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Fellow Vendor Drilled My Locks...What Should I Do?


RikaKazak

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I got a new account about 6 months ago through a locator.  It's a giant doctor's office with a big waiting area and a little sit down/snack area outside of that.  When I showed up to place my machine (triple head candy) there was already a triple candy machine there (sold PMMs, MI, HT) so instead of hassling the locator for a new location, or placing a candy right next to another candy machine (I did have permission to do that), I decided to just put a single head gumball there.

 

First month awesome, did over $60.  2nd month did great, over $50.  Third month, I arrive and see that the candy guy turned one of his triple heads into a gumball head.  No big deal to me, whatever, I was selling nerd gumballs, him dubble bubble, and I still did over $40 that month.  Next month I arrive, and see a big sticker on his gumball head that says "Gumballs 2 for 25 cents."  I tested it, and he was selling gumballs 2 for 25 cents.  Whatever, gumballs don't really spoil, I'm still doing $20ish a month at this point, might as well just keep my machine there and keep it less full.

 

Next month I arrive and my machine is "backwards."  (Facing the wall it's next to) The machine did about $3.  The machine was a single head gumball, with the lock on top, and the money in the bottom (where you have to pull off the globe to get to the money) so there's no way I accidentally left it "backwards."  (whereas something like a vendstar I could see pulling the money last and accidentally forgetting to turn it back around)  So I was pretty sure the other vendor did it, but whatever, maybe it was a kid/teenager or something).

 

This month I arrive, and my machine is drilled.  The machine is all there.  It was even put back together (you have to take it apart to get the money out) and the little chunk of drilled lock that's left over was even in the hole where the lock usually goes.  This REALLY felt like an "FU" get off my turf type of thing.

 

So......what do I do?  Do I just move on?  Do I call the police?  (highly doubt they'll care)  Do I call the vendor and ask him what's up?  Do I tell the location?  What would you guys do?

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Get used to it... that crap happens all the time. You're lucky he didn't put glue in your locks, then you would have been the one drilling them out.

Odds are the vendor did turn your machine around, but would a vendor really spend the time to drill a lock in a location? Sounds too risky to me. Probably was a night shift worker? Was the other vendors machine also tampered with?

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I usually walk away at the first sign of trouble. Most locations don't make enough money to warrant sharing, let alone this sort of petty BS.

 

I'm pretty lucky where my "worst" competitors just won't talk to me. I've had Service Vending pull some shady stuff in the past, but they stopped that real quick when confronted- but they're a national chain. If I had another vendor drill my locks and I knew about it, I'd try and get them booted. Again, all hypothetical, but if you track down the gate keeper, and hold up $50+ and a form that says you get exclusive rights to the spot, and you'll get it for a candy machine or whatever he's got. The loc might never pay for itself, but it's the principle- the vending business is tough, and real vendors work together to better each other. Guys like this are just the worst, and I'll never understand guys that think damaging or otherwise sabotaging another person's gear is an okay way to get ahead.

 

Also, there are still 2-for-25 mechs/wheels out there for triples? I haven't seen one of those in years.

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probably didn't break into both machines because they didn't get much out of yours. A vendor would have known the quickest way to the money and not bothered with the top lock.. we have many places that have been broken into, several have multiple machines. If the thieves get a lot of money, they will go down the line and get all of the machines. If they don't put much on the first try, they walk away.

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I would probably mention something to somebody. I doubt they could do this without anyone noticing.

 

Maybe the idea to move on is the better one, but I really dislike people getting away with stuff like this. You could still leave, but making sure the location is aware of this type of thing going on in their establishment, they may have a reason not to trust this Vendor.

 

I remember a story here a few years ago involving an employee cutting metal slugs to get free candy, and when the Vendor mentioned it, they found the guy and fired him. They knew they couldn't trust an employee like that.

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Not to hijack the thread but please share what SV pulled on you.

 

They had a route guy a few years back that would put bright orange tape over your mechs, call you claiming to be the loc to have your gear removed, and threaten to sue you if you didn't immediately comply. He'd tape all the gear in a loc service gear was in whenever he came through. I don't think he's with SVC anymore, as it hasn't happened to anyone at any of their stops that I'm aware of for a long time now. I know I've got a lot more photos of this, but this is the only one I'm able to find at the moment. The one pictured here is a small Chinese restaurant, which has an 8 way Service rack, a 6-collumn sticker from Service, my 5-way there, a gumball machine the loc owns, and a pair of charity triples- so there's room and profits enough for everyone. It's not a 'great' loc, but worth keeping.

e62d0c558e80499d34f6aba8e947cffb.png

"OUT OF ORDER- SVC CONTRACT 6/29/14"

 

They did have the courtesy to leave a date on the gear, so I always had a rough estimate of how much I was losing, and used that data to put together a little graph showing the loc how much money they were losing when they let SVC go about like this. Whether SVC had a contract then or now, I do not know. When I first contacted them about the tape, they had promised to send me a copy of their contract in the mail, but it never materialized. As I had a contract with the loc myself at that point, and had been there for years without incident, so I was ready to fight for the spot if it came to that, again more on principle than anything. Thankfully SVC stopped taping my gear, and we've been good neighbors again ever since. I don't vend anything they vend, so it's not like we're even competing for the same stuff. It was a weird summer, glad it's over.

 

Another plus was that I'd contact other affected vendors at these stops to let them know what was going on, and that's how I really fostered some of my best working relationships with other vendors around here. This concludes Performa's Off-Topic ramblings. ;D

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I got a new account about 6 months ago through a locator.  It's a giant doctor's office with a big waiting area and a little sit down/snack area outside of that.  When I showed up to place my machine (triple head candy) there was already a triple candy machine there (sold PMMs, MI, HT) so instead of hassling the locator for a new location, or placing a candy right next to another candy machine (I did have permission to do that), I decided to just put a single head gumball there.

 

First month awesome, did over $60.  2nd month did great, over $50.  Third month, I arrive and see that the candy guy turned one of his triple heads into a gumball head.  No big deal to me, whatever, I was selling nerd gumballs, him dubble bubble, and I still did over $40 that month.  Next month I arrive, and see a big sticker on his gumball head that says "Gumballs 2 for 25 cents."  I tested it, and he was selling gumballs 2 for 25 cents.  Whatever, gumballs don't really spoil, I'm still doing $20ish a month at this point, might as well just keep my machine there and keep it less full.

 

Next month I arrive and my machine is "backwards."  (Facing the wall it's next to) The machine did about $3.  The machine was a single head gumball, with the lock on top, and the money in the bottom (where you have to pull off the globe to get to the money) so there's no way I accidentally left it "backwards."  (whereas something like a vendstar I could see pulling the money last and accidentally forgetting to turn it back around)  So I was pretty sure the other vendor did it, but whatever, maybe it was a kid/teenager or something).

 

This month I arrive, and my machine is drilled.  The machine is all there.  It was even put back together (you have to take it apart to get the money out) and the little chunk of drilled lock that's left over was even in the hole where the lock usually goes.  This REALLY felt like an "FU" get off my turf type of thing.

 

So......what do I do?  Do I just move on?  Do I call the police?  (highly doubt they'll care)  Do I call the vendor and ask him what's up?  Do I tell the location?  What would you guys do?

What I would do is super glue a quarter in all of his coin slots and remove my machine. That will send him a message not to play with my machine and if you don't take your machine out it will probably disappear. Get his phone number off of machine just in case.
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