I don't really buy that there was *ANY* business case for taking over. Certainly not one that could see the company break even or see any return on investment in a reasonable time frame. I'm sure they probably thought there may have been a tenuous case beforehand (enough to spur them to try to rescue everyone), but now ...? I think they had hoped to break even this year, when they took over, but that seems impossible.

I suspect the reason they have spoken, or others on their behalf have spoken, about Barry being on board and actively working on game #3 for a TPF revelation is that they've realised they need a new game with a clean slate, sooner rather than later, to have any chance of stemming the losses or moving on from the Andrew era, and the business becoming viable.

Note that this time frame squares exactly with when they now hope to have filled all outstanding orders / refund requests.

They likely hope to be back to square one vis a vis liabilities at the exact time they're unveiling game #3 ... or game #1, depending on which way you look at it.

You could call them naive, or question their acumen, but I'm sure they always knew there was a chance they were wrong, and things could be a lot worse than they imagined. It's a good thing they were willing to take that risk, because no-one else was going to, and everyone involved would have been up the proverbial creek without a paddle.

Did you buy on a credit card? In the UK, if you purchased on a credit card you'd get a full refund from the credit card company.

Why would anyone pre-order a game (or anything else for that matter) with no payment security?? If people stopped pre-ordering machines that didn't exist this problem wouldn't happen. If everyone waited until the company had a product to sell it would stop this all happening in the first place. Madness!

I preordered a nominal deposit because I guessed that the pricing was very lean for what was on offer, and expected a price increase and wanted to lock myself in at the lower price. Turns out there was a big increase.

Yeah i used paypal.. so not sure if that qualifies as security, i thought it did.. i was told 60 days.. the 20th was 60 and i had started emailing Morgan a week before and then the sales address. No response what so ever.
I was in up to the week before when i was asked to pay the final invoice which i had the $ in hand for.. i confirmed 2 weeks before but was working out the transfer. One week later a final invoice that was different, added topper and adjusted price. They made a mistake and put a topper on that i didn't order and told me i had to pay for it or go to the back of the line. I asked for them to cut a deal since it wasn't my mistake, no deal was offered just the same. Pay or back of the line.. i asked for the refund.. i was apologized to and told they hoped there was no hard feelings. I was good at that point "knowing" i was at least being refunded. Pfft.

Rubbed wrong? Yes.. with a refund i would be over it.
Now i doubt I'll ever see it but I'll keep asking. I hoped there would be a little more professionalism with the pitch that was made. I'll contact paypal and see what they can do.

My understanding was that this new investor team is just the original investors - where did you hear these are different people? I thought that they were trying to salvage their original investment in Heighway by keeping it afloat. If your info is in the letter they wrote then sorry for the dumb question, but I didn’t read their letter - only heard bits and pieces of it.

Correct.

"The group of investors that previously was minor shareholders, and uninvolved in the daily business, is now leading the company into the next phase of the company’s development"

Did this daily thread get abandoned already...

I guess no news is ... bad news. Expect no change in condition, just more waiting ...

You remind me of the guy at the end of the movie Airplane!

I can't see how they don't know how bad this is hurting them. Communication is all they need. People are even forgiving that NONE of the machines are working 100%.....people love the film that much. One of you guys who has contact with the Big Cheese should lay it on the line for him.
If they want to stay in business they better get their QC, Customer Support and communication in order.

Davidus56 , did you ask for them to work with CoinTaker to get you one of their FT's in stock?

TOTALLY AGREE. You can't simply ignore every attempt at communication from your customers that have paid you. I WOULD have been one of these forgiving people. However, you ignored me. AND, you have my money. As a result, I will NEVER support this company and its products ever again.

I guess they just figure people will accept these problem laden machines and fix them. People seem to want them so bad, they'll accept anything.
I simple communication to a handful of people would have gone a long way.

I wish those people who have received their machines luck in receiving responses for their machine issues. I really do hope that Heighway comes through for them. However, as far as I can tell, Heighway is barely responding to those who have reached out for help regarding service issues. It's a shame. This was THE holy grail machine for me. BUMMER.

For me as well. BUT, we have so much more coming.....possible Monster Bash or Big Bang Bar Remake, Elvira 3, GOTG, Houdini and who knows what else is in the pipeline....

Nothing here is f*cked. There is still a chance HP can divert the damn plane from crashing into the side of a mountain, Dude. it will require Heighway Pinball to become better communicators with their customers - past, present and future. HP needs to immediately start supplying parts and putting them into customer's hands with broken games, or they will discover the market for nib busted Aliens is pretty small.

But don't write Alien off just yet, because of your bad experience. If they can turn around this year's performance and start delivering 100% working games in 2018, you'll want to reconsider your position and buying one. Maybe CT and Nitro can step into these people and service roles for HP. Can't tell for certain, but something is in the wind.

HP said it will take through 1Q18 to refund requests and to build all paid in full LE's. It would be courteous of them to respond back to their customers telling them which month they should expect payment. Refunds are being given out in some planned fashion, right?

Gonna be a tough one! Hard to support a company with crap communication that doesn't even take care of customers PAID IN FULL for two games....or people with broken games who can't get parts...or even a damn manual. Hell, they haven't even gotten machines to the people who worked on them! .....I'll wait until the end of next year and see what happens....

Hp can't even replace faulty parts, I've been waiting 5 months for parts, Helmut kept saying they were on there way or that TNT lost them or some other b.s. But 5 months later all I have is a giant paper weight..... good luck with a refund

I agree 100%. Quit ordering pins that don’t exist and you have never seen or played.