Vending Service Groups

[RZup4]

Hello everyone, first of all thank you for dealing with the somewhat medial questions I am about to ask. Any insight you all could provide here would be greatly appreciated. 

I work for a software company that offers vending machines and lockers as an enhancement to our software product. Think Fastenal style industrial vending machines. Whenever physical hardware issues pop up we are always running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We would love to simply outsource all of our support to a third party. Is this something that is doable in the industry? 

If so, is this a collection of regional players I will need to consolidate? Or is there a nationwide company that is capable of servicing our customers across the entire country? How much would a typical service cost, lets say to change out a broken motor and give the machine a quick preventative once over?

If you need any additional information or would like to discuss offline, please don't hesitate to reach out.

I appreciate any and all of your help in advance and hope someone will be able to guide me in the right direction. Thanks!!

[AngryChris]

5 hours ago, RZup4 said:

Hello everyone, first of all thank you for dealing with the somewhat medial questions I am about to ask. Any insight you all could provide here would be greatly appreciated. 

I work for a software company that offers vending machines and lockers as an enhancement to our software product. Think Fastenal style industrial vending machines. Whenever physical hardware issues pop up we are always running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We would love to simply outsource all of our support to a third party. Is this something that is doable in the industry? 

If so, is this a collection of regional players I will need to consolidate? Or is there a nationwide company that is capable of servicing our customers across the entire country? How much would a typical service cost, lets say to change out a broken motor and give the machine a quick preventative once over?

If you need any additional information or would like to discuss offline, please don't hesitate to reach out.

I appreciate any and all of your help in advance and hope someone will be able to guide me in the right direction. Thanks!!

I don't think there is anything you can outsource to because I don't think there are any "national" companies that repair machines.  For that matter, it may be difficult finding any companies that repair machine outside of major cities.  I think your only way to pull this off would be to reach out and find local companies and try to contract with them, which may also be difficult right now.

[RZup4]

Chris,

Thanks for the input. I will continue to do some research and will probably start to compile a list of potential contractors. If you were going to go about this, where would be your starting point? I figured a forum like this was a good place to start. Do you think there are users on this forum that would be interested in taking on contracts?

[Vendo Mike]

How many locations and in what areas?  What brand(s)/models(s) of equipment are you covering?  

[AZVendor]

If I was still doing repairs I would consider doing it in the Phoenix market, but I'm not.  I had contacts like this in the past but the companies seemed too sketchy.

[RZup4]

Hey guys, thanks for reaching out. We are based out of the Raleigh, NC area. We have a wide array of distributors we work with, primarily electrical distributors. Some of them are national companies I'm sure you have heard of and some of them are regionalized. Ultimately we will need a network which covers the entire US. If you have a specific area you would consider covering, I would love to setup a virtual call and explain what our company does and calm some of those fears about "sketchy" contacts. 

If anyone is interested, please send me a PM and I will reach out to coordinate a call.

Thanks!!

[RZup4]

Mike to answer your additional questions regarding brands/ models, right now we are focused on Seaga's industrial vending line. This will continue to evolve in the future. We are transitioning to Seaga now. In the past we deployed machines from TCN and DC Locker. 

[Vendo Mike]

I 

2 minutes ago, RZup4 said:

Hey guys, thanks for reaching out. We are based out of the Raleigh, NC area. We have a wide array of distributors we work with, primarily electrical distributors. Some of them are national companies I'm sure you have heard of and some of them are regionalized. Ultimately we will need a network which covers the entire US. If you have a specific area you would consider covering, I would love to setup a virtual call and explain what our company does and calm some of those fears about "sketchy" contacts. 

If anyone is interested, please send me a PM and I will reach out to coordinate a call.

Thanks!!

I have access to at least one option but have several questions. 

What brand(s) of equipment would be worked on?   

Would all service requests and billing go be centralized through your team or would each location be considered a separate customer? 

How many total locations? 

How many total machines?

What percentage of the equipment under warranty?  Who would handle troubleshooting? 

How are the parts ordered and distributed to the location?  

What are the timing expectations for the repairs?

I'd be happy to talk more offline if you'd like to email me directly.

[AZVendor]

Seaga, really?  You have no clue how bad they are with parts, support, design, support, parts, did I say support?  You guys are getting in bed with the worst machine supplier currently in business.  Do you know that they do not build machines with their own parts?  Every part is imported from the far east.  Did you know that Seaga has NEVER supplied a wiring diagram for a single machine they have built? Imagine trying to troubleshoot a machine with no wiring diagram.  Did you know that they have never authorized anyone to repair their logic boards and they do not repair them either?  Once the warranty runs out you are forced to purchase new logic boards for $400 or more.  They also use crappy imported refrigeration units that they do not support with parts after the warranty is up.  

Building a business model that depends on Seaga is a formula for certain failure.

Edited December 3, 2021 by AZVendor

[RZup4]

AZVendor, Thanks for your input it is appreciated. We went through a pretty thorough vetting process before making the selection. We are in the industrial vending space, and Seaga has shown the ability to support some large players in that market. The biggest headache for us was sourcing, not providing documentation etc. We do all of our own in house technical support and have built out models which include the wiring diagrams for each of the pieces of equipment. Respectfully, I hope you are proven wrong haha!

With the direction we are heading in, we plan to offer products from additional vendors in the future. Do you have someone in mind who you would recommend we look to first, as we look to continue growing?

Again, thank you for the input. That is invaluable and those statements will be in the front of my mind if/ when issues appear.

[AZVendor]

Wittern is more likely your best source for custom machines.  They do a lot of specialty machines and do contract work as well.

[RZup4]

AZ,

Thanks for the recommendation. We did meet with Wittern. Toured their facility and really liked everything we saw. I will keep this in mind for the future. They have a tendency to burn some bridges though and some people are not willing to play ball with them at all at this point.

[AZVendor]

Maybe Crane then, who I abhor for ruining the vending manufacturing industry. I don't know if they do contract manufacturing and there will be a lot of plastic parts that should be metal based on how they build their machines now.