Completely confusing. Ordered through a distributor but sent an email to Jen asking to upgrade to gold the day they announced the opportunity to upgrade - believe it was October 17. Heard nothing. Then she finally replied October 19th after I asked to cancel the order due to all the negative feedback the game was receiving. She said she had forwarded my request to upgrade to gold to the distributor, but he was probably busy at Expo so that was why he hadn't responded. She also said I would need to cancel through the distributor and he would be the one that would need to do the refund since I bought it from him....which seems weird but whatever. (Doesn't JJ pinball hold the money?) I ended up keeping the order after Jack's saying that they were working on improving the game. Distributor said ok to my email asking to upgrade to gold. Now the above post appears yesterday saying to let Jen know if you went through a distributor to be assured you have been upgraded to Gold and that she would send an official confirmation. So I again sent her an email at 7am this morning telling her I had requested to upgrade and had paid the distributor in full in July. No response. It wasn't until I asked to cancel Oct 19 that I got a response from Jen....and Jack (almost immediately). Here is his:

I would bet that when the game is done - you will buy one at a higher price.

Best Regards

Jack Guarnieri
President & CEO,
Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc.
1645 Oak Street
Lakewood, NJ 08701

P: (732) 364-9900, Ext 201
F: (732) 987-6842
Direct - (732) 433-4333

Not the most PR savvy banana in the bunch. The whole thing has me feeling uneasy

Wow... that's crazy...

How bout a screen grab of Jack's email so we can see the whole response?

That was pretty much it

You know how it goes...pic or it didn't happen.

Anyone who bought from a distributor should contact their distributor. Not Pinball Sales. Only Pinball Sales buyers should contact Jen about their ability to upgrade to a Gold.

I have already contacted my customers and confirmed their upgrade if that is what they choose to do.

[email protected]

The original request seemed pretty clear to me.

So then why does the lead post here state to email Jen if we went through a distributor to confirm upgrade???

That's not quite true.

Jersey Jack Pinball is SPECIFICALLY asking that people who have ordered from third-party distributors an LE Hobbit but want to change to an SE Smaug-edition Hobbit, should drop Jen (nee) Guarnieri an email at [email protected] to confirm that this has been set up, as it requires a $4k in the MANUFACTURER'S hands to validate the upgrade apparently.

This is as the first message in the thread communicates. I have received the same email and believe it to be valid.

So, in summary, if you want your LE changed to an SE, you MUST email [email protected] REGARDLESS from WHOM you ordered. It is probably a good idea to contact your distributor as well, of course, and communicate the same message to them.

Like I said, that was the whole response. What other response do you want?

Why doesn't JJP just work with their distributors to properly convert customer orders to the SE. It's crazy that they would handle something like this through Goggle Groups or 2nd hand on Pinside - or expect customers to go around their distributor.

I suspect it is because they are only offering the LE to SE free upgrade to those who actually have skin-in-the-game. That is, have actually sunk in at least $4k towards a new Hobbit pin. So in that respect, it is not a "FREE" upgrade, strictly speaking, but involves an opportunity cost of at least $4k. Since they don't know who has committed their money when they went through a distributor, they require independent confirmation. And I would GUESS (I have no inside info) they would require the distributor to pass on the $4k to the manufacturer, ie THEM, as part of the cost of the upgrade from LE to SE. It seems reasonable to me.

In fact, the reasonable, but more dickish alternative, would have been to limit the LE>SE upgrade to only those who purchased directly from them. And to their credit, they decided not to do this. But that means getting confirmation from all the end-users that they want the upgrade, and the $4k (refundable to my knowledge... but I don't work for JJP) up-front money. If the distributors have it, then that's who they have to get it from.

I think this might save the end-users (and JJP, and the distros) lots of headaches in the future by doing it this way.

i emailed both and got conformation quickly from both, my dist and Jen.

Seems really complicated versus simply "contact your authorized distributor to convert your existing LE order." The order is between JJP and the distributor and any responsibility for transfer of money should be the same. This is certainly the way JJP is playing it as a distributor for MMR by collecting full payment when PPS has still only required the initial deposit from its direct customers.

Yeah, but by getting the info directly from the purchaser, they're avoiding the "he said, she said" problems of a miscommunication between the distributor and purchaser. This way, they have on record who wants what, and whether they have the money committed, directly from the purchaser. They confirm/secure the funds with the distributor, and take it from there. I can only guess that the Australia snafu has made them conclude this is the best way to go about it.

But who knows?

Wow, That's pretty damn presumptuous of Jack and comes across as kind of a dig on his part. No need for that shit.

Actually, that comment is what made me change my mind and keep the pre-order. I didn't mind it at all. It wouldn't have been something I would have said from a PR standpoint, but it showed that he cared and believed enough about the game to get a little emotional over it and also that we have yet to see all they will be bringing to the table on this one. I still think they are going to turn it around and reveal something really cool by mid November. Otherwise I'd be out.

I sent an email to Jen and got a speedy response

Me too, answer within minutes.