I bought vending machines from vendstar in March. They referred me to a locating company named Cornerstone to place my machines for a fee of $1500.00 (30 machines). I paid them a $600.00 deposit and was told a locator would get my machines placed in a timely fashion.
The first locator never showed even after he called me that morning and said he was on his way. I wasted a personal day and sat all day waiting. A week later they sent a new locator who showed up penniless, phoneless, and clueless. I spent two days with him, placing 25 of 30 machines and running him around to help him out because he had lost his wallet.
By the next day, I started recieving angry phone calls from business owners who wanted these machines out and wondering who exactly gave them permission to place a machine. I now understood why the locator wanted to go to areas where english is not the primary form of communication.
Unbeknownst to me, his strategy was dump and run. As I started to visit my machines to service them, i was met by demands of 50% of the take, being told"The man who placed it said you would give me half." Within 3 weeks 14 of 30 were evicted, so I kept calling to be relocated, and was told by the locator and Cornerstone "be patient, were working on it".
Finally a third locator came in early May to place the machines. Seven of the fourteen went in, and the locator's boss assured me that the rest would be done in aboutaweek. That was May 9th.
Four months later, 17 mahines sit in my basement, collecting dust, one was stolen, and 12 are in stores. NONE are doing the $2.00 per day guaranteed by Cornerstone, and I make 10-15 calls per week to the locator and cornerstone trying to resolve the situation.
The locator was paid his $900.00, depriving him of any motivation to complete the work, and he tells me how hard it is to locate these machines. I am paying a charity a fee, payments on the machines, and losing money each month, while my candy rots away, uneaten, unsold, and now unedible.
Unfortunately, they have all been paid, and I feel that I'm being strung along, and would advise anyone getting into this business to buy equipment on Ebay and not to use Cornerstone marketing.
While surfing on the internet today, i discovered that Cornerstone was named in a suit brought on by the FTC in June, citing unethical business practices, such as fraud and misrepresentation. Gee, what a surprise. I guess that will be my next step, to pursue them legally.
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