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I wonder if they turn a profit?

I.B. Washincars

I.B. Washincars

Car Washer Emeritus
My wife has been in her home town for the last few days. She decided her car needed washing and pulled into a car wash, planning to run through the automatic. The wash menu had washes priced up to $10, the ACW was labeled "$1 & $5 bills only"...huh???:confused: She had only a twenty and three ones...strike one! She decided she would just use her CC. She got it out of her purse and then realized there was no place to put the card...strike two! Oh well, she just decided she would change those three ones and give it a quick spritz in a SS bay. She tried valiantly to change those ones, only to have the bill changer do the in-out, in-out, in-out on all of them...strike three! :mad:

Good grief! What's wrong with people. She had $23 and credit cards and couldn't wash her car! I bet the owners tell people that this is a tough business, just no money in it. :(
 
I.B. Washincars said:
Oh well, she just decided she would change those three ones and give it a quick spritz in a SS bay. She tried valiantly to change those ones, only to have the bill changer do the in-out, in-out, in-out on all of them...strike three! :mad:

Good grief! What's wrong with people. :(
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I.B. Washincars,

Hmmm ... let's visualize a different scenario than your wife's "good grief" Charlie Brown situation. Let's say your wife would have had ... 10 to 15 dollar coins in her purse or her vehicle ... which would only weigh right around 3 ounces (less than a fourth of a pound). Let's also say that the ACW & self serve accepted dollar coins. Does her bank have a no cost to her to use an ATM machine? ... let's say the ATM gave out five dollar bills like ours has done from our very trouble free over 3 year old ATM.:)

mike
 
mjwalsh said:
I.B. Washincars,

Hmmm ... let's visualize a different scenario than your wife's "good grief" Charlie Brown situation. Let's say your wife would have had ... 10 to 15 dollar coins in her purse or her vehicle ... which would only weigh right around 3 ounces (less than a fourth of a pound). Let's also say that the ACW & self serve accepted dollar coins. Does her bank have a no cost to her to use an ATM machine? ... let's say the ATM gave out five dollar bills like ours has done from our very trouble free over 3 year old ATM.:)

mike
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5414660_8716bf615a.jpg
 
I see it almost daily in the Car wash, Laundromat and Arcade industry. The owners don’t seem to understand how important it is for them to easily accept their customer’s money. I’ve got a few validator customers who know this and they will replace there validator every 2 -3 years. They keep them in good condition so they can use them as a trade in. I’ve got a few customers who won’t spend a dime on any repairs, maintenance, upgrades etc. until they don’t work anymore and then there PO’d because they’ve got this big bill. I had a bill validator come in last month it had never been serviced or upgraded in 13 years, I’m surprised it still worked sort of. I got a call last week from a guy looking for an Recon ER-60 Hopper, he said that he’d gotten broken into and they stole his Hopper when pried open the changer. When I told him how much a recon ER-60 Hopper would cost him he about choked. I asked him how much he was planning to spend and he told me about $40 total including shipping. Even the reliable Mars/MEI validators need to be serviced occasionally. I get them in all the time so filthy there just a mess to work on. When you open them up and the white rollers look like snow tires you know it’s been neglected. I could go on and on.
 
Randy,

Since our facility definitely qualifies for all three of your industry examples ... including our heavily used & profitable dollar coin accepting height positioning video game ... I should weigh in a bit.

I don't believe any of us want to encourage operators who are not adjusting properly for inflation both to the equipment & maintenance of equipment including the equipment that accepts our payments. However there are for a percentage of smaller operators (which our country needs) factors .... such as poor legal guidelines &/or inadequate enforcement that does not help any. Putting our pricing too high partly because of whatever expenses out of our control including extra not always necessary payment method costs ... most certainly will affect the overall volumes of washing within our industry. Are you guys also getting hit pretty hard on property taxes?

Along with many other operators we should believe in structuring payment methods a bit like better government taxing ways that does not eat into our sometimes already low margin of profit quite as severely. Apparently, some of our fellow forum operators are having trouble understanding & finding ways to apply that concept.

P.S. BTW ... We are getting some of your more frequent Seattle-Tacoma weather today here in Bismarck with 100% chance of rain.

mike walsh http://kingkoin.com/USA_Deficit_Reduction.html
 
They must have been using the rowe validator if it was rejected so many times.
Maybe they didn't have the 3 grand or whatever it costs for their cc swiper.
In a rough economy it hasn't been that easy for a lot of operator . I believe 30-40 % have gone out of business so I feel kind of sorry for those in an area that has a tougher time . Maybe this operator wasn't really trying but, was thinking of all the money I have spent over the years buying crappy Rowe and Hamilton validators, until I got Mars conversions for both .
I think that if we had copied the Canadians and had a $1 and $2 coin. Especially the $2 coin we all could have made a lot more money.
 
I.B. Washincars said:
The wash was in Indiana, so I don't know if you are joking or not :confused:
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http://www.autocareforum.com/showthread.php?8766-Retrofit-Bill-Validator&p=65508#post65508

Based on #5 of the above post (one of many of Indiana's worthwhile posts) ... I think that "Indiana" has had & continues to have a great sense of humor! If it was him ... he is being more gracious than some of us who might be tempted to prop ourselves up based on that isolated incident that happened on what might have been a pretty rough day for both him & your wife included.

mike walsh http://www.kingkoin.com/USA_Deficit_Reduction.html
 
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