(Topic ID: 287820)
This topic is closed.
St. George, UT
The people who were scammed need to file complaints on here. The guy already has two from 2019 on the BBB website. Help other people avoid this mess. Out his name on the internet so every time someone googles it they see all the fraud and pain he has caused other people’s families.
Unfortunately your money is gone most likely. Even if you win a judgement doesn’t mean your going to see any of your money from this prick. I can’t even imagine losing that amount of money.
Man, looks like I dodged a bullet. This guy contacted me about a ST LE I had for sale. I recall him offering me NIB Sterns for "wholesale" and other kinds of "combo" deals. Tempting but in the end he didn't want to pay what I was asking so we didn't make a deal. Very smooth on the phone as others have already said. Fook me.
Quoted from Frippertron:What a scumbag. You never know if you f$ck with the wrong person. I live in an area where you can get gunned downed shoveling snow onto someone else’s property. The audacity of some people.
Are you talking about the guy that executed his two neighbors in the street out front of their houses of snow in his yard and then off'd himself?
Why did it take this post to rat this guy out?
Shame on everyone who got screwed before OP and said NOTHING. Way to look out.
I saw his village posts all the time and people were raving about him. Still can’t believe he got away with it for so long.
I’ll jump in as well. I’m paid up for a wonka LE, pre COVID. And he’s been dragging this along, similar never ending text conversation that goes no where. And I’m considering taking him to court as well. Especially now that I see how big this picture is. Feel free to PM me.
I should add, that invoice was paid in May of 2019.
Quoted from CrazyLevi:You know what’s even better than a forthcoming email explaining how he’s going to refund the money he’s stolen?
A refund for the money he’s stolen.
I have confidence the email is forthcoming, so there’s that.
Of course he can't. It seems clear he's running a ponzi scheme. He uses some of the money he's stolen to buy pins which he then sells at large discounts to set the hook on the scam of getting big money out of the same buyers.
Quoted from Mike_J:Johnny.
If you are able to, always drive and pick up your game and pay for it then.
I trust my distributor, but I still make the 2 hour round trip to pay and pick up.
Just peace of mind not having to worry about it being damaged during delivery also.
Quoted from tktlwyr:I know.
Uh oh... well a few people seem to know.
This likely will not end well for the end source of these games also since they are obviously selling through a "non approved" channel and violating whatever contractual agreements they have with the brand holders. Or is it an inside job???
This would have made a great Columbo episode back in the 70s.
Quoted from Alamo_Pin:I just texted Jonathan and asked him to come here and defend himself. Here was his text back to me:
I'm not on pinside so I can't comment on that site. There is no theft. My company has been around for years selling games to the community. Hundreds of happy customers that unfortunately can't post because they are in fear of getting bashed. We are not going out of business and we have successfully completed almost all previous orders since our shutdown throughthe pandemic. I'm very sorry you feel we stole anything from anyone. Your order will be fulfilled just like we have always done in the past. We are sorry for the delay and we are working very hard to rectify all outstanding orders. You will receive an email with how we are going to proceed to fulfill or refund your order on Tuesday 2/16/21. We are available to discuss this situation and can walk you through the process of how we are moving forward. If you want to discuss via phone.
Thank you,
Amusement Services of America LLC.
So this confirms this guy is in complete denial. As I mentioned, his comments on BBB using classic Marxist tactics blaming the customer who he ripped off. Text book psycho scammer. If you have been ripped off by the guy, contact the Florida DOJ and let them know the entire list of people and estimated amount of money he stole. He won’t be able to play games with them. He’s going to drag you guys on
Quoted from eastthunderhead:I’ll jump in as well. I’m paid up for a wonka LE, pre COVID. And he’s been dragging this along, similar never ending text conversation that goes no where. And I’m considering taking him to court as well. Especially now that I see how big this picture is. Feel free to PM me.
You guys need to group up and contact the DOJ as a group.
I think his bad deals have been going on for a while now. Jump over to the Florida pinball group for more info
http://www.myfloridalegal.com/pages.nsf/Main/18A7753257FE439085256CC9004EC4F7
file complaints with the state attorney general.
Quoted from Shapeshifter:The squeaky wheel gets the oil.
If I was owed money, I would be that squeaky wheel.
Absolutely, but having lived through this (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/beware-of-jonathan-demare-asoa#post-6132804), I can tell you it's very tiring and stressful. At this point, I'm just thankful I received a game after "squeaking" for 10 months.
At this point, eating the 2k loss is worth not squeaking anymore
...life is too short!
ASOA is probably realizing nobody in the south east is going to do business with them again except his cronies.
Quoted from tktlwyr:I know.
Was this an authorized distributor that was selling him the games?
Quoted from thechakapakuni:So this confirms this guy is in complete denial. As I mentioned, his comments on BBB using classic Marxist tactics blaming the customer who he ripped off. Text book psycho scammer.
During my R&M drama with ASOA (https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/beware-of-jonathan-demare-asoa#post-6132804), it was shocking to me how many times he would blame & berate me! Yelling and screaming at me when I called KingPin and Spooky to try and determine where my game was! Shit, I had a paid invoice for a game to be delivered in Jan/Feb and when I started getting nervous in May he freaks out? If I didn't do some of this detective work and confront him with it, I'd be out the entire $7,250...no doubt.
Since I'm not a push over and have no problem butting heads with the best of them, eventually he would calm down and go into his best buddy schtick. The transition from "I'm the bad guy" to "I'm his buddy" was really something to behold (and it happened on many occasions last year).
Again, I did 4 very successful transactions with him and he was a rock star for a period of time on The Village and Pinside. Glowing reviews. Really tough to know if he simply got in over his head OR he was scamming from the beginning. From where I sit, it's hard to call.
Quoted from estrader:Was this an authorized distributor that was selling him the games?
I doubt it
Quoted from youdontknowme:jonathan, you better fix this sh!t...i'll let the whole cat out of this bag about your main source of machines, at least back in 2018.
seriously, i've spoken with you in person. and on the phone. but there's way too much going on here to ignore.
make a fake account for pinside. speak up. be heard.
That cat is coming out - do tell.
735DCE31-A356-4C01-B3F8-1CCA5639C1B8 (resized).jpegQuoted from chuckwurt:It’s funny when you Google ASOA pinball this thread comes up before his website.
I always thought this cheesy business name sounded like a name someone would give a money laundering operation.
Okotoks, AB
Quoted from eastthunderhead:I’ll jump in as well. I’m paid up for a wonka LE, pre COVID. And he’s been dragging this along, similar never ending text conversation that goes no where. And I’m considering taking him to court as well. Especially now that I see how big this picture is. Feel free to PM me.
I should add, that invoice was paid in May of 2019.
Considering? What are you waiting for?
All this passive aggressive attitude is what the guy needs to thrive and continue ripping people off. It wont end until somebody shows up at his door to deliver court documents or a special delivery.
I feel for all of you guys but even the OP now is like " well he said he would make it right finally" Dude, its been over a year, its not going to happen!
Quoted from Spencer:the OP now is like " well he said he would make it right finally" Dude, its been over a year, its not going to happen!
Drop mic, wake up people 
Quoted from Spencer:feel for all of you guys but even the OP now is like " well he said he would make it right finally" Dude, its been over a year, its not going to happen
Yeah it’s because he knows the guy has him by the financial short hairs. This is not going to end well... 
When are some of you going to realize that ASOA is a complete sham of a company. There is no warehouse, there are no employees, nothing but an elaborate scam artist. Anyone can file paperwork, pay a few hundred bucks and set up an L.L.C. Yes good deals were there to gain trust and move machines that were probably illegally had. It was all in the plan to set up the big scores. That is how a predatory scam artist works, an elaborate plan that starts with gaining trust.
If I had to guess, his machines were "fell out of the shipping container" games meant to go overseas. Plenty of ports in Florida
If anyone one person falls for this bullshit of a response, I have an acre or two of useable swamp I would like to sell you.
"There is no theft. My company has been around for years selling games to the community. Hundreds of happy customers that unfortunately can't post because they are in fear of getting bashed. We are not going out of business and we have successfully completed almost all previous orders since our shutdown throughthe pandemic. I'm very sorry you feel we stole anything from anyone. Your order will be fulfilled just like we have always done in the past. We are sorry for the delay and we are working very hard to rectify all outstanding orders. You will receive an email with how we are going to proceed to fulfill or refund your order on Tuesday 2/16/21. We are available to discuss this situation and can walk you through the process of how we are moving forward. If you want to discuss via phone.
Thank you,
Amusement Services of America LLC."
A couple of games that didn't get shipped, covid delayed, or whatever could be honest screw ups. Not 30, 40 or ? amount of machines leaving paid customers high and dry with excuses, or just plain old, left in the dark. All of the stories are complete bullshit. Go ahead, let him smooth talk all of you, keep strining you along until he can figure out his next move or scam.
Quit playing the poor me role and get the complaints filed in Florida. Police reports, State's Attorney Office, D.O.J., and any other place you can file a formal complaint.
Quoted from vdojaq:When are some of you going to realize that ASOA is a complete sham of a company. There is no warehouse, there are no employees, nothing but an elaborate scam artist. Anyone can file paperwork, pay a few hundred bucks and set up an L.L.C. Yes good deals were there to gain trust and move machines that were probably illegally had. It was all in the plan to set up the big scores. That is how a predatory scam artist works, an elaborate plan that starts with gaining trust.
If I had to guess, his machines were "fell out of the shipping container" games meant to go overseas. Plenty of ports in Florida
If anyone one person falls for this bullshit of a response, I have an acre or two of useable swamp I would like to sell you.
"There is no theft. My company has been around for years selling games to the community. Hundreds of happy customers that unfortunately can't post because they are in fear of getting bashed. We are not going out of business and we have successfully completed almost all previous orders since our shutdown throughthe pandemic. I'm very sorry you feel we stole anything from anyone. Your order will be fulfilled just like we have always done in the past. We are sorry for the delay and we are working very hard to rectify all outstanding orders. You will receive an email with how we are going to proceed to fulfill or refund your order on Tuesday 2/16/21. We are available to discuss this situation and can walk you through the process of how we are moving forward. If you want to discuss via phone.
Thank you,
Amusement Services of America LLC."
A couple of games that didn't get shipped, covid delayed, or whatever could be honest screw ups. Not 30, 40 or ? amount of machines leaving paid customers high and dry with excuses, or just plain old, left in the dark. All of the stories are complete bullshit. Go ahead, let him smooth talk all of you, keep strining you along until he can figure out his next move or scam.
Quit playing the poor me role and get the complaints filed in Florida. Police reports, State's Attorney Office, D.O.J., and any other place you can file a formal complaint.
Relax dude. In two days an email clearing this all up with be sent.
I had a make a call recently ordering a NIB pin because my favorite distro has to charge sales tax in my state now. Honestly, I looked around a little but in the end but went with him again anyway because I'll never have to post anything in a thread like this ever.
Need a new game, with zero headachess(and if something does go wrong, He always makes it rite), contact the Pinball Dudes in Jupiter Fl, and ask for the owner, David Wilde.
I too have purchased a game fromJonathan, luckily it worked out, but I was sweating until it arrived.
For the last several years, its the Pinball Dudes for us.
Quoted from tktlwyr:I know.
So where was he getting these games from that he delivered? You guys who bought games from him don’t know?
https://trellis.law/doc/32370048/ORDER-TO-SHOW-CAUSE-SET-FOR-8-15-09-E-GARRISON
Looks like this has been going on since before 2010.
Finally a entertaining thread and I don’t mean to be an ass. I’ve been gone for a bit. Hope this gets resolved that’s mad cash gone. What a mess.
Quoted from Brtlkat:I think his bad deals have been going on for a while now. Jump over to the Florida pinball group for more info
http://villagebbs.com/forum/index.php/topic,43886.0.html
I post on Village.
Site frowns on negativity. And I think they locked that thread.
Because they did lock it and Jonathan paid the $$$ to the OP, this got swept under the rug. But there were conversations about Him in private over the past year.
As an FYI I lost no money. Mine was a product issue and Jonathan said He'd replace game. Jonathan lied about replacing game and blew Me off. JJP resolved the issue even though He didn't have to.
People on Village and Pinside that didn't post $$$ losses created the "Jonathan Virus". But I understand because people sometimes jump on Your thread and say negatives when You do.
I think moderators here need to tell us why His account here was frozen???
And kudos to crwjumper for outing Jonathan!!! This was long overdue!!!
Quoted from sohchx:Are you talking about the guy that executed his two neighbors in the street out front of their houses of snow in his yard and then off'd himself?
Yup. Happened 10 minutes from my house.
To the OP - I haven't had any experiences with Jonathan, so this is just an opinion:
This person is an obvious scammer. Yes, you had a past experience or two with him that went well (and like the many others that got scammed by him, they were likely amazing deal(s) for you), but he did this purposefully, so he could rip you off later.
A conman builds trust with you so he could exploit that trust later, which he continues to do to you to this day. Don't fall for it, it's all lies. He is not going to pay you back and if he does, he is scamming someone else out of their money to pay you.
Please listen to the other posters and file complaints, get other victims to come forward and together you can get some form of justice. It likely will not be your money back, but he can and should be held accountable for his actions.
There are just too many people coming forward with similar stories for this to be anything other than what it is - A well coordinated scam.
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Relax dude. In two days an email clearing this all up with be sent.
I like the joke - lol
When the distributor is known that was selling ASOA "scratch & dent & clearing out inventory" pinball machines ---> we will all be shocked at "the plan".
Until then the speculations continues.....
Another angle that I hope the OP understands is the clawback. If it turns out that this is a scam and the OP was made whole before this came to light, the trustee over the assets of ASOA may be able to take those funds back to distribute to ALL of the impacted parties. By way of example, say there were 100 people that paid $1k each and 40 were able to get their money back before the scam was uncovered. And suppose that the trustee can only recover $10k fron ASOA. The trustee may try to go after the $40k already distributed to those 40 people. The net result is that rather than 40 people being whole and 60 splitting up the remaining $10k, all 100 parties would split up the total of $50k ($10K of recovered assets plus the $40k clawback).
A lot of this took place with the Bernie Madoff situation. Imagine thinking to yourself "man, I really dodged a bullet there" only to answer a knock on your door a couple of years later and have the court hand you a bill.
To be clear, I'm not suggesting that ASOA is running some sophisticated scam or that an action will occur, which will include a clawback. Simply noting that even if the OP gets his $ back, if it does turn out to be a scam, he may not be able to keep it.
I was almost scammed by him. Luckily with the help of Sepins above, we were able leverage him to get my game. But it was super sketchy.
After he kept calling me, trying to get me buy more stuff from him but I felt like he was hiding something. Obviously he was!
Feel bad for all those that scammed.
Update:
I have been on the phone with Jonathan discussing this situation since this thread came to a boil. He has admitted that his actions were wrong. I believe that his intent all along has been to make each of us whole, but COVID forced him to lose some of his locations and most of his income, and actually cost him a great deal of money. That said, his focus has been on keeping himself afloat and rebuilding his business, and not on those of us to whom he owes money.
With him in a panic to save his own business, I don’t think that he had much time to think about the potential repercussions his actions may have had for each of us, including possible monetary and familial strife.
After our discussion and his actions of today, I truly believe that he will be focusing on paying each of us back.
When all was said and done, Jonathan repaid me a portion of the money he owes me today via PayPal, and has written a document outlining a payment plan for the remainder of the amount owed.
He also said that this week he will be contacting each of you to whom he owes money and create a similar document and begin paying us all until we are made whole again. In some cases he may also offer machines as an option, to those who are willing to accept them. He also offered me a machine/money mix, but I decided that I would prefer the money.
This has been a difficult journey for each of us, but I truly believe that we are going to all get back our money.
Please be patient and work with Jonathan and let’s see what happens. And if he fails to contact you to work things out, please feel free to contact me via PM.
Thanks to all who were civil in their contributions to this thread.
Now lets go play some pinball!
Bill Clement.
This topic is closed.
Reply
Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.
Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!
Donate to PinsideGreat 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+!
