I lost my money!

[West Coast Vend LLC]

There have been a number of times I have been called from customers that have lost money in my machines, for one reason or another. I was wondering what kind of response you give to phone calls requesting you refund lost money.

[amc-vending]

I will always refund someone's money if they called and said they lost it.

It builds up better customer relations and they will be more willing to purchase from you again.

[antoniocinisi]

I usually have the location keep track and tell them I will refund them the money they give out or I give the location a little bag with a few dollars worth of quarters so they can refund them with that money if they dont want to use their own or keep track .I replenish the bag if needed each service cycle.it is good practice to ask if they had to reimburse anyone before you split the money.at one of my locations that kept track on their own,every time I wouldnt ask she would mention how much she lost after we split and it came out of my share.

[tedk]

Because I am full-line, I always offer the customer the choice of the product or the money. I ask if they can tell me what item they were trying to purchase and what they saw or heard happen. It helps me know where to run a test to see if there is a problem and it lets the customer know I take the issue seriously.

[Technivend]

Many, many ears ago when I worked for a full line vendor I had a guy who was visiting Boston on a business trip and lost money in a machine. He called to get his money back when he got home. So he called from California to Boston to get his $.35 cents back and probably spent .75 for the phone call.

[MrGranger]

So most of you send the $ back? I haven't gotten any calls but I don't do full line so maybe it's not an issue with the bulk? But if I do I plan on sending the callers the item they said they didn't get. Maybe two. But that seems like a more practical way to resolve these issues.

[BondoFox]

I associate all of my machines with a charity, a good one. I've been told that people have lost money through either not getting candy or only getting 1 piece (Peanut M&M during summer and it's a pizza shop, heat hurts 'em) and said, "Meh, it's for charity." The owner of the business is also my nephew, and I keep having to insist to him to get the people to leave their names and numbers anyway, I DO NOT want anybody to be cheated!

[dperry]

I associate all of my machines with a charity, a good one. I've been told that people have lost money through either not getting candy or only getting 1 piece (Peanut M&M during summer and it's a pizza shop, heat hurts 'em) and said, "Meh, it's for charity." The owner of the business is also my nephew, and I keep having to insist to him to get the people to leave their names and numbers anyway, I DO NOT want anybody to be cheated!

I typically give a few dollars to the location owner to reimburse them for any quarters they have had to refund.

[timberframe50]

I have only 1 such call, since it was really close I went over fixed the issue and handle him a quarter.

I tell all my locations to refund the quarter, because my customers are also their customers and we don't want un-happy customers.

When servicing I always ask if they had any problems, and provide a refund if needed.

[AngryChris]

As a full-line vendor, I agree with many of the people here saying that I prefer to leave some money for someone responsible to refund money when it's lost.

Do I believe my customers 100% of the time? No... but do I believe them most of the time? Absolutely... in fact, even if they are lying to me, there's a greater chance in them causing more harm by running their mouths to the right person and getting me kicked out because they didn't get their monthly freebie by claiming they lost money... but most customers simply want their money back to they can purchase something else and that's fine with me.

I always want to refund their money whether I owe it to them or not... just good customer relations... besides, sometimes those mouthy people that complain a lot are also the people that will mouth off to their buddy that works at Generic Brands Inc. and tell them that they get freebies from me all the time... and that may land me another account!!!

Moving further along, pleasing the people with the big mouths keeps your contact people happy and keeps you in business! Pleasing the people who simply want their money back is just good honest business.

[lurtsman]

Refund. When I install I tell locations that on rare occasions a machine doesn't work, and if anyone complains about losing a quarter they are free to reimburse and just charge me for it when I get in. My only question will be "which head was it" so I can verify that the parts are lined up. I also encourage them if it happens twice to call my number on the machine and say it seems to be out of order.

The objectives are first to not anger the location, and second to not anger the person using the machine. It's much cheaper to refund the money. I've lost locations when the location got in an argument with a customer claiming they were not responsible for 25 cents and the customer walked away refusing to purchase. The manager was an absolute idiot. He should have known to take care of his customer and risk me refusing to refund him and losing the location. Clearly he would have the same power over me, or more, than his potential customer there had. I do my best to idiot proof locations.

That said, requests for refunds are pretty rare. I find at least two thirds of the time I can identify a problem causing it. At least half the money from a sale is profit anyway. Most refunds will go right back into your machine. I don't want to take someone's money and deny them a product. It isn't that I'm a good person. It's that I'm good at business. I'm making enough money on legit transactions. I'd rather refund a buck on every lost quarter than refund nothing. First time a location mentions giving a refund I don't just reimburse them for that one, I give them a few more quarters and tell them it's just in case. Then I thank them very clearly for taking care of the customer.

[AngryChris]

I also ask them to try to clearly tell me what happened... my customers are spoiled now and when something goes wrong with a machine, they often write it down and give it to a secretary so when I show up, I have a nice, neat, legible note explaining what happened and I can fix the problem probably at least 65% of the time, which is good considering 99% of these people have absolutely no idea how a vending machine works.

[dperry]

I had a customer call my directly from the # he found on my machine, he lost $2.00 ($1 mech) on my finger lights. So I told him to give me his address and I would send him a refund, I sent a $2.00 chk and 2 finger lights in a envelope. You always want your customers to be confident in the fact that if they do lose their money that you will make it good.

So a customer lost money once, and then tried it again, and lost money again?

[AngryChris]

If you think it sounds ridiculous for customers to put money into a machine that's not giving product MULTIPLE times... you are wrong... not only am I sure that it happens, I have SEEN it... why do they do it? BECAUSE THEY WANT THOSE SKITTLES!!!!!

On a side note, when I worked for another company years ago, I was told about a guy who claimed to have a tally of money lost out of a food machine.... approx. $18 lost in a food machine... (this happened before I started working there and I was just an employee).

When he was asked how he could have possibly lost $18, he promptly said "I put $3 in the food machine, the door wouldn't open, so I put another $3 and still didn't get anything, so then I put $4 in for something else and it wouldn't come out either so I tried another $4 item and that one didn't work either" Needless to say, the 2 operators that were talking to him at the time (this account took 2 people) were perplexed by his story and promptly denied his refund and demanded that he never use the vending machines again!

I don't think I would have ever treated a customer that way... but how do you lose $18 like that!!!!

[How2vend com]

It is a play at your own risk. or vend at your own risk. I have signs like that on machines and it doesnt affect the income on my machines.

[AngryChris]

It is a play at your own risk. or vend at your own risk. I have signs like that on machines and it doesnt affect the income on my machines.

Even at accounts that do several thousand dollars each week? I'd like to see you pull that one off!

[How2vend com]

Even at accounts that do several thousand dollars each week? I'd like to see you pull that one off!

Show me a picture or video that proves you have a location that earns over 30 dollars in a month/6 weeks . Either way.

[AngryChris]

Show me a picture or video that proves you have a location that earns over 30 dollars in a month/6 weeks . Either way.

I'm full-line, unlike you inferior $20/month bulk-candy people .

And don't you dare even try to come back with a talk about COGS.

[How2vend com]

I'm full-line, unlike you inferior $20/month bulk-candy people .

And don't you dare even try to come back with a talk about COGS.

I got a great laugh about your COGS comment. $20 bucks a month though. My sites are set on location yielding far more than $20 dollars though.

[AngryChris]

I got a great laugh about your COGS comment. $20 bucks a month though. My sites are set on location yielding far more than $20 dollars though.

Yeah yeah, rub it in.

[Action Vending]

I try to give people the benifit of the doubt.