1.800.VENDING Complaints: Have you had any dealings with the 1-800-VENDING business opportunity or 1-800-VENDING vending machines? Please share a comment about your experience – good or bad – below, as well as advice for those considering investing with 1-800-VENDING.
The bios of founders Michael Burnett and Jeff Marsh are impressive.
The pictures of its headquarters in Kaysville, Utah are impressive.
And the 1.800.VENDING sales pitch is impressive:
1.800.VENDING provides everything you need to successfully establish, upgrade or expand your vending business. Our goal is to provide you with your own “up and running” business from day one. In other words, you don’t have to waste time reinventing the wheel. We can assist the beginner to the seasoned operator with a successful business. Let us show you how 1.800.VENDING can help you generate immediate and long-term cash flow!
1.800.VENDING: A little too impressive?
To a newcomer, 1-800-Vending has a very impressive image. To those who are aware of the controversial past of 1.800.VENDING and its founders, it might seem a little too impressive.
A little too orchestrated.
For example, if you do a Google search of the term “1.800.VENDING scam” you’ll see some red flags:
You’ll see that numerous complaints about 1-800-Vending on Rip-Off Report have been sanitized, scrubbed clean and given that cheery endorsement reserved for those, one assumes, who have worked out a financial agreement with the site owner.
You’ll see numerous listings for phony blogs (called splogs) that use the terms “1.800.VENDING” and “scam” in their titles, urls, tags and body copy. This is a common technique used by those who have, or expect, a lot of scam complaints on the Internet. The intent is to flood Google search results with these sites and posts in order to bury legitimate scam warnings or complaints.
Be wary of those who “Splog.”
Here are a trio of suspected “splogs” that appear to be designed to dilute search engine results for the terms “1-800-Vending Scam,” “1-800-Vending Complaints,” and “1-800-Vending Ripoff,” respectively:
Each of the URLs are registered to a “private party” using a premium ownership masking service (Hmmm… wonder who owns these?). Each of the supposed blogs uses the offending term in its url, title and as a keyword in the single awkward article that appears on the site. The blogs are so phony the authors didn’t even change the generic WordPress sample posts (Hello World!).
While there’s nothing illegal about splogging, it is certainly a red flag that a company would need to manage its reputation in such a fashion.
“We are seriously considering laying the stupid machine on the tracks and watching a train obliterate the *** thing”
Despite the suspected Internet countermeasures, some complaints have snuck through to the top page of Google. On ComplaintsBoard, Norman wrote:
I cannot explain how much of a HEADACHE our experience has been with 1-800-VENDING. There are railroad tracks across from our business and we are seriously considering laying the stupid machine on the tracks and watching a train obliterate the *** thing. The machine didn’t work from day 1, and trying to get customer service that was actually helpful was impossible. We were sent various parts, chips, circuit boards… NOT worth the headache it’s caused. The company’s communication has been terrible, we’ve gotten jerked back and forth and given the run around for weeks now… Don’t go with 1-800-vending! Not worth the headache!
Sins of the Past: Turnkey Vending, FTC & Connecticut Legal Actions
According to Wikipedia entry for the 1-800-Vending opportunity, founders Michael Burnett and Jeff Marsh seem to have a good reason for covering their Internet tracks. Prior to 1-800-Vending, the partners founded and operated Turnkey Vending. In 2003, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sweep titled Project Busted Opportunity led to the U.S. Government filing a complaint alleging that Turnkey had operated a fraudulent business opportunity. The FTC filed a permanent injunction against the company and its founders.
When the dynamic duo started fresh with a new entity and name (1-800-Vending), it seems they hadn’t abandoned their scurrilous ways. According to Wikipedia:
After Turnkey’s dissolution, the two men founded 1.800.Vending. The latter has been fined by the State of Connecticut. Specifically, the agency accused the defendants of ‘misrepresenting its prior Connecticut business opportunity sales activity’ and alleged that the company’s disclosure documents:
- failed to include financial statements as required by law;
- failed to make adequate disclosure concerning 1.800.Vending, Inc.’s affiliates and predecessors;
- failed to describe in sufficient detail the employment histories of Michael S. Burnett and Jeffrey L. Marsh;
- failed to adequately set forth the risks involved in the business opportunity venture;
- lacked sufficient information on the employment and disciplinary histories of 1.800.Vending, Inc.’s sales representatives; and
- did not mention the fact that purchaser-investors might have to pay retailers for the use of space for the purchaser-investors’ vending machines.
The State of Connecticut also accused the company of “making earnings claims on its web site without including documented data to substantiate such claims and disclosing such data to prospective purchaser-investors at the time such representations were made.”
Despite its legal difficulties, the company remains in business today, spending large sums on advertising. It is one of the first sponsored links to appear in the results when a Google search is done on vending-related topics.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? IS 1-800-VENDING AN HONEST COMPANY THAT LEARNED ITS LESSON? ARE MICHAEL BARNETT AND JEFF MARSH “THE TWO MOST APPRECIATED MEN IN VENDING” LIKE THEIR WEBSITE STATES?
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View Comments
Worst vending machines even wholesalers don't want them there junk 88,0000 of junk.
THIS COMPANY IS REALLY http://WWW.HEALTHYOUVENDING.COM. THEY LIE, LIE, LIE, LIE AND TAKE YOUR MONEY. JEFF MARSH IS THE BIGGEST CON ARTIST ON THE PLANET. THEY TOOK MY MONEY, SOLD ME CRAPPY MACHINES FROM SEAGA THAT PROBABLY COST NOTHING TO MAKE AND SOLD THEM TO ME FOR OVER $9000 WITH THE "PROMISE" THAT THEY WER THE BEST ON THE MARKET. OF COURSE WHEN I ACTUALLY RECEIVED THEM THEY WERE BUILT SO POORLY THEY STARTED FALLING APART FROM DAY ONE. WORST THING WAS I COULD NOT FIND ONE VENDING REPAIR PERSON THAT WOULD EVEN DARE TRY TO WORK ON THEM BECAUSE THEY SAID THEY COULD NEVER PIECE THEM BACK TOGETHER. SCAM SCAM SCAM. NOW I HAVE THEM ON SALE ON CRAIGSLIST FOR $1900 A PIECE. LOSING MY ASS. THANKS HEALTHY YOU VENDING YOU JERKS!
ADMIN NOTE: We have reason to suspect that this may be a bogus complaint placed by a competitor of 1.800.VENDING. Potential franchisees, distributors and machine purchasers should always conduct their own research and arrive at their own conclusions.
My Wife and I made the biggest mistake of our lives investing in Healthy You vending Machines. Resale value was terrible 3 locations asked us to remove the fatly machines within the first 8 months of business. I bought one used AMS vending snack and no problems has a sensor to be sure it vends. We got out but are still hurting financially. Run away from 1800-vending as fast as you can.
I bought 10 rs900 combo machines from 1-800-vending march 2013. The salesman makes you feel like your purchasing the best machine on the market. They tell you it's all state of art etc etc. we'll shame on me because the machines are the worse investment I ever made. Just like a few other comments on the survey page people would put money in machines and it would say thank you and takes there money. Over and over again week after week. I was on phone with tech support on a weekly basis. They no me by name now. They really try to help you and guide you the best they can but nothing seems to work. And I'm a real handy guy and have good common sense but even that along with a tech support does not work. The shims fall out on a regular basis causing product fall out two at a time and that's on a weekly basis also. I'm so mad I with this company I just wish they would take all machines back and give my money back or replace them all. Last but not least the process was a nightmare from the beginning from ordering and having them shipped. I paid 5000 grand for ten machines to be white glove shipping. They said that they ship to the closest warehouse to your address and distribute the machines on locations. We'll they shipped all myachi was to Orlando which is 160 miles away. And they only deliver one machine a week to my area. I said wtf are you kidding. So after contacting shipping company and I explained to him how much I paid for shipping he helped me somewhat he had a truck deliver all ten machines to my home and I had to deliver all machines to my locations so that was a lost of 5000. My honest opinion stay as far away from this company you can. You have been warned.
I started with Healthy You in January.. The supposedly "white glove shipping" was horrendous.. Very expensive and I had to break my back to help the shippers move my machines because they didn't send enough workers 3 times to properly move the machines into my locations. The HY location acquisition people did not have any success in finding any locations that would take our machines, Nd to their refit gave us back our fee. However I am finding that locations for healthy vending are very hard to come by.. And the one location I have does not make nearly enough to get my investment back for at least 6 years. I am trying to sell two of my brand new machines. Still in shipping facility and boxed.. But found out that even brand new are worth half of what I purchased them for..machines look nice but are not easy to set up especially the drinks.. I would encourage people to beware!!!
I bought my HealthyYOU machines in May of 2013. So optimistic when I started out as was the other 30 or so folks in my group at the HealthyYOU University.
Everything to do with this company is a terrible experience. The folks I have read here have it right, they seem really nice and genuine (do they get training on how to do that??) but in reality they are wolves in sheep's clothing.
From the beginning delivery 'til today, August 19, 2014, these machines have been nothing but a nightmare. Loose screws in the bottom of the machines, shims that fall out constantly, back gates that are near impossible to get in correctly, motors & switches that don't work, circuit boards & wiring harnesses go bad/blow up, misvend after misvend after misvend and customers who quit buying because they have lost faith in the machines. I don't honestly know how those folks at 1-800-VENDING sleep at night.
The reason I went with them in the first place was this wonderful 7-year warranty they were able to offer because these machines are wonderful, state-of-the art, quality built machines. They really need called on this because this warranty is nothing more than a 1 year warranty hidden in deceptive language, not to mention that YOU are the one that does all the diagnosing and repair. When I needed the warranty, 2 weeks out of the 12 months, I was quoted prices ("1/2 price", mind you) that were twice to 5x as much as I could find the parts online myself.
I notice that others mention getting together, "reaching out" and "joining forces" but no replies to these....is there not a way we can get a group together for perhaps a class action lawsuit or such???
If nothing else, I want to make sure that no one else loses their life savings, etc. If I can prevent one person from falling for their BS this post will be worth it.
As others have said, RUN, RUN, RUN from this company and DO NOT look back!
Hello MW,
Thank you SO SO Much!! You really saved my hard earned money as I was about to invest money into that and now I DROPPED THE IDEA.
I haven't even started and the flaws i am seeing are
1) The address that 1.800.vending corporate headquarters is being shown as is actually a House but NOT a corporate building. This cheating is good enough that any one should get away from it
2) The expenses that they got on the machines and the price variation..
There are so many others seems like. I am going away and would suggest others too.
Are any of you real people, im about to spend 25 grand on three machines.
"im about to spend 25 grand on three machines."
Russell Caffy:
How stupid will you feel if you read all these warnings then the same thing happened to you?
I have an idea: Pay me $12,500 to talk you out of it. We'll both be $12,500 wealthier than if you spend $25,000 on a loser vending opp.
Russell Caffy -
Why are you asking? Your mind is made up.
You can't be talked out of it.
Have you heard of "Confirmation Bias"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias
So yes buy vending your machines, work 3-4 hours a week and make hundreds of dollars. In fact double-down and buy $50K worth.