My first was a nightmare - a Williams Grand Prix. Couldn’t pick a worse game for your first!!!

I did improve the situation, and get it playing, fixed a lot of the issues, and made like $150 and got invited to their party a week later which I went to.

Gotta start somewhere!

Good for you. Glad to hear that it worked out well for both. There are far too few of people like you who are willing to do home service calls. I am fortunate to have a pinsider close to me EddiePi who has helped me in several occasions. Thank you Ed!

I could never wrap my mind around someone hauling my game out if my basement to work on it and then hauling it back. Way to much opportunity to cause damage. Not my ideal.

Keep it up, charge a fair rate for both you and your clients, don’t get overwhelmed. Only take on what you can comfortably do. I have heard from others who used to do this kind of work that it just got to be too much. And the pay was not great.

Make sure you manage expectations with your customers. What you do is a skill for sure and you should be proud and well compensated.

Best of luck though you seem to be well on your way!!

George

Here we are lucky to have Stretch7 great guy very helpful!
Hobby could not go on with these helpful people.
Hats off to you all!

Thank you for sharing your experience.
Quite a refreshing thread.
This is what Pinside and pinball is all about and hope we see more of it again.

Congrats! I just finished up with another home service call on a TAF. I try to avoid them because often times people get very strange about it and many balk at the idea that a specialized repairmen costs more than $25 an hour.

Always a relief when it goes well, you fix the issue and the client is happy!

It’s just for shits and giggles for me now, and believe it or not I find it rewarding and that’s part of the reason I do it.

But I only take jobs I think will be really easy, and I don’t have to travel too far for. My last one was to reattach a loose wire on a flipper coil on a GOTLE. $200 10 minutes and all I had to bring over was an iron, wire stripper and some solder.

Anybody who is cheap or obnoxious isn’t worth dealing with but that’s the luxury of a hobby over a job. $200 is my minimum I don’t care how quick it is. Travel time counts. Hauling tools around counts. Doing this shit for 20 years and having some experience is worth something.

The Dot’s make it worth it!

Sometimes you find out too late! Like when I genuinely got a call-back about a bulb that would sometimes go out. The original call was that the start button broke, but I found... wires broken off, two out of 3 balls stuck in bizarre places, totally destroyed VUKs and a snapped diverter but that didn’t matter. They PLAYED IT like that for months, but god forbid that lightbulb wasn’t working after I fixed EVERYTHING and left.

Clearly, I suck.

Oh and the cabinet was dirty. What kind of half-rate “repairman” doesn’t polish the sides?!

Insane.

I have made a few housecalls now. Each time I underestimated how long it would take me to fix. Each time I found more than was originally thought to be wrong/broken. Each time I cleaned and waxed playfield. Each time the person was very appreciative and paid me more than I had asked. My favorite was a Bally Wizard that I fixed, rerubbered, cleaned, waxed, new ball, new bulbs. It was this gals dad's pin from when she was little. She used to play it with him and he had passed away some time ago. When she heard it fire up again she started crying. It was awesome.

Similar situation for me, too. Friend of a friend heard that I fixed up my DMD-era games when i got them and needed somebody to fix his Gilligan's Island. After parts ordering and lots of soldering got it working fairly well. Didn't charge him too much as i took it as a mutually beneficial learning experience for me, too. Then about a year or so later he calls again with a different problem. Ended up having to send the power board out to Borygard as it had some weird hacks and who knows what else. He did some beautiful work on it, over and above what was asked for or needed at a great price. Got it back from him, took it over to my customer's house, plugged it in and everything came to life as if it was a brand new game. We played it for about an hour after that. Totally great guy, and a really fun game!

Similar situation for me as I’m not a tech. Guy in my neighborhood has a pin, not working. Someone tells him we have games, he calls me, I go over and fix it, now we are friends, been over his house many times for beer and cigars. Done that a couple of times. Another neighbor had an nba fast break, I fixed it, he was super happy, not as much follow through, but that’s ok, we are still good neighbors.

I inherited a similar side job from pinsider Mudflaps who got me into pinball a couple of years ago. I had learned alot from him and YouTube and did a fair amount of basic circuit board repair on several of my early SS games. Now I clean up and repair games for my local amusement company. Currently, I'm working on his 24th game.

Good for you, that's great.

I've learned that I'll gladly try to work on any game, any issue, but I need it at my house.

I will haul every tool I have to go work on a friend's game but when I've been asked to work on strangers' games I've always said no because I don't know how litigious they are should something bad happen or they are just unhappy in general. I'm a nice guy but there are a lot of a-holes in the world and I definitely don't need the money, this is a hobby for me.

You sir, are the prototypical serviceperson that homeowners are looking for...

A pinball tech that works for beer!

Hehe.

Next time if he or she asks you if and when the bubble is going to burst charge them $400. Then lay it to them.

It happens. I once helped a friend fix up two EMs for an estate sale. The games were blown out. I cleaned them, all new bulbs and rings. Got them mostly working and you could play them. I did this for my friend and didn't charge anything.

An attorney who bought the house bought the games, $200 each. And soon was threatening to sue me because he expected brand new games. What a frikken nightmare.

Which is why before this and after this I don't get involved in home repairs. I only did this one because it was a really good friend.

lowbeau67 I hope your experiences are better and more rewarding.

LTG : )

I think that managing expectations is really key to many business relationships. Communication is also somewhat helpful.

The home pin repair biz is where it is at. No dragging them around. Just have a tech willing to come to the house and work on them.

Nobody knows everything. But, if you have a tech who can follow through and explain what is going on and that they need to do some homework to try and fix the problem and that they will return, most are just fine with that.

Come up with an hourly rate. One should be paid for their expertise. I don’t mean in beers. I mean in cash, or take credit cards. Easy to do. Yeah you might rub the risk of getting burned but in thirty years I have never had a chargeback in my biz??

As to the hourly rate…make it competitive. Don’t gouge but make it competitive. These games cost money. Some can afford to have a tech come out others can’t. Can’t be all things to all people.

You don’t want to set a precedent where you have charged such a low price to so many that it becomes more difficult to raise your rates. Do good work, charge a fair price, including travel time if appropriate, and the rest will take care of itself

Personally I need techs who are willing to come to the house when my games I rarely play have a hiccup. Don’t care what it costs, just want them right.

Just my .02.

You're looking at it all wrong. Plumbers are a dime a dozen. Skilled pinball repair folks are much more rare. At least half of my customers give me a tip when the repair is done. Drinks and weed are also regularly offered. All of them are super happy when the repair is done. Let them know up front your hourly rate and that parts are extra and there's rarely a problem. My customers love me. Solid 5 star rating on Yelp and I claimed my business there from day one.

My first paid repair was on a Safecracker. The owner of the game was a locksmith and the game was in his shop. He showed me his safe cracking tools as I made the repair.

Congrats! The responsibility is scary at first, but it's super rewarding to help someone repair a game they love. Fixed only one pinball so far, but I've been fixing local arcade machines for a couple years now. Only recently started charging for my time but just for things that require effort or I hate doing (monitor chassis work ). Best part is making friends and being able to touch things you can't afford

My advice if you start doing it for people outside your friend group:
Be honest with your abilities, nothing wrong with telling them you need to do some research if you haven't had exposure to some particular hardware or mechanism. Establish immediately what you will and won't touch (e.g. no recaps, PCB repair)

Take lots of pictures before working on anything, and of anything out of the ordinary! Hacked up wires from a previous OP, missing parts, or faults you noticed that the owner hasn't mentioned. I'm fortunate I've never been in this situation but the last thing any repairman wants to hear is "this was working before you got here" or "that damage wasn't there before"

Try not to be taken advantage of. You might find it fun and don't mind doing certain things pro-bono, but there's certain folks that'll try and wring your passion for free labor dry if you let them. Easy to sus them out usually. My few interactions with pinball guys always made me feel like I was being exploited lol

Crispin Fixes my stuff, awesome friendly guy!

I've had so many things happen and dealt with so many people when I was doing service calls.

Unless it's for a friend, I'll NEVER do service calls again.

I wrote this 16 years ago for another Pinball Web site when a new member made a post about wanting to start doing service calls as a business. I feel like it fits here, but it's long so feel free to skip. There are also a few thing here that are dated.

---

So you want to start a Pinball Repair Biz. Let's see... where do I begin? I guess I'm going to be the wrong person to ask, since I have stopped doing repairs, and this is many of my personal reasons for getting out of the arcade repair business. I'm probably going to offend a few people here I know it, so I'll apologize ahead of time. I really don't mean to offend... just want really to get out most of my frustrations.

In you post you mention you already have the technical ability, that's great. You would not believe the amount of people who contacted me over the past few years that want to start an arcade repair business that have no technical skill, but they want to hire you for a day to show them everything you know so they can start this business too. Really... You think one day will do it? I went to tech school for 6 years to be an electronics technician, worked in the electronics field for over 20 years, and have been in the hobby since I was a little kid... I'm sure one day of me giving you all my secrets will work out great for you. Not to mention the fact that why would you want to help a new competitor? Let's try this in another industry... go to a local pizza place and ask to talk to the owner. Tell them you want to start a pizza shop down the street and you want to pay them for a day for them to tell you all about their recipes and secrets.. What do you think they will say?

With that being said, let's address some items in you post:
"My background is I attended technical high school started doing in home TV repairs in 1979 (Replacing RCA Flybacks)"
Excellent, this means you have experience rebuilding an Electrohome G07 monitor found in many 80's video games.

"I'm giving serious consideration to entering the business of repairing Pinball machines and really need some help to see if this is viable proposition as a full time or part time career"
There are not enough pinball machines to keep you busy, you are going to have to also repair Jukeboxes, and video arcade games, and Skeeball machines, and everything ells that takes a coin. Now, I don't know what your financial situation is... When I was doing this and making a business out of it, I was working full time, and then going out every other night doing repairs. If I did this full time I would not have had enough work to keep me busy every day and make enough money to pay the bills, and I would not have had heath insurance. If you do this part time, you will get overwhelmed with work and never have time for you or your family. Your going out every other night on service calls, and on the nights you are home you're working on the boards and things you couldn't fix at the customers location, or researching parts, or placing orders, or working on your web page. Maybe you don't need insurance. Great! Maybe your home is paid for. Great! Maybe you're retired and this is just an extra way to make money. Great! Then these problems don't apply to you. Have fun! Like I said, I don't know what your situation is.

"Market Data for my potential service area I am located in Andover MA and would ask people for any help they can offer to help me determine Number of Machines in the Metro North region?"
Is this just in homes, or what is in arcades too? This is a very hard thing to project, and a very general statement. Between me, my family, and my friends were talking over 200 machines... none of witch we have ever called someone to fix. If I look back at my notes... over the last 4 years, (not counting family, friends) I repaired the following:
34 Solid State Pinball Machines
7 EM Pinball Machines
1 Home Version Game
1 Skee Ball Machine
1 Coaster Xpress VR Ride
47 Jukeboxes
22 Video Arcade Games

"How frequently does an average EM Machine need servicing?"
Depending on where it is, once every 5-10 years. When properly lubed and adjusted they can run well for a long, long time.

"How frequently does an average Solid State Machine need servicing?"
Depends on the manufacturer, where they came from, what has been done to them, and the technical level of the owner. Un-modified Gottlieb systems 80's can break almost weekly, but if they have most of the marvin3m modifications done to them they can go for years without problems. Can the owner of the machine handle changing batteries? I had a few customers who could not, so I went on a yearly service call to change batteries (and no... all the calls won't be that easy). Was the machine bought off eBay, sight unseen... and just hacked together quickly to get it running and sell it... those break all the time... and unless you spend HOURS repairing all the hacks, you will end up going there constantly to fix it.

Here are a bunch of random things to think about:
Don't give anyone your cell phone number. People will call you all the time, all hours of the day... and not just to set up appointments for repairs...
* People will call you to offer to sell you games.... Someday. The games are not for sale right now.... But when they do decide to sell them they will let you know (and they won't.. because they are calling every other person in the area who does this, looking for the highest offer).
* People will call just to chat... "Do you remember a game with a girl on the back glass with a green shirt?"
"Do you like multi-ball games?"
"Do you know of any good arcades in the area?"
"Have you ever played Junkyard? Yeah.... Well have you ever played Checkpoint?" Oh really... Well have you ever played black rose?" yeah well... have you ever played..........." (yes I really did have a conversation with someone like that)
* People will call you to ask you if you can find them their favorite machine, and when you tell them that the games is expensive and highly sought after they will want a detailed explanation on why that is. (I usually said, well what do you like about the game?" and when they told me I would say "well that's how everyone else feels."
* People will call to have you fix other junk... like Playstations, Xbox, TV's, VCR­s, Stereos, Power Wheels, Dishwashers, ect.
* People from everywhere across the country will call to ask you how to fix a game they are working on (you know, it's that free tech service you offer.)
After all that, you phone bill will be over $300 a month!

Buy a GPS! You will sit in traffic for hours, and you will get lost. If you are lucky you will get 1 call a year from the town you live in, and 2 calls a year from any or the surrounding towns.

You may think your one of only a few who do this.... Witch is true.... But every time you look there is someone new doing this... when I first started doing this and made my web page I searched online and could only find one other person in Eastern MA. Do a search now and see who comes up. I would work on my web site for hours and hours, then wait for weeks for the rankings to change on Google and Yahoo... And if I was lucky I could only get a #3 ranking when I typed in "Pinball Repair Ma.". Then I would be on the internet at some place like Myspace or Facebook.... or I would be researching parts, and I would glance at one of the adds on the side of the screen and they would say "Boston Pinball Repair" and it wouldn't be my site.

If you come up with a clever saying or slogan... it'­s going to appear on someone ells site. Its one thing to borrow a concept, its another to copy it word for word. I liked a certain line about eBay I saw in a Fabulous Fantasy add once, so I used the concept but changed some of the wording and added some things to it... Then I found my saying word for word on another local web site... Weird. Oh wait... when I looked at it again I see they changed a period to a comma. That makes it all better.

No matter what the customer tells you is wrong with the machine you will not have the right parts with you ahead of time to fix it. If they say, the flipper doesn't work you'll bring a coil, the linkage, and maybe even the flipper bat... heck... even pack a driver transistor just in case.... and after driving an hour to get there, you'll look at the machine and the plastic flipper button on the side of the cabinet will be broken. You have hundreds of them at home... but not with you. So you drive an hour home to get it, and hour back to install it, and then an hour home again.

After 2 years of this you'll hate arcade games. When things in your collection break the last thing your going to want to do is work on them.

You are going to have to work on the most hacked junk ever.

You won't get paid all the time. I still have places that owe me money. (Still true as of 2/15/2022)

Some customers will never want you to leave.... They have maybe 6 machines and want everything perfect on them... every light bulb... every detail. 11:30pm with an hour drive home and they will want you to "just set the new game I bought off eBay on free play for me...." And when you do you press the button to set it on free play and the machine goes dead... smokes and then the game doesn't work anymore... So your there either fixing it till 2am or coming back in a day or two. The customer will also be angry because you broke the game and this is just a way to come back and charge more. Because that'­s what I did, I pressed the "Break Machine" button (located right next to the test button) so I could fall behind with my other customers and charge you more.

If you tell a customer that you'll fix whatever it is you had to take home in a week... 6 days later they are calling you wondering when you're coming back.

No matter how great your board work is, the local collecting community is going to send their stuff to the big guys... whether it is New England Coin Op., Coin Op Cauldron, or any of those guys on the newsgroups. They are established and there is no competing with them.

Be prepared to set games up for people, or move games for people, or unload them from cars and trucks. I went to one customers house to fix a game and when I got there is was not set up and in the back of a Caravan. They wanted me to work on it in the caravan or help them move it into there house... witch ever I thought would be best.

If anyone calls you and says the following "New England Coin Op/Beston/East Coast Amusements worked on the game and couldn't fix it" Don't. even. try!

Customers will start buying broken games specifically for you to come and fix. They will have you do everything.... rebuild the monitor, fix the main boards, replace lights, find parts, fix controls, adjust setting and after hours of service.... they will lie to your face tell you how much they love the game, how they played the game when they were kids, how they always wanted one of these, and then a few weeks later you'll be on eBay and there is that game. All fixed ap and selling for top dollar, meanwhile at home you have no room for any new games for yourself because you just cant find the time to work on your own stuff.

No matter how many times you tell the customer "Don't just buy any game off eBay, try and find it local where you can check it out in person... Here are some local people who have the machine your looking for" weeks later you are going to get a service call from them asking you to come fix the machine they just bought off eBay and had shipped to their house but doesn'­t work and the person that sold it to me can't fix it with me over the phone. When you go to service it don'­t be surprised at what was sold as "restored."

[Added 2022]
If after all the years go by you are still in the hobby.... still doing repairs.... still have your web site.... still have the same contact info.... or any combination of that. Someday you'll be at another friend's place or someone ells who is in the hobby, and you'll look at a machine they just bought for a steal and recognize it instantly as one of your old customers machine.... your business card and paperwork will still be inside. You'll say.... "Did you get this from Thisperson from Thattown? and they will be like "oh yeah!" because no matter what you say.... no matter how much work you've done for them..... no matter how many time you say "if you ever want to sell this machine let me know." They will never. NEVER. EVER! think to contact you when they decide to sell it.

So, I know that anyone who has gotten this far in the reading is think one or more of the following things... (1) Wow this is long. (2) This guy sure is negative. (3) I think he's talking about me. Or (4) this guy is a jerk!
Yes, this is long, but it needed to be said. I know it's negative but at one time I had a rainbow lollipop sugar coated view of making this hobby a business and thought it would be great. I thought the same thing when people would be on the newsgroups asking about starting an arcade and people would chime in all negatively. But honestly after doing it now I see why those people were all negative.

In no way Am I saying I am perfect.... I made a lot of mistakes, I still owe people repairs, and there were some things I just could not fix. I do apologize to anyone reading this that may fall into any of those categories. The one mistake I DID NOT make was to go back to this being a hobby and spending more time with my wife... And now my daughter. I still do some side work and will still do board repairs at home... but not as an actual business.

If you enjoy the Hobby... keep it that way... A hobby. Because when you turn it into a business, it becomes work.

~Jeff
(what is left of) - www.shootagainamusements.com

Good for you, seriously, I'm glad it's working for you! Do you carry insurance in case something does go wrong? It could be through no fault of yours but the game catches fire (say someone over-amped fuses you didn't check because you just rebuilt the flippers) and it burns their house down so they sue you because you last worked on it, you're S.O.L.

This is one of the best, and funniest posts I've ever read on pinside. crack'd me up! I think you should cross-post to the unpopular opinion channel.

Did my first service call at age 15 re-rubbering a brand new Metallica.

Nothing says anxiety like trying to figure out how the top part of the playfield goes back together

I don't have extra insurance, but I'm very specific about what I've done when I write the receipt and I keep a copy. To protect myself. If a fuse is replaced, I name the specific fuse I replaced. I occasionally get calls for complete beaters. Worn playfield, lots of hacks, boards need replacing. For those, I explain that I can fix their game, but the repairs will cost more than the game will be worth. They usually say no thanks.

More importantly, despite all the warnings about over fusing, when is the last time you've heard of a pinball machine catching on fire? I've been playiny for about 50 years and have never seen it. Lots of burnt coils and an occasional smokey transistor, but I've never seen a pin actually on fire.