Cash acceptance in bays?

[mjc3333]

It would also make keeping up with the changers less stressful as I have to fill them daily during the summer and sometimes twice on real busy days.

You must not keep many quarters in your changers or you have the smallest hoppers in the world to have to re-fill them twice a day during a busy day. Or you have more people getting change that do not wash say from a convenience store grocery store or Laundromat customers

 

[mjc3333]

The bill acceptors in the bays are slowly being phased out here as they are destroyed or damaged. Too much of a target for vandalism, thieves etc. I watched a surveillance video of 2 guys popping open a high end coin box with a bill accepter in it, I could’t believe how easy it was. The best thing to do is to add credit card acceptance in the bays. I don’t know of to many people who don’t have debit card or a credit card. I was reading in one of the coin laundry magazines that the average 25 year old only carries around $2.25 in his pocket, but carries both debit and credit card.

I totally agree! Dollar bills in the bays are perceived as "more" valuable than their coin counterpart. The type of person that would ultimately try to break into your coin box has this twisted view. Even though $ is $.

Even if you empty your boxes everyday, you will still get some idiot trying to break into the coin / dollar box. Once they destroy the bill validator, you are out $500 + dollars to repair and replace the validator and box damage +.

I debated this dollar bill acceptance to CC acceptance for many years and went with CC acceptance along with the coins. No bills.

CC are easy to use vs coin and or bills. CC $ per customer is much greater.

Imagine trying to feed the bill acceptor with wet money from your wet hands and the acceptor keeps rejecting the bill while the time is running down?

I would rather see $1 coins some quarters and CC only. Less trouble, less cost, and more revenue (CC).

 

[slash007]

You must not keep many quarters in your changers or you have the smallest hoppers in the world to have to re-fill them twice a day during a busy day. Or you have more people getting change that do not wash say from a convenience store grocery store or Laundromat customers

The hoppers are not that large, they are hamilton single hoppers. My other wash has Rowe double hoppers that fit much more. Plus the location is easy to access so alot of people do take change and not use the wash. The changers are up front right off of the road so a lot of people just pull up, take change and leave. Also a lot of people get more change than they use, so that is a factor as well.

 

[Randy]

Randy,

I would say before I would go to 100% electronic payment I would focus in 1. Making the coin box more time consuming to break into. 2. Make the on call or attendant person able to respond quicker with improved electronic triggers to cell communication integrated within the coin box. 3. Consider possibly locking up completely during the most vulnerable nightime hours.

mike

Mike,
I don’t think we’d ever go 100% electronic payment, we still build coin every day. We pull money every day. There isn’t a car wash around here that has an attendant on duty, it’s not profitable to have an attended car wash here. The response time of the police is a joke!!! The car washes in town when something happens and you call the police they give you a case number and tell you to go on line and file a police report, that’ll be the last you’ll hear from them. The car wash out in the rural area, small town of 4500 the police will come out but they won’t do much. At that car wash in 2011 I had the police out 21 times, last year I had them out only 18 times so crime is now on the down turn, so far this year I’ve had them out 4 times.

 

[Randy]

That was one of the reasons I went with a seperate Bill acceptor box. Figured that if it was attacked the regular boz would still be operable. Also, it would be a seperate item I could secure. So far no issues with the Etowah box.

Earl,
What’s the address of the car wash that you have these coin boxes installed? I’ll stop by and pop a few open next time I'm in the area. I can pop those boxes open faster than a 14 year old can pop a zit

 

[Randy]

The hoppers are not that large, they are hamilton single hoppers. My other wash has Rowe double hoppers that fit much more. Plus the location is easy to access so alot of people do take change and not use the wash. The changers are up front right off of the road so a lot of people just pull up, take change and leave. Also a lot of people get more change than they use, so that is a factor as well.

What model Hamilton changer do you have? The smallest is the ER-60 that Hopper will hold 2400 quarters or $600 and the larger Hopper will hold 4800 quarters or $1200. If you‘ve got an old Game plan Hopper that looks like a cement mixer God only knows how many coins it will hold, they went out production in the late 80’s. If you’ve got a problem with people using you as a bank you can always go to Tokens or Dollar coins.

 

[mjc3333]

Earl,
What’s the address of the car wash that you have these coin boxes installed? I’ll stop by and pop a few open next time I'm in the area. I can pop those boxes open faster than a 14 year old can pop a zit

So true! Unless you truly fortify the coin / dollar bill box / coin vault, you are asking for trouble at one point in time.

All the cameras , alarms, or attendants in the world will not stop someone high on crack from trying to break in.

Nothing is theft proof. By fortifying the box / vaults, you may be able to deter some of the break ins.

By fortifying the box; this would involve multiple locks of all types, multiple doors (coverings), pouring the box into the wall itself with rebar that goes from the floor to the ceiling that is solid concrete, having a sacrificial first door/lock that is alarmed to you and the police. The list could go on and on.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Earl,
What’s the address of the car wash that you have these coin boxes installed? I’ll stop by and pop a few open next time I'm in the area. I can pop those boxes open faster than a 14 year old can pop a zit

As I said, figured I could always ad more security if it became an issue.

Maybe "Put in Jail" as I saw in texas.

 

[Earl Weiss]

So far that sounds like my best bet. I will look into adding a separate box which would also give me the space to add cc later if I chose to. Which box did you guys go with? What was the cost?

http://www.etowahvalleyequipment.com/bayboxes.html

Scroll down about halfway. "Prices starting at $689.95". Added a themostat and heater to mine.

 

[6t7gto]

Slashh007,
What denomination of bills are you changing?
I accept $1 and $5 bills only.

 

[slash007]

Slashh007,
What denomination of bills are you changing?
I accept $1 and $5 bills only.

I accept everything from 1-20. I should probably change that to accept only 1-10. I need to check the model of the Hamilton's I have, I think they only hold about $350-400.

 

[Randy]

As I said, figured I could always ad more security if it became an issue.

Maybe "Put in Jail" as I saw in texas.

Earl, I caught 2 guys in the act of breaking into one of my car wash vaults at 0835. What do you think they were charged with?

 

[Kevin Reilly]

Since 1992 everything we have ever purchased that has to do with coins, tokens or dollars we double up on with a security cage around everything with various locking devices. Yes they can get into them, but it will take them time.

This week I will shoot some photos and show you what we have done to secure our changers, coin boxes and vendors!

 

[Earl Weiss]

Earl, I caught 2 guys in the act of breaking into one of my car wash vaults at 0835. What do you think they were charged with?

I have seen a wide range of stuff depending on locale. Could range from criminal damage to property to burglary.

 

[Kevin Reilly]

This is how we secure our Coin box: Picture 1 shows the head of the SS Ralock bar is buried in 3/16 Stainless.
Pic 2 shows the shroud around the Locking device. Key is inserted from below and screwed out. They have tried to get into the box but never made it. There is also a WB lock hidden above it They have tried to chew thru the right side and have tried to bend down the left side. to no avail. These are Adams boxes and I'd love to replace them, but not yet!

 

[Kevin Reilly]

Picture 1 shows 1 side of our vendor island at this location.

Picture 2 our Combo Vacs and they came with 3 cam locks. This is how we secured them. Below the bottom bar is the coin drawer which has a lock from the inside. The shield around that outside portion is 3/16 Stainless & tig welded onto the front bottom portion.

 

[Kevin Reilly]

Another vendor island at the car wash that we added the 85W CFL's to: In 2007 2 guys stole the whole vendor island @ 4a.m. It had to sound like a train wreck. We used 2x2x1/4 tubing for the uprights and they cut thru that and the electrical that made sparks. They then drove a pickup on the sidewalk and pushed the whole thing over into the truck bed. We had a video and we got a shot showing 3 sides of a face like a mug shot from our cameras and nailed him.
It was a $13,000. dollar loss and the police said that the D.A. wasn't going to prosecute. I threatened to go to the newspaper they picked him up, booked him and he got 5 years "probation" and told to make restitution. Haven't seen anything yet.

 

[Kevin Reilly]

The above photos show you how we secure everything that we have in our washes. You can imagine what it is to "empty out" but we've gotten pretty efficient knowing our keys for the locations. We also have mini cameras in all of our changers and some of the vendors.

as I've said, we live in a rough neighborhood!

 

[mjwalsh]

It was a $13,000. dollar loss and the police said that the D.A. wasn't going to prosecute. I threatened to go to the newspaper they picked him up, booked him and he got 5 years "probation" and told to make restitution. Haven't seen anything yet.

Kevin,

I think every neighborhood has its challenges. Even here in Bismarck ... since the serious influx of people from high unemployment states ... looking & somewhat finding work but also experiencing the reality of really tough to find housing. Believe me, we see are seeing those (mostly men) at our laundry, car n dog wash neighborhood. We try not to give them an excuse to see us as the enemy ... we have actually seen some of them help protect the place which is encouraging.

Since law enforcement & deterrents is being somewhat brought up in this thread ... I got to thinking about your 13K claim & what might have made our community better that way in the past ... is a high profile past volunteer coach - mayor & top citizen legislator who was also a local top insurance executive. The point is ... having people in a position & who are willing to exert political pressure in the right way does make a difference in terms of addressing those problems. If we could only get to those 50% of people who never bother to vote. Not just more police is the best either.

mike walsh king koin of bismarck

 

[slash007]

I was wrong about my hoppers, they are not Hamilton. They are actually made my American Changer Corp and are pretty small.