RobN Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Hello, I’m looking for 2-3 Gate Links for a Vendo VMAX Part # 388632. Tried several of the usual parts suppliers with no luck. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendo Mike Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 I'm not seeing any in our inventory. I will say that pn I'm finding in the Vmax manual is 1120140. You might double check your normal suppliers using that pn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 Yeah, that is the old PN. These freaking suppliers don't cross reference their parts well at all. Vendors Exchange used to have the most useful website EVER for PN searching and then they effed it up 20 years ago with a redesign that stinks to this day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobN Posted February 24, 2022 Author Share Posted February 24, 2022 2 hours ago, Vendo Mike said: I'm not seeing any in our inventory. I will say that pn I'm finding in the Vmax manual is 1120140. You might double check your normal suppliers using that pn. Thanks. Not having any luck finding with that part number either. Tried D&S, VEI, Capitol, Vendworld, All Dandy. Any other suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 24, 2022 Share Posted February 24, 2022 (edited) You didn't try hard enough. https://www.veii.com/GATE-LINK_2 I have to admit that I am shocked that just searching for gate link brought it up. Searching their site is always much more painful that that. I wonder if that's the right one though since it's ANOTHER different number. Edited February 25, 2022 by AZVendor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobN Posted February 25, 2022 Author Share Posted February 25, 2022 I did find that but it looks quite a bit different than the ones I’m replacing. (See picture in original post). Any idea if they are interchangeable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 I just edited my post to ask the same thing. @vendo mike What do you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendo Mike Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 The Vmax and V21 both use gate links but they are not interchangeable. I double checked that yesterday. Most Vmax parts that weren't moving regularly have gone NLA. You might try Wachtor, Aeco, Betson, Smitty's or Vina as they all carry parts for Vmax. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 It is incredibly stupid of Vendo to not continue stocking of the most commonly used replacement parts for machines they built, no matter how far in the past it was. Or at the very least give the tooling or license to produce those parts to others. The lack of support that suppliers give to this industry is embarrassing and ridiculous. It doesn't matter what industry you want to compare yourself to nor what those industries are doing themselves, wouldn't it be good to be the leader in product support in an industry that had practically none of that now? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendo Mike Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 12 minutes ago, AZVendor said: It is incredibly stupid of Vendo to not continue stocking of the most commonly used replacement parts for machines they built, no matter how far in the past it was. Or at the very least give the tooling or license to produce those parts to others. The lack of support that suppliers give to this industry is embarrassing and ridiculous. It doesn't matter what industry you want to compare yourself to nor what those industries are doing themselves, wouldn't it be good to be the leader in product support in an industry that had practically none of that now? The tooling for those parts wore out over the 20+ years of production and those machines have been supported well after the last production unit reached 15 years old. We kept supporting the parts that moved but those that did not have enough volume were made NLA because inventorying and paying annual taxes on that inventory makes little business sense. In order to make that cost effective, we would need to charge well above what anyone would be willing to pay for those parts. We all would be hard pressed to find a company that continues to build / stock parts for equipment that was discontinued 20 years ago. With the high cost and extreme lead times for raw materials and warehouse space, we simply cannot spend those resources on parts for equipment that is completely outdated. The same rational fits supporting R12 compressors for old single price equipment. We are an equipment manufacturer that carries parts for our equipment, not a parts house that also builds machines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Yeah, whatever. I knew that would be the response. I don't understand the "paying taxes on unsold inventory" part but I also know this isn't an American company so that could contribute to that. As a business owner here for over 30 years I was never taxed on anything I didn't sell. The best way to do this NLA thing would be to build one last large quantity of common parts and then sell them to the distributors, but they too are cheap and don't want to warehouse parts. At least that is what I have deduced from their poor behavior over the last 20 years. Gate links, like selection buttons, motor switches, motors, coin chutes, logic boards and displays are, of course, the most common parts that should still be around. I am just the sort of person that feels a responsibility to what I do and to what I sold so this is why I feel this way. I know corporations don't feel any responsibility of any kind except to their officers and investors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendo Mike Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 47 minutes ago, AZVendor said: Yeah, whatever. I knew that would be the response. I don't understand the "paying taxes on unsold inventory" part but I also know this isn't an American company so that could contribute to that. As a business owner here for over 30 years I was never taxed on anything I didn't sell. The best way to do this NLA thing would be to build one last large quantity of common parts and then sell them to the distributors, but they too are cheap and don't want to warehouse parts. At least that is what I have deduced from their poor behavior over the last 20 years. Gate links, like selection buttons, motor switches, motors, coin chutes, logic boards and displays are, of course, the most common parts that should still be around. I am just the sort of person that feels a responsibility to what I do and to what I sold so this is why I feel this way. I know corporations don't feel any responsibility of any kind except to their officers and investors. To be fair, we did manufacture those parts until the tooling was useless. Every business (large corporation or single owner/operator ) has to justify spending and when it came time to decide on whether to spend money on new tooling for parts for outdated equipment, it did not make sense. We built what we could and sold it off to anyone that would buy. Most vendors I've known not only throw their stales away but do so in another location. The socially conscious ones gave them to a shelter but they never left the stales out for the people in that office to have because it would eat into the sales of the products they loaded into the machine that day. It is not the way that 2 people would treat one another but it is a standard business practice domestically and abroad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
orsd Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 Just now, Vendo Mike said: To be fair, we did manufacture those parts until the tooling was useless. Every business (large corporation or single owner/operator ) has to justify spending and when it came time to decide on whether to spend money on new tooling for parts for outdated equipment, it did not make sense. We built what we could and sold it off to anyone that would buy. Most vendors I've known not only throw their stales away but do so in another location. The socially conscious ones gave them to a shelter but they never left the stales out for the people in that office to have because it would eat into the sales of the products they loaded into the machine that day. It is not the way that 2 people would treat one another but it is a standard business practice domestically and abroad. Yup. As much as it sucks tooling is golpher expensive. Just as I wouldn’t spend the 600 bucks to put a card reader on an old single price Dixie, Vendo really doesn’t want to drop the price of a car (or more) on new tooling for an old product line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobN Posted February 25, 2022 Author Share Posted February 25, 2022 Thanks all. I appreciate the help. I was just hoping to get my machine working again, not spark a debate. I'm very grateful for those who have the knowledge and are willing to take the time to help a guy out. Fortunately, this is a pretty simple part. I've created my first draft of a 3D model of the part and it's on the printer now. I'll let you know if it works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vendo Mike Posted February 25, 2022 Share Posted February 25, 2022 I'm glad you were able to find a solution. I like your resourcefulness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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