jasonkw

It's just a whitelabel Castles reader. They even keep the Castles logo on the reader. Same as the ePort Engage, PayComplete UPT, Parlevel PayPlus...

Everyone likes to talk about how markets give you all sorts of sales boosts. If you ask me, markets were pushed because suppliers made more money on it. You're converting vending machines which were bought once many lifetimes ago, into something that generates recurring revenue for the supplier in monthly fees, in payment processing, in other ancillary services (like theft monitoring). Sure, you'll likely get a sales boost of 20%, 30% perhaps maybe in some areas. You'll also get a headache in theft, which you have to manage. And now you're paying kiosk fees of maybe 5% to a 365, payment processing to them too for another 5.95% or so (with no cash discount to recoup any of it), $100-150/month to Panoptyc to monitor your cameras, additional labor cost compared to vending. You'll probably net out a bit more at the end of the day. Whether it's worth it depends on the client and on your operation.

If you want to keep using Castles you may want to use the ePort Engage (which is the Castles rebranded). Their software is different and may have better luck with the DEX on an AP. Check the ePort Engage Compatibility Chart - the Studio 3 as I recall should be supported by the Cantaloupe version of the software.

APs don't DEX nicely with Castles reader. You need that zero volt cable for sure. You can try asking to update the software on the Castles and maybe it can help. The Castles has a lot of incompatibilities with different boards.

There are reputable manufacturers based in China for anything. Fridges, phones, etc. are made in China without issue and sold to the US every day. Having said that, as a small operator you would not be advised to buy a machine that has no local parts support for. If you are large enough to buy hundreds of Chinese machines and stock parts and the manufacturer is willing to deal with you because you're big enough for them to care, then you might be able to get somewhere. I know someone that had a lot of luck with Chinese machines here in North America - but they bought them by the container load and they had enough expertise to customize them to do what they needed to do.

The Castles product is in its early stages. There are lots of bugs right now and if you want something that just works, it probably isn't for you. It's a low cost device but prepared to spend a lot of time with it. It'll be a good product eventually if you're patient for now. The eport engage is the exact same device just branded for Cantaloupe and you can probably read about all the issues with them.

The BevMax 4's are brand new. The BevMax Media is a first generation one and is probably a bit older. The atlas board has been upgraded to the Atlas-H one which runs a lot faster. The 20oz bottles are dropping like crazy still in these new units. It shipped without the deflector plate in the cup. Do you still need that piece for new machines? The issues are hard to identify sometimes - we'd fix it and it'd work for a day and break again. I guess it's just the pain of having glassfronts in something that's super high volume. One location can pretty much be a small route in itself.

Does anyone know of ANY Glassfront that works reliably? I was asked this question and I'm trying to find solutions. We have a location that has spread out in various places 3 glassfront BevMax 4 and BevMax Media machines, and 3 Merchant Six Media 2s. The snacks are fine - it's the drinks that's incredibly frustrating. We've had a non-stop cycle of all 3 glassfronts being up and down, and tonight all 3 were down completely. The machines are extremely busy and the frustration and lost revenue is insane. We've replaced picker cups, IO boards, the Atlas board - you name it. The problem may be the volume: the machines do $750/day each on average (highest has been $13.5k/wk from one machine) but we are limited in space so have no option for other equipment. Suggestions?

That machine is vintage. Maybe you can try eBay. Its definitely not supported any more. Works as a better beer fridge than a vending machine.

That is a Crane integrated cashless swipe. I don't believe it works with anything other than Crane cashless. It's a BevMax Media. Whether or not it was Coke at one point...it looks pretty generic to me but that Balance Calories sticker is typically on bottler equipment only.

Before you do that try flashing a completely new image on to the machine. Ask Crane for the latest software. I might have a copy you can throw on a USB as well.

I have experience with these doors. At one point I managed a fleet of a few hundred of these, mostly on AP113s and AP7600s. Nothing bad to say about them. Works as advertised and in many ways better than new equipment.

Losing mobile pay and contactless is simply not going to happen for a lot of devices out there. Most cashless providers at this point have a solid EMV strategy, and just because a card reader does not have a chip slot does not mean Apple Pay and mobile wallets will stop working on them. Even USAT G9s support contactless EMV and won't be subject to the problem you mention (although they may stop working anyway due to 3G shutdown).

Member Services can cash it out and give you cash on the spot. Best option here! I believe we had numerous memberships as each one only maxed out at $500.

For us we are pure telemetry and prepicking and that's a complete nightmare to do when everything's down. They said 40% of devices have been restored but I doubt that figure. I have zero devices back online and no one I've talked to has had any luck with them either. This looks to be pretty bad for them.