3rd Party Machines

[bullman]

Seems like every account I go into complains about Coke and Pepsi machines not taking dollar bills, not delivering product, etc...

I have noticed this especially in the accounts where I am a secondary vendor and the primary is doing at least 1 third-party machine.

Are these machines junk? I don't understand why they are so problematic. I seldom ever have those complaints with my BC10s.

Makes me wonder if the complaints and the problems one must deal with make 3rd party vending worth it - free or not.

[Mr Zabe]

IMO...in my limited experience with Coke and DP owned machines; they replace dollar/coin parts with rebuilt parts. I often had a part replaced and had if fail in a month or so. It's seems they allow these parts to be beaten to death.

The last machine I requested a brand new machine to avoid a short term of troubles. IMO

[ 12-01-2006, 09:43 PM: Message edited by: Mr Zabe ]

[the saint]

exactly, parts are replaced with refurb parts. The reason they have problems is because our better members of society try and shove screwdrivers into them thinking they can pry out the dollar bills. They pour salted water into the change slot thinking it is a magic key that will cause the changer to dump change. If it is going to happen over and over, why keep putting in new parts? Not to mention that there are just dishonest people who want a free soda or a free dollar from the store.


TRUE STORY, back in my younger days as a route driver I had 8-10 hotels with machines. I was in the process of filling to a bank of machines one morning (10ish) when a lady comes out of her room, just awoke hair was all a mmess and in pjs. I had just shut the machine, and was going to the freight elevator to get my 4 wheeler. when I seen her come out. she got in the elevator as I was coming to top off the machine. A minute or so later the hotel manager comes up and demands that I give her the 4 dollar bills she lost, 1 in each machine. What the lady didn't know is that we had to empty the monies first and make a pick list. I asked her when she lost her money, (the manager was aware that I had already emptied the money because I traded the ones for larger bills, hotel usually was in excess of $1000) She said "right after you was walikng to the elevator" I said well let's see if your money is stuck and opened up the door. You should have seen the look on her face when there wasn't a single dollar bill in any of the four machine. She then started to stutter about how it was change she lost, ( i emptied the changers as well since it was a dollar vend) I pulled out the changer mech and asked her if she could see any money in it because I couldn't. The manager told me to have a good day and sorry he bothered me and walked off leaving the lady standing there. She watches him walking away and yells to his back, what about my money? I said " well if you will come over and put 4 dollars in the machines I will give you 4 dollars back. She just walked back to her room mumbling something about mother something or another.


One of these days when your machines aren't new anymore, you too shall have these upstanding members of the community try out your machine, they do not tend to mess with new machines as much as older machines, unless they are in an obscure location.

[ 12-02-2006, 08:58 AM: Message edited by: the saint ]

[Mr Zabe]

Saint,
You must have the patience of a Saint. LOLOL
It's amazing how a few immoral cheats can mess it up for the bunch of us.

[the saint]

well I learned long ago to grow a thick skin.

people will call you every name in the book and say that you did this or that trying to "get even" because you didn't give them a free soda or something similar.

I have people all the time asking for pepsi blue, josta etc. when told that pepsi dc'ed it a long time ago and no longer available, I get the " well I bought it last week at ___________ (fill in the blank of a competing store)" I will reply "if you found it there last week someone must have returned it a couple of years out of date, did it taste ok when you drank it?" they will run to the manager once in a while and the mgr will come back and ask about it because "if their competitor carry it, then I need to bring it in. I have to tell the mgr that it was dc a long time ago, he says "the customer just bought some at ___ last week" I just tell them to call PBG and inquire about it because It isn't in any of my accounts and maybe the office can order some for them.

Like the line in MIB, "a person is intelligent.. people are stupid.." I do not remember the whole thing word for word but that is the jest of it.

[bullman]

Well that makes a lot of sense. Although I've been placing my machines in secure places, like company breakrooms. I realize that vandalism can still happen, but so far, I have only had someone kick at the change slot of one of my machines. Not had anyone mess with the bill validators or coin tubes yet.

I've been kicking around the idea of bringing in some 3rd party equipment for some new and larger accounts that could use 2 machines (one being my own BC10 and one being 3rd party), but frankly, I'm in this all by myself, and I don' t have time to fix broken machines or machines that need lots of TLC. My Coke and Pepsi distributors have already explained to me that I'm responsible for simple repairs and that I shouldn't call them unless it is a serious problem (like a compressor going out or the like).

What would be the chance of my getting new machines if I request them, and explain that they are going into what should be fairly secure locations?

[ithastabeshasta]

Must be different in your area than in mine. When I was on the operator side of things I had many Coke and Pepsi owned machines. I didn't fix anything including $ bills jammed in the validator (that is unless I was there already). The reason I didn't do any repairs to them was one time I did a repair and the union Pepsi repair man filed a grievance with the Union that I was trying to take his job away. So I sent them out on everything no matter how small it was.

[Mr Zabe]

When I brought bulk cases from Coke or Pepsi, they gave me a machine to use. They performed all repairs as long as I brought my per month case quota. Usually I got next day or so service.

If you do not own the machine,I can't see Coke or Pepsi wanting you to try and fix or mess with it.

[ 12-03-2006, 09:45 PM: Message edited by: Mr Zabe ]

[bullman]

My Coke distributor told me they would charge me $75 per hour for sending someone out to fix a jam or something simple that I could take care of when I show up to restock the machine. My Pepsi distributor has the same expectation, but he did not mention a charge for repairs per se'. Here in KY, they do expect full line vendors such as my company to do routine maintenance and fair amount of repairs. They must not be unionized here.

Really, I don't mind the routine maintenance. What I don't like is when the customer walks away dissatisfied or has a difficult experience with having their purchase delivered. I just don't want to start an avalanche of complaints by phasing in some 3rd party machines.

Regardless, I am going to do a few very soon and see what happens. It's just that I've noticed that my competitors seem to be plagued with problems from a lot of those machines, and I'd like to avoid those problems if I can.

[the saint]

You could always request new machines, worst they can say is no.

I am not certain but, simple repairs was at one time classified as 1) coins jammed, 2)bill jammed, 3)cans jammed, 4)light bulbs burnt out, 5)compresser relay tripped. These are "simple" fixes. I believe but again not certain, anything involving the actual validator or changer being effed up would be more than a simple repair.

routine maintenance consists of basically cleaning the coil, and the outside off.