Crane Co to acquire MEI/Conlux

[moondog]

Hey AZVendor... I found your post very interesting reading although like you said some of it is "only speculation" it is very well thought out.

I agree with you that Crane is threatening our vending industry by buying out opposition manufactures & in a way creating their own monopoly. I hope companies like Coinco/Royal, USI & AMS are going to be able to survive in the future going forward as I feel if there was a lack of competition prices will only continue to go up while machine quality will go down.

I feel that by USI continuing to distribute Conlux that they are only really supporting Crane in a way. Do you know why USI stopped using Coinco? I have always been a Coinco fan but seem to here a lot of negative feedback about them on here by people who prefer MEI.

I don't have any real preference & I don't feel one is better than the other but then most of the negative feedback has been on the Coinco Guardian which I don't have a lot of experience with. I did just get a phone call today from an operator who told me that one of his Guardian 6000 just died which was under 12months old. These stories I continue to here don't install a lot of faith in their Guardian for me.

On another note.. the way Crane has destroyed some of the other brands they have brought like AP may end up being good news for Coinco if Cranes history of turning quality equipment into rubbish continues with MEI.

I was also wondering if you have heard any rumors of Coinco/Royal manufacturing their own snack line? I did here this awhile back but I don't think anything has eventuated.

Kiwi,

I think the reason the majority of us prefer Mei over Coinco is because we buy second hand equipment and refurbished validators and mechs. For many of us, the Mei VN2511/2512 is the holy grail of validators compared to the Coinco BA30's and Mag 50's we're replacing them with. We even prefer the TRC6000 mechs over the 9300's - but for less obvious reasons as I find them to be pretty equal.

The big boys who buy new equipment and write them off every five years would probably have a much different take on this issue.

[kiwi]

Moondog,

Thanks for clearing this up for me as I never really understood before but now I can see your point.

We on the other hand have been forced into using the "new" line of mech's from both Coinco & MEI as our coins changed in 2005 to help prevent counterfeiting & foreign coins being confused with ours. This change of coins also meant alot of older mech's could not be upgraded to the new coins & were made obsolete.

I guess you may have the same problem with the new US $5 bill on some older BV?

The big boys here predominantly use Coinco but that choice mainly comes down to the price they can get the units for not the quality of the product.

I guess you will always get preferences from different people like you do when in comes to motor vehicles so maybe I should just listen to the advice that Bill (Technivend) gave which was..

"Every machine or mech have their flaws so you need to weigh up what's important & what problems you are willing to live with & go with them"

Speaking of Bill.. does anybody know where he's gone? I haven't seen him on here for quite awhile so I hope he is OK!

[reel]

Great posts AZVendor your an absolute wealth of knowledge on the subject at hand, thankyou for the most informative post. Well I have some experience with the Coinco Guardians I have returned one for a software upgrade and now its working fine, my others are still in the machines from the date I purchased themand working nicely.

I understand there was a few issues with the first ones that were released but you can return them to Coinco for an upgrade and you shouldn't experience much problems after that. I have been trialling some of the new MEI 6 tube mechs for a few weeks in some rough locations. one large location that had coin jams nearly everyday, in 3 weeks since we installed the new MEI 6 tube we haven't had one coin jam so far, I am impressed and will be swapping over some of my 690s for the new 6 tube!.

I have a few Currenza 6 tube mechs they are ok but I have had some issues with them and one cost me $360 to repair so I wont be buying anymore, yet I understand many operators think they are fantastic.

[kiwi]

Great posts AZVendor your an absolute wealth of knowledge on the subject at hand, thankyou for the most informative post. Well I have some experience with the Coinco Guardians I have returned one for a software upgrade and now its working fine, my others are still in the machines from the date I purchased themand working nicely.

I understand there was a few issues with the first ones that were released but you can return them to Coinco for an upgrade and you shouldn't experience much problems after that. I have been trialling some of the new MEI 6 tube mechs for a few weeks in some rough locations. one large location that had coin jams nearly everyday, in 3 weeks since we installed the new MEI 6 tube we haven't had one coin jam so far, I am impressed and will be swapping over some of my 690s for the new 6 tube!.

I have a few Currenza 6 tube mechs they are ok but I have had some issues with them and one cost me $360 to repair so I wont be buying anymore, yet I understand many operators think they are fantastic.

Ron,

I never realised that MEI were doing a 6 tube mech so thanks for bringing it up! This is the older MEI 7000 but with a 6 tube cassette instead of a 5.. I have a few of the older MEI 7000 5 tube mech's & apart from a few teething issues I had at the start they have been trouble free since.

I may have to get a "new" Guardian to try it out for myself. When they first came out I thought it was best to wait awhile until the problems were all sorted out instead of being a guinea pig for them.

[mission vending]

I may have to get a "new" Guardian to try it out for myself.

I got one of the guardians about 18 months ago in a Coke lease machine, it lasted less than 90 days. They replaced it with another and it dies several months later, it was then replaced with a MEI. That is my only experience with the guardian, I don't know what the issues were but not a impressive showing for me.