What a tool. Do you have documentation of what you agreed to? I would think as a non-lawyer that would put this to bed pretty quickly.

Wow... thats.. Wow. What is going through his mind? What a total ass.
Talk about bad publicity..

As of this moment, he HAS stolen your machine. Luckily for you, at the price that he is trying to fence the goods, I doubt it will change hands again(even in crazy California market) before you get a chance to proceed with legal action.

Don't go see lawyers for small amounts of money since just a few hours will be $1000.

I think the police will not do much here since they may consider this more of a complex business dealing. He didn't break into your house and steal it.

Small claims court is I'm guessing your best bet. Document carefully every last piece of correspondence youself relating to the agree upon price and timelines. Then file a claim yourself, show up on date, and tell it to the judge who will make the call.

Quickly get unemotional about it and just go through the process above as I've found getting worked up about it will cost you ten times as much in stress & lost productivity. Life is short, you win some and you lose some - in the end you will get justice anyway one way or another if you go to small claims. Everyone eventually has to go through stuff like this so good luck.

If he has possession of your property he can do anything he wants with it and I know this must be maddening. Whatever he does, he will owe you $ in the end and it won't look good I small claims when you show him the ad.

From his perspective he might be justifying the sale by claiming that he has a non-paying client for the work he's done so he's going to recoup his losses. But if there is nothing on paper (a detailed contract) detailing his rights to seize your property and sell in the case of non-payment for his work, then he will have to answer for that.

Just when I thought I’ve seen it all. Man this sucks. Hopefully you can get your game back.

Is this the same NiftyLED that advertises on The Pinball Podcast?

Wow, I would love to hear the other side of the story....

RyanClaytor is that you in this photo? Can you reach out to help this guy out?

Sad, I hate when I read this stuff... You try and be nice being more than patient and it seems you always get screwed.

Hopefully this will work out for you and he will respond accordingly.

Guess I'll steer clear of nifty led... Almost bought from that site.

What's odd about this is from your last text exchange, it seems like the negotiations didn't exactly hit a brick wall, there was dialog going on about the job.

Hopefully cooler heads can prevail. Good luck.

Is this the place associated with surfsidedetail?
My apologies if not...

Sorry, a little off-topic, but..
While I'm no graphic designer, I did often work up various business card designes for companies..
I'm really confused by this. WTH does a basket of fries have to do with LEDs?

Glad to hear, I was reluctant to ask as I didnt want to bring him into this...but thought he could help if it was...

PM sent

So the original budget was 1850. Then throw in the 500 for boards and 200 for "touch-ups" brings it to 2550 you were expecting but he also did LED displays for 300, LEDs for 125, chrome for 700 and plastic set for 150 so that's 1275 in addition to the 2550 for a total of 3825.... there is 375 not accounted for! So are you saying he took it upon himself to do the chrome, plastic set and LEDs on his own and never mentioned it to you?

I don't want to comment too much without hearing the other side of the story but what sticks out to me is the chrome job. Was there ever any conversation about chroming? That is a big ticket item to just add on without permission first? Do you have anything in writing for an estimate for work to be performed?

I really feel for you and hopefully this situation can be resolved, $5000 for a restored Playboy is nuts!

Oh crap I almost forgot to add the popcorn GIF....

mwcpopcorn.gif

Is there anyway to go through eBay to report the game as stolen?

Pretty sticky situation.

Not sure what he is thinking? There is a process in California to collect a debt, and it does not include taking someone's personal property to settle such debt. You have the upper hand on this one.

Typical with used Playboys.

scroll down and just above the description field there is a REPORT ITEM .... click on it!

2 years and 3 months? That is nuts. He should not have taken possession of the game until he was close to starting it. I have had full blown bally restores done for way less with clear coated playfield. $500 for board work? You can buy all new boards for $500.

You NEED to call law enforcement NOW. Do the work to get a police report filed and be sure that you provide print outs/ scans off 100% of your communication with the guy.

It appears you have stuff well kept track of and this guy flat out stole your game and is trying to sell it.

Take screen captures of EVERYHTHING you find on it as evidence. The more work you do for the cops the better chance they will be able to get something done.

I would add niftyled in your title also. Most folks around here know that name over orange county pinball.

This would be a prime time case for Judge Judy.... I can hear her now " So sir you indicated you could perform a partial restore on a pinball machine for $1850 within a 6 month time frame and now over two years later you are asking for $4200 with nothing in writing?" Eye's roll as she looks over to her bailiff, and they nod in agreement.

Police report should be first regardless of the outcome (if they can help or not) it just adds to your case.

for sure! Always worth making sure you get the thread on fire and get the word out. If the guy has even a speck of understanding on how business works he will see the thread, contact you privately to ensure you get the machine for EXACTLY the quoted price of the restoration, and then you can return to say all is resolved.

If he is stupid he sinks his business.

5k for a playboy will sink his business too. Once I see a price like that I'm not going to bother looking any further and anything priced right I'm going to assume is a piece of shit.