ami B cashbox

On Apr 20, 11:09*pm, John Robertson wrote:
Alan Hood wrote:
'Rob in NYC[_2_ Wrote:
;680101']On Apr 19, 9:00*pm, Tony Miklos wrote:-
On 4/19/2011 12:53 PM, John Robertson wrote:

-
Alan Hood wrote:-
em pinball;679902 Wrote:
i dont have a key to the cash box. theres no number i can see on it.
did they make a master key for it or do i have to drill it out to get
it open. im talking about the cash drawer located on the bottom of
the
cabinet. thanks norm--
--
Hi Norm,--
--
No cash box locks were always none standard. If your jukebox has an
access panel on the back of the jukebox you may be able to open the
box
from the back by removing the nut off of the back of the lock. If it
is
a sealed cash box then drill through the center of the lock with a
small
pilot drill and then go through with a 1/4 inch drill. The door
should
then come open.--
--
Regards
Alan Hood
ami-man
UK--
-
As Alan says cash box locks (and keys) were unique to each individual
machine, whereas the cabinet locks were (and still are) standard for
a--
That last statement is exactly why I don't do service on anything but
my locations.
I did go a few times to help a older friend when he had a hard time
with a machine in someone's home. *It was always the same depressing
situation; filthy derelict machines that looked like they were bought
right of of location..or some barn. *After getting nicotine, old
grease and mouse dropping on *your hands you appraise the owner that
the unit needs *complete restoration..by someone else, and that there
are other issues that will cause it to fail eventually.

A week or so later my old friend gets a call from a person saying: "i
thought you fixed it" in an accusatory tone. Assholes. I went with him
when he went back to one such situation. It was an AY100 or 160
Nothing had ever been rebuilt. The amp's bias supply had failed taking
out the main amp fuse and probably wearing the 6973 finals, the mech
bucked due to a worn clutch member (and that ten-ton mech cover) etc.

When my old friend Bill pointed out all the problems, the asshole
started acting as though he was trying to cheat him and that it must
be just a "simple adjustment, I mean these things are built for
bars". *I closed my briefcase with the schematics and some tools and
said to Bill, "that's enough of this idiot" and told him to come with
me if he wanted. As we were leaving the guy asked "can you atleast
name someone else (to fix it)" I said I didn't have anyone I disliked
enough to give them that machine to work on. *That was the third and
last home call for me.

A few times a year one of my retro locations will give my number out
(against my wishes) and I'll have a message on my machine from someone
who has a machine "just like the one at xxxx Diner" *and "I'm. sure it
is a simple thing" One guy said "you are my last hope, the guy who
used to fix it for me had cancer and died"

No mas.

Rob

--
number of years. This enabled the route man to change the records,
but
would have no access to the cash, and the cashout person (a trusted
employee or the owner) would be the only person with easy access to
the
money.-
-
John :-#)#-

But John, don't you have one of those master keys that open every
pinball made? *;-) *How many times have you heard that one! *I've even
had customers argue with me about it that I wouldn't have had to
charge
them for drilling out the old lock and installing a new one if only I
had the master key like I should. *Sigh.

Tony-

Hi John,

How true, it seems the more we do for some of these people the worse it
gets and it comes to the time when the tool case is closed and we just
get back into our cars.
After saying that anyone who has done any route work is normally calm
and it takes a lot to get them going, I did it for around 18 years until
I surrendered our Gaming Licence. Now just do bench work, much better.

Regards
Alan

Alan Hood
ami-man
UK

I am surprised by all the horror stories you guys have - I've been doing
home repairs in Vancouver, BC since the 1970s and have never had a
customer treat me or any of my staff like that.

I have two full-time employees and three part-timers and about all we do
is fix pins, vids, and jukes and sell them. Our current wait-list for
repairs is about 80 some folks who all understand it may be a month or
two before we can get to them.

We explain that we only warranty what we replace, however we do make an
strong effort to get back to the house even if something has gone wrong
that we figure is unlikely to be our fault. We explain to the customer
what we did and what we found and charge them a bit more if it is
unrelated to our previous work, or absorb the labour cost if the repair
guy figures he should have caught it the first time. We normally charge
for the extra parts though.

We're a member of the BBB and had 77 on-line enquiries about our firm
last year (we are listed there as A+ with no claims, etc in the past
three years) - have been a member for many years, mostly for the credit
card discounts, but also for the help they will offer if you ever have
trouble - which we have never called them on, nor has a customer ever
filed with them against us.






John, I think that in your case it has more to do with Canadians being
gemerally more civil to one-another than the some of the dog-eat-dog
Americans.

That having been said, I have sold approx 17 machines during the late
80s thru 2002. A total of four service calls on them and all were
friendly encounters. One machine in 1992, an AMI J-200 went to a
family in Queens NY . Their young son got into it and used it as a
record player operated it manually and broke a tonearm wire. It had
been given my mod of counterweight and Pickering V-15 cart. They were
so nice that I refused to charge but they insisted in at least taking
me to dinner and driving me home to Manhattan.

All of the machines that I sold were fully rebuilt and went out
through an antique/collectibles dealer at frankly a premium price,
that may have something to do with my personally good experiences vs.
those that sold to filthy machines to low grade mooks....and maybe it
was just luck.-

It's truly heartening to read of someone who is still willing to keep
these old relics going....the number is dwindling and without
technicians it will hasten the end of the hobby.

This past night I visited a location of mine in Bergen Co NJ. It has
a 201 w/11 boxes. While there a group of four middle-aged people came
in and after seeing me opening the boxes, one approached me and
started asking questions, I am known for ignoring people but not if
they are nice. Turned out that they had bought a retro diner in NJ
(even though they live not far from me in NYC) and had been trying
"for 6 months" to find someone who'll give them and old, or old-style
jukebox and wallboxes. Apparently, the place they bought had old
Rowe WR-series but they had been removed before they bought the
place.

I told them frankly, but nicely that I was not interested in doing a
place so far from NYC (it's about and hour drive) but we talked and I
explained how the financials worked and gave them a couple of large
op's names over there. I also advised them not to go ahead and buy a
used machine they they were considering. Realistically, there chances
of getting someone to do a full wallbox install these days in this
area is slim, most diners are removing them when they renovate because
the old guys are gone and the younger op's want no part of them.

I doubt these folks really know what they have gotten themselves into
by buying a large diner in an area with fairly high median age...but
they'll learn soon enough.

Rob
















My staff are fairly well paid and they all enjoy working at the shop -
now I wish I could take home more $$, but I make enough for my needs and
I have a place to tinker on my projects...works for me!

As I say, not sure why we don't have much in the way of problems (the
odd jerk, but we can handle them), maybe we are just lucky.

John :-#)#

--
* * (Please post followups or tech enquiries to the newsgroup)
* John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9
* Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
* * * * * * * * * * *www.flippers.com
* * * *"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."

I am surprised by all the horror stories you guys have - I've been doing
home repairs in Vancouver, BC since the 1970s and have never had a
customer treat me or any of my staff like that.

I have two full-time employees and three part-timers and about all we do
is fix pins, vids, and jukes and sell them. Our current wait-list for
repairs is about 80 some folks who all understand it may be a month or
two before we can get to them.

We explain that we only warranty what we replace, however we do make an
strong effort to get back to the house even if something has gone wrong
that we figure is unlikely to be our fault. We explain to the customer
what we did and what we found and charge them a bit more if it is
unrelated to our previous work, or absorb the labour cost if the repair
guy figures he should have caught it the first time. We normally charge
for the extra parts though.

We're a member of the BBB and had 77 on-line enquiries about our firm
last year (we are listed there as A+ with no claims, etc in the past
three years) - have been a member for many years, mostly for the credit
card discounts, but also for the help they will offer if you ever have
trouble - which we have never called them on, nor has a customer ever
filed with them against us.

My staff are fairly well paid and they all enjoy working at the shop -
now I wish I could take home more $$, but I make enough for my needs and
I have a place to tinker on my projects...works for me!

As I say, not sure why we don't have much in the way of problems (the
odd jerk, but we can handle them), maybe we are just lucky.

John :-#)#

--
* * (Please post followups or tech enquiries to the newsgroup)
* John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9
* Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
* * * * * * * * * * *www.flippers.com
* * * *"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."


I also admit that home repairs have not all been as bad as with that
individual I posted about earlier. I should also state that this guy
had just moved here from England, bringing the machine with him so he
was not an Australian.

I have done probably another 20 or so "home" or "3rd party" jobs in
recent years, mostly on R84 up and CD jukes without having any
problems.
Most have been referred to me from the Australian AMI importer/
distributor.

Most are quite happy to have someone to fix the gear.

In these cases they have been shipped to me, then shipped back
repaired due to distance. These are not so bad though, as I have lots
of parts for them still and a lot of experience, having operated large
numbers of these machines commercially years ago and fixing for other
operators in the area who I got on well with (and who had ROWE).

A lot of the problem now is the matter of the time it takes, what you
have to charge to fix a machine that the person is not earning an
income from (home use) and factors like that. The court case and the
blatant lies that were told (but weren't a problem, as there was a
witness to most of it so it wasn't as bad a problem as it sounds) that
I had to waste time defending was just the icing on the cake, that
became the final straw for me.



One day I might post some of the documentation relating to the repair
and resultant ****fight.