Taking Tokenotes out of circulation?

[Waxman]

I've just raised prices in my IBA. Old pricing was $8,9,10,12. New is $10,12,13,15.

We have always used the Hamilton Tokenotes for the top package. So now they are valued $12 and the top is $15.

I do not want to change the tokenote value to $15 for several reasons. I am thinking I will phase out tokenotes. They are prone to theft and an easy way for a dishonest employee to steal ( I sell them in the detail shop). I intend to switch at some point to a Mars validator because I like their reliability and the fact that they seem to always suck the bill in and keep it in.

Thoughts???

 

[SLEDGE]

We just kept on using the old ones. Just told the customer the upped value and never had a problem.

 

[MEP001]

If the Tokenotes are something that's very popular with your customers, I would think you'd want to keep them. Do you have a lot out in circulation? Do you sell a pack of them at a discount? FWIW if you plan to phase them out after people have purchased them for your top wash, I'd suggest raising their value to $15 so they can continue to use them for the top wash. It's not like your costs have increased because you've raised prices.

You might check with Etowah Valley - I believe he's come up with a way to use Mars coupons with a Hamilton ACW (after I told him how I could do it with a PLC). Their coupons are very expensive unless you buy them in bulk, but it's still an option for you.

You could combat employee theft with Tokenotes/coupons by putting them in your register as cash.

 

[Randy]

How many Tokenotes do you have out in circulation? I would stop giving them out and wait a month or so then turn off the Tokenote acceptance. Yes Mars AE2600 series validator will accept Mars coupons. They are expensive, 1000 $5 off coupons will cost you $750. The major problem with using the Mars coupons is the Mars validator sees them as real cash, if you put in a $5 off coupon and push the refund button you’ll get back $5 in change. Same if you put in $11.75 for a $12 wash followed by $5 Mars coupon, until get change back.
On a side note. In the very near future Mars is going to come out with their new Talos bill validator. Here’s a link to the new Talos validator https://www.cranepi.com/sites/default/files/2019-03/Data Sheet_Talos.pdf they’re not available at this. There has been some talk of Mars discontinuing the AE2600 series validator that is heavily used in the car wash industry.

 

[soapy]

I just raised my prices also. I upped the value of top tokenote to cover the top wash for a while. I like having tokenotes to send for refunds when people don't deserve a cash refund or to make some good will. Radio stations here let me pay half their advertising bill with tokenotes. They then give them away or wash their vehicles with them. Work great for bringing new customers in.

 

[OurTown]

Yes Mars AE2600 series validator will accept Mars coupons. They are expensive, 1000 $5 off coupons will cost you $750. The major problem with using the Mars coupons is the Mars validator sees them as real cash, if you put in a $5 off coupon and push the refund button you’ll get back $5 in change. Same if you put in $11.75 for a $12 wash followed by $5 Mars coupon, until get change back.

This concerns us because we are getting a Unitec Sentinel with a Mars validator and want to pass out coupons (free and reduced) when our remodel is done. We used a car wash that we had a free wash coupon for it. When it was inserted the prices for all wash packages went to $0.00 on the screen so any wash could be selected for free. Was this a different type of coupon? If it matters this was a Unitec Portal TI.

 

[Waxman]

Hmmm good advice! Maybe I will raise value of tokenotes to $15 and continue taking them awhile. There aren’t too many in circulation.

 

[mjwalsh]

I wonder if Earl Weiss or anybody put Etowah Valley's Coinco Vantage Paper Tokens for their IBAs?

Maybe the MEI AE2600 is being discontinued partially because of lack of healthy competition??? Just speculation on my part. We have 8 Coinco Vantages operational plus two spares ... where we use 2 different valued coupons. Just for the 6 wand bays & the 2 dog wash stations.

I have some MEI AE2600s too ... I am not totally convinced that the MEIs AE2600 are that much better. It does make an operator squirm if a big ticket item is discontinued because of possible added future uncertainty?

 

[Randy]

I don’t really think you know “$hit from Shinola” Mars has built over a million AE series validators. The reason Mars is discontinuing the AE2600 validator is they can no longer get the electronic components/parts to build them, this is a huge problem with any company that uses electronic components in their products. I know a couple of companies that have had to redesign there products for this very reason. It’s the same reason Coinco discontinued the Mag series validator, they couldn’t get electronic components to build them and technology changed. The Mars AE series validator is hands down a much better validator than the Coinco Vantage validator. I’ve tossed a lot of Coinco Vantage validators in the dumpster that are just out of warranty because they were too expensive to repair. I wouldn’t call a validator a “big ticket item”