My opinion of them is listed below. This only happened to me but my friend had a very pleasant experience with them. They located his machines within 2 weeks of signing the contract. Both of us have some very good locations and some very poor locations. Again this is only my opinion. Read on.....

If I had to do it over again I would have placed the machines myself but I had no time to do that. Sometimes placement services do well and other times they do not. My story is below.

I was one of the unlucky ones and was not pleased with the results after I signed a contract with APS to place 30 machines for me in August of 2007. You pay 1/2 to APS and the other half to the locator that places your machines. The locator does not work directly for APS but works with them. Be careful and read your contract. Every word is in the locators favor. After paying APS I waited 6 weeks to have my machines placed by the locator. I was about to cancel the contract with APS in October 2007 which would have cost me $250.00 according to the contract but they finally sent the locator out. The locator and I placed 15 machines the first day. The second day I was unable to go out with the locator due to my work schedule. Three of the locations asked me to remove the machines from the first day because of various reasons. I notified the locator and he placed the machines that were removed for me that day. I paid the locator and that week went out and placed the 18 machines that were left. Three locations asked me to remove the machines because they did not authorize them to be placed into their business. "BTW- that's why the locator does not want you to go in with them. They tell you that they may lose the location if the owner sees two people in his business. Please do not fall for that line. A good locating company will not do that. I called the locator and he said to call APS and that they would take care of it. I trusted him so I called the placement company and explained the problem and they said that they would find 3 more locations for me which took them another 3 weeks to respond back to me. I finally placed all of my machines in November of 2007. Remember, I started this process in August 2007. In December I wanted to move 6 machines due to poor performance and called APS. They told me that I could only have 3 machines moved for free and that I would have to pay 75.00 for the other three machines to be moved. The contract I had signed with them stated that 6 machines would be moved for free so I questioned them about the 75.00 fee. They stated that they had already moved 3 machines for me and that I only had 3 free moves left. This is where you should read your contract carefully. The locator and APS were off the hook according to the contract and they both had my money. I thought I read the contract and understood it but I was a newbie and missed some of the fine print. It was a beginner’s mistake. One that I will never make again. APS and the locator were in the clear and I had lost valuable time and money. APS will provide the services that are in the contract that you sign with them but it may take a while for them to perform the service. There are no time lines in their contract so if you expect fast service and do not receive it they are in the clear. I would not say that APS are scammers and they do what they are hired to do according to the contract.
This was only my experience. Your experience with APS may be different. I'm trying to keep an open mind about this but it is hard for me to do so. Good luck.

Hi Joe,

Yes, I place those stickers on my machines and don't mind giving to others who need the help. Even if I did not have those stickers on the machines I would be glad to give donations.

Lew

Hi everyone,

I want to thank everyone for their replies. There is some great advice here at this forum and I appreciate it. You guys are great!

Since I lost my job last year our family has been struggling to make ends meet. I was unable to find work in my field for almost a year now so I switched to another field, which only pays the bills for now. The vending business will give me a chance to prove that I can do things on my own and stop working for someone and start working for myself.

The locator was my first choice because of my present work situation. The work hours are horrible so I need someone to place my machines in order to start up, then after I get the hang of it I will place machines later. I'm trying to be careful in my planning phase and not make any mistakes but I have made a big one with this placement company. I will keep you posted on any progress with this outfit. For now I am very disappointed in the way that they have handled me as a paying customer. My goal here is to help others not to make the same mistake that I have made. I'm not sure that I can post their name in this forum so I won't do that until I get approval to do so.
Thanks again for all of your help in this matter. I appreciate it.

Lew

I have been using the Garmin C330 street pilot for about 4 months now but in a different type of industry other than vending. You can enter a street address, then enter the place name, and save it to your favorites. You can also enter multiple addresses and place names if you need to. The day of your run you can perform a look up in your favorites by street or place name then press the go button and proceed to your destination. This unit is unable set your routes up for you on a daily basis but you can select your customers from the saved list and service them quickly. I don't know if this will help you but this unit has saved me a ton of time when traveling into an area that I am not familiar with.