Well, hello. Some of you know I co-own (with my lovely wife) a vending route. Well, that is to say, we have a few machines placed; many more in our garage.

It’s driving us nuts.

So, the purpose here is two-fold:

1. Place some: Know any place in or around Salem, OR that may need a snack machine? We do all the work (stock, clean, etc), they just provide the space.
2. Gripe about a terrible “company” that we made the mistake of hiring. More on that below.

We started this venture about 18 mos ago. The machines are very good quality, the actual route of a few machines we have are fine, and kinda fun sometimes. However, the problem with these things is that it’s freakin’ hard to get the machines “located” in the first place. When originally buying the machines, I was assured several times that locators will be “all over us” (lying liars) because that’s how they make their money. Well, it is, of course…but (1) there aren’t any in Salem (lies from the seller) and (2) those from Portland are slimy. I shoulda known, but just didn’t think of that.

So, after a year of 3/4 machines placed, many in garage, I hired a non-big-company to place the machines. Specifically Carl & Cassie O’Bier out of Taylor, Texas. Their company/site: Your Vending Machine Locator. As they state on their site, they are a couple (like us) who have their own route (like us) and hated the typical locator (like us). Turns out they have a pretty good “system” going.

At this point, I apologize to my casual or (gasp) regular readers. This is probably not that fun, just me complaining. I don’t blame you for bailing on this post at this point.

However, I do hope that somehow, somewhere, someone who’s considering this company in a situation like ours will come across this post and get a real glimpse of a first account. If that’s you, post a comment here or email me.

Here’s a timeline of events we went through. This same text was sent to (1) Carl and Cassie O’Bier of Your Vending Machine Locator.com; (2) the Attorney General of Texas; and (3) the Better Business Bureau of Texas.

• 1/10/05 Both parties contract to have 5 snack machines placed for a placement fee of $xxx.xx per machine.
• 1/25/05 Cassie O’Bier contacts Patrick via email notifying Patrick there are 5 locations ready “for immediate delivery”.
• 1/26/05 I sent a Money Order in the amount of $xxx.xx via UPS and emailed tracking number.
• 1/27/05 Cassie emailed first 5 locations:

  · Three of these locations completely unsuitable for this type of snack machine.
  · When contacted, one location denied ever having spoken to Cassie or Carl.
  · Final location expected Cassie to follow-up before location would agree to placement–subsequently location refused snack machine.

• 1/31/05 I place hold on transfer of funds until resolution of the 1/27/05 problems.
• 2/1/05 Carl calls our house and verbally assaults Michelle regarding hold of payment.
• 2/1/05 Patrick and Carl agree to “stick to the contract”. Payment is released with understanding that 5 suitable locations will be secured.
• 2/3/05 $xxx.xx payment is delivered by UPS.
• 2/3/05 5 more locations emailed to Patrick. Each time the “Contact Person” as supplied by Cassie was contacted:

  · One acknowledged the possibility of location. This site informed Patrick that she was waiting for final approval from the company owner and had alerted Cassie to that fact.
  · One site is no longer in business.
  · One site informed Patrick they had snack machines in the past which did not work out and plainly told Cassie that very thing.
  · One site informed Patrick that Cassie was to call the Contact Person back because the Contact Person needed to speak with the owner first. Cassie never called–otherwise she would have known they were not interested.
  · One site informed Patrick that they have no room–it is a small business and they (again) told Cassie as such.

• 2/8/05 Patrick spoke to Cassie and alerted her to the outcome of each location. Cassie again acknowledged that there was need of 5 more locations.
• 2/14/05 Patrick requested immediate notification of 5 new locations so no time would pass between locations’ acceptance and our contacting them.
• 2/16/05 Cassie emailed 5 new locations. Within 2 hours, Patrick contacted each Contact Person:

  · One location stated it would not work, and had told Cassie the same.
  · One location stated the Contact Person (as provided by Cassie) had not worked there that day. When I inquired, they had not spoken to anyone, but they were not interested.
  · One location stated that the Contact Person Cassie listed did not work there (”There’s no one here by that name”).
  · One location acknowledged he spoke to Cassie, but had made it clear he was a one-man operation and had no interest in a snack machine.
  · One location was abrupt–she had already informed Cassie that she did not want one. She had them in the past, and didn’t like the cleanup that kids eating the snacks left.

• 2/16/05, 2/18/05, 2/22/05, 2/24/05 Patrick called and left messages. No calls ever returned. I believe it is quite obvious you were avoiding the situation at this point.
• 3/22/05 This letter sent to Cassie via Postal Mail with no acknowledgement.
• 4/14/05 Complaint filed with Better Business Bureau.
• 4/15/05 Complaint mailed to Attorney General of Texas.

Since, the attorney general has sent me a letter stating what I already knew. Carl and Cassie did not respond to this complaint. So it’s left open and unresolved. Thanks for the (non) effort, TX.

So, caveat emptor and all that crap. Lesson learned. Bitterness fading, but still there. If you’ve made it this far, let me know what you think of this post–please comment!