I think you guys need to get a manufacturing consultant if you havn't already. Based on what I'm seeing I dont feel that you've done this or the consultation outcomes weren't realized. IMO Its critical to your business model that you use a deposit preorder system tied to a modifiable user account. besides the obvious reasons it could enable a buyer to give sell his preorder spot to the person that buys their pinball machine. You would reduce the amount of abandoned orders. Maybe not for your future version of the business where you move away from screen printing but certainly now. Paypal is not the be all end all way to recieve deposits. You could use square and shopify to create whatever structure you need.

In general, I dont agree with any of that. Its not complicated if you know what to do or hire someone set it up for you that knows what to do. Liability is a non issue where an agreement and disclaimer is signed before the order is made. People waited up to 2 years to get the 2015 Hellcats after leaving deposits. I followed that whole scenario very closely and even then the people that got upset near the end were small in number. I find parts of, not all of his explanation more of a rationalization where other parts show where important lessons were learned and applied. Sorry but this company needs some serious outside professional advice.