I purchased a game from an pinball "company" called ANDERSONS ARCADE in Dothan Alabama this last week and to my surprise it was a complete turd. The guy described it as a mint condition, nicest game he's ever owned and all it needs are "two rubber rings". He also claimed it had "NEW BOARDS" and "NEW TRANSLITE" (bought fresh off ebay).
I told the guy that im originally from Florida and I know how humid it is, so I have no interest in any games with any sort of water damage... he assured me he "only smashes games with water damage".

When I received the game, I found the following problems:

1. Lots of water damage and swelling.
2. Rust/Oxidation inside the game.
3. Mildew.
4. Smells like a swamp.
5. Wear spot on the playfield.
6. Wouldnt start a game.
7. 2/3 of the lights were burnt out.
8. Blown Fuse.
9. No flippers worked.

I explained to him that I can fix the game, but I cant remove the water damage and mildew.

I have since asked him for some money back and he has since ignored me and wont respond to my messages. Luckily I paid with a credit card and filed a claim against this guy just this morning.

Sorry for the bad pix:

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No new boards and the translite had webs and water stains

The seller took sneaky pix, cropping or using angles that hide damage.

One excuse after another with this guy.

He mislead me, lied to me, sold me a POS as "nice" and "working".
his policy doesnt mean squat, because I didnt sign any receipt.

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--double post--

Here is some good news:

After bleaching and using some fabrese inside/outside the mildew smell is gone
I went ahead and fixed the game. Yes, I replaced the 2 missing sling rubbers it needed, fixed the flippers, several broken wires, adjusted the pop bumpers, waxed it and replaced **MOST** of the bad bulbs with LEDS.

Played a few games, plays well now. Gonna see all this goes then ill do a real shopping/cleaning.

jon

PS. F**K that guy

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Heh, here is a nice pic of the mushroomed plunger

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Wife just told me the game still stinks :\

hahahahah...

yeah guy is a total liar and a thief... and makes up excuse after excuse. Im going to laugh when the credit card company pulls the money out of his account soon.

jon

the guy blamed NAVL for the screws, he said that they werent there before he shipped the game.

I bought the ALPINE SKI, sure.. Even though thats a POS too, im ok with it.
The TX-SECTOR was completely misrepresented.

guy is a lunatic.

dothan.craigslist.org link

SURFIN Safari pinball machine $1,500.00
Gorgar pinball machine $3,000.00
Mr and Mrs Pacman pinball machine $750.00 (needs some work.)
Tx Sector pinball machine $2,500.00

wow, the TX-SECTOR doesnt need any work!

Hahhaha.. im enjoying your conversation.
I did all that damage to the game myself!!!! that makes a lot of sense.

Ive been in this hobby since 1997, why would I do such a thing??? idiot!

The TX-SECTOR pix he sent are very hard to see any damage, but having the game here I can see everything but only because I have the game here. The guy deliberately deceived me, plus he boasted about the condition both on the phone and text. Keep in mind that I had no reason to mistrust the guy, he flat out told me the game is in great condition.

wow! another person texted him and said I did that to them too?!! amazing!!

hahhaha.. this is out of hand now.

but i think its been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that this guy is a f**king scumbag

There are two sides of the story here, sure... Pix and the txt's dont lie though.
Thanks to technology, I have a lot of the conversation logged on my phone with this guy and I can show the pictures he sent where he cropped the pix and chose angles where it hides the damage.

Ive been in this hobby since 1997 and have a good reputation. This guy has blamed the shipping company and myself for damaging the game.. He also told RASCAL_H on those txt's that other OPS are calling him saying I did that to them also. The guy is unbelievable.

Anyone here really believe I would damage my own game? or switch games to rip him off? This guy is a huge liar and im blown away how blatant it is.

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I told this guy: "all I asked for was some money back". Since he refused to work with me, i had no choice but to do a charge back. He said he doesnt care, cause paypal covers him and im out of luck.

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Lesson learned? How do you protect yourself from a guy who lies about the condition and takes pix hiding the damage? I think in this hobby you have to be able to trust each other to make deals, but when someone is deliberately out to rip you off - you cant protect yourself in anyway without actually being there. THE GUY SAID IT WAS IN EXCELLENT CONDITION WITH NO WATER DAMAGE!

Im not a new collector and have purchased tons of games from people from all over the place, this is the first time ive actually dealt with a 100% dishonest, low life, lying scum that has an excuse or lie about every detail of the game.
The guy puts up a front on how honest he is, then stabs you in the back.

The best thing about all this is that I used VISA.

This guy texted me a few hours ago and told me that I cant do anything to him anyway, I cant press charges, I cant take him to court and "paypal" (thats who processed my card) has him covered, so I can f**k off.

I was still in open discussion with this guy, I told him I just wanted some money back and id deal with the game. I seriously didnt think it would go this far. Most people are reasonable, this guy isnt.

BTW, I dont even know if I will win the claim. Im figuring im stuck with it at this point. The only thing that made me feel better about all this was cleaning / fixing the game.

ok, so VISA called me and things are rolling now.
Ill wont be contacting the Seller any longer and will be going through VISA direct. Ill post info as I get it.

Thanks for all the support!

Jon

Ok, well here is the update:

1) the seller was a complete asshole, he wouldnt come off the idea that I water damaged the game myself. I'm a collector! Why the hell would I do that?

2) All I wanted was a couple of hundred back!!! I would have left him alone after that, but he completely refused. He thought he was protected by the credit card company so his attitude was totally outrageous. He kept telling me that I cant do shit about it. He told me that I had to go to his state and file a claim and the police wouldnt do a thing about it.

3) I had no choice but to file a charge back. I ended up getting all my money back. Karma caught up with him.

Im going to either send his game back, or pay him what I think is fair for the game and move on.

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Not sure really what Donovan has to do with this post or the 1up.
I have shot you a pm regarding the other matter.

Thanks!