To Whom it may concern: My ordeal with Vendstar & Specialty Marketing began when I read an ad in our local newspaper. I called & talked to Jay Friedman at Vendstar several times. He assured me that my local area of Tippecanoe County had 360 locations that Specialty Marketing would place machines if I purchased them from Vendstar. I bought 150 from him and before they arrived, he called me back to make a special offer on an additional 75 machines that Vendstar had on the shipping dock at a special price. I was told that all machines would average more than $3/day or Specialty Marketing would find a new location for any that did not. Mr. Friedman told me he had 150 machines & he netted $162000 last year and it would be no problem whatsoever to average more than $3/day on all machines that I purchased from them. About 2 days later, I received a call from Joe Spinelli, who identified himself as the vice president in charge of marketing/sales with Vendstar. He told me he had spken with Jennifer Buffington with Specialty Marketing and he wanted to see me get more machines and make more money than I ever dreamed possible. He told me Jennifer said another customer had purchased machines from a different company for my area. They wanted to keep the other company out of my area, so they wanted me to get a total of 360 machines. I told him that I would not be able to assemble the machines and be ready for the Specialty Marketing locator that was coming the next week. He called Ms. Buffington and told me he had made an arrangement with her to send a special team to assemble the remaining machines and place all 360 machines in the 360 Tippecanoe County locations in 1 week to keep out the competitor. I agreed to purchase the machines under those conditions. The Specialty Marketing locator called me to arrange the locating schedule foe the next week. When I asked about the special team to assemble & place all 360 that week, he told me he knew nopthing about it. I called Mr. Spinelli and was told there had been a mis-communication and after checking with Ms. Buffington everything had been taken care of. The next Monday the Specialty Marketing locator, Larry Massey arrived to locate the machines. He had no special team and told me the only way he would assemble machines was for me to pay an additional $10/machine. I called Mr. Spinelli to inquire about the assembly and special team and he put Ms. Buffington on the line for a 3 way call. They called me a liar and denied everything they had promised. I later received an e-mail from Ms. Buffington that she would not do any business with me. Of the 360 machines that they told me would be placed in Tippecanoe County, the Specialty Marketing locator, who I was told was their best locator, found only 46 locations to -place machines. He told me that we needed to go to Indianapolis to look for additional locations. I objected because Indy is over an hour away from where I live & I had been promised that the 360 machines would be placed in Tippecanoe County at their determined locations. I went to install machines & 5 of the 46 locations changed their minds so I was unable to put machines in those locations. I had a long conversation with my locator, Larry Massey from Alabama, and he told me he had faced the same problem the previous 2 assignments with Vendstar/Specialty Marketing. He told me both had gone through the same ordeal of being promised locations and assembly only to find out they had been lied to. I have checked my machines & they are not averaging $3/day as I was promised, but $2.65/week. I called Mr. Spinelli to return the 319 machines that were not placed in Tippecanoe County and was told they would not take them back. I feel this was a scam from the start.
JeffLafayette, Indiana
U.S.A.
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