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Unethical harassment placement services and the DoJ


lurtsman

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I got a call from Shirley today because she had been contacted by the Department of Justice about complaints from a telemarketer harassing business owners who refused to consent to machine placement. The business that filed the complaint was in the council bluffs area. Since it is Iowa, she called me to see if I might know anything. That's far far away from my route, but I told her I'd look into it because I knew many vendors and we might be able to figure it out. I've seen some complaints, but I can't find the thread now. She wasn't at all upset about whoever hired the locator, since they would not have known about the behavior. We're just trying to figure it out. If you have heard from any locations about them being harassed, or know anything about it, please drop a post here, or shoot me a PM. If you don't want me to know, you can also call Shirley at NCCS. She just wants to get the monkey off her back, and I think most of us here benefit from NCCS running a well organized program. Even if you just have links to other threads with more information, please feel free to chip in with what you know. I'll be contacting her again soon to update her on what we know about the situation.

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I've talked to Shirley before. She's a real nice lady. 

We never call businesses more than 3 times.  And we only call back if we were unable to reach the manager the first time. 

Council Bluff's though is a hard hit area.  I can imagine there may be multiple locators working there. 

Regards,

Rob

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I know your policies Rob, I've never heard a complaint from a location. For all I know the complaint could've been from someone who was not mentally stable and managed to get hit different telemarketing companies at the same time. In case anything turned up, I wanted to look into it. Is council bluff's hit that hard just because it is next to Omaha?

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Omaha has a ridiculous amount of competition as well.  Most people that service Omaha also go into Council Bluff's too.

I have a number of clients who have hired multiple locators at once.  It's not an issue unless the zip codes are overlapping.  Then it can become a problem.

Regards,

Rob

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Council Bluffs is almost a suburb of Omaha.  If Omaha could figure out how to cross state lines and annex it they would.

I know nothing about this locator issue, but I will keep my eyes and ears open.  I think I would only have maybe 2 to 4 places that would possibly be called.  Do you know if it is more then one person who is complaining?

If this becomes a real problem, this could affect the ability to place machines in this area.

Anyway I am a little worried to hear about the competition being mentioned in Omaha.  I intend to focus on Lincoln, but plan on getting about 15 to 25 more in Omaha to help justify my going up there, and to divide my area up into 2 smaller more manageable areas.

I've already decided on zip codes for both areas.

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Anyway I am a little worried to hear about the competition being mentioned in Omaha.  I intend to focus on Lincoln, but plan on getting about 15 to 25 more in Omaha to help justify my going up there, and to divide my area up into 2 smaller more manageable areas.

I've already decided on zip codes for both areas.

Don't worry, Nebraska is a very prosperous area when it comes to Vending!  When I say competition I meant locator competition.  I know we've called businesses in the past that have claimed they have been called several times before.  There are tons of spots in Lincoln though.  No worries!

Regards,

Rob

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Boy you really hate to hear these types of stories.  I wonder if that business had been put on the do not call list?  With my book research I have developed a pretty good size email list for locators so I can send out a blast giving them the information on that area.  Maybe they could back off a little for awhile.  If Shirley has that business information it could certainly be shared with locating companies.  I know they don't want to harrass anybody.

Blue

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