I don't do board repairs and for many years Steve Kulpa did all my board work. Since he's no longer doing repairs, I placed a ad on Pinside to find someone else. Many of the boards I have that needed repairs already had new caps and headers installed previously but a malfunctioning component caused damage. Got a response from a Pinside member who claimed he had many years in board repair. I had 3 Bally Solenoid boards with issues, a lamp board plus 2 MPU's. One was fully working, it had a replacement battery installed in 2004 that I wanted a memory cap installed. Price quote was reasonable so I shipped all 7 boards to him. After 1 month I called and he said he's waiting on parts from China via eBay. A WTF moment for me since I know you can get stuff from GPE, Big Daddy or other sources quickly. He is an operator with games on location. A couple weeks later I called and he has health issues which prevented him from working. OK, I understand. After 3+ months I call and he hasn't fixed them but apologies profusely and agrees to return my stuff. Health issues again so I feel bad for him. Get them back and now both MPU's are missing. I've called for 3 days (phone disconnects) and texted without a response. I hate to out someone here, so if you're familiar with a operator in Richmond VA with the initials JT and know anything about his health please PM me. I'm hoping it was a simple mistake with the unreturned boards.

He said he has COPD and soldering is difficult. I can understand that easily. But why take work you can't do or return my stuff?

Cost saving is the reason I would prefer to get boards fixed. It doesn't pay to put $475 worth of new boards in a $600-800 player condition game.

Jay Tomlinson "Thunderfoot" on Pinside. Lynchburg VA

Agreed! One of the boards I sent was a Bally Xenon MPU. Worked perfectly. When I bought the machine it had been upgraded and had a "new" battery installed. Game has played fine for the last 16 years. Since the battery was getting old, I wanted a memory cap installed and the battery removed. I was just being proactive to avoid a later problem. I do keep a full set of Alltek's for diagnostic work on new purchases. I have sold a dozen Bally games to friends and others over the last 15 years, all with upgraded OE boards and none has failed yet I know of.

He claimed he was in hospital after a month went by. What concerns me is why he would package & ship and pay to return 4 of the 6 boards I sent without receiving a dime in payment? I offered to pay return shipping because of his health issues last time we spoke and he stated he wished he could fix them for free due to the time delay. If the goal was to rip me off why return some of them?

I have called every day for the 10 days almost, 2 rings then a disconnect. Texted as well.

Tried with my number blocked, same thing. After looking at his address on google maps I can see his house. Same cube van parked for the last 6 years of photo's. A bunch of coin op equipment stored outside under a carport.

I do appreciate the board repair recommendations. Most of the stuff I have now that needs repaired already had new header pins, caps etc. They were damaged from a malfunctioning component. Seeing some "flat rate pricing" for a Bally SDB for example, I thought it would cost less to find someone who could repair what was mostly a single component that needed replaced. That's was why I was looking for someone who could test and fix that one chip/socket or whatever. Jay (Guy who got my boards) had commented that by boards had been repaired previously by a very skilled tech. (Steve Kulpa).

UPDATE! Remaining boards just showed up without any communication or note.