Auto cashiers. Should I or shouldn't I?

I have owned and operated the same car wash for 18 years and I am considering installing auto cashiers. I would consider my facility a flex serve, however the majority of my customers are exterior only. I hope to get feedback from operaters who have converted over, both negatives and positives (costs for repair and maintenance, customer response and acceptance, impact on up-sales and overall sales, impact on labor expenses,etc.). Thanks for any input.

We currently have 2 Auto Sentry's at our express exterior location in KNoxville. They are great when they work properly, but a pain in the @$$ when they are acting up. Its a constant battle keeping these things working properly. One day its the bill despenser not giving change, The next day the bill acceptor doesnt want to take money. Sometimes they will just freeze up for no apparent reason and you have to reboot the system. Ours work on a Windows platform. So with that said its just like your home computer, problem after problem. I dont know if they make a Mac platform, but if they do it might be worth a shot.
As far as customer support with the Auto Sentry's, I would rate it at a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. First you have to call them with your issue. Then they have a tech call you back depending on how important the issue is. We have called them time and time again about the same issue and have been given 20 different reasons for our problem.. So with that said just be prepared for issues. And at $40,000 a piece its a hell of a nut to chew.

Main reason ive been hesitant on getting those auto sentry`s. I have been thinking of getting 2 of those pdq machines. or 2 unitec portals.

We have two AutoSentries and they have been problematic, but we seem to be getting them sorted out. I think in a flex wash situation, you miss a lot of upsell oppotunities that can increase your ticket average. We are an exterior only and it fits well with that model. I have seen Flex and even full serve washes put them in and wonder why. I am a volumne guy and ticket average is something I will worry about later

We have three autosentries and have been very pleased. Like any sophisticated piece of equipment, they will break. That's why we have three. If one goes down (which by the way happens very infrequently), we still have two. Also, these machines do require regular PM. Sensors need to be cleaned, credit card readers need to be cleaned, receipt paper gets jammed, etc. We have yet to encounter a problem that has not been fixable. Sometimes we need a new part, sometimes it's just a matter of programming. Recently we needed new belts on one of our bill acceptors, and we replaced them ourselves. If we did not regularly inspect the machines, then it would have broken and one of our machines would have been down.

As far as customer service with ICS, I truly believe that they are first rate. They have a system in place to deal with issues in a timely manner. They always call back in a short amount of time and all of their techs either know the answer, or refer you to someone who does. No they are not perfect, but in comparison to other companies, and even in comparison to how ICS was five years ago, they are a great company to work with.

I am also basicaly a volume guy. Since the typical auto sentry location uses a loader, and we operate with the loader as a cashier I see no labor savings for up to 100 CPH. I do not know how often you can expect to exceed this volume or if you do you can exceed it with 2 or more auto sentries or a second employee acting as collector / cashier. Some tout the cash control, but it is really no different than most any business where the employee handles the $. Your controller tells you how much money you should have. There may be an advantage to upselling in some markets. In others you lose the personal touch which may or may not be a benefit. Some people luv Pay at the Pump for Gas and don't give a hoot about personal service.

I would put a little different slant on Earl's comment. I have two locations with auto-cashiers(2 different brands) and one with just a loader/cashier person. No sites ever exceed 100 cars/hr. Sales are actually higher with autocashiers.
How the auto cashiers save labor on lower volume sites is the opportunity to run the entire facility with only one person.
The automated cashiers give the attendant time to clean, deal with vending problems or customer service issues. So I would say low or high volume auto-cashiers can save labor but then you've got to have a computer tech on staff or spend a lot of your time keeping the cashiers full and operating.
So actually, autocashiers save "on site labor" but can increase admin or maintenance labor.

Question for Jim . Is the 100 cph ceiling a function of demand? Equipment? Configuration? Other?

I run the places with a little over 1 person at a time. Basicaly I run 2 shifts with a loader / cashier. The third person Is the manager / floater working the other peoples days off etc. This also give me flexibility of having 2 people on site for busier times.

Demand...tunnels: 120,110,100...just never had the demand (and that's after 53 years)...too much competition...not enough people...6 conveyors/155k pop in county...and I know of at least one newbie looking for a site right now.

We are using one person with a 1 to 4 hour overlap at shift change. The overlap is determined by the day of the week and how busy the month has been going.