Missed out on this one...

[Davis]

Its not a great machine, but well worth the price and shipping! Very traditional, but fun! I forgot to check it before it closed!


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...82788&rd=1

[gwarzin]

I'd be REAL careful about buying a pachislo from 5stardeal. As far as I can tell they are the same company as trademarkpoker.com. Same address, just different websites.

They are the people that have been promising to ship me a machine for about a month now. First it was set aside, but they were out of boxes. The boxes were due in the next day. Then the next. Then absolutely guaranteed to be in the next day. Then I didn't hear anything for a few days. No answers to emails, no returned phone calls. Then it turns out they really don't have the machine there were supposed to ship. Would I take something else? We finally agreed on another machine. It would ship the same day. They even emailed me a tracking number. Which, when I looked it up was for an old shipment that left their place weeks earlier. Then it was going to go out the next day, and then the next. Then they told me they were still out of boxes. Now it's supposed to go out on Monday. I'll believe that when I see it.

If it's that much trouble to buy something from them, can you imagine what it would be like to get something fixed?

[Tulsa]

Was this that Bulldog purchase from larlin the drop shipper?

[gwarzin]

That was how it all started. But after the first couple of days it was out of Larlin's hands and totally under trademarkpoker's control. In the end they actually had Larlin issue me a refund, cancel out that sale, and set up an entire new order through them. Thank God it's now all going through my credit card, so I won't get billed for the machine until they actually ship it.

In Larlin's favor, I have to say, Larlin issued the credit promptly once he was instructed to do so. Given the trouble I've had communicating with trademarkpoker, I can now understand how Larlin could have gotten into such a mess, thinking they said they could drop ship specific machines.

Larlin always responded quickly to any emails, returned phone calls, and even called me on his own a couple of times. He's a small time operation, and it's clear from the margin he was trying to make on the pachislos, that he must not be making a lot of money on eBay. When he had to refund my money he called and apologized that he just didn't have enough cash at the moment and would have to pay me in 2 installments. He put $150 into my PayPal account a few minutes later. Then the next day he followed up by putting in the last $20.

If you want some interesting reading, here's a link to 5stardeal's negatives and neutrals:

http://www.toolhaus.org/cgi-bin/negs...by&Many=ON

Be prepared to wait awhile for it to load entirely - several minutes. There are over 800 of them! And took a look at how many mention bad communications.

BTW, I did NOT give Larlin a negative on this transaction, because, given the circumstances, he did a very good job on taking care of the mess. He just got in over his head.

[ZCore13]

I question their integrity along with their feedback. Their ad says they are the largest distributer of Pachislos in the Country and everyone gets them from them. LOL It also says all of their products are brand new. That is deceiving as well. No integrity, no sales to me on anything, no matter what the price.

[slotter]

ZCore13 says it all...

[logicprobe]

I'd be REAL careful about buying a pachislo from 5stardeal.

You're a kind person, gwarzin...
I don't think I'd be that nice about it, considering what you're going through.
This is definitely a "RED FLAG" dealer!

[Lddrizzt]

IF you look at their general feedback and do a little math, they average 26.6 negatives a month. That is not good, definately a red flag dealer!

[Utopia1dc]

26 negatives a month...I wouldn't buy from anyone who has more than 5 negatives...No matter the price!!!

How are these people still in business! :roll:

[Tulsa]

26 negatives a month...I wouldn't buy from anyone who has more than 5 negatives...No matter the price!!!

How are these people still in business! :roll:

Ebay is filled with morons!

[syph]

Aw, now, I hate to devil's advocate you guys, but you're looking at 26 negatives a month against 1800 transactions - per month! Hell, I buy from Garden Ridge and every single time I go in there, there's some unhappy ******* raising Ohio (see, I've been to cali and ohio, and I vote ohio...) about some transaction that went bad. A vendor as crappy as you guys are playing this one out to be would have hundreds of negatives a month, not just 26.

On the other hand, I'll go ahead and argue against myself here:
Pachislot777: 2500 sales, 3 neg, 12 months
Stealth: 2700 sales, ZERO neg, 12 months

So, yeah, there's better vendors, but if you're playing the odds, you still have a good chance of not being mad. Not that I'm buying from them, y'hear : )

[gwarzin]

One thing to consider when you're looking at the number of negs relative to total feedback is the complexity of the sale.

In the case of the pachislo vendors that we know do a good job, they are selling a complex product that they have to refurb and deal with service after they've been bounced around during shipment. And even with that type of product, they get great feedback ratios.

In the case of 5stardeal, the vast majority of their sales are not pachislos but relatively simple and inexpensive items that they would only need to pick off a shelf in the warehouse and ship. With an operation like that they should have near zero negs. I'd hate to see what their feedback numbers would look like if the only products they sold were pachislos.

[Tulsa]

Factoring in their neutrals, which aren't happy buyers, they are averaging 1 out of every 35 sales with an unhappy customer.

That's an abysmal rate I don't care how many sales they make.

[arbycoffee]

I think what we all are interested about most isÂ… Service, because ANY machine can be damaged in shipment. And it is the fixing or the call tag with replacement.
Â… That what I think in the long run, the most concern. Yes price is also important.
IMHO