All of the freight forwarding companies do the same thing, and logistics are all fubar right now with the pandemic and labor shortages.

You have to expect it is going to take a week or two to get the game in the best of conditions, so you just have to relax and take a few breaths. I recently shipped a game to Florida that took over a month to arrive. it was your choice to drive to get the pin, and that is up to you, but Beltman isn't in the pinball parts business........most of us that have been through this before would have checked for all of the parts before we left.

The main thing is damage....do you want it air-freighted and dropped at your door via parachute? Or do you want it arriving intact? Beltman does a good job of handling the items, and even though they service your zip code 3 times a week, they may have had full trucks scheduled ahead of you, or as here in the KC area, they will only let certain drivers handle the high end items, and those trucks go out a lot less frequent.

Thanks for sharing. Welcome to Pinside!

Also, paragraphs make your posts easier to read and understand.

You don’t need to capitalize Pin every time, but thank you for at least sparing us and not calling it a table. I appreciate that.

Also I’ve been saying for years don’t use STI. Crazy price for substandard service. I’ve only needed to see one machine with forks through it to realize it’s not the right choice for me. They also deny most insurance claims or pay out based on “weight”. You have to ride their ass to get your money!

That does suck, I will say shipping is just a nightmare all around right now. I've had 3 games shipped by beltman and they all worked out ok, not amazing service but not horrible.
I'm shipping another game with them right now, fingers crossed it'll work out.
Oddly, I've been shipping big bulky items to Abu Dhabi and they're getting there in like 3 days. It's weird out there.
B

I would try and pick or deliver a pin myself over using any shippers in this current environment(pandemic) situation
Many companies cant find workers. The ones that do the workers are often stressed and over worked.
More people will be handling the freight as it will be moved several times due to logistic issues.The likelyhood of an disgruntled person is higher than ever handling your game.

So I'm gonna give you some tough love here....you're expectations are way too high. And you come off as kinda impatient to me.

I get it, it's hard to wait for a game that you're really excited about. But it's perfectly normal for it to take a shipper a couple of weeks to pickup a game, and a couple more weeks to deliver it. That's just how it goes. I am sorry that you had different expectations and that you had a bad experience, but honestly nothing you wrote sounds out of the ordinary. The legs thing is weird, but sounds like a problem with how it was packed. The pin should either be shipped legs on, or shipped on a pallet. And either way, the legs shouldn't ever be in a situation where they'd be separated from the rest of the game. So something weird happened either with the packing, or with the game in transit.

If the game really is only traveling a short distance, then it's probably not worth using a big shipper like Beltman. You're annoyed by a 6.5hr roundtrip, but dudes on here regularly make 20hr roundtrips, so it's all relative.

I hope your next transaction is more pleasant. This is a really great hobby, but moving these games from place to place can definitely be a headache.

Sucks man, sorry to hear it.

They just did a NY to MI in 6 days palleted...but it's always crapshoot. Of course these weren't rural areas

belt (resized).jpg

TL:DR

Beltmann/STI has been complete garbage lately for me as well both shipping and receiving. Delays delays delays and damaged games. I've stopped using them which is a shame as I gave them damn near 100% of my pin moving business the last few years.

Everybody is having shipping and transport issues right now. And I 100% agree with DakotaMike

For your next shipment, as there will be more! :

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/shipping-options-for-games

They did fine moving my Subway from upstate NY to Phoenix AZ... no damage and took two weeks. $577 bucks for a 2300+ mile trip. It was off the legs and wrapped but no pallet. A bit pricey but I wasn't in a rush.

All that drama and no damage to the game? Tough world we live in.

Just got a machine through Beltmann delivered today. Slight delay because they screwed up something on their end and didn't contact the sender in time to make their next pickup date so had to wait a week for the next time they were in town. Overall got exactly what I paid for (the pin was safely delivered). My only annoyance? Originally I was quoted $450 for delivery. Then got a call back saying that they looked at my address on Google Maps and that I have stairs for my house so they need to charge an additional $200 for an extra man because it needs to go up stairs. In fairness, they did show up with three men BUT... only 2 carried the machine into my house and set it up. There was no need for the third man and I could have saved the $200. An annoyance, but not the end of the world.

This is a fact. Right now we are working 70hrs a week maxing out our logs to try and keep up.
Mandatory 10 hrs off and come right back in to go out on deliveries.
For the last few months when I log off my computer on Wednesday evening I'm at 40 to 41 hrs.
Think about that for a minute.
Nobody wants to work or come back to work. This ongoing pandemic has really screwed things up far more than your imagination.
To many are bitching about working 40 hrs and saying TGIF and some of us are exhausted asking when is it gonna end.
And on a side note...where is my extra money for being essential and not missing a day of work
I would like an extra $600 a week, just saying.
-Mike

Not positive of the details here, but it looks like you are in the Ozarks, that is definitively rural. Like pain in the ass rural. It doesn't surprise me at all it was going to take them a while to get it there. And two and a half weeks really isn't that long. Next day delivery has got people spoiled.

Also, I've used Beltmann several times and have had zero issues.

You got your game without damage, that’s literally all you could hope for

would have waited till the Wednesday for them to deliver ... then you wouldn't have gone through the extra crap surrounding the issue!
impatience is the problem here!

As long as it gets to me in the same condition as when it was picked up, I’m happy.

It could be worse.

Ill summarize if you dont want to read all that.

WAH... my shipment took a long time.

At least you didn't watch your shipment go back and forth across the country past your state a few times. That happens too.

Lots of options. 10 hour drive? Grab a Spirit flight for $59, rent a small truck one-way and drive it home. Or drive up and stay the night, then drive home. Or check out U-ship and hire your own driver. All of them would be cheaper than $500 and you'd have your game in 2-3 days next time.

NEVER SHIP A PIN

I haven't had any problems with STI/Beltman.

In today's world where UPS charges $60 to ship a tiny box that they'll drop-kick 5 times and leave in the rain, I think we're lucky to have any company who is willing to pick up and transport a large/heavy/delicate machine across the country and deliver to our doors. Incompetence is the New Rule for just about business these days...at least STI/Beltman is doing better than most.

If were to rate STI/Beltman against UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS, etc. they'd come out way, way ahead.

I never had a single problem with STI. In fact i think they rock. Yes my Hobbit took 4-6 weeks to come from Louisiana, but I had my other pins to play in the mean time. It took its sweet heavy ass time to come , but when it came it was in perfect condition.
never had an issue here, and I hope I continue to not have any problems

The only issue I had was this seller I bought a couple machines from .. the machines smelled so bad and they dont even work like he advertised.. Im never buying from him again, but this isnt STI fault.

Im not referring to the hobbit, that smelled like roses. Im referring to a couple other machines from way before. Thanks

Hey at least your game could be located, certainly could have been worse. My NIB Metallica vanished like a fart in the wind. It took the shipper weeks to finally admit the loss, but that didn't really matter since I was gonna have to wait a few more months for the game to be back on the production line at Stern.. Sure I came here to vent, but pretty sure it was far less than this. Sometimes patience is the only option.

Trucking companies are just like strip clubs nobody's getting laid but everyone is getting fucked

Just curious OP, what game was it?
I guess by “new PIN”, you mean new to you, not new in box (NIB), as they would have the legs in the box. Anyways, what is it? How’s it play? Welcome to Pinside. In a year you’ll look back and laugh at your first pin adventure.

People here should just say good for to let off some steam. Yeah, waiting sucks. However, some choose constructive comments saying when you do this next time expect the same and glad your game is not damaged.

Let's be serious here, the pin being delivered safe is the most important thing. I hope you have fun with your game. What is it BTW?

Honestly this. Could have been so much worse. And that style of writing - almost as frustrating as waiting for a game to be delivered!

Seriously though, I’ve heard of much worse when shipping and from my experience with this company, which has been many, they do a great job

Little confused here... So you shipped the game from one home to another that you own? For all the risk just load it up and drive it in your suburban next time.

Call me when they say Sorry lost your game or By accident the fork lift driver impaled your game. These are real problems. I will take a few days late over a damaged or lost pin any day.

this is comical. you are idiot dude. I have waited a month to get one delivered by STI/Beltmann and waited 3 months by other pinball delivery operations. if you are this impatient you need to find another hobby.

ROOKIE move not seeing if legs were in the shipment. You should have shipped on its legs via Beltmann. Who ever prepped the game for shipment did a crap job as well because the legs should have been secured to the pallet/game.

I’ve probably shipped close to 50 machines using Michelle at Beltman and will continue to do so in the future.
IMO they are a real asset to the pinball and arcade community.
I’m sorry you are unhappy with your experience, but I do not share the same sentiment.

I'm also in the camp of having shipped a lot of games with Beltman / STI / Michelle. They are not expeditors and don't claim to be. The priority outcome is your game arrives in one piece with no damage, and I'm happy to say that's been the vast majority of my experience with them. Packing on the shipper's end is the key, and I would guess that's the root cause for the legs being left behind. They are not point-to-point shippers and have to move through hubs, and this takes time. More realistic expectations are in order I think.

I always tip the STI delivery guys pretty good too. They know me personally now and are like "another machine!" Im like "yep, put it next to the other one".
I even have their cell phone number. Good people.

As others have said, this is a very difficult post to read. Since I worked thought it, I thought I’d offer a bulletized summary. This is not the official story. In case of any inconsistency, the OP post is authoritative.

• OP is upset that Beltmann can apparently take as long as they want to pick up and deliver
• Pickup was about 7 days after payment
• After about 7 more days, turns out pin was about 100 miles away and sitting there
• At this point OP was given the option to wait another 4 days or pick it up themself (w/some credit)
• OP took the >6 hour round trip drive to get the Pin
• Upon arriving at home, OP realized the pin’s legs were missing
• OP states Beltman/Dalton found the legs, said he could come back and get them or they could deliver about 5 days later
• OP asked for a “small discount” for his troubles, was sent an insurance claim to fill out

... Altan

Same here.
I always give the drivers some cash and tell them “here’s some taco and beer money for you”.
When they pull up they always say something like “what game did you buy this time?”.
Also in doing so they are way cool about the entire thing.
Sometimes we just put the machine in the garage until I figure out where I want to put it, but more often then not they are more than happy help me move it in the house to put it where I want it in the lineup.

My main problem with STI anymore is pricing, it’s to high! I have recently seen rates as high as $680.00 for a palletized game shipped 2000 miles.. game was high insurance value but still, too high for me! I’m done shipping games unless they are NIB form Distro.

Some deep words here....

Thought I would slip that in sorta speak on some inside info

Wonder if the OP will actually make a reply. Sorta bad form to light a fire and then run away. Be nice if they made this a conversation.

I trust them to give me a little more service than what $300 buys you from your distributor. As a matter of fact, I have seen way more NIB disasters in shipping as opposed to the zero I have ever seen trashed by Beltmann. Now my last shipment was a very rare add a ball and one I have been looking for for a long time. I wouldn't trust just anyone to ship it, so I spent the extra money AND time to have it get here in one piece. Was it worth nearly twice what NIB shipping costs? Yes it was for me.

Would be able to do the same with the deeproot thread? Thanks.

We live in a instant gratification society.The OP may be new to the hobby and not have an idea of what a good timeline is for shipping pins….this ain’t like Amazon and outrunning the empire ain’t like dusting crops…..We all get the need to vent but geez….at least have a valid complaint. Wait till he pays in full for a new Stern and has to wait months due to the backlog…..

We have seen many new people come and go. If this is all it takes to ruffle his feathers he will be gone like a fart in the wind.

It's the clueless noob credo.

Nothing to say; one-issue voter.

I like to brag on my distro. Last 3 NIB games I had in my possession less than 24 hours after ordering them. If he has them in stock, it goes like this.

Wednesday Noon.

Me: J.J, you got any JP Pro's?
I have one left...
Me: Here's my CC number.
Got it.

Thursday 10 a.m.

R&L: We have a delivery from Game Exchange ready for pickup.
Me: I'll be there in 10 minutes.

Faster than Amazon.