A Typical Day in the Bronx............

[T BIRD]

I wish I had a camera with me today to show you the condition some crack heads left racks at two locations when I serviced them today.  Unbelievable. :o

You gotta love the Bronx.  There is no better street and sidewalk traffic in the world for racks of machines placed outside of stores.  Lots of kids, parents, teenagers, students, crack heads, thugs, wannabe thugs, and grand parents with kids.  Its amazing how kids are so addicted to our machines when they pass them as they walk.  Parents just hate us huh?......lol.  But the kids love us to death.

They tore up a classic NW 30" machine.  How they bent the actual small door in front where the money is certainly was not easy.  And for good measure they took a bat or something and smashed a NW 60 open.

And then an another rack of 4 Oak 450 machines, they smashed into two of the machines and actually broke the rods running thru them.

God bless the Bronx.

[Profits]

Ouch, that sucks.  The price to be paid for a great location.    Hopefully that doesn't happen too often.

[jamesjmcgough]

Sorry to hear that Johnny. Just such destruction was what we feared when we started our vending biz here in Costa Rica. We have not seen that type of vandalism but we are still trying to gain access to two businesses that closed up each with a 4-header locked inside the businesses. Pretty sure we have not 'lost' the machines but it is still disconcerting when you can't get them back during your nomal service run. My hope is that when someone else rents the space, the machines will still be there when the new business opens and we can go in and empty the proceeds and give the new owner the commission.

In all fairness, our loss rate (stolen) has been less than 0.25% for the last 2 years. Our greatest loss/expense has come from businesses who use cellophane packing tape to block our machines from further use if they get complaints that they have malfunctioned. The tape residue is almost impossible to remove from the globes without damaging them beyond what I would consider as acceptable appearance. The cost of replacing those globes far exceeds the replacement cost of the machines we have had stolen. For those who have the same problem as we do I highly suggest you avoid using the round globes such as the SB/RB Beavers. Much less expensive to replace flat acrylic panels.

[T BIRD]

Sorry to hear that Johnny. Just such destruction was what we feared when we started our vending biz here in Costa Rica. We have not seen that type of vandalism but we are still trying to gain access to two businesses that closed up each with a 4-header locked inside the businesses. Pretty sure we have not 'lost' the machines but it is still disconcerting when you can't get them back during your nomal service run. My hope is that when someone else rents the space, the machines will still be there when the new business opens and we can go in and empty the proceeds and give the new owner the commission.

In all fairness, our loss rate (stolen) has been less than 0.25% for the last 2 years. Our greatest loss/expense has come from businesses who use cellophane packing tape to block our machines from further use if they get complaints that they have malfunctioned. The tape residue is almost impossible to remove from the globes without damaging them beyond what I would consider as acceptable appearance. The cost of replacing those globes far exceeds the replacement cost of the machines we have had stolen. For those who have the same problem as we do I highly suggest you avoid using the round globes such as the SB/RB Beavers. Much less expensive to replace flat acrylic panels.

It really does not happen too often there James.  It is certainly worth putting racks out in the street in the Bronx.  Yesterday just happened to be a not so typical day in terms of damage etc.

[dperry]

Just the cost of doing business. At least you were left with some parts you could salvage. I hate it when the whole rack disappears and the people there go into the Sgt. Shultz mode........." I know nothing..."

I've had that happen to me recently, as you may have read about.

Over my 5 year vending history, I've had about 11 individual machines stolen or broken beyond repair.  That constitutes about 9% of my total inventory of machines.

[Rick Falcon]

Hey John just wondering if you vend in Queens?

[T BIRD]

Yes Rick.

[BluePlate]

T,

Have you got any pressure fromt he city about vending on the sidewalks.  They just started ticketing ATMs on the sidewalks and the ATM guys and retailer are P.O'd over it.