Category: Products

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Worse customer service? US Para Plate [email protected]

I understand that all companies are not created equal.  I understand that sales departments aren’t either.  All sales people should have to call Weber… makes me want to purchase a new grill just thinking about them.  🙂   I actually use US Parapalte unloaders.  I don’t think I will purchase one again though.

I think that every customer is lazy now…. I don’t want to talk to Bob or Marty at Para Plate.  YEAH I’M LAZY!  That is also why everyone has quit going to self-serve carwashes and going to express car washes… there lazy.  So if I don’t  want to talk to Bob, I email Bob and maybe Bob can just answer my easy question?  Right?

I did the same thing the other day to Dixmor (which BTW probably has the best customer service) and they emailed back twice and it fixed the problem!  🙂  I also sent them stuff to fix and they don’t kill you on repairs?  WHAT?  Which is a nice touch (hint IDX…. that’s why I don’t use there coin acceptors anymore,  also Hamilton).

So I emailed [email protected] a question:

Could you please email me a manual for your 24400 timer?
Thanks

The reason I had to email them is because either their site it terribly out of date?  Or the manual has trade secretes?  (More to come…  🙂

This was Bob’s response:

Just confirming.  Are you a user of the 24400 timer??  Please provide your company name and location.  Thanks, Bob 

Yeah?  Really? For a $70 timer?  NO!  How about rereading my email… but I was nice.  🙂  My response:

What are you talking about?  I was going to purchase one?  You don’t have a link on your web page.  Why would I email otherwise?

His response:

We just like to make sure you are a car wash operator, not an electronics manufacturer looking for competitive intelligence on our products.  Attached is the instruction manual for the T24400 timer.  If you have any questions on its functions, you can call Marty at (276) 591-4837.
 
Thank you, Bob 

So he emailed the manual… why not just do that in the first place?  Also the manual has no competitive intelligence at all.  It’s one page!  It has no schematic?  No pin outs for the display?  No protocol for the display?  In fact I would argue the manual has zero differentiating information except the reference to the T24500 display which Bob did not answer a question about…. maybe tomorrow?  There are 10 or more vendors that sell vacuum timers…. the only thing that makes this only mildly special is the display you can NOT find.

So I should add them to companies I dislike because they are unhelpful:     National Pride, Ryko, U.S. Para Plate

BTW:  I emailed with National Pride in 2010 and told them that their 2007 catalog link was broken.  Still broken.  They also didn’t help which how to install the meter doors they sold me.  NICE!  🙂

 

UPDATE:  10 Days later Bob never emailed back for some reason?  Probably just a sales person that doesn’t care about selling stuff?

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HydraFlex Hydra-Cannon water question?

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I have always been fascinated with there product.  Maybe for the wrong reason.  🙂  My Dad purchased two also and they are stupid expensive.  But what I don’t get is if I put a bunch of injectors together on my system everyone would laugh and make fun and say injector are a bad idea.  Make them expensive, fancy and oh also GREEN!  You have a product!  That’s why I enjoy marketing.  🙂

My actual question is not the injector there all the same ss or these fancy kevlar (I think?).  It’s the HydraFlex setup.  The picture shows I assume 4 functions.  If 2 or 3 functions or even 4 are in use at one time…. wouldn’t this reduce the threw put of water thus pulling to much or to little chemical?  Which is one of the problems with  using injectors in the first place?  Thus the 27% chemical savings would either go up or down?  In another picture they have 5 functions?  Even worse?  I might be missing something here…. please let me know.  I’m going to build one.  LOL  🙂

Also I understand that they use those big well pumps to regulate the water….  which is very important with injectors.  Also the bigger units have 2 pumps I assume it’s a fall over but I really don’t care it doesn’t matter.  I would just think the pressure can’t be consistent on all functions if pulling water at the same time?  I just don’t see it?  Unless it’s just good enough and doesn’t matter?

 

UPDATE:  The water intake is 200 psi and the output is anywhere from 60-80 psi like the injectors are rated at or 40 psi like some operator said his has at.  Not even sure how you would know that unless there was a gauge on them?  Maybe the color denote the psi also?

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Jim Coleman / B&C Electronic Engineering, Inc. finest hour! :) Or the Swipe-N-Clean? Either one! LOL :)

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Just to prove I will purchase any car wash item that was ever made!  I now have in my possession a Jim Coleman Swipe-N-Clean.  Actually Steve Week from Jim Coleman said B&C supports it now and gave me there phone number!  LOL  1-800-852-4795 bce-inc.com

I purchased this item in a lot of crap and was thinking of “trying” to sell it.  But I was wanting to see if the POS (point of sale people!  🙂  worked.

First off who on this Earth would call B&C and try to get crap software that B&C wrote in 1999…. it was crap in 1999.  Did anyone every use this thing?  🙂  Did a programmer stop and think at some point… this is a really bad idea?

The unit has mirrored drives and the previous owners decided in there great wisdom to unplug one of the broken drives and not replace it.  Then the other failed.  SHOCKER!  🙂  So I was thinking B&C could send or allow me to download the software which as the owner of this machine I OWN!

So I called B&C and talked to some lady which seemed to imply I was trying to steal there old crap software?  WHY?  Seriously why?  No really WHY?  She wanted numbers from the computer which is fine… who cares?  So she figured out that my unit was made in 2004.  But it did not have the original Fujitsu hard drives in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   SO?  Then there was some well these were NOT MANUFACTURED from B&C and…. HOW ABOUT EVERYTHING IN THE ENTIRE COMPUTER IS OFF THE SHELF?  You guys at B&E manufactured NOTHING!  Especially the hard drives… which is even stupid to argue… but she liked to.  So I asked if it was possible if the owner re-imaged new drives when a old drive died?  (The 2 hard drives are setup in raid 1 or mirrored.  Which you would just put in a new drive and it would rebuild the drive.)  Basically I’m a moron….. yeah  🙂    Actually a moron could hookup any working drive and the motherboard not B&C would rebuild/copy the new drive.

This was the reason why I can’t get a new image of the old crap hard drive image:  B&C has a “special license agreement with Microsoft”?  Really?  How about the crap box B&C build owns the license… which I purchased?  So I own the license or actually the hardware it locked to that license?  Well?  Unless B&C used the same retail Windows NT license and every SNC they sold?  Which by looking at the partial image from the hard drive they do have Microsoft Office also?  and it looks like maybe even the full version of Visual Studio VB 5 which is stupid to license on every computer?  But again I can just see all the files and VB5 wasn’t fee like VB is now in 1999.  🙂    (Maybe B&C can provide my licenses and documentation?)

The only “real info” I got from them was the unit was 3-4 units behind….. they couldn’t list them all but I didn’t care either.  The “upgrade” is $3,200 (they have no manuals/documents but they can send me an invoice!  🙂 which after asking 2-3 time and then just saying “so you basically throw everything away?”  Got the answer!  They will not help me and nothing in the unit is worth keeping.  Sounds like not even the display?  But I was really getting sick of getting talked down to by someone who didn’t know anything.  But don’t get me wrong!  Why should she!  It’s 13 years old!  But she was just making up crap which is annoying.  Like it has software we wrote on it…. yeah (3 small apps: interface, sync with icverify and music?)!    Plus… didn’t I pay for them?  Plus what good is the software now… or then? 🙂  I asked nicely and said I wanted them?  🙂  Plus ICVerify is doing everything! and master card doesn’t support that version anymore it’s all garbage.  AN ASIDE (before I purchased this Swipe Thing): I did actually research icverify and thought it was really pretty good.  I would purchase icverify!  Don’t think B&C has anything to do with icverify either. Don’t think B&C really tried very hard with the SNC 1.0? I saw it in action. But I know someone used this unit… why you asked? Because ALL THE CREDIT CARD NAMES AND NUMBERS ARE STORED ON THE HARD DRIVE! But I guess this was before certain regulations maybe? 6056 transactions approved credit cards for $20… probably not that great from 5/2005-9/2012? (This SNC unit came from a 1mil+ Coleman mega sales pit. You know how they look and all the equipment they have. Everything Coleman…. which isn’t a bad thing at all. Just this SNC product is bad.) I haven’t looked at the access database yet. Which an access database is also great for production applications! Bad computer programmer JOKE 🙂

This makes me want to write my own computer based credit card system.  With something like icverify it really wouldn’t be that bad.  The only problem is having a computer.  That’s why I needed to call B&C in the first place.  I could only imagine how much they would charge for a new hard drive?  LOL  🙂 If I had my own cc system I would charge $1,000,000! LOL

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New Product for Lowes?

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Look what Lowes is selling now!  96″ fluorescent lights with the crappy T12 connections I thought you could only purchase at Grainger.  But be sure to check all the bulbs… I purchased a whole bunch and got different kinds!

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How to cook hot dogs in the microwave? – UPDATE

You would be surprised how many people search my blog for “how to microwave hot dogs”.  So I have been revising my hot dog making craft over the last year and decided to post my new method of cooking / boiling / microwaving hot dogs.

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First get 2 glass bowls, one is the size of the hotdogs and the other is just acting as a weight.  Second fill the bowl about 1/3 up with water.  Third insert your hotdogs.

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Now insert the small bowl on the hot dogs this will keep the hotdogs under the water to boil the them.  Set the microwave for 4:00 on high and hit start.  Then they should be done.  Also, the bowls will be hot!

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Another hotdog eating tip:  When eating crappy hotdogs, try adding lots of Tabasco!

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How to fix a GinSan Sensortron?

I purchased 4 Sensortron insert only from Kleen-Rite (CB0190) for $66.99 andit was an easy swap.  After purchasing the inserts, I figured out all my broken coin acceptors are IDX acceptors.

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All you have to do in unscrew 1 screw and the broken insert comes out.

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Pop it in and put the metal piece on.

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New presoak from KIM Tek

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After I finally got my order from Kimsupply.com (after their ordering problem),  I mixed up some “Texas Blue Power” pre-soak. I was surprised that it was blue though (a lot better than green).  I mixed 50 pounds of powder to make 55 gallons of presoak.  The recommended starting dilutions are 64:1 (orange tip).  I will let you know how it works later.

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Simply Solutions

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After getting my “Appeal Blue Berry Clearcoat” chemicals from Robert Pecora from Simply Solutions Corp, I finally checked to see what it looked like.  This was tipped at “dark brown”, a little too strong, so I switched to a “yellow” hydrominder tip.