Freight Low Act - Newcastle

[swinks]

Just on principal I need to start a thread to warn people of a low act by a freight company or someone in link with a freight company in the Newcastle area.

I was contacted by a forum member (call him FM) from Vic who recently sold a nice, fully serviced and very clean mid 90's Williams game that went to a local Newcastle guy.

I don't know who the freight company is and nor do I want to mention the respected FM person nor the game (Mystery) for that matter as this is irrelevant but this notice is merely a heads up and ask questions and my advice to you. I have been asked to keep certain people's details from this thread by those involved but on principal I just wanted to make people aware of a hopefully one off situation.

The Mystery game left Vic and should of been a standard 3-5 day trip to Newcastle but took strangely 12 days with the same company used from Vic like always but this delivery was different as normally goes straight to the customer but this one was different as it went to different company depot in the Newcastle area and god knows what happened in the mean time but we identified some things today.

What we know is a leg was bent and side trim damaged as well as the backglass plastic channel broken - these things do happen so not the main focus of this thread. Strangely the machine was sent with the backbox folded down with a pillow tightly in between to stop the well know backglass dropping out and to stop any bounce, but the bigger issue is restart issues.

From that FM contacted me at the beginning of this week asking a favour to inspect and problem solve a reboot issue. I have never met the customer so it was a fresh start for both of us. The game would reboot continuously so we checked the regularly plugs etc and it was interesting that quite a number of the screws were a little on the loose side. Also the main large driver board was swinging in the wind with multiple screws left out. In addition the dmd board looked so different to the other immaculate 3 other boards in the backbox. All the other boards had crystal clear fuses and all components were nice and clean. The dmd board was filthy with 2 fuses that you could not even see into. I chatted with FM and we confirmed while on site that the dmd board has been swapped during transit.

All I can say is - "What a low act"

In addition it was odd that the driver board was very loose and missing screws and a few suspect fuses as FM uses the same type of fuse and all the 5vdc fuses were of random brands which you can only wonder if something has been swapped?

Since this was a freshly serviced machine for the customer and on confirmation of photos I took we can say that 2 boards have been tapered with and boards swapped in and out of it. While writing I got a call and machine is down again which suggests the problem is also with the driver board and probably fixed to the board. We did some tests and solved a few obvious issues but looks like there was a reason to swap boards out but these people probably didn't think we took notice of the details. In addition I have heard a rumour on the grape vine for a little while that Newcastle has a little bit of reputation for pinball board theft and this just proves the point.

So my advice if sending any game take photos before you send and take photos of the boards and any serial numbers and details that you can tell it is without a doubt yours and then if the new owner gets it they can compare photos and go from there.

Also maybe send the cabinet and backbox key via registered post separately so if someone has to get in it is obvious.

Hopefully this makes you more aware and cautious, sorry to be the grinch but would prefer to warn people than to keep it from people.

[Strangeways]

I would be looking at complaining to the Freight company for starters. If you have photos "before" and "after", and can prove the game was tampered with, then put in a complaint with the freight company and go to the police.

Unfortunately there are people you simply cannot trust, and people that will go "above and beyond" to swindle others. But as an industry person, I'd like to know who the transport company is so that I avoid doing business with them.

[KBRI1700]

I would raise the issue with the freight company and report the issue with the police.

You are paying for a transport service and for things to go missing is a concern

[swinks]

I agree with you guys hence why I felt the need to post here and warn people but it isn't my place to report to police and freight company as I will leave that between the owner and seller but it is crap and felt bad for both parties - my place was to witness the problems, try and solve, take photos and report back.

sorry to share the negativity the night before Christmas but felt it was important.

Merry Christmas everyone

[Strangeways]

Suggest to the buyer that he takes some form of action (with the transport company). At least it goes on record.

[Retropin]

Its a real issue..
Few years back I sent an EM down to the Goldcoast on a Thursday or Friday. Guy rang me early the next week to say the machine didn't work. I drove down to sort out the issue and saw he had a piece of MDF screwed into the back of the head.
"Where's the back door" I asked.. he replied that it came like that and assumed I had added the timber.
Turns out the truck driver took it home for the weekend and had a bit of a party, lost the back door and knocked one up on his Tritan table saw hoping to get away with it, which he nearly did!

I'm afraid that once it leaves your hands, you really have no control over what happens to it.
Since then, I've shrinkwrapped each machine to oblivion and emailed pics of the machine prior to pick up

[swinks]

I would even go one step further and leave a note inside the cabinet and backbox stating that all components have been cataloged with a smiley face (photos)

Suggest to the buyer that he takes some form of action (with the transport company). At least it goes on record.

I will mention that to him

[4_amusement_only]

Thanks for the advice. Good advice to take onboard - especially separate key postage

So we think what happened here is somebody along the freight lines saw that it was a pinball machine matching their system, opened it up, swapped boards around and left it in an obvious swapped state due to lack of uniformity, wrapped back up and away it went? Seems a very strange thing to happen

 

Perhaps relaying this message to the other forum to see if there are any leads on this matter would be in order.

[swinks]

Thanks for the advice. Good advice to take onboard - especially separate key postage

So we think what happened here is somebody along the freight lines saw that it was a pinball machine matching their system, opened it up, swapped boards around and left it in an obvious swapped state due to lack of uniformity, wrapped back up and away it went? Seems a very strange thing to happen

 

Perhaps relaying this message to the other forum to see if there are any leads on this matter would be in order.

it was so obvious it was dumb and careless but also down right crap to do to someone as bet they wouldn't want it done to them, plus this same customer has bought 3 pins in total from the same seller each time using the same freight company and normally taking 3-5 days - this delivery left with the same company but arrived with a different company 12 days later - gotta wonder.

as for the other forum, I am not on AA so I won't be posting there but at least I can share here