What's fair to expect from vendors and Ebay sellers?
I've given this matter a lot of thought, especially after having purchased/won over 80 machines in the past few months. But I'd like to hear what other members think.
One of the main things I've noticed that has really begun to get on my nerves is the paint jobs that are common to almost every single vendor/seller except those that offer lamination as an option. The paint looks great when the machine first arrives, but in no time gray areas appear simply from touching the paint or wiping it with a soft cloth. To me, this is absurd and totally unacceptable. And it doesn't matter whether it's from a premium vendor or not. This has happened on all 4 machines from Big Bear, all 10 machines from Milt, every machine from Pachislott777, etc. B/F and I spent the past few weeks repainting every single machine. It's both frustrating and amazing to us that no one else seems to notice or complain about this.
A more general issue is: Since these machines are almost always bought sight unseeen, it depends on the seller to disclose the true condition of the machines. In that regard, Big Bear has been the most upfront with regard to his scratch and dent machines. He includes photos that let you actually see exactly how each machine looks. Milt has photos with descriptions of his scratch and dents, but the photos aren't really that clear or close up enough to allow you to see what's what. I think what's beginning to bug me is the feeling that many vendors palm off their scratch and dent machines without really listing them as such. For example, we got a Machine Gun Santa with 5 12" long diagonal scratches right across the reel glass that you could feel with your fingernail and see from across the room that somehow eluded the descripiton of that particular machine. To me, that type of situation goes way beyond the usual "wear and tear" that these machines go through; to me, that machine qualified as a scratch and dent, and should have been listed as such, but it was not.
The same goes for significant overspray of black paint. B/F and I have spent hours cleaning up black dots/overspray from one of the more "premier" vendors mentioned here on this site frequently. Again, that to my way of thinking is unacceptable. We've also gotten machines with very major scratches on the chrome, dirty reels and/or reels with noticeable dimples/holes, burnt out lights upon delivery, broken wires, non-operational coin slots, etc. To a certain extent, I understand and accept the fact that these machines are used and are not in perfect condtion. However, since most of these machines are described as refurbished to the best condtion that they can be in, when I can get a machine to a significantly better level than when it arrived, that says to me that that machine had NOT been adequately refurbished. I do not expect perfect machines; I do expect machines to be as reconditioned as they can be. And to repeat, as far as I'm concerned, the fact that these machines are shipped out sight unseen, and are expensive to return, puts the sellers at a distinct advantage, and I believe that some of them take advantage of that imbalance.
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