HUMAN Healthy Vending: Letter to Sean Kelly, CEO, Chief Humanist
HUMAN Healthy Vending: Letter to Sean Kelly, CEO, Chief Humanist from UnhappyFranchisee.com regarding the honesty of the company’s franchise disclosure document.
HUMAN Healthy Vending touts itself as a proponent of “social entrepreneurship.”
A key component of social entrepreneurship is transparency and honesty.
A HUMAN Healthy Vending blog posts suggests: “Employ Transparency and Authenticity. It is extremely important to be open and honest with everything you do in your business… There shouldn’t be any guessing games. Be real with those you interact with; people appreciate honesty and realness…”
UnhappyFranchisee.com recently gave HUMAN Healthy Vending CEO Sean Kelly (not to be confused with franchise writer Sean Kelly) a chance to demonstrate HUMAN’s commitment to Transparency and Authenticity.
Here’s the letter we emailed to Mr. Kelly, and copied to his partner Andy Mackensen and Senior Vice President Bill Wotocheck, former President of Revive Franchising, LLC.
Sean Kelly
CEO, Chief Humanist
HUMAN Healthy Vending
Mr. Kelly:
As you know, the FTC Franchise Rule requires franchise sellers to provide to prospective purchasers with a Franchise Disclosure Document. In Item 2 of the FDD The franchisor must include employment history for the last five years for directors, principal officers, general partners, trustees and other executives who will have management responsibility in connection with the sale or operation of the franchise.
We at UnhappyFranchisee.com have reviewed the 2012 Human Healthy Vending FDD that you have submitted to state registration agencies along with your sworn, notarized statement that everything in the FDD was true and accurate.
We compared the professional history you included in your 2012 FDD for your VP of Sales Bill Wotochek with his professional history included in the Revive Franchising 2011 FDD and found some striking differences.
Revive Franchising FDD: “Mr. Wotochek worked as a consultant for Y-Development, LLC, from 2004-2005, in Denver, Colorado. In 2006, Mr. Wotochek worked in sales and business development for Key Financial, Inc. and General Steel corporation in Denver, Colorado. From 2007 to 2008, Mr. Wotochek worked at the Dalbey Educational Institute, LLLP, as Senior Director of Business Development. In September, 2008, Mr. Wotochek was hired to work in business development with Sito Marketing, LLC, our affiliate, in Denver. In January, 2009, Mr. Wotochek was promoted to Vice President of Expansion for Sito Marketing, LLC. In October 2010, Mr. Wotochek was promoted to President of Revive Franchising, LLC.”
Human Healthy Vending FDD: “Mr. Wotochek has been Our Vice President of Sales since We were formed in November 2011. He has served as Vice President of Sales of NWBL since July 2011. He was a sales representative for Sito Marketing, Inc. from January 2008 through July 2011. Mr. Wotochek was the owner of Wotochek, LLC from August 2006 through December 2007.”
It is our opinion that the background of Mr. Wotochek that appears in the HUMAN Healthy Vending is deliberately inaccurate and untruthful, and is written in such a way as to hide Mr. Wotochek’s true involvement with two controversial companies. The HUMAN FDD fails to disclose that Mr. Wotochek was in fact a VP at Sito Marketing LLC (not Inc.) and that he was President of Revive Franchising LLC – companies that abandoned their distributors and franchisees – left them unable to restock their machines or receive the “unlimited support” Mr. Wotochek’s sales team allegedly promised – and doomed them to failure without a word of explanation.
Additionally, HUMAN Healthy Vending has failed to disclose Mr. Wotochek’s involvement with the Dalbey company that was sued by the FTC and the Colorado AG for fraud.
Mr. Kelly, we have exercised our legal right to shared our opinions about these matters in two recent posts on our website, which you are invited to read and respond to here:
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/human-healthy-vending-revive-scam/
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/healthy-vending-franchise-companies-hide-unhealthy-pasts/
We also invite you to peruse our posts on Revive Energy Mints: http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/revive-energy-mints-vending-scam/
We invite opposing opinions, as well as clarifications, corrections and rebuttals from individuals and companies we discuss on our site. You and your associates are invited to share via participation in the comments section of each post, by providing a statement or rebuttal for us to publish, or both. Feel free to invite your distributors, franchisees, employees and associates to share comments about your company in our comment section as well.
On a final note, I recently read a HUMAN blog post on social entrepreneurship that read: “Employ Transparency and Authenticity. It is extremely important to be open and honest with everything you do in your business… There shouldn’t be any guessing games. Be real with those you interact with; people appreciate honesty and realness…”
We at UnhappyFranchisee.com invite you to practice what you preach, and be authentic and transparent in your response to the serious concerns raised in our posts. We hope that you’ll agree with the Federal Trade Commission and state franchise regulators that prospective franchisees should be provided with honest and accurate disclosures so that they can make informed investment decisions that impact their families and finances.
Your prompt and constructive response is appreciated.
ADMIN
UnhappyFranchisee.Com
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH HUMAN HEALTHY VENDING, BILL WOTOCHEK, OR REVIVE ENERGY MINTS? PLEASE SHARE AN OPINION OR INSIGHT BELOW.
I would like to say that based on my knowledge of the company I do not think this is a scam. It is unfortunate that Bill may have been associated with some bad companies in the past and I hope that HUMAN has an explanation for this.
I am looking forward to HUMAN’s response tomorrow.
John, thanks for your comment.
“It is unfortunate that Bill may have been associated with some bad companies in the past …”
John, according to Revive Energy Mints franchisees, Bill Wotochek was the one who RAN the hard-sell sales force and was instrumental in closing the franchise deals and getting the franchisees to investing money for which they’d only receive loss and heartache. He was not just “associated” with Revive Franchising, he was PRESIDENT.
We have asked Mr. Wotochek to tell his side of the story and have received no response. The offer is open, Bill.
As for whether HUMAN is a scam, this issue has brought up some very very troubling issues and Sean Kelly and Andy Mackensen have not responded to our questions or inquiries. Where is the transparency they espouse?
What’s most troubling is that it appears to us that Wotochek’s bio appears to have been altered to hide the Revive connection. If true, that would imply that HUMAN knew that the Revive story was ugly enough to hide and that they were unethical enough to try to cover it up and have Sean Kelly swear in a notarized document that it was true.
Those of you who are involved with HUMAN should urge them to send us a clarification and response. Those who follow this website can tell you that we don’t go away when ignored. To the contrary…
Thanks again for your comment. ll those who are familiar with Wotochek & HUMAN are urged to leave a comment – pro or con.
I say that I do not subscribe to “guilty by association” If Mr Wotocheck was the owner of the company Delbey , it may have more criticality. If you work in America I am sure everyone at one time or another has been directed to act in a manner towards the customer that they did not subscribe to but were forced to do so. What occurred with a previous company just doesn’t have enough weight
Whether it’s because of Bill Wotochek or because their original model (based on adventising) has borne no fruit whatsoever, HUMAN is rapidly descending into a simple scam. In fact, it’s already there!
Everything’s overpriced.
Machines fall apart fast (monitors, fuses, cooling units, bill acceptors, coin mechanisms…you name it), and warranty is far too short.
Their claims are getting more outrageous even as the reality has become more clear. They seem to be breaching franchise law on a routine basis (they should not even talk about adventising any more since they have not landed one national account).
The new franchise model is a complete rip-off, including asking for a percentage of sales revenue from each franchise on top of their absurd markups on equipment, shipping and every other cost they can inflate.
And now the CEO seems to be selling himself as some kind of guru, charging additional dollars so he can tell franchisees and operators just how much money he’s made out of them.
If you’re considering being a HUMAN franchise, JUST SAY NO!
That’s a shame… great concept. I would have invested if it wasn’t for this major breakthrough that UnhappyFranchisee.com discovered. Kudos guys!
It is not a minor thing. Lying in the FDD is a federal offence and not just something unethical. I believe they should get sued b/c of that.
Wow…Just signed in to them and now I read this. Thanks for publishing. Although you took the wind out of my sails I’m happy to step away. Off to other ventures.
Finally, a response from the past president of Revive Energy. See below. I would encourage anyone who is contemplating a HUMAN Healthy Vending machine “franchise” to read this and all the threads on unhappyfranchise.com about HUMAN Vending. Thank you unhappyfranchiseee.com for bringing this to my attention. I wish Bill would respond to some of the above accusations.
http://billwotochek.blogspot.com/2013/05/HUMAN-Healthy-Vending-Scam-and-Complaints-or-So-They-Say.html
HUMAN HEALTHY VENDING SCAM AND COMPLAINTS OR SO THEY SAY
Prior to working for HUMAN Healthy Vending, I worked for Revive Energy Mints. Recently, some negative press has been published on the web with regard to my involvement at Revive Energy Mints, so I wanted to go ahead and tell the real story since the content out there now doesn’t accurately depict what happened.
Revive Energy Mints was founded by Logan Chierotti and Ryan Russo. When revive became a franchise in March 2010, they brought in a CEO named Ken Wilczek, to help take the company get to the next level and become structurally sound.
In September 2010, Logan and Ryan let Ken Wilczek go and made me, Bill Wotochek, President. Two months later, Logan and Ryan sold Revive to Chris Robertson and Mike Kelty. Robertson worked in the furniture business as a VP at Ethan Allen and COO of Casey Fine Furniture. Kelty worked in a construction supply business.
Revive offered tremendous support to its franchisees. The company also invested a lot of capital to market and improved its product offering on a regular basis. In fact, Revive helped its franchisees gain retail distribution in thousands of locations across U.S. and Canada. They were in various Wal-Mart’s, every 7-11 in Canada, Circle K’s, Walgreen’s, Quick Trip and a list of 50 other outlets.
Revive also spent a lot of money marketing their products through endorsers such as World Champion boxer USS Steve Cunningham and former Miss Fitness USA. Miss Fitness USA was flown around by Revive to help promote individual franchisees.
The franchisee coaching program offered one-on-one assistance and a training module that provided help and tips to be successful in the business.
The mints themselves were a great product. It gave the consumer about as much energy as a cup of coffee and also included anti-oxidants from acai berry, goji berry and mangosteen. The only problem was that when a product the size of a mint has that much caffeine, it becomes very bitter.
Revive’s solution to the bitterness was to invest a substantial amount of money into creating a process called micro encapsulation. This process would coat the caffeine, causing it to time release into the body and the consumer would not taste the caffeine. The process worked, but with the time release, the consumer did not get the big “boost” quickly enough – like they were looking for.
In the end, the mints never fully gained market acceptance and that’s when Chris Robertson and Mike Kelty decided to go out of business. Robertson and Kelty solely made this decision regarding when and why they went out of business. President, William “Bill” Wotochek was not involved in executive decisions or the in the final decision to permanently “close the doors”.
Revive worked relentlessly to build their brand, but in the end, the brand was built around a single product that never fully took off.
Rumors have floated around regarding Revive’s decision to go out of business. Speculations about wrongdoings and lack of communication have been brought up, including franchisees losing their investment. No charges were ever pressed or even filed against the company or anyone involved within the company, not even myself. As with any investment, there is risk involved and in this instance, Revive did everything in their power to make their business and franchisees successful, but in the end weren’t able to do so.
Since Revive, I am now Senior Vice President at HUMAN Healthy Vending. I love my job and have worked hard at aligning myself with a company that shares my passion for integrity and helping entrepreneur’s succeed. Sean Kelly & Andy Mackensen Co-Founders of HUMAN Healthy Vending share that passion with me – for that I am grateful!
To hear what our some of our current franchisees have to say about working with not only myself but HUMAN Healthy Vending, watch this video below:
Looks like the state of Washington stopped these guys, but what about all the other states they operated or operate in? I have never met an honest vending machine business opportunity. I suspect guys will disappear like Revive, American Vending, Mad Dog Energy and all the other vending biz ops out there did…. wait a minute at least one of the senior people there worked for Revive Energy Mints. They sold vending biz ops one week and then shut their doors the next.
Sean, tell please answer some of the questions on the various Healthy HUMAN Vending threads on this site. Also, please address the below:
http://www.dfi.wa.gov/sd/orders/S-12-1079-13-SC01.pdf
I made the mistake of buying in to Human Healthy Vending. It was far the worst mistake that I have ever made. One of the machines never worked from day 1. Iwas unable to talk with anyone at Human or the vender that sold me the machines on Humans behalf. I lost in the tune of $100,000.00. Please stay away from this company for your own mental welfare. Liars and thieves!!!