Vac/Vending Dollar bills only

[dewey9876]

I am thinking of going to dollar bills only for my vacs and vending. My Vacs already accept bills so I would just need to replace my vendors with something that would accept bills. I realize some would be concerned with not being able to change prices in quarter increments but that doesn't bother me. Over a year ago I replaced all my Vacs with 3 motor vacs with bill acceptors. When I did this I raised my price from $1.00 for 4 min 30 sec to $2.00 for 5 Min 20 sec. Best move I ever made, doubled vac revenue over night! Now I just want to get rid of the quarters. For some reason people still love to put quarters in the vacs instead of dollar bills. I understand this is not a horrible problem. I also figure I may need to replace my change machine with a bill changer. Thoughts?

 

[Waxman]

i don't think it's a good idea. for one thing, i think the acceptance rate is far higher with coins. lots of people vac in poor weather (vs washing) and wet bills get rejected. the coin counters can count wet coins. there are more parts to foul up in bill acceptors (stackers etc). with bills you'll have more vandalism.

the biggest hurdle, though, is the customers' perception that "vacs take quarters". why fight their ingrained mindset that the vacs should take quarters ("it's like that EVERYWHERE else!!!???").

remember; just because YOU think it's a good idea doesn't mean the customer will embrace it. I learned from my mistakes; when my wash was new my bright idea was 'tokens only' in the bays and vacs. what a dumb idea! once i changed to tokens / quarters accepted then added credit card readers to bays i saw revenue go up considerably.

credit card readers on the vacs; now there's an idea i could get behind. as long as you take quarters, too.

 

[lighthousecarwash]

I've had the same thoughts. Make sure the SS bays, Auto's, and Vacs all take credit cards and cash and get rid of them damn quarters! I put it right up there with scooping mud and emptying trash cans. The quarters are just so labor intensive. I feel like all I do is move them from one place to the next and then back again.

Lighthouse

 

[chaz]

I try and make it as easy as possible for my customers to pay. Cash (quarters, dollar coins, ones, fives, tens and twentys (on the changer))' plus credit and debit. With a decent bill and coin counter its not a huge deal to count the $. It is a bit of a pain to carry the bulk bags of quarters to the bank, but $1,000 is $1,000.

 

[Earl Weiss]

Since taking Bills and CC In Bays I use more quarters than I accumulate, so I do not see any need to count quarters. I simply recycle into the changers. No, counting or carrying to the bank.

I guess demographics vary but it would seem most common for there to be be more walk off of quarters than walk in. Basicaly , non customers using changers and customers who get $5-10-20 in quarters who don't use them all.

 

[Randy]

After we refill the changers we always have Quarters to take to the bank.

 

[Earl Weiss]

After we refill the changers we always have Quarters to take to the bank.

Classic example of how demographics can play a huge role in how customers use your facility vis a vis Quarters, Bills, Credit Cards, tokens etc.

Spoke to a guy the other day who has what I Think is 13 bay with 10 SS Bays and 3 IBA. (Formerly a National Pride originally with 15 SS Bays and the IBA required 2 SS Bays to become equipment rooms) . Any way, he indicated his CC was 70% of his revenue. Mine is a small percentage but then again I don't have IBA so that could skew the revenue percentages. (I have to ask if his Vacs take CC. )

 

[chaz]

I don't dispense quarters in my changer, (just US dollar coins), so all quarters are walk in and therefore all taken to the bank, $1,000 in a bulk bag. I switched to dollar coins over a year ago, as I had too many changer only "customers". I never expected so much in walk in quarters, but I've also noticed increased S/S biz with many customers adding an extra dollar coin.

 

[pgrzes]

I have 3 of 7 vacs with credit card and use is minimal. I might do $50 per mo total for all 3. My avg vac is about $350 per. mo. SO I havnt added more. My bays I might do about 20% CC. My auto is about 40-45% CC. I know some of you dont want credit cards because of the fees, but I love seeing deposits every day and I dont have to hand;e any of that money. My cash bay business was up a bit last year and the credit cards to me were added sales!! Also the addition of bill acceptors I feel paid for the upgrade last year. I want it to be as easy as possible for people to pay for the services I have to offer. I have never in 12 years had to go and buy quarters. I am contemplating getting rid of my quarter changers ad going to another token machine and the other over to dollar coins. I switched my tokens from .25 to $1 tokens this year and the machine takes so much less wear and tare. And I dont have to fill them as often. Plus the profit on lost tokens is excellent.

 

[cantbreak80]

Shortly after my closest and best competitor closed I began experiencing a serious problem... Major highway reconstruction, lots of dirty streets, frequent precipitation followed by sunny skies, the introduction of mag-chloride, 300 new apartments in the market area, two new office towers full of commuting employees, and no nearby competitor! My changers frequently couldn’t make it through the day without running out of quarters! And, me with a full time job, minimum of 45 minutes away!

So, I made the change to dispensing $1 coins only. But, with every meter box accepting quarters, too.
My thought process was to ease the move to $2 to start. Customers might appreciate the quicker transaction. It also would reduce the number of coins deposited…fewer coins equals fewer chances of coin jams. Bill changer issues are also reduced with each payout being fewer coins. Larger denomination bills accepted increased marginally. However, $1 coin “walk-off” was significant. (Side note: many of the surrounding retailers mentioned an increase in payments made with $1 coins…especially, the convenience and liquor stores.)

Post price-increase revenues did increase as expected along with most customers purchasing additional time in $1 increments…spending some of those “extra” coins from their $5/$10/$20 bill exchange.

That was 1999. Instead of buying quarters from the bank, I now deposited them. Soon after, I installed one of the first credit card systems and the empty bill changer issue was history!

2015…Bays are now $3 to start. Credit card users pay $5 to start. Vacuums remain $1 to start. Credit card sales topped 60% of the total sales. And quarters accounted for over 21% of the cash deposits!

Another tidbit of interest. During my first seven years in the business, the database of refunds averaged 100 per year! (I’ll do the math… 8.33 refunds per month!) Since the introduction of the $1 coin and credit cards, the yearly average is 12. Could it be that quality multi-coin acceptors and fewer changer transactions have improved the odds of trouble-free transactions? I say “Yes!” Even still, I’ll likely never stop accepting quarters…and, I’ve damaged too many brain cells considering it.

 

[Ptjanis95]

This was basically my whole summer. We installed 20 new vac's with cryptopay and dollar acceptors only. 9 SS bays with only cryptopay and bills accepted. Air hose is dollars only. We used to have a high pressure vacuum system for the quarters. All quarters got sucked into a PVC piping system and would get brought to the same spot (which we would generally transfer to the coin changers). Since there are no more quarters we changed the changers to bill changers only. Way less work and way less maintenance and if anything we've seen our revenues go up as the prices also increased.

 

[chaz]

Let me know how that works with slightly damp or somewhat damaged bills. My revenues are up too, I price by the full dollar, but I'm very much ok with people bringing their quarters to my wash or using the US dollar coins I dispense, and of four C/c and debit.

....perhaps I am misreading the re-work you did on your change machines. Are you saying that customers can deposit change in the unit and receive paper money?

 

[Ptjanis95]

Let me know how that works with slightly damp or somewhat damaged bills. My revenues are up too, I price by the full dollar, but I'm very much ok with people bringing their quarters to my wash or using the US dollar coins I dispense, and of four C/c and debit.

....perhaps I am misreading the re-work you did on your change machines. Are you saying that customers can deposit change in the unit and receive paper money?

no machines accept quarters. the bill breaker will change a 10 for 5 and 5 ones, a 5 for 5 ones, etc. customers are welcome to bring quarters to the attendant for dollar bills

 

[Waxman]

imo car wash owners are leaving $ on the table by not accepting quarters. yes i know cc is the wave of the future, but many customers still pay with quarters. i learned the hard way but then i corrected the mistake. i bring more $ to the bank now and isn't that the main goal of this business???

 

[lighthousecarwash]

My philosophy is that quarters are still around because they are allowed to be used. Back when it took a single quarter to start a wash, then it was fine, but does anyone really have a start up that low anymore? If you keep your start up price an even number like $1 or $2, then why would anyone want to carry around fists full of quarters. I don't take many to the bank, but I would much rather handle the cash and credit cards. My bill acceptors have been rock solid for 5 years now and almost never have jams like the coin acceptors do. The bill acceptors and credit card readers were the biggest solution to my refunds and calls from the car wash. People have other ways to purchase a wash now. I just think that we have all started to evolve in the car wash game, and it's time our customers evolve as well.

Lighthouse

 

[Waxman]

nah; you are bucking a trend / mindset and why bother? it's better to accept bills, cc, quarters and tokens.

 

[Earl Weiss]

nah; you are bucking a trend / mindset and why bother? it's better to accept bills, cc, quarters and tokens.

Waxman, Ever played the slots in Vegas? 10 years ago or more versus a couple of years ago? In the bigger casinos slots that take quarters are difficult to impossible to find. Trend?

 

[pgrzes]

I have to agree with Waxman. The more options to pay the better. I will discontinue giving Quarters this year. I changed from .25 tokens to Dollar tokens last year and will change another one of my quarter changers to $1 tokens, and the remaining quarter changer will be changed to dollar coins. My changers get little use now with acceptors in the bays, but I dont mind going to the bank and dumping the quarters.

 

[Randy]

I take a lot of Quarters to the bank every week, those are all walk on Quarters. I find Quarter wrappers on the ground all the time. So doing away with Quarters isn’t an option. I have a friend who owns a kids arcade/laser tag facility. I installed accredit card reader on his bill changer, he’s all tokens give out extra tokens from the change machine. He still accepts Quarters, he said he’d be a fool to now take Quarters, he takes a lot of bags of Quarters to the bank every week.

 

[dewey9876]

Ok, How about I split the difference with you. I continue to accept quarters in my vacs but swap out my change machine with a bill changer. So at least I am not an enabler. ???