This topic is closed.
Squeaky wheel gets the oil. Just hope everyone else he screwed over are fortunate enough to get their money back as well. Seems like he had no intention on making anyone whole until this thread appeared. While covid has been hard on many small businesses over the past year however it appears this was happening well before the pandemic started and that only made matters worse.
Bill he sold you Alien games that didn’t exist and would never exist.
Not sure how you can chalk this up to covid or simple misunderstandings.
He’s stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from you and others and most of this money will never be paid back. There is no “explanation.”
Whatever small portion of cash he paid you today is coming out of somebody else’s pocket.
Make a public list, cross them off if people get made whole.
You don’t even know the scope of the scam yet. Shine a light on it so the cockroach has a difficult time scamming future victims.
Public scrutiny is one thing the justice system does well. They can’t do anything if they don’t know about it.
Bill, you are so trusting and want to believe in the good of people. But your not living in the real world on this one. He told you want you wanted to hear. Nothing more. As others stated, this isn't a one-time oops moment. He does what a good scammer does, and continues to scam. By playing to your good heart felt beliefs, he has allowed himself more time and also not to be charged. So the winner here in his mind is not you. It's him.
Quoted from crwjumper:Jonathan Demare is very charismatic and could sell ice to eskimos, but make no mistake - This man is not your friend. He is a thief.
Quoted from crwjumper:I truly believe that he will be focusing on paying each of us back. Please be patient and work with Jonathan and let’s see what happens.
Quoted from crwjumper: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.
I hope You understand the seriousness of Your post.
He gives You a little of Your money back and YOU PERSONALLY tell the World to trust Him on the internet!
My deal and a lot of others were prior to Covid.
How will You feel a year from now if someone reads Your post and gives Jonathan money and gets ripped off.
And WHY would You want to get PM'd from people that lost their money.
That is some serious Kool-Aid You're drinking.
If You really want to help, post the amount He sent You and the payment plan and update it.
And then start a new post asking EVERYONE who has been hurt by Him to post the amount He owes them and track the results. I would really like to see the Dollar amount as I think it is a lot higher than anyone could conceive.
This is how scammers exist because of the embarrassment factor of not admitting You shouldn't have Prepaid 100% of a pinball machine to anyone.
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.
I'm guessing this is when he may have tapped out.
Bill, he has been playing this same game with us for over a year. It’s always an excuse to buy him just a little more time, usually a week or two. And he always follows it up with another excuse. Do you really think it’s any different this time? If he actually gives me my money back (which I’ve been asking for almost three months before Covid hit) or delivers my game, I’ll come here to let everyone know. But I will be pursuing legal action.
Quoted from alexanr1:Morale to the story, don’t pre-pay for anything unless it is directly to the manufacturer, which with a few cases can be a risk too (ie big lebowski). I would never give anyone 16k unless the machine was standing right next to me. There are crooks everywhere, including lurking on this site, sadly.....
Dead-on. After all the horror stories here, I still don't get why people continue to pre-pay for pinball machines. I won't even pre-pay to a manufacturer.
I have already gotten texts from others who he owes, saying that Jonathan has just reached out to them and is arranging restitution. Today.
I agree with you, leopards never change their spots. However the reason Jonathan paid me, sent me a “contract” and is reaching out to others is that he understands that if he doesn’t fulfill his agreements that I will proceed with filing criminal charges and have him arrested and put in jail.
This is why I have asked those who he owes money to to PM me if he doesn’t follow through. He knows that I’m not done with this until each of us have been made whole.
Believe me, I know about being scammed. I’m in this to get us all back what we are owed. Let’s have a little bit of patience and faith and see how this plays out.
Quoted from crwjumper: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.
Great news Bill!
Quoted from estrader:So where was he getting these games from that he delivered? You guys who bought games from him don’t know?
There has to be a distro somewhere that fed him some games to resell. Somebody helped enable this guy with games that actually made it to some customers. That's bad enough. Then add on games he never had or had access to from other Pin manufacturers.
I wonder who the enabling distributor is/was that fed this guy some games. Was the supply cut off ? Did a manufacturer get wind of what was going on and now he can not get games through his enabler ?
Anybody that gave any money should not back down because of any promises. Just file complaints with the Attorney General of Florida along with your local Police department etc. Don't back down. The legal complaints will be quashed if he actually gets a legit refund to you - but that is probably a pipe dream. Don't lose more time. Report and file complaints.
I only read a couple pages and couldn't read anymore. Sounds like the OP is ready to forgive this crook and was actually starting to defend him? Talking about how he has a family and stuff? Is this because you are on the verge of getting your money back? Eff everyone else? Wow.
This is the last message I sent to Jonathan on 1/5/21, requesting he pay me the $1,750 owed.
Prior to this, I messaged JD 5 times (10/12, 10/22, 10/27, 11/19, 11/26), asking for an invoice to document that he delivered me an AIQ Pro (on 10/13/20) instead of the Rick and Morty purchased for $7,250 (on 12/16/2019).
Talk is especially cheap. The only thing that matters is paying people the money stolen from them. When my Rick and Morty invoice/sale was made, it was months before COVID. Based on my discussions with Spooky and their distributors, my machine never existed. This was fraud, plain and simple. Nothing to do with COVID.
Jonathan, since I know you are reading this thread, please contact me to make plans for paying me the $1,750 owed. I've arguably been patient.
Image 2-14-21 at 4.29 PM (resized).jpegQuoted from rx3:I only read a couple pages and couldn't read anymore. Sounds like the OP is ready to forgive this crook and was actually starting to defend him? Talking about how he has a family and stuff? Is this because you are on the verge of getting your money back? Eff everyone else? Wow.
You are wildly off base and really have no direct knowledge of what Bill is doing. I just talked to Bill. He is very interested in the bigger picture and isn't doing this just for himself. In fact, there are folks in the community that were hit harder and Bill is looking out for them. Bill is a right-minded person and doesn't deserve your negative vibe.
I realize some folks get a thrill out of piling on, but please don't "shoot the messenger" (especially if you haven't been hurt by ASOA). If someone has been financially hurt and is close to this fiasco, they are more welcome to chime in.
Quoted from snaroff:You are wildly off base and really have no direct knowledge of what Bill is doing. I just talked to Bill. He is very interested in the bigger picture and isn't doing this just for himself. In fact, there are folks in the community that were hit harder and Bill is looking out for them. Bill is a right-minded person and doesn't deserve your negative vibe.
I realize some folks get a thrill out of piling on, but please don't "shoot the messenger" (especially if you haven't been hurt by ASOA). If someone has been financially hurt and is close to this fiasco, they are more welcome to chime in.
At Least Bill stood up and got this going.I also have been in touch with Jonathan and we have agreed to make me whole again
So no negative vibe to crwjumper.This went on for 2 years and finally someone (Bill) defended us.I’m hoping Jonathan contacts everyone on the list and makes them whole again.I now have a great distributor that I get my pins from(classic game rooms) he’s been Johnny on the spot
A good, honest business person will always be proactive, not reactive. Had he contacted everyone when he started to have problems, folks would have given him a better chance to work things out. Not the case when emails, phone calls, etc. are ignored. Trying to hide from something like this never turns out good for anyone. All it does is piss people off, as it should. He's unbelievably lucky that people have already been this patient with him.
I had some cash flow issues late summer of 2019. A combination of exceptionally bad weather, along with trying to help keep another golf course from going under, put me in a really bad position for about three months. There were five golf companies that I got past-due with. I contacted each of them before I got 30 days behind, explained what was going on and told them I was going to be really late. Because I'd had a great history with all of them since 2000, they let me work out payment plan with them. Had I ignored the problem, all would have sent me to collections and I would have been really screwed. In the end, I did what I told them I would do, was eventually able to get everything caught up, and I was able to continue to do business with them going forward.
It really sucked going through that. I was really frickkin' miserable. If I never have to go through that again it will be too soon. And I feel horrible for all of the businesses that have had to endure what 2020 threw at everyone. Jonathan has a long, tough road ahead of him. Hopefully he will start making good decisions and make things right with everyone, although after reading this entire thread, it's more than understandable why everyone would be skeptical. As it stands, how the heck does a person or business ever recover after this has happened? Once you've screwed over your reputation, there's not much left.
Most of you drama queens chiming in don’t have a F ing clue as to what’s going on.
I’m happy for Bill now, Brian who has received a game already and being made whole for the rest and others that are on that track for the same
It could just have easily gone down the bankruptcy road and no one gets Jack shit
The DOJ is gonna go get $$$? Lol. Destroy a guy at this point and you have ZERO. A lawsuit stops PPP, SBA etc
Can always go down that road if necessary but I will patiently wait like I did with Jpop. Lol
F ing genius.
As the list of people who are gonna get money goes up, so does the list of people are about to get screwed in the future to cover it. Seems like that’s how this dude rolls.
This guy is promising refunds now but I’ll bet the money simply doesn’t exist. I wish all those affected, the best of luck. This should get interesting.
Quoted from Frippertron:This guy is promising refunds now but I’ll bet the money simply doesn’t exist. I wish all those affected, the best of luck. This should get interesting.
Lol. Typical. $$ has already been paid via PayPal.
You don’t know shit
Quoted from iceman44:Lol. Typical. $$ has already been paid via PayPal.
You don’t know shit
Why do you get so defensive when people are skeptical of scammers? Haven't you been scammed in pretty much every major pinball scam so far?
Quoted from sammiesguys:As the list of people who are gonna get money goes up, so does the list of people are about to get screwed in the future to cover it. Seems like that’s how this dude rolls.
Why do you care? Look in the mirror
It’s NOT about screwing anybody else
You know NOTHING. If you want the facts then call me.
If anyone else wants to speculate not knowing their head from their ass then call me. Lol
Quoted from roffels:Why do you get so defensive when people are skeptical of scammers? Haven't you been scammed in pretty much every major pinball scam so far?
I’m involved and know the details
[Comment Removed]
Losers come into a dumpster fire to drop shit on things they know nothing about and then ignore what the OP just posted
Quoted from bmegar:I now have a great distributor that I get my pins from(classic game rooms) he’s been Johnny on the spot
Jason at Classic is AWESOME! A 2 hour round trip drive for me.
Quoted from JohnnyPinball007:Jason at Classic is AWESOME! A 2 hour round trip drive for me.
Likewise
Quoted from iceman44:$$ has already been paid via PayPal.
Didn’t he just send a “portion” of the money owed via PayPal? Not all of what is owed right.
Quoted from PinRob:Didn’t he just send “some” money via PayPal? Not all of what is owed right.
And games prior to people he is trying to satisfy what is owed
See what the OP just posted
As for how it goes. I am the biggest creditor by far and I’d like for everybody that needs it to get taken care of
I hope he continues to follow through
None of you have any idea what has transpired over the past year with our situation
The Op felt like he had to bring it to the next level to get paid. It worked out
The remainder is still pending but it’s a good start
Quoted from iceman44:And games prior to people he is trying to satisfy what is owed
See what the OP just posted
As for how it goes. I am the biggest creditor by far and I’d like for everybody that needs it to get taken care of
I hope he continues to follow through
None of you have any idea what has transpired over the past year with our situation
The Op felt like he had to bring it to the next level to get paid. It worked out
The remainder is still pending but it’s a good start
Why not help the rest of the community out so we all know what transpired? What good does it do to keep it secret?
Quoted from PinRob:Didn’t he just send a “portion” of the money owed via PayPal? Not all of what is owed right.
The reason I agreed to a portion of what is owed me is because he owes many people and I want to give us all a chance to start getting paid. It’s not all about me.
Quoted from crwjumper:I’ve spoken with Jonathan. Please do not attempt to go to his home or involve his family in any way. He appears to be in great distress right now due to this post and the reaction it is having in the community. He may have done many of us wrong, but he is still a person with a family to protect and we must respect that.
He has told me that he will work with me this week. I am not saying that I believe him because he’s made many promises in the past and then broken them.
However I’ve told him that I will be working with the D.O.J. And his local police unless he has made me whole this week.
I’ve held out this long because I’m an honorable man who believes in doing the right thing. Let’s give him one more chance. I will update this post next week with the outcome of what he does.
With all respect to each of you in the community, thank you for your support.
fool me once shame on you, fool me 12 times, shame on me. This scammer is never giving anyone back any of their money... even if they win a judgment in a courtroom. He still won't pay it and sadly, there are absolutely zero consequences for him not paying anyone back. He scammed you all. It's over. He won. You lost. 
Ice has backed some dumb shit in his day but this takes the cake.
Ice is at least partially responsible for so many people getting taken, as he was, by far, the biggest "ALIEN IS COMING IN WEEKS!" guy back in 2019 when his drunken ramblings still had some credibility around here. I guess Amusement Scam of America was his big iron-clad source on this, and the reason he tried so hard to convince everybody here Alien was right around the corner and even bet (and lost) $100 on it?
Amusement Scam was selling paid in full "they'll be ready in 30 days Alien pinball machines" way back in 2019. That tells you all you need to know about whether or not this was entirely a scam from the beginning. [spoiler alert! - it was]
Hey Ice, how about another bet for a sweet $100 bottle of booze? Are you as sure Amusement Scam will pay everybody back as you were sure that Alien was 90 days away back in 2019?
Let's do it. I'll give Amusement Scam all of 2021 to pay everybody back.
I think the same guy just put up a trade ad.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/600-dvd-ampamp-blu-ray-movies-for-stern-pinball#post-6135859
Quoted from crwjumper:The reason I agreed to a portion of what is owed me is because he owes many people and I want to give us all a chance to start getting paid. It’s not all about me.
Mind sharing what the “portion” sent was? I’ll guess $100
Quoted from crwjumper:Update: I truly believe that he will be focusing on paying each of us back.
There are none so blind as those who cannot see. You got that little bit of paypal hush money because you outed him. And for it, you probably agreed to try to put out the fire. It's doubtful you'll get anymore money and others surely won't.
Quoted from PismoArcade:I'm guessing this is when he may have tapped out.
yep this dude needs to spill.
Quoted from crwjumper:sent me a “contract”
what's a "contract" from a scammer worth? Sorry if I'm posting over and over.... just getting caught up on this interesting thread.
Just thought I'd mention that just because you have money in your PayPal account doesn't mean anything has actually cleared. PayPal can bounce days later and will be reversed from your checking if you've already transferred.
(Quoted from above)
“what's a "contract" from a scammer worth? Sorry if I'm posting over and over.... just getting caught up on this interesting thread.”
It’s a document that can be taken to court or shown to the D.O.J. If you want to have him arrested. Most of Jonathan’s deals were word of mouth. It’s also showing intent to pay. A huge move forward from what we have seen before.
Quoted from CrazyLevi:Ice has backed some dumb shit in his day but this takes the cake.
Ice is at least partially responsible for so many people getting taken, as he was, by far, the biggest "ALIEN IS COMING IN WEEKS!" guy back in 2019 when his drunken ramblings still had some credibility around here. I guess Amusement Scam of America was his big iron-clad source on this, and the reason he tried so hard to convince everybody here Alien was right around the corner and even bet (and lost) $100 on it?
Amusement Scam was selling paid in full "they'll be ready in 30 days Alien pinball machines" way back in 2019. That tells you all you need to know about whether or not this was entirely a scam from the beginning. [spoiler alert! - it was]
Hey Ice, how about another bet for a sweet $100 bottle of booze? Are you as sure Amusement Scam will pay everybody back as you were sure that Alien was 90 days away back in 2019?
Let's do it. I'll give Amusement Scam all of 2021 to pay everybody back.
You're a fun guy when you're on someone else's ass ! LOL
Quoted from crwjumper:I won’t give an exact amount, but it was significant. I needed to know that he meant to do what he said this time.
It was probably paid with a credit card through paypal and will be yanked back shortly.
This topic is closed.
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/beware-of-jonathan-demare-asoa/page/5?hl=codhollandaise 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.
New York, NY