Wascomat Crossover Error Reset Shortcut

 

Do you ever have washers lock up with clothes inside? Sometimes pulling the plug and waiting five minutes before plugging the washer back in will work, sometimes it doesn't.

If you have Wascomat Crossover washers in your laundry room or laundromat and need to get the door open to get items out, here is an easy way.

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy

Error 1, Error 2, or other numbers and door locked NO water in machine

1. Press and HOLD the Cold, Delicate, and Start buttons for 3 seconds. The display shows "0000" and the LEDs blink above the program buttons

2. Using the Cold, Warm, Hot and Delicate buttons, set the display to read "1234" (Cold changes the thousand value, warm the 100’s value, etc)

3. Press the Start button. If there is not a physical malfunction of the door lock, the door will unlock within 5 minutes

Error 1, Error 2, or other numbers and door locked with water INSIDE machine

1. Press and HOLD the Cold, Delicate, and Start buttons for 3 seconds. The display shows "0000" and the LEDs blink above the program buttons

2. Using the Cold, Warm, Hot and Delicate buttons, set the display to read "1234" (Cold changes the thousand value, warm the 100’s value, etc)

3. Press the Start button. The door will not unlock because of the water in the washer

4. The display shows "10"

5. Use the Heavy Soil and Extra Rinse buttons to change display to “46”

6. Press the start button and pump will turn on. Water should start to drain out

7. Push start button again when water is drained out to turn pump off

8. Repeat step 5 to return display to “10” if door doesn’t unlock when pump is turned off

9. Press the Start button. If there is not a physical malfunction of the door lock, the door will unlock within 15 minutes

 

Soap Fetching Stick

 

As a good operator of a laundromat or laundry room, you should always keep an eye out for ways you can help your customers. Sometimes the way you can help them is with an idea that you've never thought about...until you physically see the need for it.

"I saw a customer put the money in the soap dispenser and push the coin slide in," said Larry, a laundromat owner in Wisconsin.
"The box fell in the back of the chute and this customer had larger hands and couldn't get his fingers inside far enough to reach the box and slide it out. I got a wood stick from the back and used it to slide the box forward and get it out for the customer," Larry explained.

"I've gotten refund requests from other people who said they had a box get stuck. When I would get there and check the soap machine the box would be gone. That person probably put the money in and the box would fall and be sitting there, and then somebody else probably saw it and took it out when they were getting their soap and got a freebie."

To solve the problem of people not being able to get their hands inside the machine, Larry came up with the "soap fetching stick," which is a wooden paint stick with a magnet on one side so it sticks to the machine.

I asked him why did he decide on a paint stick.

"It was just the smoothest, nicest little piece of wood I could find that would slide inside easily." 

I also asked him how many paint sticks has he gone through.

"None. I put one on each machine and no one has taken it yet."

The "soap fetching stick" is a simple idea, however it says to the customers that this owner is always looking for ways to help them by having this available.

Pretend the old adage is true that a happy customer will tell five people about their positive experiences, and an unhappy customer will tell 50 people about their negative experience.

If this stick is used only 10 times a year, is saves 500 potential bad reviews by word of mouth or social media with a potential loss of revenue from customers trying another location, to 50 people hearing positive things about your facility. If only five of those fifty become twice a month customers, how would that affect your bottom line?

Good idea Larry!

Ev

A Heck of A Nice Guy

Dealing with Homeless Part B: When You Are IN Your Store

Every laundromat owner will at some time have homeless people squatting (or trying to) in their laundromat. If you are the owner of an unattended laundromat
and you are in your store, or you run an attended laundromat,
how do you deal with this problem?
My article is not meant to pass judgement on, criticize, demean, and comment on any homeless people or their situations, or solve in any way the issue of homelessness.
This article is just to pass along some ideas to help deal with this situation that affects in a very real way the revenues and staff of a laundromat.

Pretend a homeless person walks into your store and sits down.
They are clearly not doing laundry.
YOU ARE IN YOUR STORE. What can you do?

1. Talk to them in a friendly way. Ask them their name. Be polite. Use your gut.
As an experienced owner you can get a good idea from the way people react to simple questions and conversations their mental state, inebriation levels, and if they are potentially up to no good. If you suspect ANY of these things, or they give you any negative attitude, do not engage further and be prepared to call the police depending on what happens further. You don’t want to rile up someone who is high or drunk because that becomes a threat to you and your customers.

2. Ask more questions if they are friendly and talkative. This gives you more information on their situation so if they are truly experiencing a bought of bad luck that lead to this situation you can see how you can help them. You also gain more information to tell the police if you do need to call them.

For #1 and #2 ALWAYS remain calm and speak calmly. Usually homeless people get yelled at by everyone to move along. They are used to people yelling at them and it just causes them to get defensive. Most homeless will just move on if they are asked nicely.

3. Have a consistent policy that you and your staff follow.
I have a policy that if it is cold, rainy, or snowy I will allow a homeless person to come in and sit for 15 minutes to get out of the weather. I will talk to the person and get their name and then explain that this is a laundromat and not a shelter but I will allow them to stay for 15 minutes as long as they behave.
The trick is to be consistent every time you deal with a person you allow into the store to do this. Starting at 15 minutes I tell them they have to move along. Most do with no further urging. If they come back the rules are the same. It gets to the point that if the person comes back they know my rule and before I have to say anything will say to me as soon as they walk in the door “I’m just staying for 15 minutes then I will go.” After a few times of letting them warm up I have found they move on to a place they can stay longer or leave the neighborhood entirely.

4. If I get to know a homeless person and they are polite and social whenever I see them, I will offer to wash their coat and hat for free. When done washing, I ask that they leave and they do. At least they feel better with a clean warm coat. My experience is that they appreciate the small gesture and don’t come back. You would think getting a free wash would make them want to come back more often. My experience is it hasn’t.

5. Offer them some clothes from the lost and found.
Throw out any they leave behind.

6. There was a couple that was homeless that I often saw over the period of several weeks one winter. I got to know them through the steps above and they seemed friendly and the kind of people that were down on their luck. I found out they slept in an abandoned garage around the corner. Offered them some odd jobs around the store that I was going to do. I had them shovel snow, break ice built up on the curbs and sidewalks, paint the garage on the property, even paint the front of the store. Sometimes I stayed around to supervise and other times I left and came back later. In each case they did a good job and I paid them a few bucks.
I noticed two interesting things by giving them work to do. The first was they stayed outside of the store when working. The second was that customers saw them as workers and didn’t know their situation and because they didn’t know they were homeless were not intimidated by them.

 I always agreed to meet them at a certain time to pay them. The third thing I noticed was that once I paid them they left immediately. They didn’t even go inside and warm up.  I admit that I probably got lucky with the couple, however I’ve had homeless people shovel snow, rake leaves, and paint walls on a number of occasions at several locations. When done if they do a good job I pay them a few bucks. Sometimes they come back for another job.
If I don’t have any other work for them they often move on to another area.

7. Some homeless people are mentally unstable. I have had them come inside and poop on the floor, pee on themselves, expose themselves to customers, throw mop buckets at cleaners, even try and attack security guards and staff. If you follow step one and two and the homeless person seems unstable call the police for help immediately. Get them away from yourself and customers. Don't confront them yourself. If they are doing actions like described who knows what they will try.

8. If the homeless person is unstable, keep an eye on where your customers are in the store and know where the exit routes are out of the store. According to studies it only takes 1.5 seconds for a person to travel 21 feet. If the homeless person decides to lunge or attack you have to know where to send people,
and yourself, to get out of the store.

9. Call the police if there is any incident.
Don’t try to deal with a person that is high, drunk, or mentally unstable on your own.

10. Consider taking a self defense class or concealed weapons carry class. Whether you choose to physically fight or carry a weapon is up to you and a different article, however the education provided will help you be more prepared in case you do have to deal with a situation.

Remember:
1. Not all homeless people are crazed, drug addicts, who smell bad and pee on themselves
2. Some homeless people are any or all of the above
3. Regardless of personal issues, any homeless hanging out inside a laundromat do not make the laundromat customers feel safe
4. When customers don’t feel safe they stop coming and that impacts the business
(i.e. revenues go down, staff gets fired, business closes)

I’m not a legal expert, however I’ve dealt with the homeless at over 50 stores that I’ve owned or managed. I hope these tips help you.

If you run an unattended store or are not in your attended store, here are some more tips:
Dealing-with-homeless-when-you-are-there

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy

 

Dealing with Homeless part A: When You Are NOT in Your Store

 

Homeless people squatting laundromats is a very real concern for laundromat owners. It can lead to the ruination of your business and loss of jobs for the staff.

For those of you not familiar with laundromats and homeless issues let me briefly explain. Homeless people don’t always stay at a shelter, a job, or someplace where they can get help. Laundromats to them are a place to go inside and get warm. They try to panhandle from customers that obviously have money. They know owners of unattended laundromats don’t always come around to the store, so they figure the odds of them getting kicked out are rather small and they run roughshod on everything in the store. This includes vandalizing the store walls, breaking equipment, doing drugs and alcohol openly in front of customers, breaking bathroom fixtures, sleeping in aisles and furniture blocking machines from customers, acting violently with cleaning staff, basically being disorderly. Any homeless hanging out inside a laundromat do not make the laundromat customers feel safe. When customers don’t feel safe they stop coming and that impacts the business (i.e. revenues go down, staff gets fired, business closes).

Every laundromat owner will have to deal with the homeless at some point in their ownership.
If you haven't yet...you will.
My article is not meant to pass judgement on, criticize, demean, and comment on any homeless people or their situations, or solve in any way the issue of homelessness. 

Lets get some obvious points out of the way first:
1. Not all homeless people are crazed, drug addicts, who smell bad and pee on themselves
2. Some homeless are just people down on their luck and they are trying to change their situation. Please help them if you can
3. Homeless people that have substance, violence, or other issues are better left to professionals-don't confront them

This article deals with unattended laundromats. I give tips for attended laundromats and how to deal with the homeless when you are in the store in a separate article:
Dealing-with-homeless-when-YOU-ARE-IN-YOUR-STORE.html

If you run an unattended laundromat (attended laundromat owners there are some ideas for you too in this article) and you are not able to be in your laundromat, here are some ideas that can help contain or eliminate the homeless from ruining your business:

1. Keep lights on 24 hours. People trying to hide in your laundry look for the shadows in the corners or behind walls and equipment. Keeping the lights on eliminates those shadows, makes the person trying to hide less comfortable when they realize the lights are not going to go off, and it makes it easier for police or anyone to see inside your store. People that are trying to hide, or are up to no good, don’t want to be seen. Keeping the lights on also makes customers who need to stay longer than closing time feel welcome. They might stay until after the doors automatically lock and that makes it harder for homeless to sneak in and stay overnight or cause mischief.

2. Develop a good relationship with your police precinct community liaison officer. They can sometimes offer advice to you, and more importantly let officers know to look into your store more often for drive by patrols

3. Keep a key in a key lock box outside and let the police and fire department know they have access. Most police precincts and fire houses have a list of businesses that have a lock box and the code to get in. If there is ever a problem at your store they can access this key for entry rather than break the door or glass if they need to get inside and attend someone or kick them out. It also is a nice way to surprise someone who thinks they are safe inside your store because the doors are locked and they can’t be forced out. If police officers have a key and use it to come inside, that person will not come back and try it again

4. Usually when officers have to remove someone from an unattended business they need to contact the owner first for permission. Give written permission to your local police precinct that they have your permission to warn, kick out, ticket, or arrest any trespassers and homeless in your store when you are not there. Some police departments have a policy like this in place with standard forms that you need to fill out. Other communities do not. Check your community to see if law enforcement has any local policies like this.

5. Obtain a legal looking “No Loitering” sign that has the local statute against such behavior printed on it. Law enforcement officials are smart individuals and they understand that if they kick out a homeless person the homeless person will just come back. So they will check on the individual and sometimes just let them stay inside of they aren’t causing trouble. The officer might tell you they couldn’t do anything because there wasn’t a “no loitering or trespassing” sign posted. If you post the sign it helps the police because if the homeless person tries to say they can be in the store because there is no sign, the officer can point to the sign. Argument over.

7. A couple of enterprising owners have a church group come in and do free washes for the homeless.
The provision though is the homeless have to stay and listen to the preaching. That drives some homeless out after a time or two. When they move to coming to your store on another day, move the church group to another day too.

8. When possible have your cleaners come at different times on different days. Homeless people, and thieves, watch your store and know your routines. Break up those routines and you throw off their patterns when they think they can come to your store and camp out.

9. Make sure your security cameras work!
Watch them and get a feel for when homeless might be coming in.

10. Have a security camera or Bluetooth device that allows you to speak and be heard inside the store. Put these devices near where homeless camp out in your store. If you see someone hanging out, make “official sounding” announcements like:
“It’s 10pm. The laundromat is now closed. 
Please finish your laundry and have a good evening.”
“This is ABC security company.
Please be advised you are being monitored while in this store.”

“The laundromat is closed.
Please go to (insert name) shelter located on (blank) street.”

If the store is closed you can also have some fun with these speakers.
I’ve scared away homeless that were trying to sleep inside stores by making scary voices (“Get out”) annoying noises, and even pointing out something the person is wearing (“hey you in the bears hat”) or has possession of (“you with the backpack”) so they know THEY are the one that is REALLY being watched.

11. Have a nice poster with the different resources homeless people can take advantage of. Make sure it has the address, or better yet a map, showing where these services are located. Besides the homeless people, customers can also read this information and point out to homeless where they can get help.

12. Call the police. They are the professionals. Let them handle it if the situation is in any way potentially dangerous.

Homelessness in this country is a very serious problem. One that requires our help and understanding for the people that are in that situation. We need to have sympathy, empathy, and treat them with basic respect. 
This article is just to pass along some ideas to help deal with this situation that affects in a very real way the revenues and staff of a laundromat.

Ev
A Heck of A Nice Guy