
Washboard – Ships you rolls of quarters for laundry - _pius
http://washboard.co/
======
bunkat
If somebody told you to mail them $13.50 and they will mail you back $10, you
would think they were crazy. But in today's world this is a valid idea for a
startup?

~~~
jsmthrowaway
I love that the justification is that places won't make change. Three
foolproof steps to successfully obtaining change from a convenience store
(clerks hate him!): (a) make a purchase, (b) pay with a $20, (c) ask for a
roll back instead of the $10 and the clerk will drop one out of the safe for
you.

When 30 seconds of your time exceeds $7 in value, implying you make $7 million
per year, buy a washer.

EDIT: Before you start relying on this shit, heed the founder's subtle hint
that he's not going to operate this business for very long:
[https://twitter.com/calebrown/status/479814086537281536](https://twitter.com/calebrown/status/479814086537281536)

~~~
HCIdivision17
Personally, my going rate is about a quarter per roll, up to a dollar
depending on which clothes are now my limiting factor and how badly I need
them. (Two dimes buys a roll at my local grocer, which seems like a tolerable
fee for their inconvenience.)

Now, if you want to be galled by the price, perhaps comparing it to the US
Mint would help? I reckon the parent service is charging just about a third to
half of what the mint charges for collector's grade coins [1] (depending on
shipping). I think that's a fairly unflattering comparison. Even though I have
some anxiety about asking a store clerk for something out of the ordinary, an
extra roll of quarters for every four rolls is probably worth it.

[1][http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category...](http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&categoryId=45003&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=&top_category=)

EDIT: Ambiguous pronoun.

------
yock
I don't live in a big city, but here in Dayton Ohio I've never seen a
laundromat without a change machine. Further, those change machines don't skim
off the top. The worst you're out is a $3 charge for an out-of-network ATM,
and even that can be avoided with a minimal amount of forethought.

Am I missing something that makes this make sense?

~~~
chatmasta
All the off campus apartments at my college have laundry rooms with machines
that only take quarters, but no change machines. Doing laundry, which is
already a huge pain in the ass, was much worse for me because I also had to go
to the bank and take out quarters.

~~~
jsmthrowaway
> All the off campus apartments at my college have laundry rooms with machines
> that only take quarters, but no change machines.

This is a bug. File appropriately. Laundry rooms are not operated without
ongoing maintenance because communal equipment breaks all the time. Operating
a quarter machine is part of said maintenance companies' repertoire.

~~~
chatmasta
Oh trust me... it's just one of many, many bugs. The laundry room at my
previous apartment was operated by a heathen of a company called Mac Gray [0].
They have some of the worst customer service I've ever encountered, and never
more than half of their machines working at any given time.

[0] [http://www.macgray.com/](http://www.macgray.com/)

------
JohnTHaller
The website is indeed lacking SSL. The transaction is encrypted since it's
using Stripe but if the host page lacks SSL, the browser shows no indication
(nor should it since the majority of the page is unencrytped). This also
struck me as an odd thing about Stripe... that they didn't have a redirect
page you could use with its own SSL for businesses that wanted to use Stripe's
in-browser checkout but didn't want to spring for an SSL certificate.

Also, I'm not really seeing the market for this. I've lived in NYC for years
and I've never seen a laundromat without a change machine or someone at a desk
to give you change... both with no surcharge. And my old university switched
to card-operated laundry machines back in the 90s. Most new or renovated
larger apartment buildings in NYC seem to operate this way now, too. And, as a
fallback, you can always go to the bank and get change (there are 6 banks
within 3 blocks of me... including 2 separate Chase banks across the street
from each other... seriously).

Is there a large population of people somewhere outside of major cities with
no access to banks and no washers and dryers in their dwelling or building but
that has access to a reliable mailbox that people won't steal money out of?

~~~
HCIdivision17
I think you've almost got the market. My bet's on small (or just remote) towns
with only one or two banks with limited hours coinciding with where the
communal laundry services only accept quarters and the blasted change machine
is always out. (These are the sorts of places where a vending machine that
accepts cards would be a _cool_ novelty.) I'd actually be interested to see
how many people live in that kind of rural America versus large cities.

My college suffered from this, and I had a number of late nights where I was
perfectly willing to pay two dollars for a buck fifty in quarters, just
because there wasn't anything open in walking distance to get quarters.

As far as I've seen, the same places with these communal laundry services also
tend to have many mailboxes consolidated in one place. These'll be locked, so
the package of money is fairly safe, assuming it gets through the postal
service safely.

------
wallflower
Total OT:

If you ever get the chance to open a roll of quarters, it is a really cool
mini-experience (kind of like cracking an egg). If you do it right, it looks
effortless. Wrong, looks like you are trying too hard to make an omelette. One
of those essential retail skills like box folding I admire.

------
slang800
I actually never realized that quarters were needed for laundry. All the
laundry machines I've ever used have been card-operated or free. I've _seen_
coin-op laundry machines at laundromats (just from walking by) but I assumed
there would be a change machine installed inside... Kinda makes me wonder what
other simple problems of the general population I've been oblivious to.

~~~
JohnTHaller
I've never seen a coin-op laundromat here in NYC that didn't have a change
machine.

------
dsl
The only people I see using this are fraudsters emptying stolen credit
cards...

------
melvinmt
This was a real problem for us when we moved into our latest apartment with
shared laundry room (that doesn't have a change machine). But after a while we
figured out you can simply buy a $10 quarter roll at Trader Joe's if you ask
nicely, so that's what we do since we're there every week anyways.

------
hendzen
Our industry is fucked.

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sgustard
Soon they will announce a "laundering pro" tier that sends you bricks of $100
bills.

------
fleitz
For those who can't figure out the change machine at the laundromat.

~~~
bunkat
Or basic economics. Or a bank. Or a change jar.

------
chatmasta
Why could you not have existed two years ago?! This was one of the biggest
pain points in my life, and now I'm finally living in an apartment with its
own washing machine.

Thank you so much, this is awesome.

------
bcguy390
Why would anyone use this? This is the epitome of wasteful spending.

~~~
akosednar
Agreed. Why should I pay $4.99 for quarters when I could go to the bank and
get them for free?

~~~
keehun
The website is down. $4.99 for how many quarters?

~~~
minimaxir
The plans are $15 for $10-worth of quarters, or $27 for $20-worth of quarters.

------
minimaxir
It's also worth noting that this is not a Silicon Valley company, but a
Pittsburgh company:
[https://twitter.com/calebrown/status/479791618267299840](https://twitter.com/calebrown/status/479791618267299840)

Interview with the founder: [http://valleywag.gawker.com/real-startup-that-
mails-you-quar...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/real-startup-that-mails-you-
quarters-for-laundry-isnt-s-1593540845)

------
davorak
So $15 for $10 of quarters a month. I can see how that would be worth it to
save time on going to the bank. Not clear to me how near the range is where it
saves enough time to be worth it to the person before they would just own a
washer and drier rather then using a laundromat mat.

It might make sense in high population density areas where space in an
apartment is at a premium. Any one from a high population density want to
chime in and confirm or deny.

~~~
maxerickson
For lots of apartments (at least in the U.S.), the rental agreement specifies
that you will not use any sort of washer or dryer. I guess it's another factor
on top of density. I guess it's also somewhat legitimate, as a washer is
relatively easy to install poorly and leaks are bad, and properly venting a
dryer isn't always straightforward.

Washers+Dryers are a weird aspect of housing. They aren't really all that
different (the models found in comparable housing especially won't be all that
different), but people really like to move them and they are a 'premium'
feature in rentals.

~~~
ollysb
Wow, this was a bit of a culture shock when I moved to Mexico, in Europe I've
never lived in a rental apartment that didn't come with a washing machine
(even in my student days). I assumed it was a Mexico thing, amazed to hear
it's the same in the US.

~~~
maxerickson
I really don't get it. Maybe it's different in cities (where I haven't lived
much).

------
jsmthrowaway
Just in case you didn't notice, before you sign up for this, take a good hard
look at the lack of TLS in your address bar. To be honest, though, if your
card or any accounts got compromised because you paid for quarters to be
shipped to you, the temptation for schadenfreude would be ... noticeable.

------
taco_john
Welp, I'm gonna disrupt their business model by creating a laundromat operated
exclusively by bitcoins.

------
phy07
Reminds me of the old Citywide Bank commercials from SNL:
[http://www.teachertube.com/video/220488](http://www.teachertube.com/video/220488)

Our business is making change.

------
DanBC
some quarters are worth more than a quarter. I wonder if they're looking for
those, and replacing them with regular quarters before sending the rolls out?

------
Goopplesoft
Is this real? Social experiment?

~~~
minimaxir
Real.

[http://valleywag.gawker.com/real-startup-that-mails-you-
quar...](http://valleywag.gawker.com/real-startup-that-mails-you-quarters-for-
laundry-isnt-s-1593540845)

------
Spooky23
I would totally use this service, but only if they accepted Flooz.

------
aashishkoirala
The ridiculous idea aside, I'm still amazed by how you managed to double-post
this and get away with it -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7918862](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7918862)

------
HCIdivision17
There seems to be a lot of confusion about why someone would want a service
like this. And that's understandable. Perhaps they have a nice bank in walking
distance. Perhaps they don't work from 7am to 5pm, just in time for their bank
to close. Perhaps their local stores don't sell rolls for a small charge (or
feel silly going to the front desk to buy quarters - go to a bank after all!)

I bet it'd be nice living in a dense, convenient city like that. Me? I live
about an hour away from Dallas (and commute there). I need $2.25 in quarters
for the apartment's laundry, and the loads ain't big. And since I work in a
plant, lots need washin'. So is just having a pile o' quarters worth 5 bucks a
month?

I certainly feel better when I know I can do laundry without planning. Like
knowing there's gas in the car when you leave the house. Or buying extra milk,
just in case.

~~~
GuiA
Genuine question: why not drive to the bank once every 6 months and get $50 in
quarters?

~~~
HCIdivision17
This is actually what I do. There happens to be a branch none too far from
where I live, so I just withdraw a few rolls each month.

