TV slotmeter memories.

[colly0410]

In my childhood through the 60's/early70's we always rented a telly with a slotmeter (2 shilling/10 pence piece for ? hours) on the back. Mum said it saved us money because you'd get a rebate once the rent was covered, (I never understood that logic but I was only a kid). There was many a time we had a perfectly good telly we couldn't watch because we didn't have a coin, I used to go round local shops asking for 2 shilling (& 1 shilling for the gas & electric) pieces, very often the'd say they didn't have any. One Sunday we couldn't get a coin so Dad took the back off & shorted out the meter, he made sure he un-shorted it before the bloke came to empty it though, didn't want to get into trouble.

[ianhumph]

I was 16 - and was in my first 'job' (Youth Training Scheme actually..) as a Trainee Television Mechanic - in 1986.

We went to empty the meters in a rather poor council estate and found there was only a couple of 50p pieces in one particular set. Now, our boss hit the roof when we told him of this, because he'd already called there a couple of weeks previously to empty this meter, but left what he'd found to give the customer chance to put enough in to cover the minimum cost.

So, the chap who was renting this set (a Decca Bradford variant IIRC) had been helping himself to what he'd been feeding the meter! Most likely not an isolated incident (even in our tiny firm), but at that age I thought to myself 'What a nerve!'

[Welsh Anorak]

Hi
This was quite a clever move by the rental companies. You could easily short out the meter as your Dad found out (it just went to a choc-block in the cabinet in series with the mains) but you'd still owe the rental company any shortfall so yoiu were only cheating yourself!
We used to buy lots of ex-rental TVs with the dreaded five 'bullet-holes' in the back cover and came up with various ways to disguise them. Usually these sets were not looked after as well as the normal rental stock and sone canny customers knew where they came from - you couldn't get away with saying it was bought from a dear old lady up the road!
Actually I have an ITT CVC8 with the holes in the back which now adds to its history.
I often wonder if the constant on/off cycling did the sets any harm - I can't imagine it was good for them.
Glyn

[AndiiT]

Hi,
I have a few memories of TV slot meters, the first set that my parents' rented from Granada had a slot meter fitted, thinking of the era that we had this set (1969 ish) the set must have been fitted with 2/- (shilling) meter, that's 10p to those reading who are "post decimal"

Many years later the local repair company where I worked had a number of rental sets fitted with slot meters, varying from 1/- (5p) to some combined 10p/50p inserts which were notoriously unreliable.

In my latter years of television repair the Thorn company whom I was employed by had a "sister" branch called Easy-View who provided sets fitted with slot meters for customers who had a poor credit rating; I believe that Easy - View also offered the option of purchasing other types of goods the amount of viewing time per 50p or £1 coin being set to accommodate the extra required to pay for the additional purchases. (It's fair to say that the majority of Easy - View customers were not from the more salubrious areas)

The meters were intended to be wired after the mains on/off switch so that the motor only ran whilst the set was being used, however this was not always the case, leading to complaints such as "this telly is still taking money off me when I aren't watching it", and suchlike.

Due to the design of some sets, particularly some of the Thorn TX100 chassis models, as I recall, it was not always possible to wire the meter after the mains switch and to this end meters were produced which were fitted with "sensing boards" which consisted of a Diode and resistor arrangement which prevented the motor of the meter running until the set was drawing current.
These boards were not particularly reliable creating faults such as the meter running all the time and, even worse, copious amounts of smoke coming from the meter

One event that I will always remember regarding sets with meters is when I visited a young lady who requested that I emptied her meter, as it was getting full (this was a 1/- meter with a very small cash box so they did fill up quite quickly) I mentioned that we only had two sets of keys between three of us and that the "official" meter emptier who we employed should really do it.To which her reply came "oh it's dead easy to get in to, I use a fork!!" - The meter was fitted with a proper padlock, unlike the later ones which used L&F barrel locks, and all she did was bent one prong of a fork into a hook shape similar to that of the corresponding meter key and opened the padlock.
This was in the days when shops were not open twenty four hours so she could not obtain change for the meter easily after a certain time of day.

I can also remember the digital meters which had a number of DIP switches to set the amount of viewing time, these were often more unreliable than their mechanical counterparts.

Regards

Andrew

[vinrads]

Again on a very run down Council estate it was common to come across a smashed lock and prised open empty draw, only to be told that there had been a break in and they did the damage , Oh yes me thinks not !

[OscarFoxtrot]

Or so say there'd been a break-in and the rented telly had been stolen.

[colly0410]

Come to think of it the TV meter also paid the rent for the washer. Mum finally got rid of the meter in the early 70's when she bought an 18 inch Sony Trinitron (the one that converted PAL to NTSC) & got a free Elizibethan T12 portable B/W TV thrown in, the Sony was still working OK in 1994 when Mum passed away, don't know what happened to it after that. I've got the Elizibethan in the spare bedroom (junk room) & it still worked last year through a VCR (no scart of course). Most people who lived where I was brought up (Meadows, Nottingham) had meters for electric, gas & TV, mind you it wasn't the poshest area..

[KeithsTV]

Back in the early 70s when I was one of three engineering students sharing a holiday flat. The caretaker of the flats had rented an number of TVs with slot meters for use of the holiday makers which I assume paid the rent on the sets. It didn't take us long to whip the back off and short out the meter and watch TV.

All was well until one day we returned and found the TV had gone. The caretaker told us he had ended the contract and the TVs had been removed. I always wondered what happened when the rental company checked the TV.

Keith

I just wonder how much 'daytime TV' would be watched if it was on meters. I used to look after a landlady's slot electric meters, one chap made 50p's from ice. All I did was tell him not to do it again, you can't suppress ingenuity after all.

[Peter.N.]

I had quite a few slot meter rentals out at one time, not many were requested but if they didn't pay their monthly rent it was that or nothing, most people opted for 'that' The early ones I recall were 2/- after decimalisation they went to 50P and then £1.00.

Believe it or not I still have one out and I have been retired for 9 years, its on a 28" Samsung + a digi box, hardly worth it from my point of view but they wouldn't have a TV if they had to pay for it in advance! I don't know what I am going replace it with if it dies. It does however provide us with a parking meter fund.

Peter

I don't know what I am going replace it with if it dies

Half a tin of money from the slot would buy a new Freeview set these days.

[AndiiT]

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

... one chap made 50p's from ice....

I first saw the "ice trick" used on a BBC short film named "The Spongers" sometime in the late '70s or early 80's, the quote from the lead character being "It's very damp in these houses", when the meter man found nothing but water in the gas meter cash box.

Andrew

[colly0410]

I always said I'd never have a slot meters. When I rented a furnished flat in Germany the heating was in with the rent, but the electric & TV was on one Deutsche Mark coin meters, so much for never. Wish I'd know about the ice coin scam.

[HamishBoxer]

Always used tip the set upside down before changing faulty meters, all those stuck sixpences paid for lunch!

[Peter.N.]

Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell

Half a tin of money from the slot would buy a new Freeview set these days.

Nowhere to fix the meter.

Peter

[hamid_1]

This thread reminds me of a time when I encountered some slot meter TVs in a public setting.

It was at the Greyhound bus station in Buffalo, New York in 1991. Some of the seats in the waiting area were equipped with 5" mini black and white TVs with rotary VHF turret tuners and a coin-operated meter - I think it was 25 cents for 10 minutes or something like that. You could sit down and watch a little TV while waiting for the bus. An interesting concept.

I remember thinking those turret-tuner black and white TVs must have been about 20 years old by then. I wonder how many 25 cent coins had passed through them in that time?

[crusher19860138]

I bought a pay as you view 26" Widescreen TV back in 2004 and was fed with £1 coins! Each coin lasted around 4 hours! When I finally paid for it, plus some i had a rebate of £86, all in £1 coins! It is still going, but in my bedroom now!

[Peter.N.]

The customers loved the rebate, when I empty my only set, I tip the money out on the floor, take the rent and they pick up the rest - I didn't know there were that many hours of TV viewing in a month!

Peter

[Andy Doz]

One client we had, had a CVC6 that died, and I was despatched with a back breaking 27" Sony to replace it. Got there to discover I needed to swap a meter over, but was going to need a sensing type, and didn't have one. After discussions with the long standing client, I left him with possibly the worlds only coin operated standard lamp! The meter always had enought money in it.

Later on in life, I inflicted a meter on our tumble dryer, which combated the teenagers tumble drying everything, even if the sun was shining. 50p per half hour. They soon learned

[bobbyball]

Going back to Hamid's post above there were similar pay to view TV sets at Manchester Airport years ago. They were set into green plastic seats in the area round the cafe and took 10 pence coins if I remember correctly. The sets were either "National" or "Sanyo", can't remember exactly and had 5" or so monochrome screens...

Robert