Opinions on Tokens Only

[seattleguy]

I am curious if anyone on here just dispenses and takes tokens (also accepting paper money). I currently accepts credit cards and cash and dispense toekens but I also accept quarters. Does anyone just accept tokens and not quarters or dollar coins?

 

[pitzerwm]

IMO I would give the customer every opportunity to give you his/her money. With a decent sorter, it isn't much of a problem separating them. If the bank screws you for bringing in "change", find a business that can use them and sell them to them.

 

[seattleguy]

I use a Scan Coin 303 to sort which does a good job. I was thinking of letting someone else collect all the money from the wash and deposit it for me. The things I cannot easily audit are the coin acceptors in the bays and vacs.

I agree withg you it is best to accept as many payment optins as possibel but there is also a balancing act regarding simplicity of processes from operations end. I am sure I would lose a certain amount of business - just not sure how much.

 

[MEP001]

Not many people accept tokens only unless they have severe break-in problems.

To me the biggest problem with accepting tokens only is that you'd need to "train" your customers.

 

[pitzerwm]

Keep in mind that the first person that counts the money is the ONLY one that knows how much it was.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

Personally I would continue to accept quarters and dollar coins. One option might be to have a coin box located by your changers that would dispense tokens for quarters/dollar coins. Then you need only figure out a foolproof auditing system for that one box.

 

[seattleguy]

Personally I would continue to accept quarters and dollar coins. One option might be to have a coin box located by your changers that would dispense tokens for quarters/dollar coins. Then you need only figure out a foolproof auditing system for that one box.

That is a great idea.

 

[Waxman]

I started out as tokens only and it was a mistake.

People are still of the mindset that all self serve carwashes take quarters. You cannot change that, so it is a fact that a certain amount of sales will be lost if you do not take quarters.

You could ask customers to take their quarters, buy tokens with them then walk back to the bay to insert tokens and wash. However: we are in the SERVICE business and asking the customer to take that extra step will be perceived as a pain in the ar$e by the customer. Please trust me on this.

I say collect all money yourself or get cameras on everything close up and watch them at random as your 'audit'.

Take quarters and tokens in the bays. Been there, done that, made the mistake and corrected it. Also you can find a bank to cash in quarters at no cost to you. My bank wanted to charge me a fee to use the coinstar and I asked them to waive the fee and they did.

 

[mjwalsh]

The things I cannot easily audit are the coin acceptors in the bays and vacs.

Seattleguy & others,

Keeping the coin factor should be an opportunity for a hardware-software add on entrepreneur for our coin boxes for a no-brainer straightforward tracking & logging process. One that requires almost no intervention. That would make the coins more attractive & when the credit card transactions get lost like has been honestly acknowledged before --- the operator would have more evidence to work with.

It seems like if you had a unscrupulous token gatherers --- they might still find away to convert the tokens for customers for a discount with them keeping the cash! You know gang members sworn to secrecy amongst themselves creating a bit of an untraceable racket on the side.

MJ

 

[Ghetto Wash]

The things I cannot easily audit are the coin acceptors in the bays and vacs.

I have someone collect the $$ at my lowest volume location. I started with that one with the intentions of spreading to the rest if it worked. It has worked, I just haven't gotten around to expanding the program. I balance at the end of every month and when I did it myself for a while it balanced down the the last quarter. With someone else doing it, it is always within $5 for the month and usually within $1.

I installed non resettable electromechanical counters on each bay and vac. I had to use a GS-17 from Ginsan to get them to interface correctly. About $50 total per vac or bay. Now the only way they can cheat is to unhook the counters, let the vac or bay accept $$ for a while, hook the counter back up and keep the unaccounted for $$. I think I could find a way to lock the counters and wiring so they could not be unhooked, but so far I don't believe it has been a problem for me.

McMaster Carr part no. 1876T79 I think.

 

[Ghetto Wash]

Just had one other thought..........

Most of my bays and all of the Fragramatics vacs have IDX timers that I can access the coin count with my programmer. I tried that for a while, but it was a pain in the butt so I went with the electromechinacal counters.

 

[seattleguy]

Just had one other thought..........

Most of my bays and all of the Fragramatics vacs have IDX timers that I can access the coin count with my programmer. I tried that for a while, but it was a pain in the butt so I went with the electromechinacal counters.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[MEP001]

I installed non resettable electromechanical counters on each bay and vac. I had to use a GS-17 from Ginsan to get them to interface correctly. About $50 total per vac or bay. Now the only way they can cheat is to unhook the counters, let the vac or bay accept $$ for a while, hook the counter back up and keep the unaccounted for $$. I think I could find a way to lock the counters and wiring so they could not be unhooked, but so far I don't believe it has been a problem for me.

I did the same thing, except I used a tiny Omron relay that cost about $12 each. It took some time, but I soldered each connection at the relay, cut all the wires just long enough to reach between the relay and the counter and covered it all with heat-shrink tubing. If someone were to try and disconnect the wires, they'd have to cut them, then they'd be too short to hook back up again, plus I used a tubing color I had to special order.