Anyone from Manchester?
Nov 20th 2007, 4:03 pm
#17
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 2,717
Re: Anyone from Manchester?
I worked for the largest independent - Crown Leisure. We did fruit machines, juke boxes, SWP's, pin ball tables, pool tables etc.
When I started the pay was great, but as they bought out more companies the job got harder but the pay stayed the same. My first year saw me doing 8 service calls a day on average. When i finally quit we would have 30+. You worked a 12 hour shift, with 30 calls each - no way you could ever get them all done. The day i quit I awoke to 12 open calls, all over 4 hours old (we had a 4 hour target time), by the time I hit the first pub I had 23, it was only 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I had two 12 hour shifts back to back. I fixed the one call, turned my car around and drove up to Walton Summit in Preston. I plonked my service keys on the table of the service manager, handed my cell and car keys over and told her to stick the ******* job. My girlfriend picked me up and we went and got loaded at the local
I used to earn a fortune doing foreigners! Especially when the coin sizes changed - I'd convert 10 pool table coin mechs a day on my day off at £80 a go
When I started the pay was great, but as they bought out more companies the job got harder but the pay stayed the same. My first year saw me doing 8 service calls a day on average. When i finally quit we would have 30+. You worked a 12 hour shift, with 30 calls each - no way you could ever get them all done. The day i quit I awoke to 12 open calls, all over 4 hours old (we had a 4 hour target time), by the time I hit the first pub I had 23, it was only 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I had two 12 hour shifts back to back. I fixed the one call, turned my car around and drove up to Walton Summit in Preston. I plonked my service keys on the table of the service manager, handed my cell and car keys over and told her to stick the ******* job. My girlfriend picked me up and we went and got loaded at the local
I used to earn a fortune doing foreigners! Especially when the coin sizes changed - I'd convert 10 pool table coin mechs a day on my day off at £80 a go
Last edited by Pony; Nov 20th 2007 at 4:05 pm.
Nov 20th 2007, 4:08 pm
#19
Account Closed
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 22,220
Re: Anyone from Manchester?
I worked for the largest independent - Crown Leisure. We did fruit machines, juke boxes, SWP's, pin ball tables, pool tables etc.
When I started the pay was great, but as they bought out more companies the job got harder but the pay stayed the same. My first year saw me doing 8 service calls a day on average. When i finally quit we would have 30+. You worked a 12 hour shift, with 30 calls each - no way you could ever get them all done. The day i quit I awoke to 12 open calls, all over 4 hours old (we had a 4 hour target time), by the time I hit the first pub I had 23, it was only 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I had two 12 hour shifts back to back. I fixed the one call, turned my car around and drove up to Walton Summit in Preston. I plonked my service keys on the table of the service manager, handed my cell and car keys over and told her to stick the ******* job. My girlfriend picked me up and we went and got loaded at the local
When I started the pay was great, but as they bought out more companies the job got harder but the pay stayed the same. My first year saw me doing 8 service calls a day on average. When i finally quit we would have 30+. You worked a 12 hour shift, with 30 calls each - no way you could ever get them all done. The day i quit I awoke to 12 open calls, all over 4 hours old (we had a 4 hour target time), by the time I hit the first pub I had 23, it was only 10 a.m. on a Saturday morning and I had two 12 hour shifts back to back. I fixed the one call, turned my car around and drove up to Walton Summit in Preston. I plonked my service keys on the table of the service manager, handed my cell and car keys over and told her to stick the ******* job. My girlfriend picked me up and we went and got loaded at the local
Ahhh happy days...just had my arse and a Cortina 1600E to keep. Give me mam a quid every friday.."Ere aar mum...get a bottle of sauce in".
Nov 20th 2007, 4:17 pm
#20
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 2,717
Re: Anyone from Manchester?
We used to have a security guy to keep us on our toes. Never worked though. They would go out and set up a fruit machine fault then get the landlord to put a call in. They would count all cash in, then count it out after you left.
They always used managed houses, and there the landlords don't see a penny of the takings (it all goes to the brewery). So inevitably the landlord would warn you when you turned up.
They used to issue tokens without any type of monitoring. So I too would play the bandits at out of town pubs; until a landlord started buying them at 50% face value and hitting his local pubs on the landlords night out
I remember being called to a pub in Liverpool to fix a machines top glass. It was broken whilst trying to load it in to a taxi! A ******* taxi driver stopped when flagged down and tried to help 3 guys load it - it wouldn't go in the taxi door so they dropped it in the street!
We spend months chaining bandits to walls after that; but they just changed tactics (one good trick was to drill a small hole in the front then push a coat-hanger in to the machine and operate the pay tube slide solenoid and drop the cash - genius!
They always used managed houses, and there the landlords don't see a penny of the takings (it all goes to the brewery). So inevitably the landlord would warn you when you turned up.
They used to issue tokens without any type of monitoring. So I too would play the bandits at out of town pubs; until a landlord started buying them at 50% face value and hitting his local pubs on the landlords night out
I remember being called to a pub in Liverpool to fix a machines top glass. It was broken whilst trying to load it in to a taxi! A ******* taxi driver stopped when flagged down and tried to help 3 guys load it - it wouldn't go in the taxi door so they dropped it in the street!
We spend months chaining bandits to walls after that; but they just changed tactics (one good trick was to drill a small hole in the front then push a coat-hanger in to the machine and operate the pay tube slide solenoid and drop the cash - genius!
I did it for about 3 months. Only about 20 pubs/clubs a day all inside the M25. Then after work into a strange pub to drop about 100 to 200 quids worth of token into the machine and make home with the cash winnings. After 2 weeks I had drawn down all the reels so if I got nudges I knew exactly what was coming on each reel.
Ahhh happy days...just had my arse and a Cortina 1600E to keep. Give me mam a quid every friday.."Ere aar mum...get a bottle of sauce in".
Ahhh happy days...just had my arse and a Cortina 1600E to keep. Give me mam a quid every friday.."Ere aar mum...get a bottle of sauce in".
Nov 20th 2007, 4:46 pm
#21
Account Closed
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 22,220
Re: Anyone from Manchester?
We used to have a security guy to keep us on our toes. Never worked though. They would go out and set up a fruit machine fault then get the landlord to put a call in. They would count all cash in, then count it out after you left.
They always used managed houses, and there the landlords don't see a penny of the takings (it all goes to the brewery). So inevitably the landlord would warn you when you turned up.
They used to issue tokens without any type of monitoring. So I too would play the bandits at out of town pubs; until a landlord started buying them at 50% face value and hitting his local pubs on the landlords night out
I remember being called to a pub in Liverpool to fix a machines top glass. It was broken whilst trying to load it in to a taxi! A ******* taxi driver stopped when flagged down and tried to help 3 guys load it - it wouldn't go in the taxi door so they dropped it in the street!
We spend months chaining bandits to walls after that; but they just changed tactics (one good trick was to drill a small hole in the front then push a coat-hanger in to the machine and operate the pay tube slide solenoid and drop the cash - genius!
They always used managed houses, and there the landlords don't see a penny of the takings (it all goes to the brewery). So inevitably the landlord would warn you when you turned up.
They used to issue tokens without any type of monitoring. So I too would play the bandits at out of town pubs; until a landlord started buying them at 50% face value and hitting his local pubs on the landlords night out
I remember being called to a pub in Liverpool to fix a machines top glass. It was broken whilst trying to load it in to a taxi! A ******* taxi driver stopped when flagged down and tried to help 3 guys load it - it wouldn't go in the taxi door so they dropped it in the street!
We spend months chaining bandits to walls after that; but they just changed tactics (one good trick was to drill a small hole in the front then push a coat-hanger in to the machine and operate the pay tube slide solenoid and drop the cash - genius!
Shouldnt admit this but........3 years ago they laid a new carpet in one of the lounges at Heathrow....I managed to discover (much to my 12 year old sons utter joy) that a few rubs of the feet on the new carpet was enough to get a static shock from a pointed finger to knock credits up on one of the machines. I was amazed because I knew that had cured the electric shock thing years ago.
Nov 21st 2007, 12:51 am
#22
Last orders please...
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Nov 21st 2007, 1:59 am
#23
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Nov 21st 2007, 2:24 am
#24
Not dead yet
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Nov 21st 2007, 3:17 am
#25
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Nov 21st 2007, 6:16 am
#26
Illinois Rapscallion
Joined: Dec 2004
Location: In a one bar town
Posts: 1,728
Re: Anyone from Manchester?
Couldn't resist ... Born and raised in the Wigan/Leigh area ....went to Manchester Metro Uni. ......worked as pub and club door security in Manc ..... always shopped there and loved the pubs and curry houses....
The list of pubs we used to venture into would be endless ....from the spit and sawdust variety through to the quite posh ....Best curry house though wasn't in Rusholme it was on Rochdale Road about half a mile from the Arndale .....the Nawaab. Best of all it was surrounded by some great pubs ......The Beer House, The Pint Pot, Bar Fringe, Smithfield and the Marble Arch......
Nov 21st 2007, 6:43 am
#27
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Nov 21st 2007, 6:53 am
#28
Illinois Rapscallion
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Nov 21st 2007, 8:17 am
#29
@matthewb76
Joined: Jul 2003
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Re: Anyone from Manchester?
Anyone from Manchester?
Nov 21st 2007, 8:27 am
#30
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Re: Anyone from Manchester?
Another one from Leigh here. We seem to get about! 
