Does anyone else have a vendor in their area that always routes trashed games? A major vendor in my area always has games with dirty playfields, no general illumination, broken parts, etc. Its frustrating seeing kids put money into these games and walking away disappointed. It's terrible for the hobby, but it does also make me appreciate those that do it well. Many great locations in Dubuque and Madison.
20210903_193406 (resized).jpgMost operators have a phone number or website - you could contact them and let them know about issues.
Speak with your wallet and notify the location where the game is at that the pinball machines aren't in good shape. Since most locations split revenue, ask them to follow-up with the operator.
Just bought a bunch of games from an operator. You would believe how nasty some of them are!
Most operators are aging out and don’t give a shite. The common answer is “they don’t make enough money, they aren’t worth it!”
Quoted from Eric_S:Most operators have a phone number or website - you could contact them and let them know about issues.
Speak with your wallet and notify the location where the game is at that the pinball machines aren't in good shape. Since most locations split revenue, ask them to follow-up with the operator.
I am happy to contact most operators, but it honestly would be non-stop with this particular operator. They just don't care. When the location owner does call they pull the broken machine and replace it with a new machine. The problem is the new machines likely has an equal number of issues. They never actually fix anything.
It's a cycle. If it's a one-of in a bar, it probably doesn't get played a lot, so they are out there less because it doesn't make money. If they're out there less, they are in worse shape, then they get played less.
That being said, there are local machines that I don't play if I see a certain op's name on the game.
I stayed at a hotel that had 2 games in the lobby and was gratified they were there until I went up to them. 1 had a 4 player game started with 2 balls stuck in the vuk. It stayed that way for 4 days. The other was so dirty you couldn't see the lit inserts. Both were newer pre-spike sterns and 1 was a limited edition.
Noone at the hotel knew who maintained them. Wish I had brought my tools
Quoted from lpeters82:It's terrible for the hobby,
Remember - they aren't in the hobby. They are trying to make money. Plain and simple. Yeah, fixing games makes you more money, but there's a balance on time invested vs the return on investment of said maintenance. In your pic above? The operator, next time collections are done (unless he or his tech are contacted before that) will take the toy (figure? I can't make it out) out and just toss it.
Another aspect of this is operators who rarely or never update code, even when the updates are massive improvements.
Quoted from Isochronic_Frost:Just bought a bunch of games from an operator. You would believe how nasty some of them are!
Most operators are aging out and don’t give a shite. The common answer is “they don’t make enough money, they aren’t worth it!”
They definitely will not make enough money and will not be worth it if not maintained. Self-fulfilling prophecy.
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!
This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bad-operators and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.
Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.
Oshkosh, WI