I had 8 vending machines I needed located I found A-1 locators online and decided to give them a try. I contacted them by phone and talked to Stan who is the owner. He agreed to get my machines placed for $1,000 dollars. He wanted half upfront before he sent the locator out to place my machines. I sent him a check for $500 dollars.
About 2 weeks later I got a call from the locator that stan had lined up to locate my machines. Her name was Irene (a heavy set greek lady that doesn't speak english very well) she said she was in town and had found my locations. She wanted me to load all my machines and meet her at a local Mc Donalds restaurant.
So I loaded up my machines and headed to Mc Donalds. When I arived I saw Irene I was hoping I could understand her english better in person but that was not the case on top of that she looked as if though she had been wearing the same clothes for a week straight without a shower. I decided to give her a try since she said she had already found locations for all of my machines, and I had already paid Stan his $500 dollar deposit.
She didn't have a car there, she said her husband had dropped her off so she got in my truck with me and we headed off to drop off my machines which I thought would take about 2 or 3 hours max boy was I wrong. We started at about 3 oclock and she pulled a list out of her pocket with addresses on it.
She preceded to tell me the address of my first location. I asked her what the name of the place was and she said she didn't remember but she had the address. I asked her how to get there and she said she didn't remember because her husband was driving her when she was finding the locations.
Anyway when we got to the first location after driving around trying to find it for atleast an hour and a half we go in the front door and she tells the people their that her name is Irene and she is their to place a vending machine. The lady asks her who gave her permission. She tells the lady that the person in charge of vending gave her permission anyway to make a long story short it turns out there is nobody in charge of vending but she talks them into letting me put my machine their on a trial basis.
Every location we stopped at was about the same senerio so at about 9:00 pm we had dropped off 4 machines the locations we were dropping them off at were 24 hour truck stops. So she said we could place them all night long. So the last four locations we dropped them off at were basically empty except for a few truckers but really no management we just unloaded the machines and put them in their breakrooms. I felt a little uncomfortable locating machines in the middle of the night, but she said she had appoval and I was so desperate to get them placed. (they had been sitting in my office for about 6 months) so we just kept on placing them. We finally finished at about midnight.
I took her back to Mc Donalds. She wanted her money for locating the machines I didn't really want to pay her because I didn't feel good about the locations but she gave me a contract that if any of the machines needed to be relocated she would do it for free and would be back in town in two weeks to do it. So I paid her the 500 dollars.
To make a long story short the next day my cell phone started ringing first thing in the morning. People were calling wondering where this vending machine had come from and demanding that I go and pick them up immediately. So it turns out Irene didn't have permission to place the machines at any of the locations. I think she just went through the phone book and wrote down addresses thats why she could never remember the name of the person she talked to. Because she never actually talked to anybody.
So after I got the calls to come and get my machines I called Irene she answered and said not to worry about it she would be here to relocate in 2 weeks. Two weeks came and went, after that I called her numerous times and she wouldn't answer so I would leave her a message, after about 2 weeks of leaving messages with no call back she disconected her phone. So now I can't get ahold of her.
So to get back to Stan with A-1 locators the man that is ultimately responsable for all of this since I was having these machines located through his company which I do have a contract from him that he signed prior to me giving him the 500 dollar deposit, guaranteeing the placement of my machines as well as relocating any machines that had to be moved, for free.
Anyway I have called him atleast twice a day for the past two months he won't answer his phone either, which is really strange because before I gave him his deposit he would answer his phone every time. So I have been leaving him messages every day for him to call me back. I have not had one call back from him in two months of leaving messages.
So I have given Stan and A-1 locators 1000 dollars for placing my machines. All the machines are right back where they started. Back in my office so basically I wasted a day driving around with Irene dropping my machines off at locations without their permission, and the next day I wasted driving around picking all of my machines back up and taking them back to my office.
And the sickening part is I paid $1000 dollars to do that.
So big warning to every one out there this guy and his company will rip you off don't believe anything he tells you. He will promise you anything he can to get your money but once he has your money he falls off the face of the earth and takes your money with him.
He doesn't locate machines he just takes your money and then calls other scam artists like Irene to come to you and scam you and get the rest of your money.
I would never use Stan at A-1 locators or Irene they will just take your money and run.
I hope this helps anyone who is thinking of using this company. I will do anything I can to try to help anyone else from getting scammed, by these two
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