So I need advice, 5 months ago i had a one man shop repair a broken screen on my Ms. Pacman arcade. We decided to do a little refurb on it too. Fast forward 2 months, i bought a pin and wanted a hardtop put on it because the play field is toast . So now we are at 5 months on the Ms.pacman...still not done. Over a month on the pin still not started. I decided i just want to come get them and finish them myself and he can just keep the money i put down on both, but he wont let me come get them. There is alot more to the story i just dont think is necessary to cause drama and drag this shop through the mud. Just want to be adult about and get my stuff back Any advice?

#2 5 years ago

SMK

TheLaw

Pinside+ Addict

Ann Arbor, MI

12y 162K 48,059 19 30 1

Call the cops on his ass, post his name here, burn him in effiegy and we'll get at least 14 good pages sticking our pitchforks in his sack till he posts the pms betwixed you guys and it turns out it's kind of a misunderstanding because you turn out to be a little bit nutty yourself. I mean that's the usual course of action.

But seriously, what was the reason he won't let you have them? In the middle of refurb?

#3 5 years ago

CCH

Frostbite

Pinside member

Scottsbluff, NE

5y 42,900 32 11 30

initially... said i couldnt have it until next week (which was last week) because i (me) didnt have time to come over to help with league stuff until next week so i shouldnt have time to come get my stuff now is what he said. I was trying to help him get some leagues started. If that make sense...

#4 5 years ago

SMK

TheLaw

Pinside+ Addict

Ann Arbor, MI

12y 162K 48,059 19 30 1

It sort of turns it into a personal squabble over time sharing than a business/costumer type deal. ?

#5 5 years ago

ZAM

Zampinator

Pinside member

Cheboygan, MI

11y 104K 2,362 1 54

Where's the M.J. popcorn GIF when you need it?

#6 5 years ago

KAR

northerndude

Pinside+ Frequent

7y 112K 4,761 21

I wouldn't have started this thread if you'd like some advise. Back...up...slowly. Exit

#7 5 years ago

DAD

Thermionic

Inactive member

8y 54,300 750

You don’t give a lot of details other than “one man repair shop” and “more to the story”, so I could be talking out of my backside here, but the vibe I get based upon my own experience is that this guy may be running his shop as a semi-hobby or otherwise secondary to his main job.

If that’s the case, it’s probably a “life happens” situation which results in your project unfortunately being relegated to a lower priority at the moment. Definitely a bummer when you start feeling like your stuff is being held hostage, but I’ve found that a little patience usually pays off. He may not want to immediately return them because they could be significantly disassembled or in temporarily worse shape than when you started.

Most of these guys I’ve known (pinball and otherwise) have the best of intentions, but the fact is one-man operations always seem to struggle with time overruns and I just try to accept it as a trade-off for getting something more bespoke than a larger operation would be willing to offer. (All to a point of course - if something genuinely seems “off” you have no choice but to start agitating.)

#8 5 years ago

LRR

whizz

Pinside member

Lucasville, OH

6y 40,800 123 29

What timeline did he give you initially?

#9 5 years ago

TSH

Travish

Pinside member

Greensboro, NC

11y 98,800 3,348 6

Unless you both agreed on a "whenever I get to it" timeline his phone would be ringing.

After 5 months this will end up one of those "if you want something done right" things.

#10 5 years ago

ROB

Rdoyle1978

Pinside member

7y 117K 18,141 14 6

Show up at his place, take your stuff. And get a refund. If he didn’t do what you guys agreed to, he doesn’t deserve the payment. Wait, you paid up front?

Don’t be a pushover; get your shit out of there

#11 5 years ago

KSN

2manypins

Pinside+ Addict

Hanover, VA

12y 80,800 2,003 7

Quoted from Rdoyle1978:
Show up at his place, take your stuff. And get a refund. If he didn’t do what you guys agreed to, he doesn’t deserve the payment. Wait, you paid up front?
Don’t be a pushover; get your shit out of there

What he said! and quickly before he steal them.

#12 5 years ago

III

TreyBo69

Pinside member

5y 136K 8,448

Go visit him and his shop and work it out in person. If your stuff is still sitting untouched, it's totally reasonable for you to demand it back. Settle up on any parts he purchased for you that wasn't covered through initial payment*. He's the one making it harder than it ever needed to be.

Hopefully you have receipts/proof-of-purchase for the games or something in writing about him doing the repair work for you. It'll be hard to get them back if he wants to be obstinate about it and you can't easily prove that they're yours.

*also don't pay up front. Half up front to order parts is reasonable, but people aren't motivated to finish the job when they've already been paid in full.

Reply

Wanna join the discussion? Please sign in to reply to this topic.

Hey there! Welcome to Pinside!

Donate to Pinside

Great to see you're enjoying Pinside! Did you know Pinside is able to run without any 3rd-party banners or ads, thanks to the support from our visitors? Please consider a donation to Pinside and get anext to your username to show for it! Or better yet, subscribe to Pinside+!

This page was printed from https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/i-just-want-my-pinball-machine?hl=treybo69 and we tried optimising it for printing. Some page elements may have been deliberately hidden.

Scan the QR code on the left to jump to the URL this document was printed from.