TV Slot Meters
Member: Valvekits
Slot meters? Yes we all know what they are – don’t we?
We used to have a sales division who sold TV’s by way of a slot meter attached to the TV. The customer would put in the coins and when the meter was emptied they would enjoy a considerable rebate because the rate was set too high.
After the meter had been emptied a couple of times, the salesman would suggest to the customer that they didn’t really need such a big rebate offering them the opportunity to buy something else like an item of furniture. Over a period of time some customers had their whole house furnished by this method of hire purchase.
Now this was all okay until their TV broke down and had to go in to the workshop for repair. The meter would be removed and left with the customer whilst their TV was away. Without the demanding meter, the customer was either unable or unwilling to put the HP money aside. This of course would
prolong the debt repayment period especially on TVs that made regular visits to the workshop! Sometimes customers were still paying for things long after they had worn out!
One time a customer was at her wits end when there wasn’t enough money in the meter to make her payments. She swore blind that she had been putting the money into the meter. The initial solution was to adjust her rate so she would have to put more coins in, but that didn’t work, there still wasn’t
enough in the meter at the next collection. This is where I came in so to speak; I was sent to inspect the meter for functionality and evidence of tampering which all checked out okay so I ended up replacing the meter. I never had any doubts about the customer’s honesty as she genuinely appeared concerned by the whole affair.
The mystery was finally unravelled when the new meter was emptied. There were too few coins and those that were present were going rusty. It transpired that the unfortunate lady had been giving the money to her teenage son whose job it was to put the coins into the meter. Unbeknown to her, he had been manufacturing 50p pieces by pressing a coin into plasticine and filling it with water. Each time she handed him 50p he must have approached the back of the set via the freezer!
Hi I am interested in getting a tv and paying through pay as you go ..thanks…Angie
Sorry Angela, the days of the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) television are long over, the rental of such TV’s ceased almost 30+ years ago, you can neither buy new nor rent one nowadays.
I think you misunderstand this site, its purely an historical blog, a look back in time at the golden age of CRT Television. A place for ex trade and enthusiasts to share tales such as the one above, and share our repair endeavours on vintage equipment.
As a kid we found out that toy plastic money would work.
In my early days of television repair, the local dealer who employed me had a fair number of televisions out on rental fitted with slot meters, in fact some of them took shillings (5 pence to any of you youngsters reading this)
We only had two sets of meter keys between three of us, as one of the “less technical” members of staff was largely responsible for emptying the meters, collecting the cash and updating the customer accounts, however it was (usually) standard practice to ensure that you took a set of keys if called out to repair a fault on a set fitted with a meter.
I visited a customer who rented her set via slot meter payment, one which took shillings and was locked by a padlock rather than a fixed barrel lock, as was the case with the more “modern” slot meters, the key in question was a cylindrical barrel with a hook shaped end perpendicular to the barrel.
At the time of the visit, the customer asked me if I could empty the meter and I said I was unable to as I didn’t have a set of keys with me (I think they were in the possession of the other technician for some reason) to which she responded “It’s OK, I just use a fork, if the shop round the corner isn’t open and I can’t get any change. There’s always enough in to cover the rental anyway”
I told her OK, then (I was quite young at the time), and she already had a fork with one of the prongs bent in the shape of the end of a meter key which easily opened the padlock.
I can’t recall how I explained I had emptied the meter without any keys, at the time of my visit, when I returned to the shop with the cash.
I worked for VISIONHIRE who had a number of sets fitted with these meters. I think they took 50p coins. I recall going to one set that was dead, I found the meter had been smashed off and the wires taped together. I told the customer that regrettably the set had to go to the WS as it had a fault I couldn’t fix – he never got it back.