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Dutch Pinball a pain in the ...

Helmut Langenbruch

Helmut Langenbruch

Registered
5Years
Joined
Aug 2, 2013
Messages
56
Location
New Inn
I ordered last year a BOP 2.0 kit (Batch 2) from DP and was full of hope to get it before christmas but the first lesson what I have learned, don't believe in that what is written in those Emails from DP.
Don't get me wrong, the idea and the work they have done is great, it is just how they deal with the costumers. Totally understand if there is any problems in the production and it takes longer but not getting in touch and inform the customers is just s..t.
On the 5th of January 2016 I received a Email from DP - " The first of the US kits are on its way to the US customers and the kits for Europe are on its way to the HQ of DP in the Netherlands and getting shipped
shortly after they arrived ". Woohoo !!!
Not really woohoo because I still got nothing and I'm still waiting.
On the the 26th of January I wrote another Email to DP with the question where the kit is.
This is the original Email text from Barry:

Hi Helmut,

Sorry for the late response.
The pallet is on its way, but we chose to have it come over by (slower) freight which takes longer, but makes the transport a bit less expensive.
They should arrive in The Netherlands any day soon now.
So, please have a bit more patience, they will be there soon!

You having a laugh ! Today is the 25th of February and I seriously got enough and I'm done.

I bought last year the old Bride of from Dave Wilcox and spend money and most of my spare time in restoring the cab and the Playfield to make something very special. Finally I've got a fully restored Playfield
and cab with some high end decals and a box full of new parts and I really start to hate the my BOP 2.0 project.
To be honest, if I had burned my money I would feel much better.
 
Unbelievable! Has it been sent with tracking so you can log on and find out where the hell that thing is?
I'd of expected that thing to be shipped first class next day delivery after being messed around so long.
I've had problems in the past like this but the customer service was always reasonable and they shipped the part first class to me.
 
I never received any notes that something has shipped to me. Don't even think that the kits for European customers are shipped from the US to the DP HQ in the Netherlands. No idea what the DP people are playing up but I know I never ever will pay for a pin up front anymore.
 
You'd have though after the Preditor and Magic Girl fiascos that they would be hyper sensitive and on the case with communication.
 
I buy stuff fairly occasionally from abroad and I always find it either falls into 1 of 2 camps, either brilliant service, never have a problem or terrible all the time. The problem being terrible all the time generally falls into the category of small one man band sellers or a small team because they struggle to keep up with their customer base because it grows beyond what they can deal with but don't have the money to hire anyone to help them out.

I remember dealing with a one man band company based in Australia, because the guy was so far away he could basically hide behind emails and had no contact telephone number. I am an extremely patient person, I generally give people at least a few weeks to answer an email but this guy would take the royal p*ss, he would wait sometimes months before getting back to me and the utterly infuriating thing was he somehow found time to post updates to the company twitter page and facebook page regularly (not just advertising his product, but also the fact he regularly went on holiday for weeks at a time with customers money like myself who had paid but yet to get anything) but for some reason ignored his customers emails. I remember telling him in one email to stop advertising his product so much if he can't even sell it properly, what's the point.

The problem with emails is they can be ignored, as said I'm pretty patient but this guy drove me up the wall so much it got to the stage where I was emailing every couple of days asking for an order update and guess what? Totally ignored until he felt like getting back to me, and even then it was generally a short and sweet 'It's on its way, be patient." Then he would be on twitter moaning all the time that people don't appreciate him or the work he does, well no sh*t if this is how you treat your customer base, why would we respect you?

In the end I got the items I ordered, but like you are experiencing with DP well overdue, more than a year after the promised delivery date. The funny thing is what he made came from China, and I managed to track down the company that made the products who were more than happy to take direct orders, at a much cheaper price than he charged. There was a bit of language barrier but the turnaround was much faster and the quality the same, he was the vendor who jacked the price up 40% and did absolutely nothing, but that's not unusual.

Rant over, but my point is I don't find this suprising, especially from a small group like DP.
 
Probably Barry & Koen are so deep in getting the TBL pin on the market (or having some white Russian) that they have forgotten to deliver the kits to the customer's in Europe. If I get it on some point I will probably sell it or swap it for something else after I finished the project.
 
Indeed, it's Python. I vision them moving off pyprocgame soon after TBL for that reason.

As TBL becomes available , the first thing peeps are going to want to do is remove the music and it will be an open book, maybe forcing them to move on to producing their own board & system.

But, yeah if they're slack like this , they'll be slack in that department too.
 
I have had same issues.
Countless emails to Barry and it's always nearly here.....
16th Feb they has arrived in Dutch HQ.
I emailed again Monday to see if they are finally ready to ship.
No response.
I will send another email tomorrow.
 
I always find picking up the phone better than emails.
Id find it a heavy weight to carry knowing I've taken in money on stuff I dont have/have ready to ship.
 
Nope not got mine and was told the same story...

Going to email DP yet again now.

Hate to say it but if they can not get kits out what hope in hell do they have in building and delivering the TBL machines....
 
Hate to say it but if they can not get kits out what hope in hell do they have in building and delivering the TBL machines....
Click to expand...

The cynic in me would say they're focusing all their time and effort on TBL at the expense of their customers who are in on BOP 2.0 because they've already got your money where as getting TBL done will bring in loads more. Providing good customer service to the people who supported them early doors doesn't seem as important as chasing the ROI for TBL.

The more charitable me would say they're just really busy and everything is taking longer than they hoped but they're so snowed under that communication has fallen down a bit :)
 
I emailed again just now asking Barry to at least get an update out today as it is clear there are a lot of unhappy customers.
 
Just got an update!! Next week for shipping:)

Hi,


We know you are anxiously waiting on the delivery of you BoP 2.0 kit. All parts arrived here last week, but due to our incredibly busy schedule we haven't had time to pack them individually and ship out to you. We will prepare all kits on Monday & Tuesday and have them shipped out on Wednesday.


As soon as they have left our office you will receive a track & trace to follow the shipment. Normally shipments within the EU take about 2-3 days.


We know it's taking a lot of time to get these out. It really takes a lot of time to get the kits ready, test and pack them.


Thanks for understanding,


Barry
 
You got in there before me, I've had the exact same email.

At least he responds to emails, I've had a support ticket in with Chicago Gaming for MMr since the 12 Feb and not even had a reply!!! FFS
 
Gotta agree communication has been terrible , before I bought the kit I explained to Barry how nervous I was of pre ordering anything again after loosing my entire $5000 on predator and I even asked and paid more to use PayPal as I was so worried about it . Comms were pretty terrible for the offset but in there more defence if you emailed him he would come back to you , I also figure they are just so busy with TBL but saying that a progress email every now and then would have been nice.
Pretty sure the kits will be here soon :)
 
I also got the email saying kit is on the way.

Now to get my BoP back together, I have to put in a new playfield first....
 
Phil Dixon has received his today, hopefully the rest of them are on their way to you soon!!

Helmut, when yours has arrived and setup drop me a text, would love to come and try it out!!

Cheers, Craig
 
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