I ordered 3 bulk vending machines from GumballMachineFactory.com at the beginning of December 2014. Due to the nature of the vending business, I did not immediately have locations ready for the machines and therefore I (mistakenly) chose to leave them in their boxes until the locations were secure so that the (supposedly) new machines would not collect dust or be damaged in any way.
While the first (and ironically cheapest) of the 3 machines worked fine, the second immediately posed a problem. The machine did not fit together properly as the skrews provided to hold the head to bass made it so the cash drawer would not close. The machine was also in fairly poor condition overall with a variety of scratches on it right out of the box. After speaking with customer service and having them advise me to go out and buy some screws that fit to solve the problem, I became frusterated and asked to return the machine, which they did for this first case. However, I lost the cost of shipping even though they were the ones who did not provide the parts needed to put their product together as described.
Unfortunately the worst was still to come. A few weeks after dealing with sending the second machine back, I secured a location for the third and final machine in that order, a large spiral "Spin & Drop" gumball machine. This machine cost $550 and was supposed to be new like all the others. Upon unwrapping the machine to test it several days before it was scheduled to go out on location I was immediately dissapointed. The machine was covered in scratches of varying severity and looked like a machine that had been on location for a year or two, not a brand new product.
Despite this initial frusteration at the machiens appearance, I began to test it out, as I new I needed it out on location in a few days and it was the only spiral I had on hand at that point. When it came time to pu the lid back on after filling the globe, the lock merely twisted in place and would not go down. I couldn't beleive that the lock would be defective and figured I must be doing something wrong so I tried for over and hour but to no avail. It became clear that the rod attached to the lock was too short, preventing the lid from being able to lock on and making the machine completely wortless and unable to go out on location.
I contacted GumballMachineFactory again describing the problem and they asked if I had the globe seated properly (which obviously if I had been working with it for an hour I had!) I let them know that clearly wasnt the problem and had to send several emails in order to get another response. They finally simply emailed saying to call them at which they concluded (as I already had) that the rod was too short. This was the second one of their machines (out of 3) that I'd had a problem with in the last month and I was very frusterated by the extremely poor quality of their product. I also complained about the heavy scratching on the machine which the person on the phone brushed off and would not address directly.
Once again I asked for my money back and for a shipping label like the one they had provided for their previous defective machine. They refused saying that I would have to pay return shipping (which would be several hundred dollars for such a large machine) on their damaged and defective product. Their explanation was that it was clearly stated in their terms and conditions that they were not responsible for shipping costs on returns, but it was also clearly stated on the description of the machine I purchased that it was new and functioning.
I can not remember a time I felt more ripped off by a company. The quality of their supposedly new products is the worst I have ever seen in the vending industry and their customer serive is abysmal as well. The fact that they won't even own up to the fact that they sold me damaged defective merchandise and refund my full costs shows that they are more interested in taking customers money than keeping them remotely satisfied or providing working products. I will never buy from this company again and I feel obliged to do whatever possible to warn others to prevent them from being ripped off the way I have been.
Gumball Machine Factory.com Reviews
I ordered 3 bulk vending machines from GumballMachineFactory.com at the beginning of December 2014. Due to the nature of the vending business, I did not immediately have locations ready for the machines and therefore I (mistakenly) chose to leave them in their boxes until the locations were secure so that the (supposedly) new machines would not collect dust or be damaged in any way.
While the first (and ironically cheapest) of the 3 machines worked fine, the second immediately posed a problem. The machine did not fit together properly as the skrews provided to hold the head to bass made it so the cash drawer would not close. The machine was also in fairly poor condition overall with a variety of scratches on it right out of the box. After speaking with customer service and having them advise me to go out and buy some screws that fit to solve the problem, I became frusterated and asked to return the machine, which they did for this first case. However, I lost the cost of shipping even though they were the ones who did not provide the parts needed to put their product together as described.
Unfortunately the worst was still to come. A few weeks after dealing with sending the second machine back, I secured a location for the third and final machine in that order, a large spiral "Spin & Drop" gumball machine. This machine cost $550 and was supposed to be new like all the others. Upon unwrapping the machine to test it several days before it was scheduled to go out on location I was immediately dissapointed. The machine was covered in scratches of varying severity and looked like a machine that had been on location for a year or two, not a brand new product.
Despite this initial frusteration at the machiens appearance, I began to test it out, as I new I needed it out on location in a few days and it was the only spiral I had on hand at that point. When it came time to pu the lid back on after filling the globe, the lock merely twisted in place and would not go down. I couldn't beleive that the lock would be defective and figured I must be doing something wrong so I tried for over and hour but to no avail. It became clear that the rod attached to the lock was too short, preventing the lid from being able to lock on and making the machine completely wortless and unable to go out on location.
I contacted GumballMachineFactory again describing the problem and they asked if I had the globe seated properly (which obviously if I had been working with it for an hour I had!) I let them know that clearly wasnt the problem and had to send several emails in order to get another response. They finally simply emailed saying to call them at which they concluded (as I already had) that the rod was too short. This was the second one of their machines (out of 3) that I'd had a problem with in the last month and I was very frusterated by the extremely poor quality of their product. I also complained about the heavy scratching on the machine which the person on the phone brushed off and would not address directly.
Once again I asked for my money back and for a shipping label like the one they had provided for their previous defective machine. They refused saying that I would have to pay return shipping (which would be several hundred dollars for such a large machine) on their damaged and defective product. Their explanation was that it was clearly stated in their terms and conditions that they were not responsible for shipping costs on returns, but it was also clearly stated on the description of the machine I purchased that it was new and functioning.
I can not remember a time I felt more ripped off by a company. The quality of their supposedly new products is the worst I have ever seen in the vending industry and their customer serive is abysmal as well. The fact that they won't even own up to the fact that they sold me damaged defective merchandise and refund my full costs shows that they are more interested in taking customers money than keeping them remotely satisfied or providing working products. I will never buy from this company again and I feel obliged to do whatever possible to warn others to prevent them from being ripped off the way I have been.