I don't post much, but recently purchased some LEDs from Pinballbulbs.com. I thought they were great and it was nice to have another alternative to pinballlife and cointaker.com. Unfortunately, there were others who did NOT seem to think so. I am including some posts here from the pinballbulbs thread as to not derail it further.
Several times, BLACK_ROSE came into the thread to insult pinballbulbs and accuse them of stealing the designs from cointaker. It is fine to support a company, but when that becomes accusations and CUSTOMER INFORMATION from cointaker starts coming out, that is when it has crossed the line:
Chris from Cointaker just told me -?- ordered 10 Premium Leds last-nite , Melissa sent -?- an Email back say-n " Call Chris Regarding this Order "
You Gonna send those to China too , and have those Copied also , huh ?
Melissa is Pissed , and She's Gonna be Pissed when she Reads this , but Chris said " Type it "
4 Years of Research & Designing these Leds to have someone Buy & Copy ..Here's Ya Premium 2's
People then became concerned about this sharing of customer information regarding who was ordering. BLACK_ROSE then replied:
Leak info ,,,,, I Have Stock in the CoinTaker Franchise .. Pinballbulbs you know yr<edited> , I'm Still wait-n to see what yr Flashers are gonna look like .. I haven't seen an Led from you that doesn't look like what I have in my Boxes on the Shelf..And to say Chris hasn't designed his Leds in BS .. China doesn't know what the PinHeads want .. Yr small business ,, Tyme will tell ..
Later, a cointaker rep DID come into the thread and no reassurances were given and (IMO) the claims to copying a design continued:
Really guys...I just had a very good conversation with James at Pinballbulbs.com....we can co-exist....you have multiple vendors selling led bulbs... BR is not a representative of our company, however he is an extremely loyal customer/friend.... he really is a great guy just looking out for us. How do you get mad at that...(not how I would have handled it, but for any of you that personally know BR)...well enough said. BR considers Bulldog a compliment...lol...
I will however point out that as one pinsider stated that all bulbs are just ordered from China....Let me clarify...they may all or most of them come from overseas...however we at CoinTaker do travel abroad and meet with our manufacturer's....we also have developed our product to our specifications....yes, that means actual designs, etc...it took us 1 1/2 years to get our premiums just the way we wanted them...
Anyone that is in the business should understand that it is not easy when someone comes in and copies/duplicates/ or whatever you want to call it....even some going as far to call their bulbs the exact same name that we created for our bulbs...bring something new to the table...I am not going after the topper or mod business that some have created when I could very well do so...that is their niche and I respect that...all I ask is for the same respect/courtesy in the industry.
It almost sounds like they do not want any competition which is ridiculous. If the designs were really that big of a deal and cost that much time and money then there would be patents on them. And IF that is the case, then why not sue pinballbulbs?
Finally, another final post from cointaker stating that the information was NOT intended to be leaked. Yet, the moment you share it outside the company, YOU already leaked it.
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/introducing-new-led-company-free-bulbs-pinside-discount/page/8#post-858073
the information was not intended to be leaked...we were discussing it...never ever intended to be placed on this forum...if I wanted the name/info out here I would have posted the order myself and made a post about it...and no, I did not have BR do it for me....I have a mouth and mind of my own and I will use it when I want/need to....and I will and have apologized to markmon for this. I'm not very happy about this at all....I work too hard for my business to have this shit happen.
I suggest people go and look at that thread and keep it in mind when you place orders at a business that "didn't leak, but discusses" your information.