Yup. Make them WISH they had settled for $14k. What a sleaze response on their part.

https://www.mymovingreviews.com/move/file-complaint-against-movers/

Looks like there's a few other steps you may be able to take.

most of these companies are on social media so I would basically say make this right or I will trash you online.

people do read reviews for moving companies etc

Waste of money... whats a lawyer going to do?

You have to read whatever paperwork you signed and I doubt there is anything there the lawyer can work with.

Take lots and lots of pictures and probably a video of you moving stuff to inspect better. Get as much evidence as possible so there’s no way they can blame you for making something worse. I would definitely look at everything more thoroughly so that you know EXACTLY what is all broken or damaged.

We went thru a loss with a moving company - found some of our "lost in transit" stuff in a pawn shop - glad we had serial numbers and pics, and even further happy that pawn shops were required to get a pic of the seller(s) and then check serial numbers. Once police showed up at their "warehouse", settlements came pretty easy. One thing to remember, part of the settlement claim (At least for us) was an NDA about the settlement, including social media. Fortunately, our social media bashing was BEFORE the settlement, so bash away!

This sucks, however as the owner why would not prep the game to travel... legs off , head down lots of wrap?
Looks like they didn't strap it down , sadly I see a Pinball rolling down the road because I'm assuming the balls were still in the game.
I wrap and protect my game just moving them local.

What does your transportation contract say for liability? Unless you signed up for declared valuation (i.e., $14,000), you are probably only able to collect $0.60 per pound. For a 300 lb. pin that's like $180. Good luck.

Maybe not. Is there a signed contract? Does contract state what they will provide, ie vehicles and protection\strapping. If so, then they broke contract by not sending a company vehicle.
One could probably argue that they did this on purpose to avoid any liability for damages.

What a horrible result, I hope you can get them to take some responsibility!

It appears most of the damage is to the coin door panel and bottom panel, as well as the display

A led replacement from Big Daddy wouldn't break the bank , would actually freshen it up

I feel like you could repair the cabinet based on what I see

Why is there no glass anywhere? No way were they able to clean all the glass.

Sorry to see something like this happened to you and your dad. It’s horrible. Did you post the moving companies name? Wasn’t sure if I saw it. I understand if you wanna wait. But people need to know who did this shit, eventually at least.

Ugh and sorry.

Here's my 2 cents. I'm with ForceFlow here.

1) It looks like the cabinet damage isn't so much "a piece is broken in half or has a giant crack or a hole" but rather the bottom and the front came out. These pinball cabinets are very old and were basically glued together initially -- it's not uncommon for a cabinet to split apart even without sudden mover damage. While it's hard to tell, you might be able to put the parts back together and clamp/glue.

2) The electronics in the backbox are probably fine.

3) One picture shows a numeric display with all the wires cut. I'm not sure what happened here because another picture seems to show the speaker/display panel all in one piece.

4) There may be damage to wiring or mechanisms on the bottom of the playfield. It would mostly be from falling onto something and cutting wires or bending parts.

5) The top of the playfield looks fine and probably wasn't significantly impacted

6) The flipper switches on the inside of the cabinet as well as the tilt bob and some other boards that mount on the side should be inspected. Were they torn off or damaged?

Wishing you a speedy repair

My guess judging by the way its loaded is that it slid to the back and hit the tailgate, this ripped the front legs and the coin box off of the cabinet. The glass probably slid right off and onto the street at that point.

The force of the accident probably snapped it off.

When the sticky tape is no longer holding the glass to the PCB, the glass tends to flop around, and the legs of the glass don't really do a good job at securely supporting the weight of the glass.

I doubt that it was cut off.

You might also consider small claims court. I don't know your state, but limits can be as high as $15,000 depending on the state. The hearings are much more casual, judges understand the sides are not trained lawyers. So your chances are good if you go in well prepared, and I like the argument that they broke the contract by sending a non-company truck. And, if you win against a company, it is a lot easier to collect than against an individual. If they don't pay, file a lien against the company. I have only had to use small claims a couple of times, but worked out well both times.

Looks like Tennessee has a $25k limit. Wow. My area has a $3k limit.

I agree, that may end up being a big benefit. Not like you called the moving guys and had them do a "side job", if that's what the company sent over, that's their problem.

People who aren't "pinball people" move games like this all the time. They don't know better. And the movers don't care either, they just move the game as-is. Nobody's fault really it is what it is. The OP probably doesn't know how easy it is to fold the head over.

When you take these guys to court, make sure you bring the back of the head with you. On the back, it says “never move a game with the hinged backbox erect”, in 7 different languages.

Heatsink on top of bridge rectifiers shifted, fasteners missing. Weird.

It matters.

Atlas Vanlines paid me $4600 for breaking my 4ft tall, 30 year old lava lamp

Lava_Colossus (resized).JPG

I would probably bring the guy with the truck into the mix/lawsuit also. It would probably answer more questions.

Did the company send him out knowing he might be using his personal truck for the job? Did the guy get specific approval to use his truck for the pinball machine from his company? Then it’s the company that’s liable.

Did the guy go against company policy and use the truck for the job? Then it’s the worker that’s liable.

Novus 2

I truly hope you paid for full value insurance with this, otherwise you will only get a couple hundred max. We moved a few months ago and the movers were awful. They damaged quite a bit of furniture, destroyed a doorframe, broke my standing desk, and slid my treadmill on it's side across the driveway (badly gouging the sides). It was mostly cosmetic, but I was incredibly thorough with the claim and ultimately received $6500 from them.

If you paid for the insurance then you should be able to get this reimbursed, but you will need to be extremely thorough and never stop calling for updates on the claim.

That’s a hell of a story. No traffic cameras?

Man that is awesome!

I sent you a PM. Music City Pinball will get you a good quote for insurance purposes.

Looks like he took off and machine hit tailgate and then tailgate fell down and game crashed into the street.

So he hit it hard enough, that the machine bounced out of the bed? You mentioned it was loaded differently when it arrived.

Kills me to see this.....

Can you spell "Meth"?

It fell over on its side taking a turn.

The glass went outwards on the fall, so most of that glass is still on the road.

See if you can't find said glass on the side of the road (since it isn't a huge distance) and take some pictures. Tempered glass is messy.

And see if there’s a camera. Whether it’s a business, or home doorbell, or traffic camera

So sad. What about all the wires stretched in the idc connectors? And under the playfield. This could be a nightmare for a long time. Sure it's repairable but at what cost?

I haven't felt like puking in a long time, but this did it..

The thing NOT to do is to trash all the parts. It CAN be rebuilt. I have never brought one back from the brink of death like this one but if I had the playfield and it was nice, I would remove all the parts, buy a new premade cabinet, and use all the parts from the damage. The electronics should be fine. Just dont throw any of the parts away. If they settle with you, make them give you the parts. You can sell a populated playfield to someone who will make sure Rudy lives on (like me.) It is a real shame but no need to scrap out a project that can be made whole again.

Did they put it in the truck with the legs still on or something? It's either that or they would have had to driven like dumbasses, maybe texting. People get cut off all the time but you usually give yourself room especially if your transporting something.
Regardless that sucks, hope you get Rudy put back together again.

Newest communique from moving company: "We are sorry to hear that a fuse was not the issue. We are also sorry to have caused some minor cosmetic damage to your pin table. As for our method of transporting, we did not fold down the box top as we did not want to damage the wires. Concerning leg removal, while we did not initially remove them our crack team of moving experts realized their minor mistake and successfully removed them during transport. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance."

Looks like the legs are off. I am thinking tailgate came open and game dumped on street.

I’d retrace the 5 mile route, there will be broken glass and other evidence, snap some pics of it, can only help if you decide to go the small claims route.

wow

this for sure