Red flag on possible Craigslist scam

[VAVending]

Hey all, had an interesting interaction with someone earlier today and figured I'd send up the warning signal.

Three weeks or so ago, I got in touch with someone who had posted an ad on Craigslist selling an established vending route for $2500. It turns out he's based in California and isn't so much selling an established route, as the promise that he'll build one for you. (At this point I was wary.)

After ascertaining that I was somewhat new to the vending world, he preceeded to tell me all about how full line vending was dead and the only way to succeed in vending was to use his "patented" countertop gumball machines. (At this point I was very wary.)

He said that the deal is: he finds 15 locations, sends me 15 of "his patented" gum ball machines, and I just have to walk in and drop them on location.

All of this took about 50 minutes to tell me. He expertly managed to talk and talk, barely leaving me time for the occasional question. He tried to sell me from every angle imaginable. The guy is good.

Long story short, he said he'd give me time to think it over, and would call me in a little while to see if I wanted to take him up on it.

He also gave me his website (verbally, because I refused to give him a number to which he could text it.) His site turned out to be 90% placeholders for a standard wix business site. On the home page was a proudly displayed picture of his "patented" gum ball machine: an obviously photoshopped LYPC single head.

Today I got a call back from him (it takes him 3 weeks to get back to me? And he wants me to hire him to call people?! Right.)

The call was pleasant for the first 20 seconds until I mentioned I wasn't currently interested in doing business with him. The remaining 2 minutes were far less pleasant as he proceeded to accuse me of "dissing him" and threatened to call all around and make it so I can't get any locations. (How he'll do that, seeing he only knows I'm somewhere in the state of Virginia, is beyond me.) I remained pleasant until he hung up on me.

So just a heads up, this guy is probably a scammer. It's possible he really does deliver 15 $50 machines at 15 locations for $2500, but even that I would consider a scam. Just look at the numbers.

His name is Travis (I know, should have searched it at the start) and his site can be found here: vendingexchange.wixsite.com/gumball 

Looking at it now, he's done a bit more work on the site and taken out three pages of blank content.

I'm hoping that this might spare someone a little verbal abuse, if nothing else.

Happy vending,

Benjamin 

[AMD Snacks]

Yeah, i'm forever seeing those types of ads on craigslist. I don't even bother with someone who is "selling a route" but gives no info on what type of machine or size. All these "plans" to build a route make no sense. It's cheaper to just buy your own machines and pay a locator, since that's basically what they're promising. I just feel bad for the people that fall for it. 

[VAVending]

What's sad to me, is that for these people to exist, they must have some success. Otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.

And with a scheme like this the majority of their customers won't even know they overpaid and could even make repeat orders. Eventually they're bound to figure it out, but by then the money is long gone.

There is something just incredibly wrong about preying on the weak of a community. And that's what they do when they target noobs like me. I knew nothing about bulk vending at the time, and now I'm still just scratching the surface of the business. If my father hadn't bred a healthy dose of skepticism into me growing up, I might have blindly taken the scam.

[winning123]

1 minute ago, rebbenyamin said:

What's sad to me, is that for these people to exist, they must have some success. Otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.

And with a scheme like this the majority of their customers won't even know they overpaid and could even make repeat orders. Eventually they're bound to figure it out, but by then the money is long gone.

There is something just incredibly wrong about preying on the weak of a community. And that's what they do when they target noobs like me. I knew nothing about bulk vending at the time, and now I'm still just scratching the surface of the business. If my father hadn't bred a healthy does of skepticism into me growing up, I might have blindly taken the scam.

I tend to stick to this site/forum.  It will provide all the necessary knowledge.  Chances are someone on here has gone through a scenario that is new to you and can assist.

[VAVending]

Just now, winning123 said:

I tend to stick to this site/forum.  It will provide all the necessary knowledge.  Chances are someone on here has gone through a scenario that is new to you and can assist.

I am finding that to be true. This place is an absolute goldmine for a beginner.

[bhfisher]

OMG - I know this guy. His name was Travis or Jason.

He did locating for me a few years ago.   He was actually was pretty good at locating machines when he went out and placed in person.  However, when he located using the phone you'd have to really need to check out the locations before accepting. Other than that I really can't think of anything bad about my experience.

 

 

[VAVending]

24 minutes ago, bhfisher said:

OMG - I know this guy. His name was Travis or Jason.

He did locating for me a few years ago.   He was actually was pretty good at locating machines when he went out and placed in person.  However, when he located using the phone you'd have to really need to check out the locations before accepting. Other than that I really can't think of anything bad about my experience.

 

 

Well, it's highly possible he used to do legitimate locating. He could even have convinced himself that he's saving people time and effort. But $2500 for $750 worth of machines and $1750 for 15 locations is just steep. He's counting on the ignorance of his customers.

[bhfisher]

Ok, I did supply my own machines and he just found locations.

I'd be curious what he would charge for 15 locations only

[gumball guy]

I dealt with this guy in 2012 when he was going by Jason Travis Brinson DBA Advantage Vending of Los Angeles,California. I hired him to find me 5 locations via telephone. I ended up with 1 good location that I still have today and nothing else. Long story short after dealing with this weird guy for 2 months he never came across with any other legitimate locations and refused to give me a refund. He resurfaced on here in the last 2 years as a locator for Sheridan's Pink Ribbon boxes and from what I could tell people appeared to be happy with his services at that time. My opinion hasn't changed and I would advise people to steer clear of this character.

[bhfisher]

I'll agree that telephone locating was not his forte.  I had pretty good luck with him locating in person.

May he has gone to the 'dark side' now

[VAVending]

There's no telling what people might decide to try. He DID keep harping on the fact that he'd been in vending for 20 years.

I can imagine he wouldn't be very good at phone locating. The way he went off at me just for saying I wasn't interested. Talk about burning bridges behind you. 

I've been in vending for a few months, and I already know that if someone says "no, thank you", you make it a soft "no" by being as nice and friendly as possible. 

"Okay, well here's my number if you're ever interested." Sure beats: "We'll see how you like the competition little man! *click*"

I'd pay a person like that to STAY AWAY from potential placement locations. (Not literally, don't take me up on that.)

[QuikVend]

Yea, I see those ads in multiple cities. When I used Sheridan to locate done of their boxes, he was the one they used. Didn't do terrible, but I've heard too many bad experiences to use his services again.