-range alert, if your system has one
JTECH IQ pagers can beep or play a voice when carried out of range and stop when they come back. It ships switched off.
- 2
Count pagers at open and close
Every pager back on the charger at close means a missing one shows up the same night, while the guest is still easy to identify.
- 3
Use the locate code before you write one off
JTECH IQ: 1249 SEND makes every pager that is off the charger alert, so you can hear the one behind the cushion. Docking them stops it.
- 4
Take the pager back at the hand-off
Make "pager for your food" part of the script at the pass, and put the drop-off point where guests walk past it to leave.
Never use a locate code while pagers are out with guests: every one of them goes off.
What is your pager fleet costing you each year?
The numbers below are rough estimates. Change them to what you actually pay.
Estimated yearly cost
$660
$270 hardware + $390 staff time
With Bzz, guests scan a QR code and their own phone becomes the pager: a live place-in-line page in the browser that alerts them when it is their turn. There are no pagers to charge, pair or replace.
Free plan to start. Busier venues move to a paid plan, see pricing.
By Michael Estephanous, Head of Customer Success · Updated
Turning on the JTECH IQ out-of-range alert
1.Take all pagers off the charging unit
Or unplug the power supply to the first charging rack.
2.Enter setup
SETUP, 1379, ENTER, then scroll with * to Out of Range.
3.Press #/Select to toggle, then ENTER
Test by walking a pager out of the door: it should alert, then stop when you bring it back.
Finding a pager that is on the charger
On a Retekess T112, type a pager's number and press CALL: that pager flashes red three times, so staff hand out the right one instead of grabbing whichever is nearest.
What the losses cost
Use the calculator above with your own numbers. As a reference point, WebstaurantStore listed a single LRS Guest Pager Pro at $49.99 in November 2026, so a handful of missing coasters a year adds up quickly.
Symptom → likely fix
- Count is short at close
- Run the locate code (pagers off the charger alert) before anyone leaves.
- Pagers vanish from the patio
- Turn on the out-of-range alert so the pager beeps as it leaves.
- Wrong pager handed out
- T112: number + CALL makes that pager flash three times on the charger.
- Pagers thrown out with trays
- Put the drop-off point before the bin, and collect at the pass.
Pagers drop out in some parts of the room? Estimate how far your system really reaches with the pager range checker.
Sources
Settings and codes come from the manufacturers' documentation; the counting and hand-off tips are general practice. Bzz is not affiliated with any pager maker.