First, I am fine with someone posting my Pm, in case that saves somebody from being moderated. I did not want to add fuel to the fire, so I did not respond to the post. Since people are saying negative things about me without knowing me, and taking my having no desire to badmouth anyone else, or say anything negative at all about other people in the wrong way; I am now going to defend myself.
I sold the Taxi machine to John a few months ago. He requested many pictures and multiple videos of the game playing before deciding to purchase it. He was originally going to pick up the game, but later decided to ask me to do him a favor and have it delivered. I listed the game at my cost in error, and later changed the price to what it was supposed to be listed at. The customer saved the original detail, and showed it to me in text, so I did what I felt was right, and honored the lower price. I believe I was selling it for around $5k, and the customer paid close to $4k, maybe as high as $4200. I did not argue, and once he sent me the original listing, or maybe even in text form, I agreed that it was my mistake, and I honored the lower price. The customer was told that I had not gone through the game as of yet, but that the game did work as it should, and that the game looked great. Rather then waiting for me to go through the game, he wanted me to deliver the game to him at an earlier date, since my delivery person was on the road on the day that we were discussing the deal, and the driver was within an hour or two of his location. Even though I broke even on the deal, and with gas and tolls being outrageous these days, I had the game delivered to him for $250 in order to make him, a new and hopefully very happy and satisfied customer. When the game was delivered to him, he told the driver that the game looked " even better than I expected it to be". Before I go further I would like to say that I take fault in not going through the game before sending it to him, even though he knew that fact, and wanted it anyway. Please remember that I had previously sent him several videos of the game being played in the condition that he was to receive it.
I am not sure if it was the next day, or maybe even 4-5 days later, the customer called to say that the machine was not full LED as stated in the listing. Apparently the most current listing showing the correct price did not matter unless he was looking at all of the upgrades that I was going to do to it after I had gone through the machine. Being that I do care about the people that buy machines from me, and that I am not a " Scumbag scalper" as I have been called on this thread, I offered him several options. first I offered to send him a full LED kit, and a full upgraded rubber kit free of charge. When that was not enough, I offered him his cash back, and he said no to both. He demanded in a very derogatory way with pretty harsh words ,and a very condescending tone that I go to his house personally to install the entire LED kit, and rubber kit immediately. What I did wrong at this time was to respond with harsh words. I know better, and I am a professional and ethical person, and I should not have lowered myself to the point where I was matching his harshness. I refused to go to his house and jump through unreasonable hoops for someone that was cursing at me and speaking to me in such a derogatory way, but I did not take the two other options off of the table. Horrible thoughts came to my mind that reminded me of the car wash scene from the movie Dodgeball, which made my stomach turn...
A few hours later, I called the customer, and got his voicemail; where I left a message apologizing for my part in the argument , and for taking part in such a non productive conversation. My goal was, and always is to make the customer happy. I have never denied a customer assistance, or said "No", when asked by a customer to assist in any way that was reasonable. I have even agreed to pay for a few repairs that were needed by customers here and there that were from purchases made than 6-12 months prior to the issue occurring. I waited a few days, and after receiving his voicemail once again; I thought that he finally realized that he knew what he was getting (A nice , 100% working Taxi, at a lower price than expected), and that he had come to see that the argument was frivolous and unnecessary; as I did. I thought that he too was not feeling good about himself for taking part in the previous conversation.
A while later, after not receiving any communication what so ever, the customer went on some campaign of posting negative and selectively inaccurate things on every ad that I had placed on several platforms. He was attacking me personally as if I had kidnapped one of his kids, or done something deliberately to harm him personally. This is how I put food on the table, and I do not understand how this person whom did not attempt to communicate with me any further could now deliberately try to hurt my livelihood, which obviously is a serious thing. Much more serious than a small dispute over a relatively small amount of money.
I had people that had never met me bad mouthing me on this thread, and most of which are small dealers that buy and sell in or around the area which I work in. I also had one or two out of maybe 500 customers complain about issues that they had had in the past which were not communicated to me. My ads were being flagged by him, and taken down, and he did cost me money by doing so.
After slandering me, and misrepresenting the situation; I do not see a way for him to repay the damage that he has caused me. Of coarse I am still in business, and he did not dramatically affect my livelihood, however this situation also bothered me mentally, because I try hard to be ethical, and to do the right thing in every situation. Now, people have judged me based on things that are not true, and a situation that I did my best to resolve amicably with the customer. All of this while the customer did not do his part in being reasonable and fair; as I believe that everyone should always be. Finally, I called and spoke to him. I told him that what he was doing was wrong and that he should stop, because it was slander. He demanded that I now give him a full refund and go and pick the machine up, or pay someone else to. He then found an individual that we both knew that was willing to do the pick up and delivery. for a relatively small amount of money. After thinking about it, I decided that he could not repair the damage that he did, and that I did not do anything wrong to this customer to warrant his actions, and that I did not want to comply with this blackmail mentality of demanding I comply or he will continue to slander me. I did not think that it was right for him to act in this way.
To avoid this from happening again, I will no longer send a game to a customer prior to going through it, unless they sign an invoice saying that they are purchasing an as-is game. I have also implemented a 7 day 100% credit trial period with all purchase of pinball machines. I give a 1 year 85% or more trade in credit, which usually turns into 90%, and a 5 year 75% or more trade in credit policy. I also follow up with customers more after their purchase is made, and do all I can to prove to people that I am no scalper, and I never was a scalper.
I plan on opening a showroom in the 2nd quarter of this year which will include a, arcade, mod store, video game store, E-sports arena, and to launch a new website. I plan to open several showrooms in major cities across the country over the coming years, and my reputation is very important to me. I do care about my business, and my name. I do not have an issue admitting a mistake, and I am a humble person that works hard and knows how to build a business. I have 30 years of experience in gaming. I had a company that I started in 1990 named Game Gallery, and grew the business to 18 stores, which I later sold to a fortune 1000 company in 2004. I had one of the first company's that took video game trade ins, and when my company was purchased by Electronics Boutique in 2004, one of the VP's there told me that they copied my used game program when they started taking trade ins in their 2000 locations... I had been taking trade ins several years prior to EB Games accepting trade ins. The HQ for EB Games was just over an hour drive from many of my locations in PA,NJ,MD, and DE.
Although I feel as if I was wronged by this customer, and the damage that he has called is not repairable, I will still extend him 100% credit towards anything the he likes in my inventory. I honestly do not feel that I owe this person anything, however I am willing to do my part to fix this in his eyes as well. I do not feel that I owe him anything, however I do realize the we are all human, and things happen in our daily lives that cause us to act differently than we normally do sometimes. The full refund is however off of the table, because I do believe that I was wronged here, and the customer had a chance for a full refund before, but instead decided to not communicate and instead decided to slander and bad mouth me.
Manny 215-840-3147 - I am a nice person, I can speak to anyone, and I would have preferred to not make this personal. I have done my best in this message to not talk bad about anyone, and it was especially hard to not say anything derogatory about the people that do not know me that had such harsh words to say about me in this thread.
Greystone Park, NJ
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