Rent to own battery vending machine?

[mariushm]

Gas stations would prefer to put those shitty one time charge power banks, they can buy them from <1$ and sell them to you for 3-5$ and bam, instant profit:

 

 

[Ryanwake]

I rewrote the original post, forget about the $80 battery, and maybe some people know they want a battery, but they might not get $30 worth out of a $30 battery.

 

And will Walmart give you a full refund on a used battery, on second thought they probably will.

 

but could you buy a fancy $50 battery used from Walmart used for $30? No I don't think so

 

2 hours ago, LinusOnLine said:

Who would buy anything but crap cheap stuff from a vending machine? A battery bank at 20 000 mAh is not more than 30 bucks here anyway.

if I were in charge I wouldn't sell cheap crap from a vending machine, because what else do you call a red box 4 batteries

 

2 hours ago, mariushm said:

This is done in a few countries with electric scooter / motorbike batteries.  You subscribe to their service and you simply travel to a store or location that has a rack of batteries, tap a screen with your phone and the screen tells you which battery to pull out of the shelves and where to  put your current scooter/bike battery (if not the same compartment).  The system automatically checks the old battery and starts charging it when you slide it inside the compartment) - if you don't put the old battery your account gets charged with the price of a battery, otherwise you pay only for the charge or a monthly subscription..

It makes sense, since the locations also serve as a second purpose, to recharge.

 

With power banks it would be more difficult, you'd have to hire staff to collect the batteries at the end of each day, optionally clean them, charge them up with dedicated machines and get them back to stores, have to deal with loss, have to deal with batteries that degrade after 500-1000 charges, have to deal with banks that are too scratched or corroded (from humidity), that are damaged (bent jacks etc), have to deal with people that will open the banks and remove the batteries and return the batteries at the store with sand in them or other crap, basically this business has too many costs to make sense. 

With the scooter batteries those have a specific shape and batteries have serial numbers (can be something as simple as a NFC tag or radio tag) and the rack auto tests the batteries and if they're faulty they're put aside for replacement and your account would get billed if you try to fake the system

 

Power banks are too generic and simple and difficult to implement tracking and would be too much "friction" to ask people to also create an account to rent a power bank for a few dollars a month.

Maybe cleaning them and plugging them in at the vending machine would be the customers job, then the next customer would review the last customers job.

 

That would be required for them to get any refund

 

2 hours ago, mariushm said:

Gas stations would prefer to put those shitty one time charge power banks, they can buy them from <1$ and sell them to you for 3-5$ and bam, instant profit:

I've seen this before, but I'm not talking about gas stations I'm talking about the vending machine outside the gas station.

And for anyone to get a refund, would have to grade the last customers job cleaning the battery.

 

Also I rewrote the initial post it makes more sense now

[TechyBen]

Starbucks wireless/lending wall socket charging is where it is at. Bus/taxi/coffee shop charging. Not swapping batteries.

 

Roll on supercapacitors.

[mariushm]

Read my previous posts where I listed just some of the costs that such a rental business would entail.

Simply put, these power banks are too simple of device and too much of a commodity to make money out of, there's too many costs involved in keeping everything stocked and working. 

It's not a viable business model, and you can't compare it to Red (or whatever that was called) or Netflix renting DVDs where the cost is basically a few cents to replace broken discs or to clean the surface or to hire a bunch of people to inspect returned discs., and maybe 50 cents to ship a dvd to a person. You also have competition from free charging systems and cheap power adapters (ex. gas station could also stock a 10$ car battery charger, or you could rent a power bank for 5$ a month... what makes more sense to you...)

 

[Ryanwake]

16 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

If they have enough cash to buy electronics, they certainly have enough cash to set aside $30 for a battery bank. Or you know, they could figure out how to ration the charge on their devices or strategize being near a source of power so they aren't as dependent on battery banks.

 

While I have one, I almost never use it. The only time I use it is because I'm at a convention where I don't have readily available access to a mains socket.

 

Except the Switch is not USB C compliant. You could potentially cause damage to the battery or the Switch if you don't use a charger that's capable of handling its quirks.

I'm well aware of this, think like Redbox, plus every battery available in the vending machine would be certified by them, including switch battery Banks.

 

Plus the vending machine would order in bulk to get cheaper prices so you would be able to ship a phone battery back to your house and return it to the battery bank if you decide later that u don't need it.

 

Also to get any refund the next customer would have to grade the cleaning, and damage to the battery.

 

 

[mariushm]

7 minutes ago, Ryanwake said:

I've seen this before, but I'm not talking about gas stations I'm talking about the vending machine outside the gas station.

 

And for anyone to get a refund, would have to grade the last customers job cleaning the battery.

 

Also I rewrote the initial post it makes more sense now

Most gas stations don't OWN those vending machines. A company makes a contract with the gas station (or chain) and pays monthly rent to keep the vending machine there and maybe also pay something like 5-10% of the profit on an item sold... so a gas station would make less profit from a vending machine compared to just selling something on the shelves inside the station.

You typically see in vending machines stuff that's not profitable for gas station to fill their shelves with.

 

 

[Ryanwake]

Just now, mariushm said:

Most gas stations don't OWN those vending machines. A company makes a contract with the gas station (or chain) and pays monthly rent to keep the vending machine there and maybe also pay something like 5-10% of the profit on an item sold... so a gas station would make less profit from a vending machine compared to just selling something on the shelves inside the station.

You typically see in vending machines stuff that's not profitable for gas station to fill their shelves with.

No but I bet red box pays a fee to be inside Walmart, so this probably isn't that difficult to do.

[mariushm]

Also to get any refund the next customer would have to grade the cleaning, and damage to the battery.

 

You're joking right? You're not even paying attention when you're installing apps on your computer, you just go through screens clicking next, next next ... people will just click on ok , continue, 5 stars, yes ... or just cancel the process and forget about it. If you're making me do work, then you'd have to pay ME instead.

If it takes more than a few seconds you're done, service won't work..

 

The scooter battery charge basically works like this "tap phone on screen.  Hi John (pulled from subscription plan), pull charged battery from slot C-5 and put your old battery there. Thanks!"  - That's it.  Minimal friction, instant gratification, everything works automatically.

[Ryanwake]

6 minutes ago, mariushm said:

Also to get any refund the next customer would have to grade the cleaning, and damage to the battery.

 

You're joking right? You're not even paying attention when you're installing apps on your computer, you just go through screens clicking next, next next ... people will just click on ok , continue, 5 stars, yes ... or just cancel the process and forget about it. If you're making me do work, then you'd have to pay ME instead.

If it takes more than a few seconds you're done, service won't work..

 

The scooter battery charge basically works like this "tap phone on screen.  Hi John (pulled from subscription plan), pull charged battery from slot C-5 and put your old battery there. Thanks!"  - That's it.  Minimal friction, instant gratification, everything works automatically.

I'm not talking about on your phone or on your computer I'm talking about at the vending machine in person.

 

If they want to rent a used battery, they will have to grade the damage and the cleaning.

 

And overtime if they grade/ rented of batteries they can get a 10% discount.

 

Doesn't sound that interesting, batteries instead of charging them but if u we're batteries instead of charging them for 6 hours then you would be able to get it easily.

[Arika]

18 minutes ago, Ryanwake said:

maybe some people know they want a battery, but they might not get $30 worth out of a $30 battery.

the people that fit this criteria is going to be so insanely small that it's pretty much pointless. If someone can't afford a $30 battery, then they have bigger issues than trying to determine if they are going to get their money's worth out of it.

 

The only reason i can see people using something like this would be someone going "shit my phone is flat, i dont have a charger with me, i'll just buy a cheap charger to tie my over until i get home". let's say they are at a gas station, they would have a car, so they would be more likely to just get a cigarette lighter charger or they might see the "vending machine" and go "oh, that might be useful" and buy it on a whim. barely anyone would plan to rent a battery. again, tiny market.

[Ryanwake]

5 minutes ago, Arika S said:

the people that fit this criteria is going to be so insanely small that it's pretty much pointless. If someone can't afford a $30 battery, then they have bigger issues than trying to determine if they are going to get their money's worth out of it.

 

The only reason i can see people using something like this would be someone going "shit my phone is flat, i dont have a charger with me, i'll just buy a cheap charger to tie my over until i get home". let's say they are at a gas station, they would have a car, so they would be more likely to just get a cigarette lighter charger or they might see the "vending machine" and go "oh, that might be useful" and buy it on a whim. barely anyone would plan to rent a battery. again, tiny market.

I don't know about insanely small, how many people go to school and come home needing to charge.

 

And how many of those people don't have a battery bank.

 

and how many of those people need to convince their parents to spend money on them?

 

I don know about u but  that sounds like a lot of people.

 

And convincing your parents to spend$30 on a battery is difficult, but

2-3$ a month ofr a year easy

 

Even though I'm 17 it's hard to convince my bipolar mom of anything

[Guest]

I know what your getting at, but it’s just not applicable to many people.

 

I’ve never needed a battery bank in quite a while, even if I do, I’d just buy one. Chances are worst thing is just not topping up your phone if you’re on PrePay (If not then you probably have disposable income anyway).

[Arika]

1 minute ago, Ryanwake said:

And convincing your parents to spend $2-3 a month on a $30 battery is difficult even when you're 17.

again, if you can't afford a $30 battery bank, then you've got bigger issues than not having a battery bank

 

Quote

how many people go to school and come home needing to charge.

then you plug into a wall when you get home. if you're at school, you shouldn't even be on your phone enough to run it dry

[mariushm]

1 minute ago, Ryanwake said:

I'm not talking about on your phone or on your computer I'm talking about at the vending machine in person.

 

If they want to rent a used battery, they will have to grade the damage and the cleaning. 

 

And overtime if they grade/ rented of batteries they can get a 10% discount. 

 

Doesn't sound that interesting, batteries instead of charging them but if u we're batteries instead of charging them for 6 hours then you would be able to get it easily.

Dude.... you don't get it.

Your market would be people who need a power bank to quickly recharge their phones or use that power bank for something, they won't have time and patience to spend a minute or whatever it takes to "grade" the damage and the cleaning. They won't care to be honest and do the work for you.

They'll either say the battery is perfect just to go through the screens and be done with it, or they'll say the battery is 100% damaged just because they want another battery that doesn't have a scratch on it.

By the time this battery for which the user said it's 100% damaged reaches one of your locations where a person you hire tests it out to see if it's actually 100% damaged, several days have gone by and the battery was out of the circuit for that many days not making money for you. Also, you're paying that person 10-20$ an hour to test the battery that was incorrectly claimed as 100% damaged.

And what can you do about it? Do you track each battery bank by some unique ID, did you store the battery ID to the account of the person that said the battery is 100% damaged, do you fine that user?  If so, how much do you fine that person.. if you fine that person too much, they may just cancel the subscription or dispute the credit card charge and then the bank fines you for disputes.

You've still wasted money on the fuel to get the battery from the vending machine to your location where you test it, you've wasted that employees time with him testing the battery, you're wasting time reconditioning a power bank (removing scratches or whatever)

 

You'll still have to deal with frauds... like for example let's say I rent a battery bank and replace the 5000-25000 mAh battery with a 100mAh lithium battery and some sand to keep the weight the same. When I put it back in the vending machine, the battery bank will charge, since it's a working battery inside, so your vending machine will accept it, but obviously it won't hold much charge so the next person using it will not be happy.

The next person renting that battery will complain and say the battery is damaged, then days later when the battery is pulled from vending machine and tested by your employee and you find out the battery inside was replaced, who do you blame? the person who last rented it or the one before, how could you determine which one did it?

 

THINK of all the costs a service like this would entail, your costs are not just shipping power banks to vending machines, it's also maintenance and fraud. 

[aezakmi]

What if you use the charger? 

[Enderman]

1 hour ago, Ryanwake said:

*This isn't financial help, I'm just saying that I want to buy and $80 power bank but I don't want to risk $80 if I don't use it enough.

 

I've got a $10 eBay power bank and I use it enough, but it's not big enough to charge multiple phones, and it doesn't fast charge.

 

* you don't have to get $80 power bank, you can get a $30 power bank and only pay $2 a month rent.

 

You can return it even after you pay the full price, say for example you go to college and your phone does not last all day.

 

maybehave multiple devices, you can get the big power bank and return it in a week for a medium power bank.

 

Or you're stranded at Walmart, you can get a guaranteed charged battery in 30 seconds for $2

1) people who need a battery bank know they will use it.

This isn't like buying shoes online and they may or may not fit.

 

2) There are places that already offer refunds if you are not satisfied with the product.

 

3) Or you can pay $30 upfront instead of spreading it out over months unnecessarily

 

4) It's literally a one time purchase, you buy it once and don't need to worry anymore.

It is not a can of pop that runs out and you need to buy a new one from a vending machine.

[Ja Krispie]

1 hour ago, Ryanwake said:

The point is you can get a high-quality battery Bank for $5 a month, and return it if u don't use it enough.

 

Plus they would be on the $5 battery Banks that u could buy quickly and swap out in less than 30 seconds.

 

You know if you're stranded without a phone charger

The cost of a good batter bank doesn't really justify the cost of a rent to own. They are relatively affordable already

[Ryanwake]

10 minutes ago, Psybadek said:

The cost of a good batter bank doesn't really justify the cost of a rent to own. They are relatively affordable already

Well the rent-to-own is if you are considering a battery back more than $30, and a week later u might want a refund.

 

Plus u might want An extra large battery for the entire family over vacation, do you know the charge multiple devices.

 

Fast charging ports for Nintendo switches and tablets and laptops.

 

For a college student might have a phone tablet and a Nintendo switch, he could get a $50 battery Bank, something with the copasity to fully charge a phone tablet and switch.

 

it's like Redbox the vending machine company won't certify every product it sells, so you are 100% certain it's not going to explode your switch.

 

But then a week later he realizes he only needs to charge his phone, and supplemental charge is more than enough for his Nintendo switch because he never plays it for more than 3 hours out of the house.

 

Then you get most of the $10 you spent back, and use it twards a 5-1000 mAh battery.

 

Plus the vending machine charges all the batteries, so you could swap out the battery for free.

 

Or just buy $1 or $5 battery Bank, plus I'm sure an old battery bank that used to be $50 could go for 12 and still be better than a $30 new battery.