Have to vent about IDX

[pgrzes]

Ok, so first I have to note that I have been using and liked IDX coin acceptors for nearly 15 years. Have had few problems and generally things with them have been fine. I have about 50 IDX MA800's in service now. I recently purchased nearly 20 new MA800's. Going thru programming of the new acceptors and the last one would not program. No biggie, play around do the usual checks, nothing, cant get it to work call tech, they cant figure it out, said to send in. I pay to ship out no biggie. Call and am told we are 8-10 weeks behind, i said that this is a BRAND NEW acceptor, I will see what I can do. Get a call back next day, we looked at it and something was bent we fixed it how would you like to pay. So why do I have to pay further for anything? You have to pay for shipping it back we fixed it for free????? I could care less about the $14, you wanted for shipping, but why you would treat customers as if they are nothing? is wrong!!! Then get a call from the owner telling me how "in this business the customer doesnt always come first" There is "NO WAY THAT LEFT OUR PLACE DEFECTIVE" then proceeds to tell me how my distributor goes overboard with customer service and thats why they have had troubles??? UMMM Are they not one of your bigger distributers!!!! I told him no problem dont worry about it, I will happily pay my $14, and I will post my rant on the forums. "Go ahead I dont care".
So my view on things, IDX Is backlogged with orders for MA800's, they are pumping them out as fast as they can, quality control gets diminished, and customer service goes by by!!Order is over move to the next order. Its $14?? No its a purpose to me. I am no one, but a guy that will never recommend or support your product, and I will voice my opinion every time I see someone asking for references for product??
Sorry for the long winded message
Rant over hope everyone in Vegas has some fun, wish I was there. Good day all.

 

[Overachiever]

I feel your pain.

I just installed 4 brand new MA-800s and two of them lost programming and wouldn't relearn within a few days. Called them up and they told me it wasn't something I could fix so I sent them in. I haven't called them to get the expedited service you received though, maybe I should. In the mean time I've got a bay that doesn't accept quarters

Like you I have a lot of MA-800s in service and haven't had many issues so I'm having a hard time justifying moving on to another coin acceptor brand but I think I'm going to have to start replacing them with the Microcoin's that another recent thread was saying worked well.

 

[loewem]

Nice and useful rant.

I had ten 10 IDX coin acceptors in service when I bought my wash and five Microcoin QLs. I'd like to standarize my equipment as much as possible, so I was planning on moving to all IDX as the Microcoins quit working. I've had to purchase four MA800s and an X10 for my goldline. One of the four MA800s stopped working after a few months. A second one worked, but constantly had problems and I'd have to reprogram quarters and tokens. A third one had issues with coin jams. I've purchased a couple of new Microcoins, but I'm thinking about trying slugbuster.

I agree with your comments about poor quality control and can't believe that they would make you pay anything at all. Covering $28 for a customer that has over $9,000 worth of product seems like a no brainer to me. Keeping every customer happy seems like a no brainer to me. A bothersome aspect of this is that IDX is an american company (not sure about the components...). Don't like to see successful american companies decline.

 

[MEP001]

I won't recommend IDX anymore either. They used to be reliable and repair turnaround was okay, but neither is true anymore. The last time I bought new ones, one would reject three out of four coins. I sent it for warranty repair along with some others - they didn't even send one of them back, just said "beyond repair" on the paperwork (It wasn't damaged, just quit working), and the new one under warranty they sent back "no problem found," but it still rejected three out of four coins.

The owner of the company yelled at me once for requesting program instructions for a timer. "I'm not tying up my fax machine to send you 30 pages of a manual!"

 

[Ghetto Wash]

I got rid if my IDX coin acceptors years ago.

All of my bays used to be IDX timers. As they have gone out I have replaced them with Dixmoor. I didn't want to change, I like being loyal to my suppliers, but Dixmoor had a better timer for less $$$.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Made my day.
Just spent 2 hours trying to reprogram one thats 4 months old. I have had to reprogram this POS several times. Won't hold the program.
Came home and the first thing I read is you have the same problem, lol.

 

[GoBuckeyes]

Add me to the list. I've been sick of IDX for a while. I've never been a fan of their programming method. It's near impossible to do in the bay if you have small meter doors. In the winter your fingers will be numb by the time you're done.
The frame of the unit has two flaws. The Mickey Mouse tab that holds the insert in place is fastened with two tiny rivets that often break or loosen allowing the insert to flip out. Secondly, the coin chute is tack welded to the face plate in one little spot. This weld almost always breaks opening up a gap that coins can fall out.
These problems have always been present but lately the quality has gone straight to the crapper. In the 8 months I've bought about ten new X-20's. Several have had to be removed from service because they simply reject coins until powered down and back up? If you drop a coin, the light stays solid green and rejects it? Reboot the acceptor, no programming needed, and it works fine until it doesn't. One of the new acceptors had the guide rail cemented in the wrong place too...coins wouldn't even fit down the shoot.
In my office I have a box labeled 'send for repair' full of MA-800's and X-20. I may have to relabel that to 'recycle'.

 

[mjwalsh]

Is Mike Oliver still with IDX? If so, is he taking any steps to try to make sure that the quality gets back to where it once was??? Did anybody see an IDX exhibit at the April 4-6 Car Wash Show???

 

[Kevin James]

We've had nothing but problems with IDX coin acceptors. We used to send them in for repair but gave up when it took forever to get one repaired and be disappointed when we would get them back and they didn't work. In the we end we replaced all of them with he Slugbuster III coin acceptors with the EZ door. The 2 Slugbusters that we've had to have repaired came back repaired at a fair price and they work flawlessly.

 

[mjwalsh]

IMHO IDX should realize the value of their coin mechs is much greater when not used in a car wash bay that of course has overspray affecting them. The IDXs I have on my 4 vacuums for several years now ... on my 3 high g force extractors for over 5 years.... in the 2 dog wash for over 7 years now have all been 100% trouble free. My original plans for converting our 32 coin op washing machines to multi-coin (dollar coins & quarters) was IDX X-20s. As much as I like to buy USA made only ... it looks like those 32 plus a bunch of spares appears to be a more globally used coin mech from SparkFun. Time will tell how good those are ... they are definitely for dry location use only & I believe they have somewhat proven themselves with the SuzoHapp Arcade crowd. With them I can use either pulse or serial ... like I say time will tell. Back room testing only can tell just so much in terms of durability & longevity etc.

I personally think that IDX is missing a golden opportunity for coin op laundry equipment since their extra simple Class C dry contacts for switching (pulse) are more easily compatible no matter what the non wet environment laundromat coin op equipment has or ever will have. I went with Parkers' on our 16 coin op dryers about 6 years ago but was a bit tougher to interface with the way it was looking for the presence or absence of ground to the pulse. I did see IDX (laundromat trade journal articles) promoting (unpopular with most customers) proprietary in house payment system (RFID) which IMHO I was thinking was & still is not their strong suit.

My experience with the IDX's in our very wet totally enclosed with overhead door car wash bays was not so good & is consistent to what the rest of you are saying. That is why we switched to MicroCoin QLs for the extra wet environment with Dixmor Led7s & a GinSan button selection style (not rotary switch) main control board. We are very thankful to GinSan for working with us on that conversion from our old Specialty Equip touchpad coin box format.

I also think it would be a big mistake for IDX to not factor in at least some ... what operators share on our trade's bulletin boards including this forum. Mike Oliver from IDX used to be a very good "on top of things" contributor to this forum in the early days when Bill Pitzer first started it.

mike walsh www.kingkoin.com