That's bull. Police departments have a "financial crimes unit" whose sole job is to go after scum like this guy. If there's enough money involved, with multiple cooperative victims who stay in contact with the investigator (key: stay in contact), they will pursue it. This case is very prosecutable.

Bump

Yeah, BUMP!

Bump

To Jonathan’s credit, a month ago he promised another $1,000 toward my refund on March 16. He made good on the promise. Still a ways to go to make us all whole.

I received another payment one day earlier than the agreed payback plan. I'm not trying to get into anything...just wanted to make sure that I reported status for the rest of the group.

OP here.
Jonathan’s contract to me stipulated that he would pay me monthly until I was made whole. Today I received my first installment- 3 days early.

Great updates, guys! Nice to see follow-thru...

I’ve bought a couple from Jonathan and there were issues with slow delivery but I did receive them. If I ever did another deal I would have to probably receive the pin before paying just to be safe. I’m glad he is taking care of the people who had issues

Boy wouldn’t that be nice

Yep, I don’t see it happening but if he wants to build trust back that’s the only way I’d do it.

UPDATE/EDIT: Jonathan has made good with me. I do believe he was overwhelmed so given that all was taken care of I'll just leave it at that.

Original post (edited out that he still owes me FYI to be fair)

I reached out to him when I saw the original thread and the promise that he was making everyone whole... and he texted me back that he was tied up and busy with all the things going on and that he would reach out to me. He never did. Zilch. Just like the olden days. I used to send him the invoice of what he owed me and I felt like he treated it like a joke!

If you look at my activity here, I don't do much pinball anymore... and he's one of the main reasons I was left with a sour taste in my mouth with this hobby as his actions created friction at home with my wife... I won't get into everything, but the fiascos I went through involved games that my wife had personal interests in and it stung.

We know he’s paid back some or all of the stolen money to 3 people.

Can only imagine how many dozens of others are in the same boat as above.

I received my first of ten payments as well.

Are the payments still coming to those owed ?

Yup.

Third installment is due soon - will find out

I just received my third installment. I'm now 41% paid back!

Someone must have given him a call...

Liam (resized).jpg

I got my April payment and have gotten confirmation from others.

Fantastic CRWjumper!

I got my may payment just now. Hopefully everyone else is being trued up! I really appreciate crwjumper for kicking this into gear and I appreciate Jonathan for working to recover from a bad situation.

I do love stories of redemption, it’s great to hear that people are getting their money back.

I got another payment today as well.

Same here

Awesome, this is great!

Yep, all the asshats in this thread that were weighing-in with all the "advice" (like going to the Police, hiring lawyers for a class-action lawsuit, etc.) were wrong. The solution that crwjumper spearheaded on Pinside was right-minded from the beginning. Thanks, Bill! Glad your efforts have helped so many Pinsiders (including me).

Hindsight looks perfect. Yes, it looks like things are working out great so far. But how many times does it end like this?? Almost never. No reason to hammer people that thought otherwise. I’ve been following this for some reason and I’m sure everyone is pleasantly surprised and was rooting for this outcome for all parties. Congrats.

So it took the guy getting called out in public to get results. 'Asshats' got you your money back which you apparently didn't mind losing

False. None of the people giving inane advice were actually people that got ripped off. You know nothing about the situation...nada.

Seems like more than one incident which is alarming.Isn't it.
Regardless of all the Good he is doing and repaying his customers money they sent him.
Will anybody in their right mind use this Outlet Again .?
All you fighting on here is just stupid . The way this is ,is Crazy !!

Glad you got your money back Erick . Was always a pleasure dealing with you on your Games .

4 or 5 squeaky wheels - from the center of the Pinball universe, Pinside - get their money back. How many aren’t?

But, good show asshats!

Remember this is pinball!
JJP hasn't produced a game without playfield issues and yet people buy (I'm guilty)
Mad Amusement has been ripping people off overseas for years and people still buy
Dutch Pinball took the money from people and for a long while no one was getting their money back but make an announcement that you're restructuring and that EA will get their machines if new buyers line up .... and they did.
Mirco keeps making poor quality pf and yet people buy them. He post on Pinside all the time selling his stuff but never addresses quality issues. (In all fairness I have had 4 machines with Mirco pf and never had an issue.)
Classic Arcades produces some of the poorest quality repro parts and yet .............

Not knocking the above companies, just proving a point that the pinball hobbyist are some of the most forgiving people when it comes to losing money or poor quality products.

Should've omitted this part. It wasn't really fair to Mirco.

More accurate if you had said:

"People bitch about Mirco that has been the opposite of my personal experience. But I will still sling mud to make a point. "

Is it possible that the vintage playfields - produced at a fraction of the volume of JJP playfields - are screen printed the old way? That would explain no pooling in those.

Either way, Mirco is making these JJP playfields, and deserve a share of the blame.

I received my June payment on time again. I think Jonathan is actually doing a great job of building his credibility back. He is also helping me with a Stern claim on one of the games I purchased from him.

Again, not trying to start anything...just posting for record keeping and others out there in the same situation.

You would have to have your head examined sending him money for anything, ever again.

It's nice that he's paying people back but let's not get carried away. You'd seriously have to be a mental patient to consider sending him any additional money for any additional games at this point.

There's a other million people selling NIB pinball machines. Why take the chance?

Agreed, I think he was (finally) about to face some serious legal results / jail time, and a few of his friends knocked some sense into him.

Received July payment.

I am the OP of the original thread: “Beware of Jonathan Demare / ASOA” which was locked due to a lynch mob mentality that was developing in that thread. This thread was opened to continue the discussion in a more civil manner.

Today Jonathan made his final payment to me and no longer owes me any of the money that I had given him for pinball machines.

If you are unfamiliar with my original situation, please feel free to read the original thread.

This is GREAT news Bill! Thanks for sharing.

Just curious where you stand today - would you order another game from ASOA? Just happy to get your money back? Etc.

I personally would 100%.

I personally would 100%.

This

I was also paid in full. About 3 weeks ago .I happen to call Jonathan just to see if he had any Mando’s LE that he can get .Well he came back and told me that he had one that I can have for $10,500 what was paid for it.So ASOA told me to give him a few days to make sure that a family member did not want the game.3 days later I contacted him and Jonathan now says that he wants $13,500 for because that what the market was bringing for the pin.about the time we were getting paid back Jonathan told that if I ever wanted a another game that I will still get a discount.Some discount!! $3000 price increase in 3 days.I texted him bac k and told ASOA what I thought of him and blocked his number. I will never ever do business with ASOA again.Once a scammer always a scammer.We would’ve never gotten paid back.
Thank goodness that crwjumper(Bill) that he called ASOA out.Just a word of advice.There are tons of other distributors who are honest that you can buy pins from.ASOA(Jonathan is NOT one of them)

I would never give Jonathan another penny. Throughout this whole ordeal he has been communicating with me and still has never admitted what he did to us. He is a very skilled con man who uses gaslighting and mixing the truth with lies to make you believe he is your friend and an honest man.

Make no mistake. Jonathan is not a friend. He is a liar and a thief and if you send him any money you are making a big mistake. What he did he did without any regard for our personal situations. He attempted to steal over $150,000 from us. This was something that he carefully planned and executed prior to the pandemic. He gathered funds by promising to deliver pins that he had no intent to deliver to us.

When speaking with him he acts as if you are his best friend - you are not. He is a very convincing liar and a thief. He will make you believe that he has nothing but the best intentions and gain your trust. He did this to a large part of us in the pinball community for several years and then when we all trusted him he attempted to steal a huge amount of money from us. This is the worst type of person. He shows absolutely no remorse and refuses to admit that what he did was wrong.

I guarantee you this: If I had not written the original post, obtained a lawyer to begin legal proceedings, and threatened to put him in jail he would still have all of our money. During the last couple of years when he was stealing our money he continued to promise each of us that he would pay us back or deliver pins. But he never gave back one penny. He told us that he had so many different problems happening to him and his family as a stall tactic, but still would not return a cent. But when he realized that he could be held accountable and possibly go to jail, he suddenly found plenty of money to pay us back. His first payment to me was $12,500. This was my (our) money that he had readily available but had no intention to give back.

He relies on his access to inside information to give us tidbits of truth mixed with lies. He is a pathological liar. He believes that he is an honest and innocent man but he has no ethics.

In the future he will gain back the trust of many people who he has scammed before and those who do not yet know him. He may deliver pins at good savings for a few years. But after he gains trust he will steal again. A leopard never changes his spots.

Jonathan told me also a few weeks back that after the pinball money was paid off. that he will be back in full force selling pins again.Just to shows that he is already planning for his next big scam!

You have got to be shitting me LMAO

You’ll probably be able to get one for 10,500 soon. Now that people have them there are a bunch of ads up to sell them. The one guy in Georgia keeps dropping his a couple hundred a day and is down to 11.4K. It’s a great pin but with 750 LEs you’ll find one close to 10.5 I bet