D & S Vending closing service dept. at end of month

[cvending]

This morning I tried to talk to theservice dept. at D&S Vending and was told tyhey no longer offer tech support over the phone. Then they told me that they are closing the shop at the end of the month. I guess they will be a parts only supplier in the future. What a shame.  Fewer and fewer suppliers with fewer and fewer part available. What has happened to this industry? ARGH!!!

[Fermo Vending]

That's disappointing. Is that true even if you've purchased machines through them? Gonna have to keep reading through those manuals lol

[tblake05]

Wow.  Sad.

[cvending]

Yes, there is no longer tech support. The service shop will finish what they have ij house and should close by end of month. They stopped selling equiment at the beginning of July

[tblake05]

So now they only sell parts?  Or are they closing for good?

[Fermo Vending]

They sent this email in the beginning of August 

[AZVendor]

It is extremely sad what Crane started and is now continuing to happen to the industry.  Even if you sell parts you should have tech support.  Where else do they expect people to find out if the part is really what they need?  Very short sighted business model if they truly don't have any advice to hand out any longer.  Did all the older Greene's retire or pass away?  It kind of sounds like it's in the hands of a niece or nephew with no clue of what customer service is.

[Vendo Mike]

 

12 hours ago, AZVendor said:

Did all the older Greene's retire or pass away?  It kind of sounds like it's in the hands of a niece or nephew with no clue of what customer service is.

I have zero insight on D&S but from my own experience, sometimes there just isn't anyone around willing to listen/learn.  Hard to share knowledge when you feel like you're talking to a wall.   I can't imagine they simply don't want to offer tech support.  More likely the well of info dried up.

[DSVENDING1965]

First off, it's nice to be on this forum.  We decided a few months back to concentrate exclusively on parts & supplies for vending machines and in doing so decided to stop selling/repairing of vending machines.  It was a difficult decision since my father started selling vending machines back in 1965.  We are expanding our parts department, which currently has and inventory of over 15,000 parts and trying to make parts to save our customers money and keep their existing equipment lasting longer so they don't have to buy new machines for $8000-$10000.  I have been here over 34 years and we are stronger then ever.  My father did pass away 6 years ago, and I have been running our business for the past 7 years.  As time has gone by, our techs have retired/moved/passed away so we don't offer anymore support on machines unfortunately.  We also expanded our rebuilt changer/validator/board department so we can sell rebuilt units for about 1/2 of what they are new.

[cvending]

I understand  it is a business decision.  Saying that, i am going to miss being able to call in for tech support when needed. Trying to get threough to Crane/National is a nightmare any more. Wait an hr and get forced to leave voicemail...then no return call. Times they are a changin'

 

[AZVendor]

@DSVENDING1965 Don't you understand the value in having answers to customer questions that will help you sell parts correctly the first time?  Even if you don't sell machines nationwide, why not have a shop that refurbishes and sells used machines locally so you would still have that resource to rely on?  I would bet that the used machine market is tough to be in when your "15000" parts still leaves you short of what you need to rebuild stuff, such as Vendo gate links.  But that doesn't relieve you of the responsibility to your customers to have expertise about what you sell.  Unless you also add a "no return" policy to not handle  the number of incorrect parts sold you will have a lot of returns to process - which is what you should do in this case.

I would love to have been in the tech support business and you and VE and others could have had a replacement for people retiring, but I'm sure the pay is horrendous for that kind of job.  Heck, even Canteen doesn't pay their street repair guys much.  Therein lies a significant part of the problem.

[AngryChris]

I can't blame any company for doing what they have to do to make it work right now.  I would say that 90% of small businesses out there are struggling to find good employees.  If D&S felt it was better to focus their efforts on parts, I don't blame them.  We can probably also party blame all of the covid restrictions.  I think a lot of talent left because they didn't need to work and didn't want to deal with that crap.

[AZVendor]

It's still just as ridiculous now as it was in 2020/2021 that people didn't need to work because of the "stimulus payments" that never even approached a living annual salary. 

[DSVENDING1965]

In answering the questions above, our parts salespeople have been with us on average 20 years.  Most of the time we do get it right the first time.  I have been there 34 years, our book keeper 35 years, purchasing agent 25 years, sales manager 24 years and so on.  We are constantly making new parts and I can't keep up with the OEMs discontinuing parts or quadrupling the prices on them.  Most all of us Steve, the gentleman in AZ 1985 etc. are lifers in the industry.  Some of the business models from 1980s/90s don't work in 2023.  By focusing on parts moving forward, we are leading the effort to keep the older machines out there.  The OEMs have 1-2 people covering the entire country, we have 6 salespeople.  We try and do everything right the first time, but we aren't perfect.  We do have back channels to some of the OEMs and usually get answers by end of day, but me are at their mercy also.  We would appreciate your parts business moving forward.

[AngryChris]

48 minutes ago, DSVENDING1965 said:

In answering the questions above, our parts salespeople have been with us on average 20 years.  Most of the time we do get it right the first time.  I have been there 34 years, our book keeper 35 years, purchasing agent 25 years, sales manager 24 years and so on.  We are constantly making new parts and I can't keep up with the OEMs discontinuing parts or quadrupling the prices on them.  Most all of us Steve, the gentleman in AZ 1985 etc. are lifers in the industry.  Some of the business models from 1980s/90s don't work in 2023.  By focusing on parts moving forward, we are leading the effort to keep the older machines out there.  The OEMs have 1-2 people covering the entire country, we have 6 salespeople.  We try and do everything right the first time, but we aren't perfect.  We do have back channels to some of the OEMs and usually get answers by end of day, but me are at their mercy also.  We would appreciate your parts business moving forward.

I'm grateful to you guys for doing what you do.  In my area, there are only about 3 locally-owned companies with full-time vendors, mine being one of them.  Everyone else is either a huge vendor headquartered elsewhere or a little guy working out of his garage.  I haven't had to buy more than a handful of machines in the last 4 years.  I just keep picking up slow locations and moving into better locations with the equipment I have and adding inone kits on old machines.  Refurbishing what I have has saved so much money, and since there's almost no one willing to fill that niche of the locations that do 150-400/week in sales (little guys can't handle and big guys don't have the labor), I can just rinse and repeat over and over.  And for the bigger locations, they seem to all have or quality for micro markets.  All I need is parts, contacts, and labor, and I can take over the world!  Vending machines... yeah I don't need any more of those right now lol.  I'm assuming i'm not alone and that might have played a role in your decision making too.

[lacanteen]

I've known Jason Greene since he was a teenager. I've done business with him and his father, Don, since the mid 1980s. There are few young people that aspire to be vending techs these days. Micromarkets have changed the way equipment moves. There is a glut of old equipment because Markets typically go into larger accounts with newer vending machines. These newer machines get shuffled down to replace older equipment. With the growth of cashless vending, older equipment needs $500 worth of upgrades, and newer equipment sells at premium prices.  Parts is where it's at, especially parts no longer available from manufacturers.