Policy for Vending Refunds

[RedBull-R-Us]

I have been just a reader on this board for a few months and have learned a lot from you all, so thanks for all the info! Of course I didn't find this site until after I had already bought 5 machines from CC, but I am determined to make the most of it.

I am curious to hear what sort of refund policy is typical to have when people claim they lost money in the machines? Do you tell the sites to reimburse on the spot & then you pay the sites back, or do you have the person who lost money contact you directly?

I have 1 location that has had a few people claim our machine ate their money, and the site wants to reimburse them directly. I am worried this system will be easily abused?

thoughts?

thanks

[the saint]

on a machine without any major malfunctions you can expect honestly maybe 1 refund a month at most. If you are refunding more than that at the same place, I would tell the establishment that you will have to do a manual inventory and count the money in the machine and compare if there is any extra money before you can do a refund. Chances are that you will not have to do any more refunds at that establishment after doing this. More than likely it is someone who either works there or someone related/ good friends with someone who works there and just wants a free drink.

[ 08-10-2006, 09:33 AM: Message edited by: the saint ]

[-VV-]

All of our machines are upgraded to accept specially made coupons in the Coinco bill validator, which vend a free can of product. The advantages are numerous:

No money needs to be left on site. Leave a handful of coupons with small refund forms. The forms are key if you want to avoid abuse. It should not be an interview, just name/address/telephone number/trouble experienced. That way you can follow up.

The MerlinRB machine tracks coupon vends.

You're not refunding money so they can use it in another machine or take it elsewhere.

You're only out the cost of product, vs retail price

Provides all sorts of opportunities for employee/customer incentives, contract perks, etc.

Start up costs are modest, you're sent a programmer for reprogramming the circuit board and validator and about 1000 coupons. Check with Coinco for current pricing, I'd hate to misquote you.

Above all make sure you have programmed your machines correctly. They don't ship set up to take fives, but the validator will - and there are several settings for anti-cheat, etc that will help minimize if not eliminate customer cheat, that is - your machine cheating the customer on change, etc.