SOS!! Credit/Fleet card systems for multi-sites?? Work in a Hamilton auto-teller?

[GregF]

My site mgr walked into the equipment room at one of our two locations this morning to find a rain forest with water spewing all over from a broken hose. It got our PDQ Laserwash360 control box causing that system to malfunction, but we may have that issue resolved with a new node board that we'll be picking up shortly. HOWEVER, the wet environment apparently caused the motherboard in the computer that's used to run our credit card system to shoot craps. And, upon further investigation by the local computer repair shop, the hard drive is apparently bad, too. So, we need a new computer, but we also need the carwash software from our vendor to load onto it, or we just need to get a computer overnighted to us from our vendor with the software already loaded (which the vendor said he keeps on hand in case of emergency). So... answer's easy, right? Call the vendor and get it shipped!! Not so fast. Our vendor rarely answers his phone or responds to message in a timely manner. Not even completely certain he's really still in the business since he's mentioned other things that he's been doing the last few times my site mgr has talked to him, and we haven't gotten a response from our calls and texts to him today.

So... this just may be the catalyst that causes us to have to make the leap to a different wash mgmt. system. Any recommendations for a system that can merge data between two sites (for fleet card management) and that will operate in a Hamilton ACW? Ideally, it would also be able to track all of the sales data and provide auditing info for each bay. And it would also be ideal if it could be tied into the PLC modules and card readers that are already installed in all of the bays. Both of our sites have 1 automatic and 5 self-serve bays.

Thanks in advance for any advice!!

 

[GregF]

Also, we would want a "count-up" system in the self-serve bays.

 

[cantbreak80]

Sounds like a job for http://washcard.com/self-service-car-wash

BTW...your vendor's name isn't Paul...is it?

 

[BBE]

A few years ago Lisa Lyons turned us onto a small company who has since grown more popular. They make a system called "wash remote" It's a combination on site system manager and credit card acceptor. It uses broadband for credit card acceptance. The cc swipers are the same ones as found on a redbox unit. They are retro fittable to pretty much any paystation and timer. We have them on our wash select II's. As well our dixmor timers in the bays. They are capable of count up or count down in the bays.

Aside from that, there are also a ton of other stuff you can do with it. We have both gift cards and fleet cards going with it. We ask local businesses if they want to open up a fleet account with us. They are issued as many cards as they want, and all the cards accrue a monthly balance on their account.

There is also a loyalty program built in as well. This registers the customers name, as well as the last 4 numbers on their credit card. Everytime they use the same credit card at your location, they rack up rewards. For instance every 10th swipe is a free carwash. Or every wednesday is 20 percent off, etc..

The site manager portion of it lets you monitor outputs. Your air compressor, bill changers, each automatic, etc.. You can manually turn equipment on/off from your cell phone, computer, etc.. Nice for being able to arm a wash for someone in the automatic from wherever you are to give a rewash.

All in all, we've been really pleased with it. The support has been really good too. If you are interested check out the website. www.washremote.com If you get in touch with Brian for more info. Tell him Eric up in Michigan sent you

 

[GregF]

Thank you! It sounds like both of those are potentially good options!

No, the vendor's name isn't Paul. I did get a response from my vendor, and it sounds like he may be able to get a solution shipped to us on Saturday, but we'll see... I'll definitely be checking out these other two options.