COIN OPERATED PHONE CHARGERS

Praetorian Saighdiuir

Hey all,

Has anyone come across these public mobile phone chargers?

I think they are a great idea, theres one in a shopping centre close to me. I have used it a couple of times when i needed to. A friend of mine used it but lost his key.......it took 3 days for him to get his phone back and they charged him €20 for the trouble. Its €2 for 40 minutes and you can lock you phone away while you shop. just wondering if anyone used them and to see what other people think, any problems etc. They would be great at a DART station or even the airport. I love gadgets like this.

towel401

wow what a freaking rip off

say your phone draws 1A from the paid charger (its probably less) @ 5v so you manage to extract about 3.3w from the thing in 40 minutes. so you're paying 60c per watt or 600e per kilowatt. so basically you're paying a few thousand times over the odds for a bit of electricity which is grand if you're in Trinners and loving the city life + need to update your Facebook status every 2 minutes or your clique of fellow snobs and spoilt metrosexual Trinners heads will banish you from their social circle forever. but for ordinary folk it couldnt be any more of a rip off

Davy

Their is more of them appearing, and different types. Their is a type where it chargers the phone quite fast so you wait while it does so. Its like a payphone on the wall with various connector types. Seen them in some pubs and clubs too as well as shopping centres.

towel401

Davy wrote: »

Their is more of them appearing, and different types. Their is a type where it chargers the phone quite fast so you wait while it does so. Its like a payphone on the wall with various connector types. Seen them in some pubs and clubs too as well as shopping centres.

they used to have a free one in a pub in cork and a few in collitch but they're gone now. dunno if they're the same ones i presume they`re not because nothing is free in Dublin

Praetorian Saighdiuir

towel401 wrote: »

wow what a freaking rip off

say your phone draws 1A from the paid charger (its probably less) @ 5v so you manage to extract about 3.3w from the thing in 40 minutes. so you're paying 60c per watt or 600e per kilowatt. so basically you're paying a few thousand times over the odds for a bit of electricity which is grand if you're in Trinners and loving the city life + need to update your Facebook status every 2 minutes or your clique of fellow snobs and spoilt metrosexual Trinners heads will banish you from their social circle forever. but for ordinary folk it couldnt be any more of a rip off

Well I am "ordinary folk", but i think they are a good idea. Iv seen ones that cost €1 for 15 minutes, only problem is that you have to stay with it while it charges. I just hate running out of battery, especially if im meant to meet someone somewhere or expecting an important call. Its just a pity there arent more of them. But i do see what ur saying.........you are paying way over the odds for the amount of electricity used. But you are paying for the convienience more than anything else.

Ron DMC

towel401 wrote: »

wow what a freaking rip off

say your phone draws 1A from the paid charger (its probably less) @ 5v so you manage to extract about 3.3w from the thing in 40 minutes. so you're paying 60c per watt or 600e per kilowatt. so basically you're paying a few thousand times over the odds for a bit of electricity which is grand if you're in Trinners and loving the city life + need to update your Facebook status every 2 minutes or your clique of fellow snobs and spoilt metrosexual Trinners heads will banish you from their social circle forever. but for ordinary folk it couldnt be any more of a rip off

Actually, these already exist in Trinity for the past 2 years and they are completely free of charge (as in don't cost anything, not free of charge in the electrical sense).

towel401

i might set up a few myself so except i'd have em pay for the amount of power used not the time. like i didn't expect that people would pay that amount of money to charge a phone in the middle of a recession. the coin operated chargers i seen were always unused - they had one at the old Cork airport about 5 years ago.

Tom Dunne

towel401 wrote: »

y which is grand if you're in Trinners and loving the city life + need to update your Facebook status every 2 minutes or your clique of fellow snobs and spoilt metrosexual Trinners heads will banish you from their social circle forever.

towel401 - no need for that kind of language. Take whatever issues you have with TCD students elsewhere.

Jonathan

towel401 wrote: »

so basically you're paying a few thousand times over the odds for a bit of electricity which is grand if you're in Trinners and loving the city life + need to update your Facebook status every 2 minutes or your clique of fellow snobs and spoilt metrosexual Trinners heads will banish you from their social circle forever. but for ordinary folk it couldnt be any more of a rip off

Don't be mixing us engineers up with orts students.

Totally different species.

Tom Dunne

jmccrohan wrote: »

Don't be mixing us engineers up with orts students.

Totally different species.

Drop it.

Both of you get back on topic or there will be repercussions.

Jonathan

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Drop it.

Both of you get back on topic or there will be repercussions.

I was taking the piss :rolleyes:





So yea.. emmm coin operated phone chargers...


There are times when people need to take that phone call or text, and the service they require is price inelastic.

They will pay what ever it costs.

mathew

Ronny Mitchell wrote: »

Actually, these already exist in Trinity for the past 2 years and they are completely free of charge (as in don't cost anything, not free of charge in the electrical sense).

Infact one of them (in the JCR) costs money. Its 10c for 10 minutes. Its a complete rip off.
They should be free for the amount of electricity your using.
Most places wont be bothered if you stick your own charger in the wall for 10 mins, and you wont be charged a cent.
All your paying for is the convenience of not having to carry your charger around...

Random

I think these things are a great idea. Manys a time I'd rather pay a tenner to charge my phone then go without the phone. People don't have to use them if they don't want to - nice to have the choice though

Gekko

Anyone with any brains would just buy a spare battery if they thought they'd otherwise have to use one of these chargers that you have to pay for.

Thoie

I presume with these you're not really paying for the electricity, but paying for the equipment, servicing and convenience. If you're truly stuck (you've run out of insulin, your best friend is being held ransom by a tiger of unknown origins), €2 is a small price to pay (in the old days you'd have found a phonebox, but no-one remembers phone numbers any more).

marko91

hmm never seen or heard of these but they seem a good idea..would need to be very quick charge tho

Praetorian Saighdiuir

A lot of people seem sceptical about these, I dont know why. The principle is the same as a vending machine. If im thirsty, id pay for a bottle of water from a vending machine, if my battery was low, id pay a €1 for a 15 min charge. Its simple, if you want it or need it ul pay for it. Plus I can see some other practical aspects to it aswell. Even for the likes of train stations, Busaras, the Airport, these would be great. However, iv only seen them in a shopping centre, i do like it but i dont think theyd get much use here.

towel401

benwavner wrote: »

A lot of people seem sceptical about these, I dont know why. The principle is the same as a vending machine. If im thirsty, id pay for a bottle of water from a vending machine, if my battery was low, id pay a €1 for a 15 min charge. Its simple, if you want it or need it ul pay for it. Plus I can see some other practical aspects to it aswell. Even for the likes of train stations, Busaras, the Airport, these would be great. However, iv only seen them in a shopping centre, i do like it but i dont think theyd get much use here.

well it all depends on how badly you want it. things would have to be fairly bad before i'd pay a few thousand times over the odds for some power. most people also have a fairly good idea of how long their phone is going to last [or when they're going to need a drink] and plan ahead. the free phone chargers used get a fair bit of use alright but maybe its just a case of people not bothering to charge their phone at home if they know theres going to be chargers around

Sam Vimes

towel401 wrote: »

well it all depends on how badly you want it. things would have to be fairly bad before i'd pay a few thousand times over the odds for some power. most people also have a fairly good idea of how long their phone is going to last [or when they're going to need a drink] and plan ahead. the free phone chargers used get a fair bit of use alright but maybe its just a case of people not bothering to charge their phone at home if they know theres going to be chargers around

You're not paying for the electricity used, you're paying for the cost of putting the machine there, the cost of maintenance and the service provided. A source of electricity is no good unless you happen to carry a charger around and are willing to stand there waiting for your phone to charge.

Just like when you make a phone call it doesn't actually cost the network operator to connect the call but a few years ago they spent millions putting in the infrastructure that allows you to make the call.

Personally I just make sure my phone is charged and carry an extra battery when I'm going to be away for a while but there have been a few times when I would have been glad of a place to charge my phone and would have paid for it

towel401

Sam Vimes wrote: »

You're not paying for the electricity used, you're paying for the cost of putting the machine there, the cost of maintenance and the service provided. A source of electricity is no good unless you happen to carry a charger around and are willing to stand there waiting for your phone to charge.

Just like when you make a phone call it doesn't actually cost the network operator to connect the call but a few years ago they spent millions putting in the infrastructure that allows you to make the call.

Personally I just make sure my phone is charged and carry an extra battery when I'm going to be away for a while but there have been a few times when I would have been glad of a place to charge my phone and would have paid for it

well you're paying for the fact that its a coin operated charger. an ordinary charger doesn't cost anything and you just need to glue a few different ones onto a few sockets

a coin operated charger is a complicated yoke with an expensive coin validator and some custom made electronics.

the problem with a free charger is you will get muppets who pull the leads off them or otherwise vandalise them. the paid charger is even more expensive because it has to be made vandal proof and the leads have to be replaced each time some wanker thinks its a good idea to pull the end off it. in other parts of the world people have more respect and don't do that sort of ****.

maybe this is what happened to the paid chargers as well. every place that had free or paid chargers seems to have taken them away maybe there just aren't enough people willing to pay for it to cover up for the muppets vandalising them

Thoie

towel401 wrote: »

an ordinary charger doesn't cost anything and you just need to glue a few different ones onto a few sockets

I'd love to see you walk into a phone shop and tell them a charger doesn't cost anything. They'd wonder why they're charging €20 to €25 for one