sherlock Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 Call the warehouse in California. Ask for Ricky @ 818-364-0213 Gary You can also call the A&A toll free #: 1-800-638-6000 and speak to Kevin. I've dealt with Kevin a few times and found him to be very helpful each time. When sending him emails, he's johnny-on-the-spot with his responses, too. I don't normally wait more than a 1/2 hr or so to get a response. And if I shoot him an email after hours, I'll get a response first thing the following biz day. With other companies I usually have to wait a heck of a lot longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havending Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 havending, Just curious, in another post you stated you made 180K this year in gross sales, yet you did $55,000 in balls? Would be interested to see if I'm reading you wrong. I must be misunderstanding something along with some others. My percentage of sales in bouncy balls are far less than this compared to the other products I carry. Mind elaborating? Appreciate your help, Mark This year was 47,200 in balls and i have many cs. in the wharehouse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markvend Posted January 3, 2010 Share Posted January 3, 2010 THanks so much havending. Do you usually order 20 or 30 cs at a time? I know there is a price break (small) at 20 cs but I don't know what the pallet count price is and I think that's what I'm going to do for that price. I appreciate the heads up on the sale price. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesjmcgough Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 We ordered somewhere close to 85,000 bouncy balls back in late September from Rhode Island Novelty. We checked with other suppliers but they did not seem to feel the need to reply or take us seriously. I really don't know. We have all of our purchases shipped to Florida to our freight consolidator for inclusion in our ocean freight container which is forwarded to Costa Rica. Although, Rhode Island was out of stock on many of the items we wanted, time was of the essence and we needed this container to move ASAP because we needed other necessary equipment and supplies that were included in this container. Our invoice/order - freight to Florida) from RI Novelties(of ~85,000 balls) came to less than 0.038 per ball. We had 90% 27mm balls and 10% 32mm balls (which we 'seed' to increase turns). Leap of faith? Everything we received was exactly as we ordered and paid for upfront. I highly recommend Rhode Island Novelty for their professionalism and following thru on what they promised. Email me offline if you wish to see more details on how they handled our order, as well as emails to the other companies we 'tried in vane' to order from without ;timely' nor any response whatsoever. In May 2010, we will probably make another order of at least 400,000 vending units. I will make sure I update customer service updates from that effort as well. I won't name poor response suppliers but I will make it a point to name those suppliers who gave exceptional customer service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kai1836 Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 Hi, When you say your ordering 400,000 vending units, what do you mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesjmcgough Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 At least 400,000 vends @ what you may see as $0.25 USD vends in your machines. Our vend here in CR is approximately equal to an $0.18 vend because of our currency exchange rate. Because of the logistics of shipping, we must order in larger quantities to get better prices.. Typically, we must order empty capsules and bulk novelties (un-capsuled) that we must pack locally. Labor to pack capsules here is exyremely inexpensive and allows us to decide which bulk items to capsulate depending on demand. Purchasing pallets or UPS shipments are not cost effective in the least. We need to fill the equivalent of a half semi-trailer load of product to keep the ocean freight down to something manageable. Ocean-freight is dependent more on square footage volume than weight or freight class. In other words, I may have 220,000 empty 1.1' capsules in my container, 100,000 bouncy balls and 80,000 uncapsulated bulk novelties in my container. The difference between 220,000 empty capsules and the 80,000 uncapsulated bulk novelties represents the 160,000 items (very lightweighrt) we are able to bring in in 'our luggage' or others who come to visit us here in Costa Rica. This is why many people who visit us here on vacation basically have their airfare free. We pay for the extra luggage fee, they use their $500.00 exemption for importing goods, and we pick them up at the airport and show them a good time at our Finca in Atenas. Are you interested in an "airfare free" vacation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kai1836 Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 Hi, You can count me in, never been to Costa Rica! Just let me know when the best time to come is, I'll have the passport ready! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antoniocinisi Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 I think you should post for everyone to see what supplier didnt reply to emails and not privately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesjmcgough Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 Diane and I would be more than happy to host you and yours. We don't get many visitors down our way. Let us know your plans. And I do not bullshit about offers I make. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesjmcgough Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 A&A, the very same people who we spent time and thousands of dollars in airfare, car rental and hotels to go see from Costa Rica .We went to visit A&A's facility with cash in hand, they gave us a tour of their facility, were ready to buy and our sales person disappeared. We eventually ended up buying 400 machines on our buying trip which ended us up in New Market(Canada). All told, we spent over $100,000 on that buying spree (of which $40,000) went to the really cool guy we met from China. And if it not for logistics, we would not even think twice about doing business with the Chino. Was it my Long Hair, or the color of our Money? Ask me offline why I wouldn't give a 'plug nickel' to Beaver or ActionMatic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesjmcgough Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 Please don't ask me for anymore details on our experience with manufacturers, suppliers, etc. unless you are risking $50,000 or more. It is just not relevant. Use your 'due diligence'. Our experience was much more than 'United Parcel Service" shipping for small quantities . We relied on the expertise(claims) that the companies we did business had experience with international commerce/shipping. For a mere &1100.00 on our order(logistics), the best known company in the business admitted their mistake and left us hanging. They already had our money! Sorry, Charlie...you are there...we are here...you pay! I promised myself that I would 'let bygones... be bygones... But the more I think about this business, the more I think about publishing the entire email trail that exposes the fraud for what even the most respected is up to. Truly incredible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antoniocinisi Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 I as the vast majority here have not spent that much at a time on 1 deal for machines.some of us only have that much wrapped up in the vending business total ,others a fraction of that.regardless what hapened to you shouldnt be keeped a secret im. I also want to know about beaver nd actionmatic too even if it`s all in pm`s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T BIRD Posted January 4, 2010 Share Posted January 4, 2010 Interesting read on this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesjmcgough Posted January 10, 2010 Share Posted January 10, 2010 I mix 27 and 32mm. I place the 32's around the perimeter and in the top of the mix. What happens is most of the 32's end up at the top of the mix as the globe empties. They just keep trying until they get that 'special one' so you may want to place a few of the larger ones in the bottom just to feel you are being fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainor5251 Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 I ordered a case on the 15th of Jan. and still have not got them, starting to lose patience with A&A. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainor5251 Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 Yeah, I'm calling tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havending Posted January 28, 2010 Share Posted January 28, 2010 They may be backordered. I haven't placed my order yet. You should call your salesperson and check on their status. I am a little pissed at them myself. I had ordered several cases in early December @ $8.00 per bag. My salesman said there was nothing he could do. Hindsight is 20/20 ! A&A has always made things right for me and they should for you also. Do you order from cali or maryland? who is your rep? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainor5251 Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 Attempted to follow up with A&A today about a case of bouncy balls that was ordered back the 15th of Jan. that never arrived. I had originally ordered from Ricky in CA and he sent order to MD, so been trying to deal with people in MD but I must say these are the most unprofessional, incompetent people I have ever dealt with, so my question is does anyone know of a good sales person at the MD location? Tried to speak with Ben, the supervisor but another one of the salesmen I talk to couldn't handle the difficult task of transferring a call. Losing all confidence that A&A will be my choice provider for balls, toys, and stickers in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antoniocinisi Posted January 29, 2010 Share Posted January 29, 2010 try brian at extension 323 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havending Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 The balls are in stock i ordered more today. They also shipped out today. If your ordering from cali and have a problem call and talk to Anton Conaway he is the div. manager. I ordered from Anton for years when he was a sales person in md befor he was promoted to cali. Anton has ALWAYS taken great care of me. Even when a was a small new company i could alway count on Anton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lurtsman Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Attempted to follow up with A&A today about a case of bouncy balls that was ordered back the 15th of Jan. that never arrived. I had originally ordered from Ricky in CA and he sent order to MD, so been trying to deal with people in MD but I must say these are the most unprofessional, incompetent people I have ever dealt with, so my question is does anyone know of a good sales person at the MD location? Tried to speak with Ben, the supervisor but another one of the salesmen I talk to couldn't handle the difficult task of transferring a call. Losing all confidence that A&A will be my choice provider for balls, toys, and stickers in the future. If they are the worst, give brand a call. It'll reset your boundary lines for the real definition of awful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dperry Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Attempted to follow up with A&A today about a case of bouncy balls that was ordered back the 15th of Jan. that never arrived. I had originally ordered from Ricky in CA and he sent order to MD, so been trying to deal with people in MD but I must say these are the most unprofessional, incompetent people I have ever dealt with, so my question is does anyone know of a good sales person at the MD location? Tried to speak with Ben, the supervisor but another one of the salesmen I talk to couldn't handle the difficult task of transferring a call. Losing all confidence that A&A will be my choice provider for balls, toys, and stickers in the future.I am wondering how you even call the CA office. The 800 number at the top of the webpage always takes me to the MD office. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainor5251 Posted January 30, 2010 Share Posted January 30, 2010 Someone on the forum had posted the number along with a name of salesman he recommended for CA used it one day when I couldn't get through to the MD location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havending Posted January 31, 2010 Share Posted January 31, 2010 1800-347-8088 Cali office. Div manager Anton. Ext.102 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mainor5251 Posted February 6, 2010 Share Posted February 6, 2010 After A&A had case of bouncy balls shipped with the wrong zip code UPS returned balls back to MD. A&A informed me its policy to cancel order and refund money and I could then reorder. Finally got refund which was short almost $30, my guess them charging me shipping and/or re-stocking fee. I don't think I've ever done business with a more incompetent company before. Look forward to speaking with them to give them one last chance at making this right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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