Quoted from dgposter:
I completely agree about the QC concerns at JJP. So much so that it had delayed my purchase of POTC. However, I did finally pull the trigger on an LE from Chris at KingPin Games. Here is what I decided to do to ensure my game has the best chance of arriving at my door in the best possible shape.
I am paying Chris extra to open my game and tweak it for me. He is going to install the Cliffy set, ModCouple disc silencer, new Titan rubber set and the Tilt side art blades. He will then playtest it and dial it in perfectly before shipping it out to me in a wooden crate. Chris follows this thread closely and is aware of what needs to be checked out, so I feel I am in very good hands.
I do realize that there are a number of things that can still happen in shipping from KingPin to me, but I'm ok with that. Most of the issues I'm seeing don't seem related to shipping anyway. I'm just trying to save myself as much frustration and downtime as possible.
I am not saying this is an acceptable solution. Not by a long-shot. But hopefully, JJP is paying attention and is trying to take steps to improve their quality control, so that in the future, their customers don't feel the need to pay 'extra' to help ensure a working product out of the box.
This is a long overdue update to this key post and a shout out to Chris@Kingpin Games.
TL;DR Chris is an awesome distributor!
My original post states that I wanted to maximize my chance of receiving a trouble-free JJP POTCLE, so I hired Chris to have the game shipped from JJP directly to him. He would then inspect the game, add some mods and play test it before shipping to me in a custom-built crate.
Well, the game showed up at Kingpin Games in perfect condition. No issues. He then proceeded to complete the above and shipped it to me in CA. The game arrived and looked perfect from the outside. There was no damage to the shipping crate. However, once I unpacked it, I noticed that the ship wasn’t connected to the back panel, as the bracket holding the ship had sheared off. Then I noticed the same thing had happened to the chest, with that bracket shearing off as well. The right ramp had a crack in the back of it and the monitor had become dislodged and scratched the back glass from the inside.
It was obvious that the crate had been dropped. It wasn’t hard enough to break any glass, but it was enough to cause the above stated damage. Unfortunately, the game was unplayable, and I had to break the news to Chris. More unfortunate was the fact, that since Chris had opened the original box for me and repackaged it, JJP was not liable for any of the damages and it would be a tough road trying to get the shipping company to pay for anything since there was no visible damage to the crate.
However, none of that was necessary, because Chris stepped up and took care of everything for me out of his own pocket! He had JJP send me the new parts I needed to get the game up and running. I installed the parts, fixed the game and it is now 100% perfect! Not only that, Chris also sent me a very generous gift for the time and effort I spent fixing the game.
The first day I talked to Chris to order my POTC, he told me that no matter what, he would do everything in his power to make sure I’m a happy customer. He also told me that he was a man of his word. Chris is absolutely that and more. He is a great distributor that I would highly recommend and will do business with again in the future. Thanks, Chris!
Ok, back to playing this amazing game!