Problems

We moved La Dos into Paymaster about 2 weeks ago.  Immediately the machine was plagued with problems.

1.) The fluorescent bulb in the machine broke in the move.  It took 3 trips to the hardware store to buy a replacement bulb, return that bulb when it, too, failed to work, buy rope light instead, return to the store to buy an extension cord for the rope light.  Add in another trip home and back to Paymaster with a drill to drill & zip tie the rope light inside the machine, and finally we solved the illumination problem.
Now the lighting in the machine looks rad!  A bonus to having the rope light is that it runs up and down the sides of the machine illuminating more of the products AND it runs inside the machine, making it easier for me to check coin levels in the change mechanism & peruse back-up inventory stored in the hutch.

2.) The bigger problem running La Dos was that the whole bottom row of chance and spirit animals kept jamming.  The machine was an instant hit.  People loved it and were eager to buy stuff from it.  But items kept jamming, especially the mystery bags.  Some customers got angry, some shook the machine, and the bar decided after a day of busy-but-strained operation to unplug the Venderia.
    I was admittedly pretty slow to respond to the jams.  Sure, I'd come down and clear the jams promptly, but it took me a few days to realize that the issue was systematic.  The problem is that the distance between where the products are displayed in the machine and the glass front of the machine is shorter in La Dos than in the original Venderia.  As a result, some products that fit in the Beulahland machine, simply will not fit in the Paymaster machine.  Tall products (like miniature comic books, glow sticks, certain action figures, giraffe spirit animals) simply lean up against the glass and get stuck after vending instead of dropping into the grab box.
     To remedy this problem not only did I have to pull a bunch of products permanently out of La Dos, I also had to repackage ALL the chance and spirit animal mystery bags.  That took some serious time, especially because in anticipation of the new machine launching, I had pre-bagged a ton of inventory.  Unbagging, relabeling, rebagging sucked.

Now the Venderia at Paymaster has been running for two weeks and seems to have found its stride.  

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