Major Purchase, Terrible Experience
In January, 2022 I purchased two new-in-box Stern pinball machines from Craig Hassell and Fun! Billiards & Gameroom Superstore. In March, I took delivery of one of the games, which was malfunctioning upon delivery. Not only did Craig Hassell refuse to honor his promised 30-day warranty and repair the game; he refused to let me take possession of the second game I had paid him for in full, issuing a refund only after I got law enforcement involved. I initially went to Fun! Billiards & Gameroom Superstore in early January and put deposits down on the two games, one of which was to be delivered in March, and the other in April. The business owner, Craig Hassell, agreed to: 1. Provide home delivery of the two new-in-box Stern pinball machines 2. Deliver both machines for a single $150.00 delivery fee 3. Provide a 30-day warranty under which he would send a technician out to repair any issues with the games The problems began in March when the time came for Fun! to deliver the first game. Hassell informed me that he would now have to charge TWO $150.00 delivery fees after initially agreeing to deliver both machines for a single delivery fee (as written on the bill of sale he provided me). He also informed me I would not be receiving new-in-box machines, as it is his business policy to unbox, set up, and “check out” the games prior to delivering them. I was reluctant to accept an unboxed game, but went along with his policy. However, upon delivery, the first game had two very obvious malfunctions that should have been caught when the game was being “checked out” at his store (I believe, in fact, that Hassell delivered a used game to me that he had been using as an in-store floor model). I contacted him about repairing the issues with the game, which at first he agreed to do. But when I didn’t hear back from him regarding the repair, I contacted him again to see if his technicians might repair the game when they came out to deliver the second game I had purchased. This time, Hassell refused to honor his 30-day warranty altogether, telling me instead that I would have to contact the game manufacturer, Stern Pinball, to see if they could help (Stern’s policy, of course, is that all repair orders must go through a dealer). When I expressed my dissatisfaction and told Hassell I would be writing a review, he became angry and told me he would be selling my second game (which, again, I had paid him for in full) to someone else. Having by this time researched Fun! and Craig Hassell on several popular pinball collector/buyer forums on the Internet, I found that Fun! Billiards & Gameroom Superstore had a reputation as one of the most unscrupulous and disreputable pinball dealers in the United States. One of my most appalling discoveries was Hassell’s history of selling one game to more than one customer and then refusing to issue a refund to the losing customer (he was caught in a number of careless, blatant lies on the Pinside pinball forum, where one customer had awaited his refund for months while being told by Fun! the "check is in the mail"). In my case, when I mentioned to Hassell that I would be writing a review, he replied that I was “threatening” him (only someone who knows they’re not doing business on the up-and-up would consider the potential of an honest customer review to be a “threat”). In the end, Hassell refused to allow me to take possession of the second game I had paid him for in full (which was a gift for my 5-year-old grandson). He did issue a refund, but only after I got law enforcement involved.
By Brian B.