Real time reviews of locators

[James Woods]

I have used KickStart myself and I am very dissapointed with my results. They charge 2800 for their services. So far in 4 months. 1 machine has been placed and a broken website. Not a good return on my investment.

[VictorVending]

On 5/10/2012 at 8:33 PM, kandyking said:

I placed machines at the 2 break rooms they got me yesterday

I had a horrible experience with a machine in a break room. It was at a Calvin Klein kid's store. First of all, there aren't that many employees, secondly, there were other machines there, including forgotten machines. I think I made like $1 in one month, $0.50 the next. 

The places that have worked best for me are: 1. gumball machine in a restaurant with a family section. 2. A machine that sold three things (gumballs, m&ms, etc) in hardware store that does repairs with a nice waiting room. 

I have a gumball machine in a nice chain hotel, and it does OK. Some months it makes more money, depends on the season. The machine is by the entrance, and I think there's lots of kids because I usually see them by the pool. 

I have a machine at a beach bar, but that one barely makes money. If it was a cigarrette machine, it would make money. But when you're selling gumballs or Peanut M&Ms, you have to be in the right place. 

Now I have two machines sitting at home.  http://vendinglocator4u.com/ used to be great, but the last times I've hired them it's been a disaster. I used to like Kickstart Locators, but didn't like most of the locations they found me. 

[orsd]

54 minutes ago, VictorVending said:

I had a horrible experience with a machine in a break room. It was at a Calvin Klein kid's store. First of all, there aren't that many employees, secondly, there were other machines there, including forgotten machines. I think I made like $1 in one month, $0.50 the next. 

The places that have worked best for me are: 1. gumball machine in a restaurant with a family section. 2. A machine that sold three things (gumballs, m&ms, etc) in hardware store that does repairs with a nice waiting room. 

I have a gumball machine in a nice chain hotel, and it does OK. Some months it makes more money, depends on the season. The machine is by the entrance, and I think there's lots of kids because I usually see them by the pool. 

I have a machine at a beach bar, but that one barely makes money. If it was a cigarrette machine, it would make money. But when you're selling gumballs or Peanut M&Ms, you have to be in the right place. 

Now I have two machines sitting at home.  http://vendinglocator4u.com/ used to be great, but the last times I've hired them it's been a disaster. I used to like Kickstart Locators, but didn't like most of the locations they found me. 

Why didn’t you ask for a warranty replacement?

[VictorVending]

2 minutes ago, orsd said:

Why didn’t you ask for a warranty replacement?

I should have done that, but that usually costs extra and I tend to be a bit of an optimist. I rarely get warranties when I buy stuff.  

How long have you been in the vending business? 

[rodney69]

56 minutes ago, VictorVending said:

I had a horrible experience with a machine in a break room. It was at a Calvin Klein kid's store. First of all, there aren't that many employees, secondly, there were other machines there, including forgotten machines. I think I made like $1 in one month, $0.50 the next. 

The places that have worked best for me are: 1. gumball machine in a restaurant with a family section. 2. A machine that sold three things (gumballs, m&ms, etc) in hardware store that does repairs with a nice waiting room. 

I have a gumball machine in a nice chain hotel, and it does OK. Some months it makes more money, depends on the season. The machine is by the entrance, and I think there's lots of kids because I usually see them by the pool. 

I have a machine at a beach bar, but that one barely makes money. If it was a cigarrette machine, it would make money. But when you're selling gumballs or Peanut M&Ms, you have to be in the right place. 

Now I have two machines sitting at home.  http://vendinglocator4u.com/ used to be great, but the last times I've hired them it's been a disaster. I used to like Kickstart Locators, but didn't like most of the locations they found me. 

Couple things,  I don't believe you called me about it,  but possible and may bee that it's because you only got the silver warranty

Also,  did you give a list of locations you want?  

I have a lot of break rooms that work great,  even with 2 employees.  Depends on the age of the employees.

[rodney69]

1 hour ago, VictorVending said:

I had a horrible experience with a machine in a break room. It was at a Calvin Klein kid's store. First of all, there aren't that many employees, secondly, there were other machines there, including forgotten machines. I think I made like $1 in one month, $0.50 the next. 

The places that have worked best for me are: 1. gumball machine in a restaurant with a family section. 2. A machine that sold three things (gumballs, m&ms, etc) in hardware store that does repairs with a nice waiting room. 

I have a gumball machine in a nice chain hotel, and it does OK. Some months it makes more money, depends on the season. The machine is by the entrance, and I think there's lots of kids because I usually see them by the pool. 

I have a machine at a beach bar, but that one barely makes money. If it was a cigarrette machine, it would make money. But when you're selling gumballs or Peanut M&Ms, you have to be in the right place. 

Now I have two machines sitting at home.  http://vendinglocator4u.com/ used to be great, but the last times I've hired them it's been a disaster. I used to like Kickstart Locators, but didn't like most of the locations they found me. 

Couple things,  I don't believe you called me about it,  but possible and may bee that it's because you only got the silver warranty

Also,  did you give a list of locations you want?  

I have a lot of break rooms that work great,  even with 2 employees.  Depends on the age of the employees.

[rodney69]

If you didn't order more than 2 locations there is no gold warranty

[VictorVending]

2 hours ago, rodney69 said:

Couple things,  I don't believe you called me about it,  but possible and may bee that it's because you only got the silver warranty

Also,  did you give a list of locations you want?  

I have a lot of break rooms that work great,  even with 2 employees.  Depends on the age of the employees.

Well, I'm sorry for putting you on the spot. To answer your question, no, I did not get the warranty. Yes, I did give a list of locations I wanted, yet the locations I was often provided weren't always on that list. I suppose I should have been specific, when I said "store" I never meant the break room.

I also got tired of showing to locations and being treated like dog poop. That's not entirely your fault, sometimes people say "yes" because they're in a hurry, and then they change their mind, and your company did find me replacement locations, but sometimes those replacements gave me the same issue. They didn't want my machine, they didn't know who I was, they already had another machine so they didn't want mine, etc.

It's frustrating. There's nothing I hate more than dragging a machine to my car, going to a location, and then having to drag it back to my apartment because I got rejected. 

Eventually I just gave up and stopped hiring locators. 

To be fair, your company did find me my most profitable location, and they've treated me well. 

[rodney69]

5 minutes ago, VictorVending said:

Well, I'm sorry for putting you on the spot. To answer your question, no, I did not get the warranty. Yes, I did give a list of locations I wanted, yet the locations I was often provided weren't always on that list. I suppose I should have been specific, when I said "store" I never meant the break room.

I also got tired of showing to locations and being treated like dog poop. That's not entirely your fault, sometimes people say "yes" because they're in a hurry, and then they change their mind, and your company did find me replacement locations, but sometimes those replacements gave me the same issue. They didn't want my machine, they didn't know who I was, they already had another machine so they didn't want mine, etc.

It's frustrating. There's nothing I hate more than dragging a machine to my car, going to a location, and then having to drag it back to my apartment because I got rejected. 

Eventually I just gave up and stopped hiring locators. 

To be fair, your company did find me my most profitable location, and they've treated me well. 

Well,  is unfortunate that you feel that way.  I'll look back and see if I can find your files,  is sounds familiar.  If I'm correct,  I verified with you on retail break rooms because you wanted retail like Wal-Mart up front or other large retail stores?  Is that correct? 

I'm always open to discussing in open forum.  We never not fulfill an agreement. Every location isn't perfect or the best.  If you got a beach bar,  I'd be curious why it's not doing 20-50 a month. 

[VictorVending]

2 hours ago, rodney69 said:

Well,  is unfortunate that you feel that way.  I'll look back and see if I can find your files,  is sounds familiar.  If I'm correct,  I verified with you on retail break rooms because you wanted retail like Wal-Mart up front or other large retail stores?  Is that correct? 

I'm always open to discussing in open forum.  We never not fulfill an agreement. Every location isn't perfect or the best.  If you got a beach bar,  I'd be curious why it's not doing 20-50 a month. 

I'm realistic, I'm not asking for Wal-Mart, you need a lot of pull to get Wal-Mart. I don't like retail break rooms, they don't make me money. Maybe if it was a factory with 1,000 employees they would make money, but a little break room that serves 10 employees doesn't make money, that's my experience. 

The beach bar in particular is rundown, it faces the canal instead of the beach, the crowds there are bit iffy, in fact, I don't think that place is making a lot of money, I think it's one of those bars/restaurants barely getting by. I don't blame the locator for this, I realize he's calling a ton of people and not visiting the places. 

If I ever decide to locate my two remaining machines, I will gladly place an order with you, but for now, I'm taking a break. 
 

[vendtex]

On 2/25/2018 at 8:14 PM, VictorVending said:

I'm realistic, I'm not asking for Wal-Mart, you need a lot of pull to get Wal-Mart. I don't like retail break rooms, they don't make me money. Maybe if it was a factory with 1,000 employees they would make money, but a little break room that serves 10 employees doesn't make money, that's my experience. 

The beach bar in particular is rundown, it faces the canal instead of the beach, the crowds there are bit iffy, in fact, I don't think that place is making a lot of money, I think it's one of those bars/restaurants barely getting by. I don't blame the locator for this, I realize he's calling a ton of people and not visiting the places. 

If I ever decide to locate my two remaining machines, I will gladly place an order with you, but for now, I'm taking a break. 
 

Overwhelmingly we had bad experiences with break rooms as well.  In fact, most of them we have removed for that reason.  Kick start got us some good ones, but I think the gave us one that they had given someone else 6 months or so earlier.  Interestingly, however, that turned out to be good for us as we ended up buying that guys business and he had several locations that bring in about 40-50/month.

[gumball guy]

On 2/25/2018 at 9:14 PM, VictorVending said:

I'm realistic, I'm not asking for Wal-Mart, you need a lot of pull to get Wal-Mart. I don't like retail break rooms, they don't make me money. Maybe if it was a factory with 1,000 employees they would make money, but a little break room that serves 10 employees doesn't make money, that's my experience. 

The beach bar in particular is rundown, it faces the canal instead of the beach, the crowds there are bit iffy, in fact, I don't think that place is making a lot of money, I think it's one of those bars/restaurants barely getting by. I don't blame the locator for this, I realize he's calling a ton of people and not visiting the places. 

If I ever decide to locate my two remaining machines, I will gladly place an order with you, but for now, I'm taking a break. 
 

I think we have all felt the same frustration many times. Bulk locating is always a crapshoot regardless if you pay someone to do it for you or you do it yourself.  I have walked out of places after just placing a machine and said “No way this will produce” just to come back later and find it did great. I have also thought that a location would be a sure thing and then it bombed. That’s the vending game. Some days it’s exhilarating and other days it’s soul crushing. You just need to power through it and try to keep the right mind set. One thing that people new to this business don’t realize is that your route is constantly in transition to some degree. You are always losing locations due to closure, management changes, slow sales etc … so in turn you always need to be locating. This reality is what causes many people to leave the business. They got in thinking they would place machines and just fill em up and collect the money for years to come and that didn’t happen. Before you know it there are several machines sitting around the house not making any money then its fire sale time. If you really want to stay in the game get those machines back out making money for you ASAP. Good luck and stay positive.

[TNTVending]

I'm new to this site, I read the above reviews and haven't seen anything about a Richard Campbell, his locating service is called Americas Best Locators and it's well advertised, has anyone dealt with him? I'm considering him to help me place bulk toy vending machines...

[MikeAndIkeTurner]

On 1/21/2013 at 9:14 AM, Locators R Us said:

Yup, we did not pay the locatorsrus.info domain because we are not using that anymore and the site design is complicated so we prefer to use our old domain (the one we use when we started) the www.locatorsrus.biz. The site is so simple and not that complicated and easy to manage. I just made it myself using templates.

I'm back in town and will be working tomorrow. But even though I'm out of town, Amanda is incharge so she's still sending locations and answering your emails and calls. I believed some replacements are already sent last week and some orders were taken care off. Please send us email at support@loctorsrus.biz if you want to know the status of your orders or replacement.

Thanks you for choosing LRU!

-Gale

What domain are you guys using these days? Still in business?