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Board repairs


RaoulJuke

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Just wanting to ask some advice. few months back i had a repairer out to fix my 82 bally. Had stopped working & on the flash test, it was almost getting throw, only missing non the final flash. Got a repairer out to have a look who took the table with him for around 7 weeks & it all ended up costing over $900. Majority of the quote was on reconditioning all the boards. There was one coil replaced & he put some new rubbers on the play field. Game came back working ok but within a week i lost all the sound and lamps, it was blowing fuses and a slingshot had stopped working. I also saw that a circuit had fried on the reconditioned regulator board. Called him out and he isolated the slingshot issue and got it up and working for me (without the slingshot not functioning and isolated) & we agreed to arrange another time for him to come take the regulator board to repair (as not having the game for 2 months and having a party at the house the next day, was keen to have it functioning as we were fine on waiting the 7 weeks as long as it was ready for that party). Took about a month for both of us to both get around to coming back to fix like agreed (no fault on either side) & he has done so but now hit me with a bill for another $200+. Claiming that the issue was caused due to the slingshot coil and it caused the circuit to fry & it was completely unrelated to everything else i had paid for. The other lamp/sound issue he is saying is just a connector issue to the power module and again, completely unrelated.

 

Not real happy to be paying any more to get stuff fixed as i would have expected the game to work for at least a month or so before shitting itself again. Also, i would have thought that fuses would have blown before any circuits on the reconditioned regulator board would have gotten friend?

 

Am i being unreasonable or what?

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You need to understand that these machines are OLD - OLD - OLD!

 

They were originally thrown together with the intention that they "might" last for five or six years - they are WELL past the use by date!

 

Unless you are prepared to learn to sort issues yourself you will need to have deep pockets I'm afraid.

 

You're pretty lucky someone would come and work on it for only $200 - I wouldn't get in my car to do a service call under $500.

 

Even new pinball machines have NO LABOUR warranty.

 

Oh - and paragraphs are your friend - it's difficult to read a wall of text.

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your issue is a classic example of the reason i dont do onsite repairs on old games.

 

there is no way he will have replaced every transistor on the board. thats just silly. The others are all the same age and might well die any day. then again they might work for 20 more years too.

 

They dont tend to say "bugger it im out of here", they usually die for a reason. Perhaps you got a switch stuck playing the game in your excitement to get it back and didnt notice the sling stuck on. it could well happen with the other slingshot next time you do it. Customers tend to blame the last person to touch their game for anything that goes wrong with it next.. but you cant do that. its old and needs ongoing repairs.

 

200 is a gift. call it a lesson in owning old pinball.

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I don't think you are being unreasonable however repairing these old games on site is just a nightmare, you really need to get the whole machine to somebody who can repair and soak test it properly.

 

Cheers, to clarify he did have the machine for 7 weeks in his workshop, i paid $150 for him to pick it up and drop it off.. It was only the call out after drop off where he did a little onsite stuff (mainly to get it up and running for the party) & he took the damaged board with him to fix and diagnose. I've found him good to deal with up until this point, but was not very impressed to be hit with another bill for another repair so soon.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

You need to understand that these machines are OLD - OLD - OLD!

 

They were originally thrown together with the intention that they "might" last for five or six years - they are WELL past the use by date!

 

Unless you are prepared to learn to sort issues yourself you will need to have deep pockets I'm afraid.

 

You're pretty lucky someone would come and work on it for only $200 - I wouldn't get in my car to do a service call under $500.

 

Even new pinball machines have NO LABOUR warranty.

 

Oh - and paragraphs are your friend - it's difficult to read a wall of text.

 

To clarify, the service call was only after he had the machine for 7 weeks in his workshop and i already had paid $913 on getting all the boards reconditioned. He did not do the any work really onsite -the other call out was only 1 week after it being returned after this repair and was for a fried circuit on one of the boards that had been reconditioned.

 

Surprised to hear new pinballs have no labour repairs - even the Pinball Warehouse offers a 30 day warranty on all repairs - thats pretty shit from Stern and co.

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Cheers, to clarify he did have the machine for 7 weeks in his workshop. It was only the call out after drop off where he did a little onsite stuff (mainly to get it up and running for the party) & he took the damaged board with him to fix and diagnose. I've found him good to deal with up until this point, but was not very impressed to be hit with another bill for another repair so soon.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

 

 

To clarify, the service call was only after he had the machine for 7 weeks in his workshop and i already had paid $913 on getting all the boards reconditioned. He did not do the any work really onsite -the other call out was only 1 week after it being returned after this repair and was for a fried circuit on one of the boards that had been reconditioned.

 

Surprised to hear new pinballs have no labour repairs - even the Pinball Warehouse offers a 30 day warranty on all repairs - thats pretty shit from Stern and co.

 

....and also shit from Homepin. We won't offer any labour warranty. If we did the sell price would go up by at least $1000 - these are not consumer products purchased by every household like a toaster.

 

They are very specialised and highly complex machines.

 

Think yourself lucky you even found someone prepared to take on the repair AT ALL!!!! Forget the price - it isn't relevant.

Edited by Homepin
spweling
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your issue is a classic example of the reason i dont do onsite repairs on old games.

 

there is no way he will have replaced every transistor on the board. thats just silly. The others are all the same age and might well die any day. then again they might work for 20 more years too.

 

They dont tend to say "bugger it im out of here", they usually die for a reason. Perhaps you got a switch stuck playing the game in your excitement to get it back and didnt notice the sling stuck on. it could well happen with the other slingshot next time you do it. Customers tend to blame the last person to touch their game for anything that goes wrong with it next.. but you cant do that. its old and needs ongoing repairs.

 

200 is a gift. call it a lesson in owning old pinball.

 

Yep, same reason I stopped in home repairs too.

 

Regards,

 

Johns-Arcade.

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....and also shit from Homepin. We won't offer any labout warranty. If we did the sell price would go up by at least $1000 - these are not consumer products purchased by every household like a toaster.

 

They are very specialised and highly complex machines.

 

Think yourself lucky you even found someone prepared to take on the repair AT ALL!!!! Forget the price - it isn't relevant.

 

Each to their own I suppose, although I just re-read your post and noticed you said labour only , not parts. I can understand labour not being included, as with a pinny you can have a number of very small issues happen that to a newbie, is outside of their realm of repairing comfort - but in actual fact, can be repaired easily. You definitely need to buy them knowing you got to be willing to get your hands dirty and learn some basics of repair

 

My first love is speakers, Valve amps and record players & have spent a considerable amount of money comparable to a new pinball machine on individual pieces of equipment for that set up. New equipment always come with at least a 1 year warranty on parts & the suppliers have always been willing to provide new parts or even total swap overs if an issue arose they could not diagnose. For example i got a pair of speakers from Zu Audio, a small boutique company based in Utah & an issue arose where one of the drivers kept dropping in an out. Drove me ****ing mental. They gave me a bunch of instructions to try and self-repair it, but the issue continued. They ended up sending me out a new set of already burned in Drivers to replace both the speakers to ensure parity. So if i perhaps come across as spoilt, maybe i am as thats what i am used to when forking out thousands of bucks on luxury items.

 

In saying all that, none of this would be compliant with ACCC regulations, especially in regards to Australian Consumer Law - Customer Guarantee's. Under it, effectively every item sold in Australia is protected with an automatic guarantee under that law that guarantees replacement, repairs etc. Ebay is the same now too. Every item on Ebay is automatically covered with a 30 day guarantee - be it new or old. I recently sold a 2nd hand record player to a chap on there and 20 days in he messaged me that it stopped working. EBay automatically took the money out of my account & I had to provide a full refund. In return though, i did get a newly broken record player.

 

Probably a good tip for anyone wanting to sell a pinny on Ebay - don't do it, unless you are willing to offer a 30 day guarantee (this is for all items sold as "in working condition" used or new).

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

You should of bought new replacement boards for that price

 

 

Ha, know that now - but when i started this repair 3 months ago i had 1 table and was a total novice. I now have 3 and a better idea of how to go around these things.

 

End of the day, we all need to make a living and pretty happy to pay specialised people for specialised services. I love pinball and without the sellers and repairers it would have been dead years ago. This repairer has been great to deal with, very helpful - i was just a bit shocked at the additional charge as i was under the impression it was part of the original cost. Probably if anything, more a lesson on clear communication & expectations etc. He actually agreed to cancel the cost and i am offered that we split it even. Ive also passed his number on to quite a few others for repairs so hopefully he can get some more work out of it all as well.

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Also, i would have thought that fuses would have blown before any circuits on the reconditioned regulator board would have gotten friend?

 

Fuses are only there to stop the machine bursting into flames

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

You need to understand that these machines are OLD - OLD - OLD!

 

They were originally thrown together with the intention that they "might" last for five or six years - they are WELL past the use by date!

 

Unless you are prepared to learn to sort issues yourself you will need to have deep pockets I'm afraid.

 

You're pretty lucky someone would come and work on it for only $200 - I wouldn't get in my car to do a service call under $500.

 

Even new pinball machines have NO LABOUR warranty.

 

Oh - and paragraphs are your friend - it's difficult to read a wall of text.

 

Yes photos would be of help, puts the quality of the work done into context

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I repaired a SS pin for a guy 70km from me, & I charged him $900 for board repairs, a PF clean, rubbers, a couple of coils & new globes. About a week later he phoned angry that it wouldn't turn on, So like a fool I drove some 40 minutes to find his wife pulled the plug for the vacuum cleaner. I charged him $30 for fuel, should have been more but I was being nice. People are idiots and we have to deal with them, no offense but they are.
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I repaired a SS pin for a guy 70km from me, & I charged him $900 for board repairs, a PF clean, rubbers, a couple of coils & new globes. About a week later he phoned angry that it wouldn't turn on, So like a fool I drove some 40 minutes to find his wife pulled the plug for the vacuum cleaner. I charged him $30 for fuel, should have been more but I was being nice. People are idiots and we have to deal with them, no offense but they are.

 

Haha, mate ive worked in retail and customer service for 22 years - they are everywhere, not just pinball. I now deal in a field where i deal with Dr's, Prof, Ass Profs - some of the smartest people you are ever likely to meet - but some of the random questions and mistakes they make are beyond belief!

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I now deal in a field where i deal with Dr's, Prof, Ass Profs - some of the smartest people you are ever likely to meet - but some of the random questions and mistakes they make are beyond belief!

 

It isn't a matter of smartness, it's a matter of expertise. If I were asked to figure out something simple that isn't working in a field I'm completely unfamiliar with, I'd probably screw up too. And a lot of people are simply too busy or don't have the inclination to spend the time it takes to learn something about their machines. For them, it's easier to call a tech and, depending on what they do, it might be even be cheaper as well. If I have a job that pays $1,000 a day, I'm better off working that time than spending it fixing my pinball…

 

Also don't forget that, for quite a few pinball owners (especially rich ones), the pinball may not be a hobby or focus for them. It might just be that they decide to fit out a party room, and the pinball is just one of many things: "Right, I'll take that $35,000 wet bar, the pool table, the juke box, and the 16-channel sound system. Oh, yes, before I forget, do you have any pinball machines? It would be nice to have one or two of those as well."

 

Having said all that, I still believe that some level of understanding of how a machine works and how to do at least basic maintenance is something pinball owners should learn. At least to me, tinkering with my machine is therapeutic and, if there is something I don't like in the way it plays, I have an idea of how to tweak it to make it work better.

 

Different strokes for different folks.

 

Michi.

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I repaired a SS pin for a guy 70km from me, & I charged him $900 for board repairs, a PF clean, rubbers, a couple of coils & new globes. About a week later he phoned angry that it wouldn't turn on, So like a fool I drove some 40 minutes to find his wife pulled the plug for the vacuum cleaner. I charged him $30 for fuel, should have been more but I was being nice. People are idiots and we have to deal with them, no offense but they are.

 

I had a really similar experience to this. I repaired a classic Stern machine for a guy a year ago. I loved the idea of working on the machine and getting it back up and running as it had been sitting in storage for years. I completely stripped the playfield, cleaned it, repaired some playfield damage, installed new rubbers, went over the boards and made a couple of repairs, installed a new rectifier board, fixed some wiring hacks, and a bunch of other stuff. Probably spent at least 20 hours on it, just because I enjoyed doing it. It was playing great and he took it home a happy man. Total cost to him was $500, including parts.

 

He rings me two weeks later complaining that the flipper stopped working and demanding that I come and fix it at my expense (80 minute round trip).

 

No thanks!

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You should of bought new replacement boards for that price
Learnt this lesson the hard way myself. Sometimes even when doing your own repairs and factoring in your time and parts...sometimes it's better to bite the bullet.

 

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

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I have toyed with the idea of fixing pinny's for a bit of pocket change. But then realised that a "paying" customer will get upset when a fixed machine goes belly up and expects you to fix it at no cost, even though the fault has nothing to do with the original fix. Its human nature on the customer to expect this. We all know old pinny's will do this, the customer usually does not. I will try and fix pinny's for friends in the pinny community as they understand what can happen, and accept that things will stuff up even an hour after I have fixed it. Usually the only charge for my time is beer :D I like beer :D
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I have toyed with the idea of fixing pinny's for a bit of pocket change. But then realised that a "paying" customer will get upset when a fixed machine goes belly up and expects you to fix it at no cost, even though the fault has nothing to do with the original fix. Its human nature on the customer to expect this. We all know old pinny's will do this, the customer usually does not. I will try and fix pinny's for friends in the pinny community as they understand what can happen, and accept that things will stuff up even an hour after I have fixed it. Usually the only charge for my time is beer :D I like beer :D

 

If the entire economy was based on exchange of beer rather than money, things would probably be a lot simpler. But unfortunately, you can't buy a house with beer...

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It isn't a matter of smartness, it's a matter of expertise. If I were asked to figure out something simple that isn't working in a field I'm completely unfamiliar with, I'd probably screw up too. And a lot of people are simply too busy or don't have the inclination to spend the time it takes to learn something about their machines. For them, it's easier to call a tech and, depending on what they do, it might be even be cheaper as well. If I have a job that pays $1,000 a day, I'm better off working that time than spending it fixing my pinball…

 

Also don't forget that, for quite a few pinball owners (especially rich ones), the pinball may not be a hobby or focus for them. It might just be that they decide to fit out a party room, and the pinball is just one of many things: "Right, I'll take that $35,000 wet bar, the pool table, the juke box, and the 16-channel sound system. Oh, yes, before I forget, do you have any pinball machines? It would be nice to have one or two of those as well."

 

Having said all that, I still believe that some level of understanding of how a machine works and how to do at least basic maintenance is something pinball owners should learn. At least to me, tinkering with my machine is therapeutic and, if there is something I don't like in the way it plays, I have an idea of how to tweak it to make it work better.

 

Different strokes for different folks.

 

Michi.

 

 

Yeah agree totally with this. It all comes down to your $$$ situation. If you earn $200-300k a year and you love having 5 pinnys in your house but dont have the interest or time to learn all the ins and outs - then learning about the innards of the game are less important - just call out a repairer and let them do it for you. In saying this though, from my experience of dealing with these types of people - they are not going to be impressed with a 7-10week turnaround - their expectation is, im paying top dollar, i expect it ASAP.

 

In saying that, i think the heart and majority of pinball fans are not these guys, which is one of the best things about Pinball and its community. Its an assortment of different folks playing different strokes - but there does seems to be the same little kid inside that has the same attachment to Pinball/arcade gaming - just wanting to remember much happier & innocent times. God knows thats what its all about for me. **** "adulting", we generally live in a world now where you can chose the level of "adulting" you want to par-take in & still live a responsible, successful life - once you realise that, life is cool as hell!

 

To get back on topic though, i definitely did not want this thread to read as "shit on repairer" thread - was definitely not that. As a relative newie to this hobby, i totally encourage people to spend the cash and get a pro out to repair it. Very glad i did as, for one, watching them work and being able to ask them "what went wrong" is the best way to learn. You got someone you can ask questions to and generally all these guys are the guys that kept the hobby alive in your respective state for the last 30 years when it really should have died with VHS. Pinball will always need that specialised, friendly face to make the game easy and approachable for the new collector/player, because it is - a very intimidating hobby to get involved in. The tech side looks complicated, the rules are complicated & the market for the tables is hard to get a gauge on. You can pay $1400- or $5000 for a Cyclone - or $3k of $7k on a Funhouse. When your a newie its really hard to gauge where that value is and what level you should jump into. When it comes down to it, i think the majority of people who end up with more than 1 table end up coming more like the peeps here. You just love it & want to have a lot of pride over the games , condition and put your own creative spin on making them your tables& you want to end up being able to handle most problems inhouse.

 

Anyway - My repairer game out yesterday and we were all good - very happy with all the service he provided me, the job he did and if i ever need assistance again i wouldn't hesitate to call him. We split the difference and i think we both felt ok with that.

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I repaired a SS pin for a guy 70km from me, & I charged him $900 for board repairs, a PF clean, rubbers, a couple of coils & new globes. About a week later he phoned angry that it wouldn't turn on, So like a fool I drove some 40 minutes to find his wife pulled the plug for the vacuum cleaner. I charged him $30 for fuel, should have been more but I was being nice. People are idiots and we have to deal with them, no offense but they are.

I had a customer say to me once, 'this shop only hires idiots '. I said 'you're right, I'll get you an application form.'

 

Sent from my CPH1701 using Aussie Arcade mobile app

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To clarify, the service call was only after he had the machine for 7 weeks in his workshop and i already had paid $913 on getting all the boards reconditioned. He did not do the any work really onsite -the other call out was only 1 week after it being returned after this repair and was for a fried circuit on one of the boards that had been reconditioned.

 

Surprised to hear new pinballs have no labour repairs - even the Pinball Warehouse offers a 30 day warranty on all repairs - thats pretty shit from Stern and co.

 

 

 

Can't go wrong with @Pinball Warehouse . Always get a warranty period as you say. Not that I've needed the warranty with the 4 machine I've bought from there in the past.

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