Fenton, MO
Quoted from javagrind888:Craig posted this on Facebook in response. He also posted refund receipts.
"My company has been smeared by would be customer by Brian Burns of Arlington, Tx. His post is unjust and I feel the need to defend myself and my company as this person has blocked me and several fellow colleagues in the hobby/business who denounce his accusations as they have had similar bad experiences with this impulsive, entitled and difficult to work with customer, they like myself are blocked by Brian Burns with the inability to defend ourselves.
It’s a shame this had to go this way and I’ve tried to let it blow over, but the blatant lies with no proof are definitely on the grounds of defamation of character and borderline slander. So all that being said I’ll make my own post as my defense and let the jury make their decision as to how we handled this and know we will never sell to Brian Burns again and I’d advise others to proceed with caution. When dealing with this
Many false accusations were made in his post (that I can only see from people sending me screenshots)…since he has blocked me.
FALSE:
Fun required my game to be delivered and wanted to charge $150 for delivery and they put 65 games on my new machine.
TRUTH:
We DO NOT require a $150 delivery fee. Customers are always welcome to pick up their machines from our store free of charge. We do however require that a new pinball is unboxed / checked for concealed shipping damage (which happens more times than you think) and play tested for proper operation prior to or at pick up. This is to ensure the game leaves our store free of damage and to preemptively squash an immediate in home unnecessary service call. At the request of Mr. Burns we photographed his boxed pinball before it was opened and and he wanted to know how many plays he could expect on his machine, I estimated 5, and it was delivered with a total of 4 plays. I must admit I was apprehensive for our technician to play test it anymore than that as it seemed odd someone wanting to see the boxed game and wanting to know the precise game play on his new game but I know how eccentric some collectors may be. He claims 65 games? Why would we deliver him our floor model? That is simply setting us up for failure. Hindsight I wish I would have have a taken a screen shot of his "LIFETIME PLAYS" Screen but never thought it would have been necessary until now and considering he has had the game for upwards a month now, there is no way to prove this other than his blatant lie.
FALSE:
Fun promised to deliver both of my games for $150 and changed terms prior to delivery
TRUTH:
Upon visiting our store in January and trying out game’s in our showroom Brian decided to preorder a Rush Premium and Godzilla Pro. I informed Brian that both of his games would be arriving in March and offered our delivery service of both games TOGETHER for one delivery/setup fee of $150 to which Brian agreed as stated on his sales invoice. In early March Brian’s Rush Premium arrived into our store. I contacted Mr Burns and informed him his Rush had arrived in and gave him the option A: wait until your Godzilla arrives in for both to be delivered as originally agreed upon B:We deliver Rush now and follow up with a separate delivery at a later date when Godzilla arrives in but a separate delivery fee would incur of $150 would be applied. Brian immediately lost his cool and demanded I deliver his game and a second delivery charge was b***s*** (his words). Trying to save face and keep the customer happy in the offset chance there was a misunderstanding and appreciative for him spending a considerable amount of money with us, I conceded and agreed to deliver the Godzilla separately at his residence - located an hour away from our store.
FALSE: FUNS warranty is BS and they wouldn’t help or replace my LED board.
TRUTH: Upon writing up ticket for these games to Mr. Burns I informed him of our warranty period and did tell him it includes 30 days labor and 6 months parts support from Stern Pinball. I further explained to him that if a warranty issue would arise we ask that you call into our store, and speak with our inhouse technician and try to resolve over the phone before sending a tech to your home as most issues on a new game are minor and can be resolved with tech advise in a matter of minutes. He agreed and told me how he owned several other pinball machines. Seems like we were completely on the same page at this point.
Fast forward to a week or so after his Rush was delivered he Facebook messaged me and informed me that the LED board wasn't working on the button on his lockbar and asked if we could check it when we delivered Godzilla. I told him of course, but suggested that he remove the lockbar and take a look at the LED board and see if it's possible the connector came loose from the LED board. To which he said he would
Last week Brian's Godzilla Pro arrived in, my son contacted him collected the final balance and scheduled delivery of his Godzilla Pro.
On the evening of April 6 at 5:56pm (and all of the following takes place within the next 3 hours via Facebook messenger) I was Facebook messaged by Brian stating that the lockbar button LED was still not working and asked if we could bring one upon upon delivery of his Godzilla. I informed him I did not have that part on hand and getting parts for Stern games has been difficult and I would not be able to get it in time for the delivery. I made the suggestion to expediate getting the issue resolved quickly to drop a line to Stern via e-mail (providing him their e-mail address) and said to give them him your name, phone number, game title and serial number and someone from their tech department would contact him to troubleshoot over the phone and send the replacement part. Immediately Brian got hostile, cussing calling our warranty BS and a joke. I told him I was not trying to blow him off.....moments later he messages me and told me he bought a new LED board off of Marco's web site. Why? If it's under warranty the manufacturer should replacement it. I further went on to say, I was not blowing you off and by all means we would come out and fix it but you've literally went off the rails before following proper protocol's with Stern Pinball in an effort to order an Advanced Warranty Replacement Part.
Next I'm being told, you have changed everything about the purchase of our two games and I'm coming tomorrow to pick up my Godzilla in the Carton and I'll be leaving you a scathing review of this entire transaction. I informed him again, that if he is picking the game up in the carton, he voids our 30 day warranty on the game. Again further insulting our warranty.
I'm at this point actually in shock that this customer has became so hostile, vulgar and irrational on just about every step of our transaction. I never intended to blow him off on the repair and by all means I would have had our technician come out to his house, but to demand I have the part on hand when I make the delivery is absurd.
Giving it second thought of how difficult he has been, knowing I was getting a bad review no matter what. I made the business decision to refund Brian Burns his payment in full for this Godzilla Pro. As difficult as he has been to work with and demanding to pick his game up in the box. Furthermore, considering his payment for this game was made by credit card, it really just drew a red flag with me. Everything about him has been odd, and demanding. I honestly don't trust the guy. I felt like letting him pick the game up in the box, I could almost certainly see a charge back on the premises of a false damage claim or something else about the game didn't meet his standards.
I informed Brian that I had made the decision to refund his payment in full for his Godzilla Pro. He then accuses me of being unethical in letting him pick up his game and states he has friends in the police department that will be on stand by as he picks up his machine the following morning. Bottom line, it just isn't worth selling a game to Brian Burns. I told him if he wants to have the police present...by all means please do. They can be present as I issue you your refund back on my credit card terminal first thing in the morning. To which I did, full refund was issued first thing in the morning April 7th. The deposit was originally collected on the previous owners merchant account prior to my ownership, I informed Brian we would (and did) cut him a check for his deposit and it was mailed Express Mail, with signature required for delivery to which he has already received and cashed.
FALSE: FUN! Billiards is not an authorized Stern Distributor
TRUTH: We are not a Stern Distributor, we are a Stern Dealer and specializing in game sales to the consumer home market. We can be found on the Stern Page, in the dealer section. We sell well over 200 new Stern Pinball Machines a year and are proud to do so with many happy new and repeat customers from around the United States. ....but there is always gonna be that one. If this is my first bad one in about 5 years...I think I've done pretty good. This is business I don't need, Brian Burns can go buy his pinball machines somewhere else. I don't need his business as bad as he thinks I do.
I'm happy to screen grab our entire text diatribe. As others have stated, there are two sides to every story and Brian Burns only wanted to show his, without letting anyone defend themselves and make himself look like the victim."
Boohaaha.
