PBR..Love em!!!

[Olivia_jason]

what is pbr's website again, i lost it from my bloody favorites lists.

[Crashramp]

http://www.pbresource.com

[Olivia_jason]

http://www.pbresource.com

cheers mate i kept putting two r's

[Pinballace]

I know the system gets a bagging.. but once you are in.. PBR are just the best.

I ordered 4 off 31" legs.. rubbers... 1965 shooter housing.. chrome acorns.... coils.... flippers and housings.... AMAZING SPIDERMAN bumper caps.


Emailed them a couple of days ago to say i hadnt received an invoice or update... has this been sent etc. Reply was that it has been sent.. heres the tracking.. invoice in the box.
Well it arrived today, went through the order and saw 2 SPIDERMAN drop targets.. cool i thought.. they threw in a freebie, but then i saw my bumper caps were missing - order was wrong.
I emailed this afternoon and said i would probably know someone with an order.. let me check and you can add the caps to that.

I got the reply... sorry for the mistake, your caps have already been sent out.


Now remember, this is all unpaid so far, it is REALLY hard to find a company that deals with trust these days. I have to do it with my business.. im ALWAYS owed plenty of money and have on occasion rang non payers threatening a visit unless i get paid... trust in business sucks.. people take the piss.
Ill pay Steve by Western Union.. i have a gold card and it costs $9 to send to USA.
My 31" legs are just stunning.. so good to get BANK A BALL to the correct height..this service is a lost service these days, but i REALLY appreciate the old school way it is done. Postage on box was US$96.50.. i got charged US$101... thats $4 for the custom box and handling.... again... all unpaid for....so far.

Cannot give PBR a big enough thumbs up.....

Greg (RTBB) and I got to spend an afternoon at PBR a couple months ago.  Their operation is much more extensive that I thought.  They have a lot of original production machinery and manufacture a large number of parts in house.  It was quite an enjoyable afternoon Steve and his wife Gloria are tops!

[goodolddays]

Order confirmation email 10:23PM Wed 21st May

Order received yesterday (29th May) 

[Pintoxicated]

I have never had an issue whatsoever with about 4 or 5 PBR orders now.  I am happy to return the trust and probably have a small amount of credit on my account from sending through a little bit extra each order to make sure I cover all the costs/exchange rates and the like.

At first the order process is daunting but once you sample the old fashioned service it makes it all worthwhile.

I won't even start with MAD Amusements!!

[Strangeways]

I've been ordering from PBR since 2001. At least 6 orders per year. I've only had ONE issue with them - a package that went missing for 3 months and then ended up at my address full of coffee beans - but no parts missing.

If RTBB does not have the parts, then PBR are the next best bet. I'm now using a "wire transfer" that costs $20 and takes 5 minutes. Fantastic !

[Slash]

PBR have great prices and great service. BUT their payment methods are a joke if you don't live in the US. $20 for a wire transfer may be ok on significant size orders but for smaller ones it basically kills the deal for me, which is a shame coz they have been fantastic the couple of times I ordered from them. The guy Jamie who I have dealt with was great, very helpful and really quick and clear with his replies.

If they didn't wanna use PayPal then fair enough, but surely they could offer a direct credit card facility?

[Slash]

^ I meant Jimmy not Jamie.

[Strangeways]

PBR have great prices and great service. BUT their payment methods are a joke if you don't live in the US. $20 for a wire transfer may be ok on significant size orders but for smaller ones it basically kills the deal for me, which is a shame coz they have been fantastic the couple of times I ordered from them. The guy Jamie who I have dealt with was great, very helpful and really quick and clear with his replies.

If they didn't wanna use PayPal then fair enough, but surely they could offer a direct credit card facility?

I think they were subject to Credit card fraud in the early 2000's and that's why they stick to the old methods. Personally, PBR are $20 cheaper that most other suppliers and their shipping coast are actual costs. The mark up some suppliers place on shipments is bordering criminal. PBR, Pinballlife and Pinrestore are fair suppliers. There are some that I simply will never buy from because their shipping and "handling" costs are absolute crap !

[Slash]

Agree the shipping at other places is a joke.  I liked with PBR that I was dealing with a real person that worked there.  I remember getting messed around badly at Marco's when something was out of stock.  It seemed like they outsourced their customer support or something to somewhere else, because the follow up emails I was getting about estimated times for restock and other info was clearly only generic second hand info.  I don't know if it was the case but it seemed like the customer support had been outsourced to India or something.

With PBR I sent a contact in the USA money by paypal then they posted PBR a cheque.  Not ideal tho and I wouldn't want to hassle them every time to do that for me.  You make a good point tho, what you pay in transaction fees you probably save with realistic postage.

[Homepin]

BUT their payment methods are a joke if you don't live in the US.

If they didn't wanna use PayPal then fair enough, but surely they could offer a direct credit card facility?

This is all pretty easy to say if you are not in their shoes (as I am).

PayPal is a complete joke and a CON! If you use it as a seller (like I do) you can build in AT LEAST 10% for fraudulent buyers - buyers simply have no idea just how shifty PayPal is but a HUGE percentage have worked out how easy it is to defraud sellers if they use PayPal. EVERY seller you use that offers PP is charging you 10% more than they need to to cover this - me included - please remember that next time you spruke about how marvelous PayPus are!

Getting a credit card merchant facility is not easy nor is it cheap.

I guess the bottom line is they have stuff nobody else does and if you want it then you pay the way THEY choose, after all it is their business.

[Pintoxicated]

I am between a rock and a hard place with a new business venture in it's infancy stages.  Bank fees are exorbitant and it simply isn't worth me paying monthly fees so people can pay online at the time of booking a course with me so I just have a portable EFTPOS machine which still attracts a monthly fee.  Next option is Paypal whose fee per transaction is a tiny bit higher than the bank but there are no monthly charges.  With Paypal card readers on the way at a one off fee of $139, it is very tempting but I have concerns about security when the reader is only linked to my phone via bluetooth.

The best payment method for me is turning out to be cash on the day of the courses I am running which in turn has it's own issues such as carrying a wad of cash around until I can get to the bank to deposit it....and then if I deposit that many over the counter I get charged another fee anyway.

Anyway...back on track.  I don't think it is a coincidence that arguably some of the best suppliers e.g. PBR and RTBB don't have credit card or Paypal facilities.  It would only end up increasing the cost of the goods which is the point I was going to make before my little rant.

[Strangeways]

PBR's Bank now charges an undisclosed fee of US$25 per wire transfer. I've NEVER seen this trick pulled by any overseas Bank. Even after checking that ALL FEES are paid locally and deducted from the account, their Bank slugs an extra US$25 without authorization = three days later..

AUS$60 in fees just to do a wire transfer at the crap $ rate the bank offers. An absolute disgrace !!

 

Back to international cheques and they can wait 3 weeks for it to get there.

[studley67]

mildflame received a cheque from his auntie in the uk.20 pound sterling.for his 17 th birthday.
he was excited after doing the exchange rate and realizing he had nearly $40 aus gift.
WELL,i took him to the banksa friday to deposit said cheque.he was in there a long time so i went in and found him having to sign a proceedure document to process the cheque.I was a bit concerened and asked what was going on.
was told the said cheque had to be passed back to the uk.and go through many hands before it could be credited to his account,at a cost of $10.50 aud plus they gave us a total crap exchange rate.\

he will end up with about $ 19 aud in 4-5 weeks.banks suck big time.ps if said auntie had sent a 20 pound note,it would stiil have attracted a fee of $10.50 plus the same crap exchange rate.

WTF is this world banking system doing????