Subj: Re: ABOUT THE FLINTSTONES PINBALL WE BOUGHT FROM YOU
Date: 5/20/02 6:36:48 PM Central Daylight Time
From: Big70
To: Barrywnj@cs.com
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Barry,
We did not regret paying what we did for the machine the day the auction had
ended. If you would reread that e-mail I sent to you, We had never had an
auction jump to the reserve price like yours did. After doing some reading, I
saw that if you bid over the Reserve, it will automatically take it to the
reserve, which we had never had happen. I then wrote you back and said "nevermind",
I had just read what had happened and everything was fine. I thought Ebay had
had a glitch in the bidding process.
We did not assume that no repairs were made to the machine you were selling.
After all, it is almost 7 years old now. We also did not assume that is was from
America, but since you were selling it in America as ready to play, we had to
assume that it would accept American coinage. We also did not assume that no
cabinet touch ups were made. We know the game is almost 7 years old and it would
not be perfect, but as you said in Great and Super condition.
We knew that the machine was used and of course that repairs were made. We did
assume that the repairs would be made correctly and neatly. Bondo being used on
pinball machines in not a common practice in this business. You might see it now
and again, but one would always assume that a machine did not have Bondo on it
unless otherwise told. It doesn't matter to us that some people that buy your
machines didn't mind the Bondo. I've seen people buy machines painted maple
colors, but that doesn't mean we will like. If anything, you assumed that anyone
buying a pinball machine would not mind the fact that Bondo was used on it. The
fact is this. It needed to be stated and it retracts from the value of the
machine, plain and simple.
We too sell used machines, but in much, much better condition, as you can
clearly see from our feedback and past auctions. We also have been repairing
machines for over 20 years. We too had dealt with machines from overseas, but
this is the worst one we have ever seen. It had wires everywhere inside it just
hanging around, loose and cut. In all of our 20 years of buying thousands of
machines, this is the worst used machine we have ever bought.
Buyers do not expect machines in this condition, unless they have seen the
machine in person and seen all of the problems this one had. We always let
everyone see any and all wear or problems a machine that we choose to sell has.
No matter how much that might turn buyers away, it is all about honesty.
When you get right down to it, there are just too many coincidences that point
to the machine being switched before it was sent. You try and explain everything
away with this broke while cleaning and that was taken off and not replaced
while cleaning. There sure was a lot of misplaced items and damage done to that
machine while cleaning - Ball launcher damaged, score cards forgotten, plastic
broken, cord plate forgotten, blue house was faded (it's not the light). After
looking at the pictures even more, all of the house are more faded than the ones
in the pictures you used (and that's not the lighting either). Wouldn't all that
be something that you would e-mail and let us know?
We also just noticed that there is wear on the covering that holds the score
cards that is not on the machine you had pictured. It is chipped and scuffed on
the rounded area. Let me guess though.......Damaged while cleaning right?
[]
Let me say this about the rest of your responses to the problems we had. Yes,
the machine did come from the factory with Gold Legs, but not Spray painted Gold
legs with Black Data East bolts holding them on.
The machine did not work when we got it for several reasons. As you already
know, the line cord was bad. The batteries on the CPU were dead, erasing the
memory. We tried to put credits on the machine by flipping the coin mech
switches, but the coin door had been wired wrong and those did not work.
As for the 3 transformers in the machine. Your right, it doesn't harm the
machine, but it looks like crap both to us and buyers. What do we tell a
prospective buyer when they see 3 transformers in the machine?
You're right, the wires that were cut everywhere inside the machine did not
affect outward appearance or the description of the game. But, that does that
affect the inward appearance, just as the 3 transformers did. When buyers look
at the inside of this machine and see loose, cut, untapped wires hanging all
over the place, they don't want to buy a machine like that. It looks like crap
and makes people wonder about the function of the machine. It should have been
tidied up. If those wires were to have ever chaffed and touched, it could short
things out and potentially do major damage to the machine. We don't operate like
that, nor do most operators.
It is hard to believe that you would take the time to fix the angle of the 2
flippers, but put used coils that were cut from other machines on those
flippers. The effort wasn't put in to make the wires look right, covering the
ends with electrical tape, to desolder the wires off the coils you did use,
replace the caps in there proper place, or to put new, good coils on where
needed, which is the right thing to do. In fact, the lower right flipper coil
was bad. That is the first time we have ever gotten a used machine, from
anywhere and anyone, with used coils cut from other machines. That is
unbelievable that you would take the time to put a used coil off another machine
in this one and also unbelievable that you left the cut wires on them. The right
thing is to put a brand new coils on it if they were needed.
Now for the little white sticker. There were no other Stickers on the machine
you had pictured, only that little white sticker to the right of the
"Flintstones" logo. That is the Factory placed serial number of that machine.
Why you would ever want to remove it is beyond my comprehension. If you are
saying it was there and you removed it, why did you decide to remove it after
the pictures were taken if no other stickers were around it? According to what
you are saying, you would have removed the sticker, whose film was left behind,
at the same time you took off the white sticker in the pictures. But I don't see
any other stickers in the picture you used. No operator put on that sticker in
the pictures. It is the Factory sticker for the serial number and there would
have been no reason to remove it.
That film shows where the white sticker on the machine you sent was, which is
different from the machine in the pictures, plain and simple. If you remove all
stickers, why wasn't the rear Williams sticker removed? You took the time to cut
our the voltage number, but left the sticker behind. Why do that too?
[]
Again, there are just too many coincidences that point to this machine having
been switched on us. Everything added up, especially the white sticker, tells us
that you did send a different machine. We do want you to send the Red Ball
Launch Button, Line Cord Plate, 8 new Williams leg bolts, the Score Cards, the
Coin Mechs, the Orange Coin Entry Plastics for that coin door and the Bird
Plastic. In addition to that, we need you to send $400 to correct all of the
discrepancies with this machine. That is the only way this can be corrected. We
are out a lot of time and labor and are still working on it. It was not worth
the $1279 because it was not in the condition you were selling it in. If $400 is
not sent with the replacement items listed above, we will be following the steps
to file a Fraud claim through ebay.
-Brandon Haney
Oldies But Goodies
5800 Johnny Morris Rd.
Austin, TX 78724
(512)835-0237 Ask for Bob Haney if you want to talk about this.
(512)933-1512 Ask for Bob Haney if you want to talk about this.
