agrantha Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 Today I placed another machine from KickStart. This is a great looking restaurant/bar location. I was told to place my machine in the front entrance. There it was...an ugly triple metal biz op machine. It was empty. I called the phone number on the front of the machine and left a message. I offered to buy the machine on the voice mail. I guess I should give it a few months then talk to the manager about removing it if the owner does not return my call. I am sometimes shocked that a business owner would accept another machine after having someone abandon an ugly machine in their place of business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrifty Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 3 weeks ago I went into a pawnshop and saw an abandoned vendstar. I offered to take the machine off their hands and replace it with a nice new one. But when I asked the lady who looked to an old man in the back, he just shook his head. I guess they don't mind having an eyesore in their shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JEREMYTINA Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 3 weeks ago I went into a pawnshop and saw an abandoned vendstar. I offered to take the machine off their hands and replace it with a nice new one. But when I asked the lady who looked to an old man in the back, he just shook his head. I guess they don't mind having an eyesore in their shop. Did you call the other vendor and offer to buy the machine? What happens when the other vendor comes back to service or pickup his machine? It may not be abandoned, old candy might mean that it isn't a great location (in which case why put a machine in?), perhaps the route owner is ill, or injured... If the machine is empty, then I certainly wouldn't think the machine had been abandoned, perhaps more clarification is needed in your post. Sorry to get off on a rant, but we've talked about offering to take other peoples equipment before, and I hope no one would do that unless they tried to contact the owner, and they were 100% positive it was abandoned. I would be fairly pissed off if someone ever did that to me, and they would be unhappy when I collected on their debt by pulling the equipment they left when they took mine... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 My experience: Unserviced/Abandoned machine = bad location. There are exceptions... But, rarely are machines abandoned or allowed to go unserviced in good locations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agrantha Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 The guy called me back. He said he did not understand the message I left on his voice mail. I gave him the name of the restaurant. He said he does not recall having a machine there. He asked me where it was. I told him the city but I could not remember the address. He said someone may have moved one of his machines. I think this guy may have more locations than he can handle. I don't want to buy his junky looking machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thrifty Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 @ Jeremytina, I forgot to mention that they told me no one had come for 6 months and no one answered their calls either. It also looked awful. Thats ok though, i'll come by again in a month when the owner is not on his period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timberframe50 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 I placed a double in a bar/resturant. There was an empty Vendstar sitting there. I went and asked the owner about it.I was told that machine was always serviced. 4 weeks later I pulled $35 and the Vendstar was gone. Did the owner pick it up or did the owner stick it the back. The point is after a while they don't even notice the machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agrantha Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 The guy called me back. He said he did not understand the message I left on his voice mail. I gave him the name of the restaurant. He said he does not recall having a machine there. He asked me where it was. I told him the city but I could not remember the address. He said someone may have moved one of his machines. I think this guy may have more locations than he can handle. I don't want to buy his junky looking machine. The story continued: The owner of the machine went by the location today and removed his machine because the owner said the restaurant/bar is going to be sold. He told me to call and get the status on my machine. I just called and spoke with the manager 15 minutes ago. He in turn spoke with the owner. The manager came back to me (via phone) and said it is OK for me to leave my machine there. What should I do? Maybe he did not like the other guys machine. What do you all think? From my experience, restaurants/bars do better than most places unless you have racks. But, the risk of them closing seems to out weigh the benefit. So far I have upgraded all of my orders to restaurant/bar from Kick Start. I may need to rethink this strategy. This is the second time in a brief period that I had to be concerned with a business closing. I am waiting on another bar/restaurant from Rob as we speak. I may just pay the $30 nest time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jax Snacks Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 An abandoned machine is not necessarily an accurate indicator of the overall quality/potential of any location. Triple head candy vending is not very profitable in most restaurants. This noob vendor probably had unrealistic revenue expectations and likely got discouraged and quit – a very common occurrence for Vendstar/Uturn owners (just check out the eBay listings). Is this a family oriented location? If so, toys and gumballs would do much better and can turn a losing situation into a winner. Sounds like a simple matter of not matching the products to the clientele. Kids usually prefer toys over candy after eating their dinner. Another scenario would be that the machine actually belongs to the owner or the owner’s relatives/friends. And maybe now they realize that this candy thing is not so lucrative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agrantha Posted April 3, 2011 Author Share Posted April 3, 2011 Jax This is a restaurant/bar location that is open 7 days per week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Profits Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 I offered to buy the machine on the voice mail. The guy called me back. He said he did not understand the message I left on his voice mail. I don't want to buy his junky looking machine. You want to buy the machine, and then you don't want to buy the machine. Why are you calling people to offer to buy their machines if you don't want to buy them? I'd be pretty confused too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
agrantha Posted April 6, 2011 Author Share Posted April 6, 2011 You want to buy the machine, and then you don't want to buy the machine. Why are you calling people to offer to buy their machines if you don't want to buy them? I'd be pretty confused too. Sorry Profits I confused myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.