Man there's alot of excuses going around here...as a small business owner myself none of them fly. If you are in business to make money then as Neo said you make provisions to take care of your customers in the face of a catastrophe. If you're out of the country (1st excuse) or you are sick (2nd excuse), or have some other hardship (catchall excuse), then have provisions in place to notify or regularly update your customers. Whether that's a relative, accountant, partner, friend, or even an auto reply on your email, at least something to keep communication flowing...don't just disappear.

I know shit happens...I lost money from pinball pal when the owner had a stroke. They still have several hundred bucks of mine and after repeated email over 2 years I gave up. That was my choice to let it go...but Noone has a right to jump on the OP and say he's a dick because he wants his board back. It's simply not right for someone who is running a business to disappear.

I wanna make it clear that I wasn't trying to call or imply that the OP is any number of names/things with my posts.

I'm literally on both sides here. I just want to convey my reasoning for not stoking the fire on some of the OP's worries with this situation.

And like I mentioned, I totally agree that everyone has to deal with life sucking. I'm just saying, some people handle it differently. You are not this Steve guy. If you can handle life's catastrophes with stride in light of keeping your business in good standing, that is an excellent thing. I applaud you, and I'm the same way in several aspects. However, maybe Steve isn't that way. My whole point of even touching on his possible personal status was to point out that people handle stuff very differently. Just like how we're having this discussion now, and it not seeing 100% eye to eye.

And all my points could be totally worthless as well. Hell, for all I know, Steve could be reading this thread right now in Joker makeup cackling at me defending him!

This really is a blurred subject though. I'm just literally trying to point out time and time again, that Steve LITERALLY LITERALLY LITERALLY addressed every. single. issue here in his post.

Has he been timely with getting stuff back to people since that? No. Did he state he would be timely? No, he literally said "there is nothing I can do at this time to improve my turnaround".

That's the part that's bugging me. Everyone just keeps skipping over the fact that Steve stated each issue people may be having dead on. He didn't avoid it. There is physical proof with digital words on a screen, typed in a seemingly pretty honest note to those who are his customers.

(Again, this is the internet, so I like to make sure people know - I'm not upset or say everyone's wrong in the thread here. I generally agree with most of you. I'm just saying I feel like everyone keeps conveniently skipping over the fact that the Steve guy already addressed everything.)

Also, I'd like to point out that's said "literally" about 40 times in my previous post. Maybe it's time I buy a thesaurus

Here you can buy a repro, brand new for about 75,00 €:

https://coinop.mally.eu/produkt.php?parent=3&kategorie=7064&content=BALLY%20Repros

I think Big Daddy Enterprises may have some... Todd often has used boards. Might give him a shot.

I don't consider these as common as a pair of socks, but there should still be plenty of them out there.

I just talked to Steve. He has not checked email for a bit and is as he stated before, still "overwhelmed". I was a little worried about the silence so I called. He has repaired the OPs board* and will be returning it and others this week, I urged him to return what he could not repair and he said he would. The good news is for anyone that cares is it was not a health issue or tragedy in the family.

Todd

*Since he was at work, he couldn't 100% confirm, but he repaired one a few days ago he thought was for a Kiss so it sounds right.

All advertising for repair services were taken down in December and replaced with his note about being unable to continue offering repair services. He is not currently offering repair services as far as I am aware.

I think this is way too early to consider getting authorities involved.

If someone has his number and can actually reach him via non-digital means to let him know (former) customers are becoming very concerned about the lack of response, I think that might be the best next step for the moment.

[edit]: Thanks for the update Todd, I was still writing my response by the time you posted.

I believe I do but hopefully the OP doesn't need one any more.

You took the wrong board, it is the one left besides "BALLY AS-2518-50 Sound Module" ...

If you have problems ordering it there or he takes too much shipping costs, I could buy it for you and ship to the US - if you want ...

The best thing to take from this thread is that Pinsiders always come through...from getting in touch with Steve to offering help in finding a replacement board. Well done

Agreed ^

The Pinside community is full of differing opinions, but at the end of the day we're all here to keep pinball awesome. That's why I like this place

Glad it wasn't a health issue with Steve, and that OP should be getting his board back soon!

Now if they could only do it with less drama.

Sometimes it takes drama to get things done, if OP didnt bring up this issue he would still be wondering how to get his board back.

I think, it is brand new. If you see the silkscreen on the board, it not Bally, but Mally ... so it must be a brand new repor-board.

It´s a company, you can trust.

Disagreed. Drama doesn't help, ever.

Watching grown men act like children is disappointing, at best.

I am glad this worked out for OP. Fraud sucks. Period.

In the end though, we watched a grown man over-react prematurely over unsubstantiated fantasies. I am uncertain how that helps him or anyone else.

Helped in this case, now go crawl back under your rock.

My wife says... Don't freak out (or accuse) until you know. Knowing is far from thinking or assuming. I wish everyone would be slow to judge or think the worst. Lighten up. All drivers have "pulled out in front of someone." Including me. So, do I freak out when someone does it to me? No. Ok, not the best analogy for this thread, but still....

My dealings w/Steve were all good. He never did any repairs for me but was a huge help. Even sent me some parts for free. Answered my questions. I saw where he could no longer do repairs. He has his reasons whatever they may be. Sorry if he still has someone's stuff to be repaired. He was always cool to me, and he didn't know me from Adam................

I received and email from Steve. He apologized for dropping the ball and said that any boards he had not already started working on, he would be returning in the next couple days.

Just ask the Jpop and Skit-B victims. I'm sure they feel the OP's pain, times a thousand. AFAIK no DAs were interested in pursuing criminal charges and those guys raked in huge piles of cash. Suggesting such action be taken over one board is just plain silly.

Not that my opinion matters, but I have dealt with Steven for 10 yrs now without any issues. He is a stand up guy and I know will do what he can to make things right.

To respond to the PM you sent me...

They made 17,000 Kiss pins, plus however many other that use the same sound board. It is not "rare" or "irreplaceable". The board you sent to Steve was broken, so, yes, it is worth not much. For you to expect the police and the district attorney to waste ANY of their time on a broken $10 or $50 circuit board that you hadn't received back from the person to whom you sent it for repair is naive, at best.

Yes, "fraud is fraud", but this isn't fraud and you got a heartfelt, honest explanation, promise, and apology from Steve BEFORE you came here dialing 911 like Jpop hit you for $10,000. Yes, "fraud is fraud", but it is just like speeding. If you got pulled over for doing 100 in a 30, the cop will drop the donut and run you down. If you were doing 31 in a 30, he's got better things to do. But it was "speeding" in both instances.

Steve Kulpa is one of the good guys in the hobby. He has been helping people as a hobby, not as a business for probably 10 years. The RGP crowd thought so much of him a few years ago that a fundraiser spontaneously broke out when he explained a bad situation that happened to his sister. So, yeah, I got sideways with the approach you took with a long-time good guy over a busted sound board. Steve probably hasn't read this thread, but I'm going out on a limb and bet that he fixes it, and fixes it for free, and sends it to you for free.

And I'll also bet that if he does, you won't send him $50 as a thank you.

Those of us who fix our own games know its not that hard dude, get off the high horse.

So I read John's polite responses to you multiple times and cannot imagine what could have set you off. Talk about over reacting. The only thing that might have "caused you harm" is that you appear to be such an over reactor blowing nothing into something huge that I would be scared to deal with you. Lol. How can you go from his polite response and discussion about himself to "if you choose not to do business with me because of this" and such. Just wow.

Folks, let's not pile on ChrisM. It's obvious that there are other things going on that we're not privy to, so it's probably best to leave it alone for now. Thanks

Thats cool, but being a dick on the internet only invites dick responses.

Nothing to add here besides wisefwumyogwave has the GREATEST username I've ever seen. Carry on!

AWESOME!!!!

OP,..... rebuttal?

QSS

This thread has reached its resolution.

Steve has reached out to the OP and all is well now.

Closing this thread.