At this point, even if Nifty did the right thing, this thread should give prospective customers pause.

1) Inflating the quoted price.
2) Attempting to sell the customers machine.
3) Regestering a domain name to confuse customers of an already established business.
4) Lying about who registered the name first.
5) Snarky responses
6) Creepy naked pic on Facebook site

Have I missed anything?

We need a judge!!!

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A mechanic will be clear & up-front about what the costs will be. They usually offer a print out or write-up of some sort for the estimate for the customer to look over and approve (or not). It was foolish for you not to do this, but also foolish for the OP not to request something in writing, especially with dealing with sums like this and complicated work like this.

What you really should be doing is sending a write-up with an estimate to the customer, and listing exactly what work will be done. This protects both you and the customer. If there are any changes to that original estimate for additional items or costs (if you run into unexpected problems, or the customer expresses interest in having something more done/added), then send change orders for the customer to approve.

Most of us are fairly trusting in this hobby with folks we interact with, but when we're talking significant amounts like this, the people on both sides of the table really need to be very clear on what will be happening in order to avoid big disagreements like this.

He nearly did when you listed it on ebay and facebook right out from under him... This just compounded the whole issue of why the OP is so upset. I certainly would be. Completely unethical, IMHO, and you threw any goodwill you might have had for negotiation right out the window.

Just the fact that you need to place your order with Nifty for all your LED needs!!!

OK, my eyes are now bleeding from just reading all of this. As a business owner, I am going to give 2 cents worth of valuable advice to both parties.

Nifty, you trying to sell this machine, that IS not your property, is 100% illegal. Same with your so called mechanic's lien, you served no legal notice to the customer, it's toilet paper. You quoted the guy approx $2550, took over 2 years, but cannot show any additional costs quoted to the customer. You have caused some serious damage to your reputation. Your $800 offer made you look even worse.

Sticky, this is partially your fault for not following up with and demanding your machine be finished in a timely manner and asking for "where are we at" for costs. Nifty took as much time as you continued to allow. With that said, law in this case is on YOUR side. You actually may be due damages for him trying to sell your machine if this went to small claims.

Now, if the estimate was truly $2550, Nifty has all rights to exceed that estimate by 10% without having your permission. That puts this machine at $2805. Pay it , be done, BOTH SIDES.

That Nifty LED is not so Nifty afterall

Screw it, go to court. It's hassle, but once it's ruled on, there's no more back and forth and it's over. The difference the two sides are off here on the final offers is less than the time investment small claims will take. You'll both need to take time off work to resolve it. Have fun! Small claims sucks.

Wow, so much drama!!! I know where NOT to buy from..... I’ll stick to cointaker

I must be the only one who thought it was kinda fun going to small claims court....

This is true in ALL hobbies! I could've seen this happening to an amateur or casual restorer, that was NOT a business. The fact that the Nifty company IS a business has me left speechless. No documentation of price increases? Wow.

Hope the OP get's his merchandise back. I would have had a heart-attack if I saw one of my machines up for sale.

Amen!

Ya.......for us!

The only concern I have at this point for the OP is what condition the game will be in once he gets it back!

I wonder if the judge may rule that the game is worth the 5k that Nifty was trying to sell it for and award damages in that amount?

I've got a case against an insurance company right now for $1400. I could easily take it to small claims (have documentation and everything), but I just don't want the headache. I hate the process.

I know you are upset and it’s easier said than done considering the emotional roller coaster of the last few hours but... I’d pay the $3000 to have my game back now. I could enjoy it over the holidays and not let this fester for several more months. How long is the backup for small claims court - 6 months? Longer?

While I understand your sentiment is $300 really worth all that hassle (court, filing a report, fees, time taken). I'd pay what vdojaq mentioned get the game and call it a day. Instead of burrying your case in paperwork with lawyers, judges etc... Agree with nifty a pick time and get a friend who knows there shit to pick it up with the money in had. Hell you can even have him skype the damn thing so you can see first hand.

Yes, we have motorcycles. But being that 8 are from Milwaukee we also have a collective BAC of 76.92...
Luckily, like most WI residents, we also have scooters, which I believe you are legally required to be at 2.08 to operate.
California here we come! Boy is it gonna be a shitty Valentine's Day for you when we get there Nifty.

No, court is never about making someone more than whole. A 5k judgement for Sticky would be a handsome profit for him. Likely the Judge will offer Sticky 2 options. Either Nifty pays the $800 original cost of the machine to Sticky and Nifty keeps the machine (Both parties are whole) or the Judge will do some "rough justice" and decide how much Nifty should get for their work and then Sticky gets the machine if he pays that amount.

I need j_m_ profile pic right now.

No, this isn't a reward, but it is a verbal contract for the initial $1850. The other monies were in plain text. There is no need for revenge at this point, his reputation in this community is now shit(maybe not to some random guy with info from Utah).

If your time is worth the hassle at this point, by all means take him to court. He tried to rip you off, because he has no legs to stand on with the extras. But at this point, for $2800 you are getting a damn fine looking playboy, that personally I believe is worth all of $2800.

You get to walk away with your restored machine, enjoy it. He walks away with a damaged reputation that he may never recover from.

Is Nifty a member of the LED puke club?

When this finally gets settled I demand this thread, or a new one, switrch over to a shit ton of picture of this resto job.

We all want to know what a 4-5K 3 year job looks like

Does Nifty not have ANY business partners? If so, they have to be blowing up his phone or email over this trying to get him off the ledge. No way there's yet another group of 'businessmen' with any shred of dignity or sense saying "get em' Daniel! we'll show him who's boss!"...

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Do you have "Thread of the Year" on this site?

If it were my game or if it was my company I would call the other party and try to come to some sort of middle ground in a civil manner. Obviously the starting minimum is the cost of the parts and any written quotes and the maximum is the price that was requested to get the game back.
Surely both parties are best off to come to some middle ground and move on. This does not help either one of your reputations in the hobby.

Exactly... I can't believe this guy is acting like this and throwing away his business in a matter of hours. Just give the guy his machine back with the price agreed upon and swallow the pride. He also has to deal with his company name that he STOLE lol he'll be getting a call about that soon I'm sure. Sounds like a real POS.

Nifty, you just buried yourself. An invoice with today's date, after you tried selling this guy's machine on EBay and Facebook?

Does anybody buy LEDs from Nifty anyway? I mean, most people I see are buying from Comet or Cointaker.

10k posts by x-mas!

I think a hand full of California dudes did because its convenient but.. don't think 2018 will be very busy for him lol

I have in the past when Comet was out of stock on something. Never again.

No , but give him the legal $2805 and be done. After the little invoice scenario, Nifty would have to completely off his rocker to not take the $2805 and lick his wounds.

The letter seriously says you have to pay $4200, after he's already said $3k here? That's gold right there. No judge is going to take his side.

I would like to see an entire itemization of the parts costs that Nifty has done. Labor is additional but I just would like to see the parts and costs.

I'd still like to point out that OP has still not ever denied letting me proceed with the work even if cost wasnt mentioned..

Did he really think chrome was free? LED displays are free? LEDs? Plastic set?

11/28/2017 is the date I told you the total and the date that I wrote up that invoice...

No I hear most of their monies come from resto jobs

Nifty, don't be anymore stupid , accept the legal $2805 and be done with it.

Where are you getting that figure? nowhere has he said he'd pay that

sick bastard. LOL

Great, where is the legal service of the mechanic's lien to Sticky? You have to have that to sell his property. You tried to sell his machine less than the legal 90 days, hell 3 weeks, you are fucked.

That's literally what a coworker of mine told me just yesterday. And then I told him the whole story of what happened and he laughed and said I was still a sick bastard, but in this case, he understood why I thought it was fun. LOL

Posse'd up and ready for payback. You done messed up Thrifty.
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