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1.800.Vending, Inc. is a company offering bulk vending business opportunities. The company sells triple-selection vending machines for approximately $375 as part of a comprehensive offer to support customers in starting their own business, including procuring and placing machines in profitable locations, online support, and lifetime coaching. In exchange for these services, customers may pay a significant surcharge over the cost of comparable machines.
The machine sold by 1.800.Vending is a triple selection candy machine with interchangeable canisters. The company claims to have designed their machine to solve the problems of other machines on the market, and offers a lifetime warranty on it.
Criticism of company and founders
1.800.Vending's founders, Michael S. Burnett, and Jeffrey Marsh, formerly operated Turnkey Vending, which was cited by the Federal Trade Commission for numerous violations and fined $22,000 (Turnkey Vending Defendants to Pay $22,000 Civil Penalty, "Federal Trade Commission: For the consumer"). According to the company's website:
- 1.800.VENDING was never another vending company called TurnKey. 1.800.VENDING has never had any issues with the FTC whatsoever. 1.800.VENDING has never been involved in any lawsuit whatsoever. TurnKey is a different company that sold a completely different product line. There were 75 companies that were part of a FTC "sweep" back in 2002. Because they believed TurnKey fell under the classification of a "franchise", the FTC fined TurnKey the minimum amount because the owners did not feel it was a franchise and operated it as such. An attorney for the FTC personally interviewed the owners of TurnKey and sent out a survey to hundreds of their customers. Based on these interviews and surveys, the matter was settled and the case was closed. We're sure you are more concerned about how we treat our customers than how we treat the red-tape of the government. Use this to your advantage - don't do business with any vending company whose owners haven't gone through this kind of painstaking scrutiny.
The FTC sweep to which the company refers was Project Busted Opportunity, a major operation that led to the U.S. Government filing a complaint alleging that Turnkey had operated a fraudulent business opportunity. A Stipulated Judgment and Order for Permanent Injunction was entered on June 25, 2003 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. Under the terms of the order, the two men were permanently enjoined from selling the contact information of Turnkey's customers; ordered to turn over a fine of $22,000 to their attorney for placement into escrow within five days of the order; required to notify the FTC of any changes in their addresses, phone numbers, or employment status; forbidden from misrepresenting their business opportunities in the future; and mandated to provide a copy of the order to any customer service personnel handling complaints from customers at any business venture the men might own or operate in the future; among other conditions.
After Turnkey's dissolution, the two men founded 1.800.Vending. The latter has been fined by the State of Connecticut for violations of the FTC order (Consent Order No. CO-2004-788-B, State of CT Department of Banking). 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.