Buying a Drink or Snack Vending Machine in DC, VA, MD Dixie Narco, AMS

Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC Snack and Drink Vending Machines

Thinking of buying a vending machine? Read about our experience with drink and snack vending machines, and please email me anything you want to add. I will gladly link to your vending machine user experience web page. We found very little advice from other owners before making our purchase, so made this web page in hopes of helping others. After owning these machines for almost 2 years, my conclusion is that although they can be a little troublesome, BOTH THE DIXIE NARCO DN600 AND AMS 35 632 SNACK MACHINES ARE MANUFACTURED BY REPUTABLE COMPANIES, AND WE WOULD BUY THE SAME MODELS AGAIN IF WE HAD IT TO DO OVER. At the very bottom of this page is some input from a vending machine technician that might be helpful.

The bigger lesson here is that anyone thinking about getting into the vending machine business had better accept that there will be a frustrating learning curve that requires time and effort, and owning a vending machine is not the same as owning a new car where there is an eager dealer you can go to to get you troubles fixed in a reasonable time.

April 2004 Update- After all our initial troubles, both machines have been working pretty much trouble free for about two years! (Except for the ever nonfunctional AMS Gum/mint thingy, but the machine is overall still a great value). If only manufacturers went to the trouble to work with only reputable manufacturers and service folks, we'd have been happy right from the start.

I'm told State Sales is now a company called Betson, which, we're told provides the same level of service. I'd really like more input from other vending machine users to post here.

December, 2001- A $15 keypad and an hours worth of time to replace it took care of our intermittent problem with our AMS snack machine. All the buttons work all the time, so it is all working except the Gum/Mint tray. Looks like this is as good as it gets. If you buy one of these things, I recommend you DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY on a non functional Gum /Mint setup. The rest of the machine should be enough to pay for itself.

11/30/01- With the installation of a freshly service Coin Mech courtesy of State Sales (Now Betson), we managed to get ALL THE SELECTIONS WORKING AT THE SAME TIME on our DN 600E vending machine for the first since since it was new, 1 year and 7 Months ago!

8/12/01- A rainy day's efforts result in getting two selections operable again. 8 out of 9 selections work on the Dixie Narco, enough for it to pay for itself, and we just need to install a new cam sort of thing to fix the remaining column. Dixie Narco has been pretty helpful when called for advice. we have been running a pretty good volume through this thing, and it seems pretty durable now.

08/06/01-
And yet another week goes by with no visit from anyone from State Sales (Now Betson). Another promised visit from Mark Mayer does not materialize.

HELP! THE VENDING MACHINE INDUSTRY NEEDS MORE COMPETITION!

WE ARE DOWN TO ONLY 6 OUT OF 9 OPERABLE SELECTIONS on the Dixie Narco Drink Machine. All selections have never worked at the same time except for a few weeks when it was new.

Despite paying over $3,000 each for a brand New Dixie Narco Drink Machine and an AMS Snack vending machine:

The AMS Snack Machine has now been mostly fixed by our rep from State Sales, other than needing to be unplugged and plugged back in in order to work occasionally, especially in cold weather, but the Gum/Mint Tray option that we paid extra for is totally non-functional, and has never worked properly.

After over a year, only 7 out of 9 selections work on the Dixie Narco Drink Machine. All selections have never worked at the same time except for a few weeks when it was new.

It is now July 2001, and it has been since April since we managed to coax the distributor, State Sales of Baltimore, to service the machines they sold us.

Tubes in Freefall!

Skydiving Information

Drink and Snack Vending Machines

at Skydive Orange, Virginia!

Coffee Vending Machines and Hot Chocolate Vending Machine advice wanted

Vending Machine manufacturers- please make future products more trouble free and easy for anyone to operate and maintain*!

This page is so that those contemplating getting Vending machines can learn from our experiences. We have an AMS refrigerated snack machine and a Dixie Narco 600 drink vending machine. They are a whole bunch better than the eternally malfunctioning drink machine the guy from the local drink place brought by, from which we made barely enough to cover the electric cost. For the most part, we are mostly getting what we wanted- machines that at least mostly work most of the time. It's been about a year, and most of this time only 70% - 90% of the selections have been operating. Considering the enormous price- over $3,000 each, we expected these brand new machines to be a little more trouble free. Old vending machines seem to have a reputation for being troublesome, but I think the bigger problem is that there is no one in the vending machine repair business and the machines don't come with much in the way of owners manuals or easy to use parts lists. So we figured we would buy two new vending machines and not have these problems.

Please email me if you have had any experiences with these machines or any other Washington, DC or Virginia vending machine companies! We would have bought a Coffee / Hot Coco vending machine machine by now, but considering the troubles with the machines we have, we decided it would be more troubles instead of more convenience.

Vending machines can be a scam by companies that offer to finance machines aimed at those who think there is nothing involved in maintaining the machines. Apparently there are companies that sell and finance vending machines in an unscrupulous manner, promising an easy money making business selling cheap off brand machines that the owner can not find out who manufactured, or where to go for service (State Sales is NOT one of these companies). It is not an easy money business, and those thinking they will buy a bunch of machines and retire will be in for a little reality check. They constantly need attention, especially our AMS Snack machine. My pre purchase investigations mostly consisted of asking around to see what other folks who owned machines used and where they got them, and the Dixie Narco was recommended as being a good drink vending machine. I asked the advice of the guys at State Sales what they would get if they were buying a refrigerated snack machine, and the AMS brand came up.

Keep in mind we are running a skydiving business. We don't have time to devote a lot of attention to learning all there is to know about vending machines. However, although all conversations with State Sales were about machines with $5 /$1 bill changers, we somehow ended up with a $1 bill only (in addition to coins, of course). The Mars brand bill/coin changers are so far trouble free, although we had a coin mech problem that State Sales took care of on warrantee for us in December 2001. Both machines have identical coin/bill changers, and use the same key, which is helps make life simple.

In spite of the following saga of troubles, these things seem to be paying for themselves (2-3 years till they pay for themselves, if not a bunch sooner, then we start making money) and providing the convenience we were after, and they still beat selling things over the counter one at a time by hand. So we are still arguably getting our money's worth, except for having made the mistake of getting the mostly non-functional gum/mint tray on the snack machine.

As long as this web page has been up, I just got my first response today from someone else selling and servicing Vending machines in Virginia! They are:

Mike Whalen
cme@ecinet2000.com
CME Inc
Culpeper, VA
(540) 937-7523 Culpeper, VA number

(800) 365-1417
Cell (757) 287-3716

Were I to buy another vending machine, I would certainly give these folks a call. They are dealers for U-Select-It (U-S-I) International I have not had any dealings with them, though.

Another response from someone who serviced vending machines in Virginia:

I have been in the vending industry, first as a vendor and then as the Service Manager for a distributor serving the Va/Md/DC area. I read your site with interest. In my experience situations like yours are not uncommon. Frequently distributors (like Betson) focus almost exclusively on sales and neglect service. Apparently they are unaware that poor service results in people calling someone else the next time they want to buy something. I recently left the company I was working for, in part because of that very attitude, and the fact that I was the Service Manager, yet service was not an important part of the company's overall plan.

Here's a response I got from another fellow who has found another reliable vending machine:

Thanks for taking the time to write your experience about your vending business. Sorry it has been a hassle. we have a Automatic Product snack machine (AP LCM2). We have it for 4 years now and we never had a single problem with it. It is not a refrigerated machine. We are looking to buy a pop machine and had been recommended a Dixie Narco. We are not looking to do bottles, only can soda. After reading your experience with Dixie I'm going to research more. Do you have any comments on all-can Dixie machines? Thanks.

Ned responds:

I would get another Dixie Narco, especially if just set up for regular cans. the problem was the distributor, not the machine, not the manufacturer.

To the editor,
I have operated a vending business in Savannah, Ga for twenty-five years. I am authorized to repair any make and model of vending machine ever made. Your problem was not with the manufacturer it was with the distributor. AMS and Dixie Narco are both great machines. Are they 100% reliable all the time? NO
AMS has done a lot with their snack machines since you had your problems. I have five of their machines on location as a test and we only had one problem in a year and our distributor drove 200 miles to fix it the next day. I prefer Dixie to any other Can/Bottle vendor including Royal. That being said I have over twelve hundred snack machines on location and 95% of them are made by Automatic Products. These machines along with Crane National snack machines are the Cadillacs of the vending business. Just remember the machine is only going to be as good as the tech that prepped it and the distributor that sold it. I get a hundred dollars an hour for service calls and half the time it is flipping a switch that the customer should have been knowledgeable enough to do. Oh well I have rambled on enough.
Thanks,
Robin S. Rawls

-July 2003

DRINK VENDING MACHINE-

DIXIE NARCO-

After over a year, Only 7 out of 9 selections work on the Dixie Narco Drink Machine. All selections have never worked at the same time except for a few weeks when it was new.

This machine is for cans and bottles, the problem is that bottles come in different sizes and shapes, and water bottles tend to collapse when they get cold. So after trying to sell 16.9 oz bottled water, we learned that 20 oz bottles work better, but it is rather hard to find 20 oz bottled water. There is no comprehensive written guide included with the vending machine advising how to shim all types of bottles.

The clips that hold the display items are very strong, and several times when we removed the display can it popped open, making a mess of the display area. They need to improve the clips so they don't squeeze as much, and so they are not as sharp. This will probably be a source of many more messes over the years.

The intention was to sell everything in bottles, so people would put the caps back on, and things would not get spilled too bad, but in fact cans are the only thing that the machine works consistently well with since they are all the same size and shape.

07/17/01

Mark, the State Sales rep has still not come by to fix the remaining problems, despite having said he would on two separate occasions. The snack machine works well as long as we unplug it occasionally, except that the Gum/Mint tray is now totally non functional.

7 of 9 selections still work on the Drink Machine. In the year that we have owned it, there was about one month that all the selections worked at the same time.

04/14/01-

Mark came by two weeks ago and rearranged things in the drink machine so now we are using 20 oz water bottles, which seem to work great. We still have a lot of 16.9 oz bottles (not a recommended size since they deform too easy) , which he managed to get working OK as long as we don't fill the column more than half way up so the bottles don't smash. We will bring some parts to replace what has been messing up the column that originally had water in it, but we have since had the double column mess up again, probably because we let the cans on the bottom row get pushed too far to the back below the baffle, so now 7 of 9 columns are operable. He didn't charge us anything for the service call, and expect him to come by again soon to resolve the remaining problems.

03/16/01-

No reply whatsoever from emailing Mark, so I FAX the same message to State Sales. Wayne calls me up and says he will arrange for Mark to come by and replace the circuit board and replace the broken snack machine part on warranty. Suggesting the water would dispense better in single column instead of the double column slot, and in 20 oz instead of the flimsier 16.9 oz bottles, we plan to have mark work his magic in switching which columns we use, and buy a bunch of 20 oz water.

SNACK VENDING MACHINE-

AMS-

The AMS Gum/Mint Tray is totally non-functional, and has never worked properly.

We got a refrigerated snack machine so that we would not have melted candy bars in the summer. It has condensation problems pretty bad, though. The snack machine has had a lot of little problems. There are a couple items we can not get to work- press the buttons and nothing happens, like it does not register electronically or something. (We fixed this keypad problem thanks to help from AMS tech service December 2001)

One of the little plastic bracket that holds one of the helical coils broke. The steel helical coils that rotate and deliver the goods are plated steel, and getting rather rusty, again probably from the condensation seems to me a Teflon coating would be the thing.

Also the threaded pin that screws in to hold the door shut has never lined up properly. You have to wrestle with the door in order to raise it and get the pin to align in order to close it every time you refill or open the machine for any reason.

Our AMS snack vending machine has operated at about 70- 80% of capacity depending on the mood of the machines (really, the AMS Snack vending machine seems to have some sort of circuit malfunction in cold weather where at least one row & column is inoperable until it is warmed up or is unplugged and replugged in) (We fixed this keypad problem thanks to help from AMS tech service December 2001)

The Gum /Mint tray option has never been more than half operational at best. It is made by AMS, and seems not to have enough spring force to push the remaining items foreword to be dispensed. The spring/ cover arrangement is such that it takes great care when refilling and closing the gum / mint trays, otherwise the contents spurt up out of place in a disorderly manner and require replacing one at a time. It looks like this is a poorly designed option, and I don't recommend it.

There is also a bundle of wires hanging down inside so it gets caught in the door every time you close it.

03/07/01-

I contact State Sales for help with both machines- see 03/07/01- above

02/19/01-
Once it got warmer, the AMS Snack Vending Machine started to work normally- even the right row of snacks works normally, so when it got cold and failed again, we aimed a propane heater toward the keypad to test the theory. Seems like a row of the keypad messes up when it gets and stays too cold. (We fixed this keypad problem thanks to help from AMS tech service December 2001)

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01/21/01-

Our AMS Vending machine has ceased to dispense anything.

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11/1/00:

We have still not resolved any of the problems with our vending machines, and are using only about 4/5 of the potential capacity of the AMS vending machine. The whole right row of the slots for snacks is non functional.

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9/25/00:

The saga starts with our purchase of both machines April, 2000.

A big problem with these machines is the lack of a handy print manual. The programming instructions are inside the machine on both of them, on decals awkwardly arranged so that you need to push the appropriate buttons outside the machine, and if you need to take another peek at the instructions, stop and look inside the machine (in the case of the drink vending machine, this requires finding your place again on an enormous small print instruction decal) and then returning to the outside of the door to again continue. There is not as much as a parts list with it's invaluable diagrams to be found for either. A good print manual would make it easy to sit down with and look over instead of fiddling with the machine a little at a time when something needs to be done.

*I would like to see an easy to use owner's manual with complete instructions, exhaustive search index for problems, and troubleshooting.

VENDING MACHINE MANUFACTURERS, DISTRIBUTORS:

If Automobiles worked like this, requiring constant repairs just to keep them operating as expected and only 80% operational, consumers would be very unhappy and irate. It looks to me like the industry severely needs COMPETITION among vending machine DISTRIBUTORS, manufacturers, and especially vending machine sales and service providers to make better products and provide better service. This looks like an opportunity for Japanese, Taiwan and South Korean vending machine manufacturers and engineers to do for the industry what they did for the automotive industry, make reasonably priced products that are more reliable than ever and last longer.

Dixie Narco 600-

Capacity-

334 16-20 oz Bottles or 561 cans

Snack machine-

AMS 35 632 with chiller-

These things really look great, my photography skills are just not good. Anyway, that is the story so far of our AMS refrigerated snack machine and Dixie Narco drink vending machines. If anyone has information on Virginia vending machines and distributors &/or repair services for old machines, let me know & I will post it here.

Vending machines in Virginia, Maryland, Washington DC area

These folks were employees of the now defunct State Sales (Now Betson) VENDING MACHINE DISTRIBUTOR. I suspect STATE SALES went out of business because of their lousy service. No use trying to email them, of course, since the emails prolly won't work any more. Our only direct experience was with Mark Mayer who's promises of service were rarely kept:

These folks were employees of the now defunct STATE SALES VENDING MACHINE DISTRIBUTOR. I suspect STATE SALES went out of business because of their lousy service. No use trying to email them, of course, since the emails prolly won't work any more: