Complaint Review: Checkstand Program - Phoenix AZ

On their website, Checkstand Program says they help you get your product on counters of anywhere from 200 to 10,000 convenience stores.  The contract with Checkstand reads, "The Professional shall distribute Client's products in and through it's network of convenience store affiliates, and cause Client's products to be displayed at the affiliates stores.  Professionals will also give client feedback from their distribution network of distributors/c-stores on how their product sold." 

Feb 7     We received an email from Checkstand stating, “Once distributors have received the product, it usually takes them 2-3 weeks to get product into stores. Once product is in stores, I will give you feedback two weeks into the test and a final report, which we hope to get a reorder by the 5-6th week.”

Feb 8     Received another email from Checkstand which included, “Yes, that is the distributor information of where the product is to be sent. Per our conversation, he will be back in town on Thursday. Once they receive all the product it will take them roughly 3 weeks to get it to all the locations. At completion of this step the test begins and we'll contact you every 3 weeks giving you any and all feedback from both the retail locations and the distributor.”

Feb. 8     We shipped 250 displays to the distributor.

March 29     Sent an email to Mike at Checkstand asking for update. No updates had yet been received.  Received a response on April 6.

April 6     Received a response from Mike and he informed us, “Yes we had a conversation yesterday, all the product is out at all locations, as is to expected it's starting off fairly slow. The product just needs some time to gain traction on the counter. They had voiced that they placed a product similar to this years ago and it did fairly well. I will keep you abreast of any movement and they apologize for the delay.”

May 13     Email to Mike. Why have we not received any reports? (13th week- no reports)

July 5, 2022     It has been 21 weeks since the displays were shipped to the distributor selected by Checkstand. We have received no communication from Checkstand. There were never any 2 to 3 week updates and to date, there has been no more information from Checkstand at all. They don’t respond to emails and don’t answer when called.

Checkstand received multiple emails from me.  Phone calls, after the payment was made  ($10.00 per display for 250 displays.  Could have done 1000.  In retrospect, I'm fortunate I did not.) were not answered or returned.  

I have to assume the product did not sell.  I expected a report every three weeks until a final report was received.  From the email it looked like the final report would be generated around 5 to 6 weeks after the product was out.  

There is no way to know if the product is actually out to stores and on their shelves.  There are no 3 week or final reports that are provided.  To this day I do not know if there were any sales at all with the product or not.  Checkstand does not respond to emails.  They were paid in full.  My part of the agreement was completed.  I did not receive the reports that were promised or any kind of accounting of how many products were sold.  If they don't sell, it would be helpful to know that.      

Draw your own conclusions.  If I could go back in time, I would not even think of doing business with Checkstand Program.