Vending Machine Fraud:
As economic conditions worsen, it seems like the amount of fraudulent activity has skyrocketed. I would like to share some tips on how to avoid being scammed if you are involved in the vending business. My company “Vendor’s Equipment Inc” operates a bricks and mortar business, and also uses Ebay (vendorsequipmentinc), and our company website (vendorsequipment dot com) to sell new & used vending machines and parts. Over the past twenty years in business we have been subjected to just about every single type of scam out there, and here are a few to look out for.
Things to look for regarding ebay purchases:
-Feedback: A sellers’ feedback is the single most important factor regarding buying ANYTHING from ebay. A good feedback score 97% or higher means that seller is legitimate and has a good track record of providing quality merchandise.
-Power Seller: I personally do not think that enough importance is placed on Ebay Power Seller Status. It seems that some sellers on ebay manipulate the system by building up false feedback to lure customers in.  Power Sellers have built up a consistent business selling and with three months of sales requirements met, have established themselves as quality sellers. A person or organization looking to scam on ebay simply will not meet this requirement because they would not meet the requirements.
Things to look for regarding ebay selling:
-I personally have been victim to fraud on the selling end of equipment on Ebay over the past. On one occasion a person purchased a $600 dollar machine from us, complained about a $2.00 part, and was eventually able to get her money refunded from paypal, and guess what?  We never got the machine back!
-Another fraudulent ebayer a few years back bid on an item, paid for it, then when they came down to pick the item up, he expressed interest in a few other machines. The gentleman ended up buying five machines from us. He used cash to pay for most of the other machines, and then wrote a check for the balance of $550 dollars. Needless to say we eventually found the check to be fraudulent. I was lucky to have been able to contact this person through persistent research, and learned that he had been arrested for similar activities in the past. We did recover our money on this occasion, but the lesson to be learned is: Never let someone leave with merchandise not paid for with cash, credit card, paypal, or wire transfer.
 The most important thing I can stress is that potential buyers on ebay do adequate research on the people they are dealing with. For as much of a blessing as the Ecommerce has become it can also be an avenue for innocent people to be swindled out of they’re money. I have seen nearly every type of fraudulent activity in my twenty years plus in the vending industry, and felt a compelling need to share some of my experiences with others in an attempt to combat fraud.
Thank you very much for reading. VendorsEquipmentInc