I appreciate everyone chiming in on the price gouging topic.
I am not pleased with the outcome, an additional $3k is a tough pill to swallow. I'm an average Joe, I don't wipe my rear end with money. Purchasing something this expensive is a big deal. I get the hairy eyeball from the wife, as I'm sure many of you are familiar with.
I almost want to back out and get in line for an SE +. I have to say, I'm a little "gun shy" (pun intended) about the same thing happening. I'm really on the fence here.
I think the comon verbiage here is accountability. I was a little shocked at CGC not being able to do anything (based on what I've read here over the last few years about distro agreements and msrp) Doug literally said Betson was an 800 lb gorilla, and they have no legal recourse. CGC doesn't agree with what Betson did.....and at that point, I knew I was screwed.

I don't have the game yet. It gets delivered tomorrow.

Way way to much effort for Doug. I mean look how he has treated his customers over the last few years. Damn joke!!!
JFH can mansplain all day for you if you have the time.

Tells me Doug/CGC cares more about money (maintaining Betson’s business relationship) than doing the right thing. CGC could sell those games with or without Betson so why bow to the middleman? Why reward bad business ethics?

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Is Betson or CGC shipping you the game?

800 pound gorilla vs 10 ton hobbyist force. Betson can suck it. CGC I get…they gotta work with them, but if we cut the legs off of Betson by boycotting it’ll knock all the wind out of their sails.

Consider Betson a no go Distro.

CGC shipped to Betson. Game being delivered to me tomorrow.

This right here…….

I'm not even kidding, I'll call Betson tomorrow and tell them what a shitty move this is. I recently bought a new kia Rio for my 16 year old daughter. On the window sticker there was MSRP, then a hand written line saying " fair market value " that added $2500. I literally told them to their face they could take that 2500 bucks and shove it. We ended up making a deal, but not before I had a long talk with them about making a customer feel appreciated and valued, as opposed to feeling like a chump.

Tell them to keep their fucking game and demand a refund. Then buy an SE at below msrp. You'll be perfectly happy with it. I'm genuinely very upset about your situation.

EDIT: I'll ad this: SHAME ON CGC!!! Why did they even bother puffing up their chest saying they wouldn't tolerate dealers marking up prices? They get notified of a legit price gouging situation and basically say "sorry, you're screwed" F that.....

I gota see the original agreement that takes some serious balls if true! I lost my mind when Automated tried changiing the agreement and billing me for shipping months after I received my EHOH and promptly fired them and will never use them again and that was over $300, not 3k!
Put them on blast!!!

A customer is a customer... looks like CGC has pissed off more than just Inferno with this ... oh well ..
Just shows their balant disregard for customers .. unless your an 800 pound gorilla.

CGC should have you get a refund and not take delivery of the game. Then ship you one of Betson's future CCLE games direct.

You can't take that game just on principle! Unless you ordered it last week, that's unacceptable. You can get one for less than $12.5k anywhere, do not give them the satisfaction. I guess you probably already paid but the only way you should take delivery is if it was a credit card you can cancel payment to.

Sets a bad precedent. Now other vendors can follow suit and point to the special treatment Betson got.

What's every one else paying for their LEs direct from distributors? The $12.5k seems like a secondary slime-ball market move.

$9250 plus tax.

And freight!

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No. I picked up my game from my dealer

It IS a secondary slime-ball move. If you put down a deposit when the game was announced, you should be paying $9250 plus tax, plus shipping. Period. End of story. I'll say it again, you should tell them to piss off, demand a refund on your deposit, and buy a standard SE at below MSRP. Some distributors have them in stock, ready to ship. Don't let them shit on you like that man.

Just to change gears for a second...
-
Since our OP jfh is going through some stuff I can only imagine being more significant to him than pinball, I’d like to send words of encouragement his way. Hope all goes/went well @jfh!

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Does this mean they didn't give you a receipt for balance due???

Betson should be removed as a CGC distributor for that BS move. Greedy bastards.

Completely agree he's definitely a better man than me. That's why I want to see the receipt or more clarification if they gave him a balance due or a to be decided later or some shit. This is just unbelievable to me. I can't help but wonder if they didn't mix you up with someone that ordered one last week by the supply and demand comment. Many distributors hold back now or on canceled orders they'll do this to newcomers instead of giving it to the next in line at MSRP but not ppl with agreed upon contracts.

Do you have an original invoice from Betson stating the agreed upon price at time of purchase? I'm confused how we went from $9,250 to $12,500. Stern does this, but by changing the MSRP, not by the dealer changing what they want to get for the game based on current market.

I put the Betson invoice at the beginning of my gripe last night. You can clearly see a deposit of $2500 it is a separate line item. I made this deposit in November of 2021.
Betson takes your deposit and gives you a number, when they receive the game, they send you their invoice.
I will say I am backing out of this transaction at the risk of losing my deposit.
I will also say, the care factor of this community is awesome, as another distributor reached out to me via DM and is offering to make things right, even if it's at a loss. Amazing.

Sorry i missed that part thanks for clarification, so shady. Yeah, that's what I was afraid of they left it open just so they could do that! Best of luck to you I know you're gona come out of this much better than they are. Makes me appreciate Zach even more now! It's just like finding a good woman, once you get one don't ever let em go!

And they still had the nerve to charge shipping?

Shipping charge would be welcomed, it's the other bs that's undigestable.

Now that's how you get return customers.

If they refuse to refund your deposit, call your credit card company (assuming you used one) and talk to their customer care department. Tell them your story. Chances are you'll get a refund. I had to do that with a situation regarding a particular playfield manufacturer.

Lazy, non-firing pops suck. Get in there and fix that switch.

And lose customers for life for Betson. Great business case.

Should be a separate thread created for Betson unfair business practice ,just to warn others about how they treat customers !

many might not follow this thread !

For fuck sakes Doug should eat the difference since he cares so much for betson. Good Customer service is dead for good it seems. What a fucking joke. And here I thought it couldn't get any worse

The way this release has gone ....

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Really. They could have a major PR win that’s worth far more than a few $k. The kind of thing you can’t even buy with money. Good will. But… “nah, nothing we can do”

The appropriate Independence Day reference for this release is...

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I had a discussion with my distributor this morning about when I am going to get the replacement for my original number 034.

Automated was very nice on the phone and promised to call me back after an internal discussion about this.

Well I just got an email, not a call, that i think said my game was going to be last now. I'll probably paste it in a future post. I need to call them and ask a few questions first.

Is there anywhere in this thread that lists all of the S/N's delivered?

Robert

success for most people ... second-success for CGC

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How is this even possible!? They should be giving you the next game and a huge apology. Wow

I reached out to Roger as well last week without a response. Was told a couple months back I had only a couple ahead of me... Starting to hate the NIB experiences

I haven't played CC yet....For those that have, how does it compare to MM or MB? Is it a really fun game?

I'm an okay player and like the fact I know how to get to Battle the Kingdom in MM unlike some other games which are so deep. So having a game that the Wizard mode is achievable like AF and MM is fun for me.

Thanks

Totally agree. I have been one shot away from destroying the ring 6 times. Makes me miss my Gilligan's Island. It was so rewarding, simple but rewarding

Funny, I didn't know Gilligan had the Rings!!!!

I like it but mm and attack from mars is better. I like cc better than mb. I sold that game.

I love it. High Noon is very achievable. I get to High Noon on the majority of my games at this point, which is just fine with me. I owned Attack From Mars for 13 years before I finally ruled the universe ha ha. I think the main difference between the two is that only one of the goals, mother lode, is missable, compared to three out of 6 on Attack From Mars. The rest are cumulative, and you'll get there if you stay alive long enough.

All 4 of those B/W titles sort of follow similar logic... you're hitting all shots 3 times for something to happen. The main MB's are achievable, as is the wizard mode once you learn the ins and outs.

Between the 4 games, I pair MMr and AFMr together, and MBr and CCr together. In the first pair, there's something very lucrative but dangerous up the middle. In the latter pair, you're mainly shooting evenly around the PF. The first pair has one prominent toy, while the 2nd pair has a ton of animated smaller toys. For some reason, I personally think the first pair also feel a bit different than the 2nd pair, especially on CCr (as it's the only remake I own) where I find myself able to cradle and backhand more.

I think CCr is a real fun game. It's absolutely loaded and executes the theme as well as the other B/W titles in comparison here. It's also the only one without a plunge into some super predictable toplane rollovers. In CCr you have to think about what may help on the skill shot and adjust power or nudge accordingly. It's a small but fun difference. Also having "mini wizards" in Stampede, Bart, and Showdown are fun achievements on the way to High Noon.

My biggest complaint, which I guess many have with the shallow rules from the 90s, is I wish there was more after you get to the end... even a round 2 at a higher difficulty as opposed to restarting the game with a ton of points. But these games were meant to be quarter eaters and not for home collectors to master for hours per day so I can see why these wizard modes are like at the "halfway" point of today's modern rules sets.

A cheaper game like GZ Pro will blow this away in rules. But this destroys GZ Pro in features and upgrades. Crazy how there are SE's in stock at $8K given the feature list. An "okay player" as you put it should be able to have a ton of fun with this. It's when you can routinely beat it does it sometimes get considered to be put on the chopping block. I'm just trying to hold out for the new code to see how much meat is added to the bones.

I also got an email from automated saying haven’t received anymore games and don’t have a date when they will

Sorry to hear that Bob . At least you know who never to buy from again - lesson learned