7 Costly Problems When Purchasing Cheap Queue Barriers
Tensator Group
We have been leading the customer journey since 1881, providing queue management solutions to over 150 countries.
Cheap queue barriers always seem like a good idea to budget-conscious buyers. During big projects, queuing barriers can sometimes be an afterthought. Cost effective options become more appealing. After all, why spend more money than needed?
Well, after you buy cheap queue barriers systems or retractable queue barriers, you can actually lose money in the long run.
Short-term vs long-term.
That’s the gamble you take when buying low-cost (and low-quality) queue barrier products or queue barrier systems. When you think all posts look the same, it can be easy for the untrained eye to not see what features are missing.
This article will dive into 7 specific snags and problems you can face with subpar solutions and products.
Low-cost Queue Barriers Exposed
We at Tensator are experts in the realms of queue management products and solutions. We invented the retractable barrier. So problems and missing features are easy for us to spot. Our experts have an understanding of a queue barrier’s anatomy, and how they integrate into queue management systems.
To give you this same understanding, this article will take apart a barrier post piece by piece, starting from the top.
Once we go through each of these sections, you will be better equipped to make a fully informed decision about your queue barriers with confidence.
Poor braking on retraction
Some retractable belt barriers can cause accidents and near-miss incidents. These are the last things you want to happen on your business premises. If it does, you can expose yourself to liability and costly lawsuits. But how can some retractable barriers cause harm?
The answer is simple – their webbing retracts too quickly.
Some of our competitors queue barriers have webbing which retracts up to 2.5 seconds faster than ours.
Count just 2 seconds out loud to get a feel for how fast they retract:
1 Mississippi...
2 Mississippi...
Those lost seconds mean the webbing rockets back to the cassette at high speeds. So whoever is stood on the other side needs to have fast reflexes if they are caught unawares. It is important to note how retractable barrier webbing isn’t just the fabric either. There’s usually a tape end attached.
This means on low-cost posts a piece of hard plastic (or even metal) will hurtle back to the webbing cassette without any ability to slow down.
Watch the video below to see the difference:
Why are Tensabarriers slower?
Essentially, it’s due to the superior brake technology in their cassettes. Every Tensator post is equipped with an originally patented braking system. This slows down webbing retraction in a controlled way. And slower is much better when it comes to retraction speed.
Tensator braking technology also means our webbing has the slowest retraction speed of any queue barrier product in the market.
So it is the safest in the market.
Thinner webbing which will wear and tear
Competitor products sometimes have webbing as thin as 0.5mm. Compared to our standard 0.89mm thickness, a few tenths of a millimetre might not seem like a big deal. However, it can make a world of difference.
Why is this a problem?
Simply put – thin webbing won’t last as long. And when your barrier webbing frays and breaks, your barrier will become unstable. Once this happens, you will likely need to purchase either a new webbing cassette or a whole new barrier post!
Keep this in mind when purchasing your queue management barriers for use in areas where there is high footfall. A “lower priced” product can actually generate a false economy costing you both time and money.
An important thing to notice is how this thinner webbing usually comes alongside longer webbing belts. Many competitors argue having longer webbing in barriers results in you needing to purchase fewer posts for your business. However the trade-off isn’t worth it.
You can find out more about this in our article: How To Pick The Right Webbing Length.
Trust us, there are many hidden flaws when you incorporate barriers with longer webbing.
Encouraged Queue-Jumping
Tensabarrier? products are designed to be the optimum height to discourage queue-jumping. Measuring 38’ tall, their webbing is set at the perfect height to prevent people ducking under or climbing over the webbing. However, cheap queue barriers are not designed the same as ours.
As a result, they can accidentally encourage queue-jumping, which can lead to the sort of disorderly behaviour you’re trying to avoid in your business.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not a good thing to have taller posts incorporated into your queues. This is because the taller stanchions require cassettes and webbing to be set higher than average. Higher webbing makes it easier to duck under.
On the other hand, the longer webbing belts force you to space out your posts, which puts more strain on the cassette springs. Often this, combined with queue jumpers accidentally knocking the barrier constantly, can eventually make the spring less powerful. This stops the webbing from fully retracting. No power equals no retraction. No retraction equals expensive replacements.
Customers ducking under webbing and jumping ahead in a queue flies in the face of everything a queue stands for. Queues are supposed to guide guests and crowds of customers. Queue-jumping is precisely the sort of disorderly behaviour you want your queue barriers to discourage.
One last note on the importance of design with queue posts: The taller they are, the easier they fall. Cheap queue barriers with taller stanchions are less stable. The higher centre of gravity makes them easy to knock over, which makes them more likely to get caught on clothing or bags. If a falling post injures a guest or member of staff, you could be looking at a costly lawsuit.
Dented and Damaged Posts
Manufactured from high-quality steel and featuring a tube thickness of 1.5mm, Tensabarrier? products are significantly thicker than the majority of our competitors' products. Compared to commonly used aluminium, steel is more resistant to damage or wear and tear. Aluminium dents easily.
Just like cheap and thin webbing, weaker material can be easily broken. In fact, aluminium’s greatest strength is normally it’s malleability. But what use is that in areas where you require strength? Avoid being swayed by the properties of aluminium and remember what you need when setting up your queues.
The two biggest strengths of aluminium are:
领英推荐
Now think about what you need when setting up a long-term queue system?
Do you want your queue posts to be easily moved or damaged, or do you want them resistant to damage and able to maintain your queues for longer periods.
Finally, there is one area which a dented and punctured post can ruin:
In a professional environment presentation is important to maintaining appearances in the workplace. Clean, smooth, and undamaged queue barriers will portray class and professionality: damaged posts can make a workplace appear shoddy.
Increased Risk from Unsafe Bases
Cheap queue barriers use lower quality bases.
Each of these factors mean the bases increase the likelihood of pedestrians tripping and injuring themselves. It also reduces accessibility for wheelchair users as they navigate through a queue.
33% of non-fatal injuries to employees reported were slips, trips, and falls.
Businesses have a responsibility to ensure their staff and customers are safe while maintaining health and safety standards. Products with a high base edge can directly infringe on this effort. A bulky base can be easily caught by rushing pedestrians, which can then result in falls and injuries.
The Tensabarrier? Universal base has the lowest leading edge on the market: designed to improve accessibility for all. The low leading edge reduces the risk of trip hazards in a queue space. Wheeled objects, like wheelchairs, roll straight over it. And it is more difficult for people to catch their foot on the base.
Prevention is better than a cure, and slashing the risk of trips and falls is an effective way to improve health and safety standards in your workplace. Something that will always be present with cheaper queue barriers.
Unstable Assembly
Many cheaper queue barriers are supplied flat-packed and require assembly. The inefficiency problems here are obvious as you have staff who aren’t experts attempting to construct queue products. This includes the time lost during construction.
The more serious problem, however, is the security of the queue barriers. If they require tools to fully put together, construction may be even more complicated than it appears. Queue barriers assembled by hand have nowhere near the same stability – the stanchion will be loose and may rock at the base.
Our stanchions are pre-assembled in our UK-based Tensator facility using a pneumatic torque gun set to 56nM/42lbs of torque. This way you can rest assured your barriers are secure and strong.
There are also reports of competitor barriers which have been taken apart by people in a queue! In some cases, cheap queue barrier stanchions have been completely unscrewed as visitors and customers lean on the top of the post during busy periods.
A Tensabarrier? post will always come with the webbing cassette attached to the post. The most we would ever require you to do is to attach the post to the base, which can be done with an Allen key.
Authenticity is important
There is one problem with being at the top: everyone wants to be you.
Tensator? is an O.E.M. An “original equipment manufacturer.” We are the inventors of the retractable queue barrier. Throughout our history, we have defined and refined our product and have pushed innovations throughout the industry.
Our final point is you need to make sure you are purchasing a genuine Tensabarrier? product. As the leading product on the market, copycats and competitors marketing cheaper barriers under the Tensabarrier? brand can become an issue.
Luckily we've made it easy for you to check authenticity.
There are numerous points which feature the Tensabarrier? logo and stamp of quality which allows for instant brand recognition:
Remember: “A copycat can only copy, not create.”
Conclusion
As you can see, low-cost, low-quality barriers are a false economy.
Near the beginning of this article, a theme was highlighted: short-term vs long-term.
Once you purchase your low-quality retractable barrier and incorporate it into your queue system the clock starts to tick. Now you may get lucky. You may not need to replace the barrier for six months to a year.
But why plan for a year, when you can plan for ten years plus? Tensator have multiple examples of queue management solutions which have been in place for decades. Many buying decisions come down to one key factor: Value.
Are you getting value out of your purchase?
In many cases, buyers will need to judge the perceived value of a purchase before they make their choice. So before you purchase your “cost-effective” barriers to try and save money, ask yourself, “will this product bring me the desired level of value?”
The points raised in this article should point out that the answer to that will probably be “no”.
The economic risk of low-quality products mean high-quality barriers become more appealing.
After all, why should you spend more money than needed?
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