Burned in St.louis...or should I say scammed

Ryan2Game

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st.louis, Missouri
I bought a NEO-GEO 4-slot from "Arcades & More" in Florissant. We agreed on $650.00 and they promised to add new T-molding, fix the marquee light, get a new overlay and make it look good again for my living room. They said I could pick it up September 1st. August 22nd comes around and my work needs me to go out of town for 3 weeks. I called the shop and explain to them I will pick it up on September 15th ( they basic got a 3 week extension on finishing the work ). I called on the 15th and it's still not ready. OK no big deal if they need a little more time thats cool. I called back on the 19th still not done. Called back 21st still not done. finally I get a call on the 26th to come and pick it up, so I rent a truck and head down their. I get their to see they have not really done anything to the machine. they added t-molding but when they got to the top of the machine they stopped, which would be fine if it were going into some arcade at the mall but this is going in my home. They did not fix the marquee light, they didn't even remove the original lock so i can't even fix it myself, they didn't change the overlay and it gets worse. I decide to take it home because I already rented a truck and I hadn't discovered all the problems yet. I get home and try to play Art of Fighting but somethings wrong. My fighter is will only jump strait in the air and not lunge forward with a jump kick. I open up the control pannel to discover 4-way controls were installed instead of 8-way sticks! I called them up to discuss the problem and they basically told to F-MYSELF. Don't ever buy anything from those guys or you are just going to get RIPPED OFF!!!!!
 
That sucks. I would have checked everything before I left the store. Losing money on a rental truck is still cheaper than getting screwed over on $650 cab.
 
Your so right, but I thought I could call and they would just help me out. I am new at this and I guess I was just excited about getting my first machine home, a mistake I will not make again!!!!!!
 
Man, I didn't know this place was a ripoff but I went in there maybe 3 months ago and the guy looked at me like I was speaking Zulu when I said I had a few Jamma cabinets. His question was "so what is in your game room?" and I said the jamma cabs and he just looked bewildered like what's Jamma, is it a game? Granted this was not the owner but whatever ex-used car salesman he had walking around in there on a Saturday.

So this Neo-Geo was a standup machine? I could have found you one for a lot less than that. $650 is what they wanted for some sitdown Neo cabinet but when we went up there it was "in storage". The guy said we should have called to view it, I almost replied, don't run a store front and advertise shit if you don't have it on hand, but I let it go and we left after about 2 minutes. I got the impression the buy stuff just to sell it and do no work on it. The guy also made the comment that there should be a "program" that gets together buyers and sellers for arcade parts. I almost replied yeah its called the god damn internet you idiot, but I held my breathe until the door closed.
 
I've never heard much of people having good experiences with buying a game, then getting the seller to do additional work. Dont' buy anything in anything other than 'as seen, as is' condition... you just can't trust them to do any more work to it.
 
if they are a retail shop and you have a contract, i would contact the better business bureau.. if you paid by credit card, see if they can stop/block payment until the issues are resolved.
 
What the hell - you didn't use a credit card? If you didn't there's your second mistake. This isn't a case of AS IS this is a case of you as a buyer getting scammed.
If you used a credit card do a charge back and call them up and say "fuck me????Nawwwww fuck you."

If you put up with this shit they will continue to do this. It all starts with each and everyone of us not putting up with this bullshit.
 
I'm sorry to hear about that. I'm used to buying broken and fixer upper games, but then again I pay bottom prices. There's a few of us St. Louis collectors on here, and we are always available to contact and "bounce" thoughts and prices off of for future purchases. Give one of us a shout out next time your looking.
 
Well, it sucks that you got taken, but at the same time, all those things are incredibly simple fixes. It should take less than a half hour to fix all of these problems, except perhaps for the overlay (cleaning off the old one is a pain). Furthermore, you should be able to get all the materials you need for less than $50... Figure $20 for new T-molding, $10 for a marquee light, $15 for a brand new joystick, and you should be good.

The only pain in the neck part is the overlay, which takes time to do right, and might be hard to find. I have no idea why they wouldn't have fixed the light or put on T-molding properly, and the wrong joystick is inexcusable. I'd go over there and complain, explain the problems, and what it'll cost to fix, and see if you can get a few bucks back so you can buy the supplies and just do it yourself.

-Ian
 
Sounds like you met Rich Dion. If you would have posted about dealing with him prior to purchae, you may have learned something. Sadly, he tried to screw me on a del abou 8 years ago. and i have never forgotten about it, and gladly tell others not to buy from his store.

Whats worse is that i sold a real nice 4 slot last week. for 450.00


troy
 
Well looks I learned the hard-way but, Ian is right it should not be to hard to make the repairs myself, it's just that they made promisses and then failed to deliver and I have never worked on an arcade before. I really want to learn how to repair and restore arcades I just didn't plan on making this my first project. I think I saw that neo-geo on ebay and it even looked better than the one I purchased.
 
if it makes you feel better, my one slot is sitting in a converted buck rogers cabinet with water damage and it smells like mildew.
 
Well, it sucks that you got taken, but at the same time, all those things are incredibly simple fixes. It should take less than a half hour to fix all of these problems, except perhaps for the overlay (cleaning off the old one is a pain). Furthermore, you should be able to get all the materials you need for less than $50... Figure $20 for new T-molding, $10 for a marquee light, $15 for a brand new joystick, and you should be good.

If we're talking about a genuine MVS 4-slot, the marquee light being fixed as part of the purchase is a pretty big deal (since it uses the EL lights instead of a fluorescent tube).
 
Give a shout to electricgrave over on the neo-geo.com forums about overlays. He does MVS artwork.

If your Neo Geo has audio problems it may need a cap kit installed in the audio section. This is a common problem.

Other common problems are:

Marquee lights don't work. They are EL panels and not bulbs. You can buy EL panel material off of eBay to redo them.

Batteries leak. Take the top and bottom boards apart to check on the battery. If you see ANY crystalline growth on it you'll need to replace it ASAP.

If you have any questions on the 4 slot boardset give me a shout. Repairing them is a specialty of mine.

RJ
 
Sucks this happened for you on your first game. Learn from this mistake. Check around with your local KLOVers first next time for heads up info, assistance, or waaaaaaaay cheaper NEO GEOs.
 
What kind of 4-way joystick is it? Some of them are switchable between 4 and 8 way. For example, with a Happ Super, all you need to do is flip the actuator around.
 
I bought a NEO-GEO 4-slot from "Arcades & More" in Florissant. We agreed on $650.00 and they promised to add new T-molding, fix the marquee light, get a new overlay and make it look good again for my living room. They said I could pick it up September 1st. August 22nd comes around and my work needs me to go out of town for 3 weeks. I called the shop and explain to them I will pick it up on September 15th ( they basic got a 3 week extension on finishing the work ). I called on the 15th and it's still not ready. OK no big deal if they need a little more time thats cool. I called back on the 19th still not done. Called back 21st still not done. finally I get a call on the 26th to come and pick it up, so I rent a truck and head down their. I get their to see they have not really done anything to the machine. they added t-molding but when they got to the top of the machine they stopped, which would be fine if it were going into some arcade at the mall but this is going in my home. They did not fix the marquee light, they didn't even remove the original lock so i can't even fix it myself, they didn't change the overlay and it gets worse. I decide to take it home because I already rented a truck and I hadn't discovered all the problems yet. I get home and try to play Art of Fighting but somethings wrong. My fighter is will only jump strait in the air and not lunge forward with a jump kick. I open up the control pannel to discover 4-way controls were installed instead of 8-way sticks! I called them up to discuss the problem and they basically told to F-MYSELF. Don't ever buy anything from those guys or you are just going to get RIPPED OFF!!!!!
Get in touch with the local paper or news station, get them some really good publicity of this game in question. You may not get anything out of the deal but you may help out the next poor schmo that thinks they are a good business to deal with.

-Tim
 
I bought a NEO-GEO 4-slot from "Arcades & More" in Florissant. We agreed on $650.00 and they promised to add new T-molding, fix the marquee light, get a new overlay and make it look good again for my living room. They said I could pick it up September 1st. August 22nd comes around and my work needs me to go out of town for 3 weeks. I called the shop and explain to them I will pick it up on September 15th ( they basic got a 3 week extension on finishing the work ). I called on the 15th and it's still not ready. OK no big deal if they need a little more time thats cool. I called back on the 19th still not done. Called back 21st still not done. finally I get a call on the 26th to come and pick it up, so I rent a truck and head down their. I get their to see they have not really done anything to the machine. they added t-molding but when they got to the top of the machine they stopped, which would be fine if it were going into some arcade at the mall but this is going in my home. They did not fix the marquee light, they didn't even remove the original lock so i can't even fix it myself, they didn't change the overlay and it gets worse. I decide to take it home because I already rented a truck and I hadn't discovered all the problems yet. I get home and try to play Art of Fighting but somethings wrong. My fighter is will only jump strait in the air and not lunge forward with a jump kick. I open up the control pannel to discover 4-way controls were installed instead of 8-way sticks! I called them up to discuss the problem and they basically told to F-MYSELF. Don't ever buy anything from those guys or you are just going to get RIPPED OFF!!!!!

Sorry this happen to you it really makes good retailers look bad. We go out of our way to make sure we do what we say. This is a very close net group with these games that you just cannot get away with that long. They cannot stay in business and do that type of business.
 
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