Adding CC accepptance in the bays

[bigleo48]

Hey All,

Looking to a CC acceptance in my bays. The biggest issues is the ability of my existing timers to count up or down. After looking at it I would say the easiest thing would be a per swipe charge. This is to say, every swipe would be like putting coins in the coinbox. Say $2/swipe...then the machine would send 8 pulses to the timers and count down.

Anybody do this? Comments & Recommendations?

Big

 

[MEP001]

Most of them will do a "per swipe" charge, but you may have to pay a transaction fee for each swipe. Some, like WashGear, have the ability to batch all transactions at the end of the day, but credit card regulations are changing and have already made that impossible for a lot of systems.

The vast majority of the comments I get (In fact almost all of them) about CC acceptance in the bays is customers like that they can swipe and wash as long as they want without worrying about adding more money. It seems to me that you'd be missing out on the biggest benefit from in-bay CC acceptance by using a per-swipe count down method.

I want to add CC acceptance to some of the vacs, and for that I may do a per-swipe and charge double for start-up and give double the time, but I may go count-up and just put a very low cap on the maximum purchase. For what it's worth, I started the bays at a $10 cap, but raised it to $15 when I noticed about two dozen times a month where someone would run up $10 and swipe again to finish.

 

[bigleo48]

Mep,

Thanks for that!

I was planning on using the Unitec WashPay machine as my entry unit to my IBA is a WSII.

"Swipe and stop when done" is what I would prefer, however, my Ginsan timers would have a problem with that, so I would need for the customers to rely solely on the WashPay display. Not sure how well that would work with customers as they are use to seeing the GinSan timer on the coin box and the IDX Big Display timer up top.

Do you have a receipt printer? I'm guessing many would want receipts for their washes (like with the IBA)?

Big

 

[Jeff_L]

bigleo - I agree with MEP on the count up method. It's what I use with the WashGear system and have received a lot of positive feedback on the system. As stated, counting up allows the customer to wash at their own pace and only pay for what they use. Sure I've had some people forget to press stop and ran up to the max charge I allow which is $15, however, that doesn't happen very often at all.

As for a receipt printer, it is an offering WashGear has, it's a seperate machine taking up about the same amount of space as a bill changer. I don't have one and do not plan on putting one in. I've had fewer than 5 customers ask about a receipt in the past year, to which I offer that I can email one to them. WashGear's system allows you to create a soft copy in pdf format for either printing or emailing.

 

[car washing systems inc]

What type of ginsan timmers do you have?

 

[MEP001]

Ours is a Hamilton D.A.N., which has no ability to print receipts. A handful of people have asked "Is it possible to get a receipt," and I tell them the system doesn't have that ability but I can print and mail them one from home. They always say "No, that's ok, I don't need one that bad."

 

[captain cw]

I love mine from Etowah Valley. Comes with the reader, timer and voice box. Initial swipe for $3 / 9 minutes and then it counts up after that, until they hit stop. Timer goes where the old one went. No back room computer, just a phone line to each meter.

 

[jenward]

Big Leo,
There are advantages to using our WashPay system with your existing Wash Select II. Please let us know if you'd like a Unitec Regional Sales Manager to contact you to go over the details of our WashPay system.
Thank you,
Jennifer Ward
Unitec Electronics

 

[bigleo48]

Big Leo,
There are advantages to using our WashPay system with your existing Wash Select II. Please let us know if you'd like a Unitec Regional Sales Manager to contact you to go over the details of our WashPay system.
Thank you,
Jennifer Ward
Unitec Electronics

Jennifer,

I did speak with a regional sales guy. That's where I found out that the VIP wash cards for the Wash Select II won't work in the Wash Pay system. That was the main reason for me to buy the Unitec Wash Pay over any other..to have unified fleet cards. Now that I know that is not possible, I have no real preference to Unitec and so I am also considering other vendors.

Big

 

[teamplex65]

The Hamilton DAN CC acceptor actually disengages the timer and makes the buttons active. It counts up and will continue to do so until you hit the stop button on the CC box. At that point it gives control back to the Ginsan board and waits for the next transaction.

 

[MEP001]

The DAN can also interface directly with the IDX timer and replace the GinSan timer altogether.

 

[Charles Ho]

The old WashSelect II VIP cards will work with the New WashPay system just fine. You simply transfer all VIP cards to the washpay and load them on the washpay system. The WSII becomes dumb terminals going to Washpay to clear VIP cards. I have a washpay node in each SS bay and two old WashSelects on the same system at one site. VIP card can use either SS or IBA.

 

[jenward]

Jennifer,

I did speak with a regional sales guy. That's where I found out that the VIP wash cards for the Wash Select II won't work in the Wash Pay system. That was the main reason for me to buy the Unitec Wash Pay over any other..to have unified fleet cards. Now that I know that is not possible, I have no real preference to Unitec and so I am also considering other vendors.

Big

Actually, the VIP Wash Pass cards will work with both your Wash Select and a WashPay system. The cards must be used in debit-style with a dollar amount loaded. Once the customer has that card, they choose to use either your IBA or SS bay and that money will be deducted from the card (which is usually sold at a discount). Where it wouldn't apply is if you sold WSII wash packages at a discount and loaded them on the card - those packages are obviously not applicable to WashPay.
I'm sorry you were misinformed. If you need any additional clarification, please let me know.
Jennifer

 

[bigleo48]

I was told this by the your regional sales guy who is responsible for Ontario. What he told me is that I would need to make some changes (remove Datatran ip modem) and slave off the PC to clear credit cards. But he did tell me that cards programmed for the IBA would not cross over to the SS (and vise versa), but I forget the exact wording as it was some months ago.

 

[Charles Ho]

Unitec WashPay in SS & IBA

For the accounting on VIP card to be deducted at SS & IBA properly, the accounting must be located at a common end point - WashPay. Therefore, WS2 must hand-over the debit accounting data to Washpay, lose the IPTran/dataTran package, add a new communication card, and clear through WashPay Server.

Moving the debit accounting balances from WS2 to WashPay is a one time pain so customers who has any balance left on VIP cards can continue to use their card after you upgrdaed WS2 to clear through Washpay. I recommend doing this on a rain day with the printout from WS2 so you can just take your time working on this to test your concentration skills.