Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas

[slothappy144]

Sorry to say (again) but these do tend to multiply! The Mrs and I were taking turn playing one then we needed one each, then hey this is cool lets get another, etc.

[outdoorenth]

Welcome to PachiTalk!

I agree with Mike, 5Star often removes the belly light and just places a vinyl sticker over the original graphic so check to see if they did that on your machine and these do tend to multiple as your pachi addiction grows.

[srwebman]

Yup - that's just what they did. The original glass is still there, and seems to be in good shape. (Pachislo purists of the world unite.)

For now I'll leave the vinyl cheese on it since it goes with the rest of my casino-themed basement, but sooner or later, I think it's coming off.

-Elliott

[hanabi]

Hey that's great news!!

and the main thing is that you enjoy playing it

[dattia]

Wow..any chance you'd post some pics of your basement in the Members Gameroom pictures thread. I for one, am anal about details and I needed a fifties pachislo to go with my fifties diner gameroom. That is how I ended up here.

If you have a mind to get more, there are a few casino themed pachis out there that are original and also... there are some machines out there that have been customized fully and are really nice. The only thing that has not been conquered yet to my knowledge, is the sound.


**If you take a look at Devospeed's Album, you will see what I mean by a thoroughly customized machine.

[Chrisdice]

Super Blackjack would be a great afordable choice.

[FTKServices]

Digi-Flush is another one.

[srwebman]

When last we left our hero...

So I picked up this mchine from 5Stardeal.com via sears.com. Thanks to everyone here, I learned much more about my machine than the distributor seems to know.

To begin with, the unit came with no keys. I ordered a new set from 5StarDeal. A week or so later, I got the cabinet key, but no reset key. I was *very* disappointed to learn that the key is just a slug with all the teeth filed off. In fact, I can open the front with screwdriver. Kinda
defeats the purpose of a key, dontcha think?

I also had a couple of other issues: the flourescent bulb above the glass door has a horible whine. I don't think this is the power-supply issue that I've read about, but the bulb itself. Also, my start lever works when nudged up, but not down. So 5StarDeal ordered replacement parts.

It's interesting to note that they identify my machine by the vinyl sticker that they put over the belly glass, and not by any other means. (This is called foreshadowing, boys and girls.)

I also decided to order me 500 more tokens, since the 250 that they sent is obviously not enough. They told me that 500 tokens will run me 50 bucks. what do I know - I've never bought tokens before.
So I'm surfing Ebay the next day, and I find that I can get $1,100 tokens for $54 (+ $7 shipping). Get this: The auction is listed by 5StarDeal!!

So I called them up all annoyed and attempted to cancel my order. Oops. It shipped already. I can refuse it, but I'll be subjected to a 15% "restocking fee." I think that charge is actually called a bend-unknowing-customers-over-the-table fee.

I finally get through to someone higher up in customer service, and tell her the whole saga. She starts with "Sir, an auction has a variable price, and there's no way to know until bidding is over, and blah blah blah..." Does she think I'm new to the Internet?? I pointed out to her that this was a "Buy It Now" price, and she agreed to send me another 600 tokens for the additional $12. Hooray! Chalk one up for the consumer!!

Today, UPS dropped off my parts. Guess what?! The reset key doesn't fit, and the bulb and start lever are completely wrong. Color me surpirsed. At least this time when I called, I was able to correctly identify the manufacturer and the machine.

So 5StarDeal is sending new parts. Again. I have no faith that I'll get the right key, but at least the tech I spoke with sounded fairly knowledgeable.

Stay tuned to this station for more exciting developments...

[idylukewild]

Welcome to Fabulous PachiTalk, srwebman!

I was amazed to hear getting your bellyglass original only requires taking off a stick-on. My first pachislo, bought way back in August of this year, required a bunch of money and a flight on a jet from Japan to set the bellyglass straight! Luckily, the machine was in perfect working order (with working keys) otherwise. I love the machine, Osu! Banchou

I, too, have noticed the 'sleaze factor' with 5StarDeal is high. The sent me a 'coupon' after my first purchase from them in September - and even though it had no expiration they refuse to honor it, their checkout says it's "expired". Hey, but even without the 10% off they promised the tokens are the cheapest I've been able to find. Watch out for the sleeze factor with other dealers in this business. I've had dealers say "I will also look around the warehouse today for your belly glass" when in fact I find out by deduction (their address of business is in PA and the pachislo I buy from them is shipped from OH) that their 'warehouse' is probably just their home office, in my humble opinion. That's right, although there are many dealers in this business, all the pachislo's I've ever bought from dealers are shipped from OH. The term used at PachiTalk is 'drop shipped' from Trademarkcommerce (look at the indica when you check out from a purchase from 5stardeal). They seem to be the only real importers and actual shippers of pachislo's not only wholesale, but single retail purchases - at least in my experience. I may be wrong, but it appears to be a kind of monopoly right now. If I'm right, that severely limits variety of which pachislos we can buy and it sort of sets the price for any 'new stock' of machines we can buy. I've also had a dealer send me a defective machine (reel frame so bent out of shape the reels scrape against the reel frame) then get all huffy about sending a replacement set of reels (John at Stealth), requiring that I call and leave messages repeatedly to get the replacement and then requiring that I send the defective reels at my own expense back to him, then requiring that I make a lot of calls demanding reimbursement for the postage I paid to send the reels, etc. I don't know what it is about this hobby that has such sleezy dealers - perhaps the association with gambling. Which has always attracted a sort of, how can I put it , a certain sort of opportunist But what do I know? I must temper these comments from the fact that I've had very good purchasing experiences also, especially with Blue Hotaru. If you want to buy any more pachislos, it's a good idea to check out member's opinions on dealers and reports on experiences compiled here at PachiTalk.

But, all that said the folk at PachiTalk are fantabulous!
And they will never set you astray no mater how choppy the waters! One warning though - I had 1 pachislo in August and my eleventh is on the way now! But I'm not complaining - pachislos are wonderful!!!

Luke

[luckydog]

I got a few pachislos from 5star directly from ebay auctions and they were the latest models and all in like new conditon.

[bob5150]

I too am fairly new to the hobby and while I can't support or deny many of your claims about dealers...I am definitely in agreement with you about Blue Hotaru. Rita is a pleasure to work with and an asset to the hobby. Now if only she had King Camel back in stock...

[idylukewild]

Oh, I almost forgot. Some details about 5stardeal:

Here's the email "coupon":

"COUPON SAVINGS TO [my ebay id was here]
Well, we want to pass this savings on to you for your next purchase. We assume you will give us a the highest marks, and therefore, we will send you a discount coupon for your next purchase from Discount Poker Chips, Casino Supplies, and More! Wholesale Prices, Everyday, at 5stardeal.com!.

COUPON CODE: [non-working 'coupon code' was here]
This coupon will give you 10% off your merchandise on your next eBay order with Discount Poker Chips, Casino Supplies, and More! Wholesale Prices, Everyday, at 5stardeal.com! (discount excludes shipping and handling costs). This is our way of saying thanks and passing along the savings you are entitled to.

Sincerely,

www.5stardeal.com"

And a jpeg of their "We're sorry, but the promotional code you have entered has expired" page for my last purchase is below (I've included only the important bits in this image). A million attempts to get some variation on the code they sent me to work didn't work. Hey! I can't get the jpeg to upload, so here's the text:
"We're sorry, but the promotional code you entered has expired.
(Optional) Enter Promotional Code:
This promotion entitles you to 10% off your merchandise total (not
including shipping). We really do appreciate your business.
{SELLERUSERNAME} "


Dan Sustar, the ebay contact for this purchase refuses to answer repeated emails I've sent since the purchase alerting him to the 'expired' coupon.

The most ironic part of it; Dan Sustar of 5-star just sent me another 'coupon' for my last purchase - THE 'COUPON CODE' IS IDENTICAL TO THE ONE THE SENT ME IN SEPTEMBER THAT IS 'EXPIRED'!!! Either really low quality customer service or outright fraud!!!

I've also attached photos of the damaged reels Stealth sent me when I purchased an Aladdin II Evolution from them. Took forever to get the reel replaced, then took forever to get reimbursed for the postage I had to pay to ship the bent reels back to them. In my book 5-star and Stealth are slimy!

Luke

[srwebman]

So I got my replacement parts today...

The flourescent bulb they sent me is enormous. It's way to big to go anywhere in this machine. I found out (no thanks to 5starDeal) that it's not actually the bulb, but a circuit board that's singing at me. (See thread "machine is still whining" in the tech support section.)

So I called up their oh-so-knowledgeable tech support people and asked about the board. They tell me it's a sound board. I have my doubts, but whatever - they're sending me a new one. I'll probably have to call them and get the *correct* part sent out after I receive it.

They also sent me two new reset keys. Both of them fit in the reset keyhole - neither of them turn it. So now they're sending a new power supply as well.

The start lever they sent me *looks* right, but it looks like I need to take the door apart in order to replace the existing one, so we'll see.

Oh - i did get my 600 tokens, so at least that part seems to have worked out.

I'm now having my 5th shipment of parts sent to me. We'll see how many it takes until these problems get fixed.

I think I'll have a fire sale with all the useless parts they send me. Here's the excess parts count so far:
1 - joystick-style start level
1 - small flourescent bulb
1 - large flourescent bulb
3 - "red dot" reset keys #202 or #556

More details to be posted in a few days when I get my new parts

-Elliott

[outdoorenth]

Wow! You've gone through quite the ordeal with them. I hope eventually you have all the correct parts and your machine works nicely. You're most likely going to be acquiring more pachis, so you might just want to hold onto those extra parts for a little while.

[srwebman]

I got my replacement parts yesterday. let's see how everything worked out...

1) The whining/buzzing/screaming "sound" board.
Turns out to be an inverter on the LCD display. After calling the techs back and telling them that the problem was NOT in my sound board, they agreed to send me the correct part.
They sent the entire LCD display - including the board in question.

RESULT - Problem solved

2) Reset key not working
They sent a whole new power supply with the key already in it. AFTER I installed the new power supply, I realized that the key looks nothing like the ones they had been sending me. Turns out this key also works in my old pwer supply.

RESULT - Problem solved
BONUS - I have a spare power supply

4) Start Lever
I still haven't installed the replacement yet. Some of those screws are so deep in the case, that I wonder how I'll ever get them in again once they're out. They're aluminum, so a magnetic screwdriver doesn't really help. worst case scenario, the current lever works when nudged up, jsut not down.

RESULT - Undetermined

3) Bonus issue - The large flourescent lightbulb
This goes behind the Belly glass. The removed it because when it's lit, you can see some of the original artwork through the cheesy vinyl sticker that they attached to the front. When I remove that sticker, I will re-install the bulb

RESULT - Problem solved for the future

So that seems to wrap things up for me for now. I do have one last issue reagrding the lights inside the reels. Myabe if ya'll aren't too sick of me, I'll post it in the tech section, and see what everyone thinks.

As I've said a few times in several threads, thank you so much to all of you who provided me with information. This is waht the Internet is all about, and it's great to connect with a group of people who just want to share knowledge with other people who have a common interest.

-Elliott

[owennewton]

I am glad to hear that you got (almost) everything worked out.

Now you can enjoy your pachi

[luckydog]

try spraying some contact cleaner around the base of the joystick while moving it up and down.

this fixed a sticky one for me

[outdoorenth]

Wonderful to hear about the success with the parts. I see many uncustomized pachis in your future.

WD40 also works well for sticking spin knobs.

[srwebman]

I'll try some WD40, but it doesn't feel sticky, it feels broken. When the machine arrived, there was a small piece of broken ABS plastic that fell out of the spin knob.

[srwebman]

It ain't over yet...

The start lever. So I finally got the door apart to replace my start lever. Found out that my screws aren't aluminum, I just didn't realize that the screwdriver i was using wasn't magnetic.

Got the whole thing apart, and found that they sent me - you guessed it - the wrong spin knob. So I took the existing one apart. It seems to work optically, rather than by connecting to a contact point. The steel lever itself was actually bent. with the help of a very mechanically/electrically inclined friend, we got the knob *mostly* straightened, and used epoxy to glue the cracked plastic back together.

Good news - the spin knob works in both directions. Just to be safe, I am having 5stardeal.com send me the correct part. I'll keep it in reserve shoudl the day come that I need it.

Oh, I also removed the sticker from the belly glass, replaced the flouresecent bulb, and polished up the original glass. My machine looks great!!

So at long last, Mahjong Story now seems fully playable, and I'm excited to start showing it off to people.

-Elliott