Damaged parts shipment from Rocky Mountain Slots, an NLG support vendor

[MO-man]

I didn't think I'd need to post a warning to others here on NLG about one of the supporting vendors but here goes.

I ordered some slot machine parts from Rocky Mountain Slots a few months ago. I had spoken to them about an older WMS machine they were parting out, it is like the one I have and they told me what parts they would have available and prices, we made a deal and I made payment. A few weeks went by, they said they were extra busy with other sales and they'd get my order done as soon as possible. A few weeks later I called and was told they'd get it shipped that day. A few days later the box arrived and it was a mess. They had put all of the parts loosely into one large box, did not put any protective packing around any of the parts, no bubblewrap or cardboard, nothing. So all of the parts bumped and laid against each other, no telling how many times the box was laid on its side during shipment. Some of the parts were made of metal and heavy, like a large power supply in a metal box enclosure with sharp corners, and the metal pull handle assembly. These heavy parts were laying on top of and bumping into circuit boards, eproms, plastic reel baskets, reel strips, and other delicate parts. Connector pins on the reel assembly circuit boards were bent and mangled. Needless to say a lot of the delicate parts got broken and damaged. The circuit boards have broken components, the 3 reels are broken, the reel strips have gouges thru the vinyl where something sharp pierced it. The shipping box itself was in bad shape, it had holes in the sides where some of the parts had poked thru and there were rips and tears in the cardboard box. It wasn't a very thick cardboard box so shouldn't have had this many parts in one box. And no way should the fragile plastic parts and circuit boards be in there loosely with the heavy metallic parts banging into them.

I was pissed and very surprised that a slot machine business would treat parts this way. I took photos of the box right after I received it and opened it. I sent some of the photos to Brian at Rocky Mountain Slots and got a message back right away saying he was sorry that this had happened. He promised he'd make it right by sending replacement parts, he said had a similar machine in the shop that he was about to begin parting out and the replacement parts from it "would be packed by him personally". I have never received the replacement parts and Brian is not responding to my messages. He logs in here on NLG regularly so I know he is getting my messages.

One of the reasons I ordered these parts from Rocky Mountain Slots is that they are listed on the NLG homepage as a trusted supporting vendor. I don't know why this problem happened, I paid them promptly and was assured the deal was ok. All I want is the parts I paid for, not the broken ones I received. I have many photos of the damaged parts shipment, below are some of them.

 

[MO-man]

More photos.....

[dailey]

Interesting photos you posted. I wish you luck resolving this.

I had my own experience with Rocky Mountain Slots after buying a slot from them 2-1/2 years ago.  Got the S2000 machine home and soon discovered the 4th bonus reel had the wrong reel strip. The strip didn't match the prize. I made a phone call to them and they were no help at all. I'm talking about only a couple of days after purchase. I learned that once I had the machine out the door they were through with me. I never did business with them again.

[777sizzler]

Not to say anything about anything--But people do not care OR take pride in packing anything.  I was and still am proud of attention to detail on packing.  Also you wanted the parts for your projects so you paid for them in advance to secure them.  Some places are golden with this but I guess not this one.  He is getting out of this anyway as He had stated.  Good Luck as the casino's tell us. 

[Yoeddy1]

People baffle me.  I have learned over the years, that there are so few in this business that you can trust.  Lotta douchebaggery out there unfortunately.  I’ve read so many horror stories about RMS, and have stayed the hell away from them.  When somebody getting out of the business, they want to grab the money and run.  If something goes wrong, it’s a roll of the dice whether or not they’ll give a shit.


Good luck with everything.  Hope things go your way.


Jason

[Terps]

Unfortunately, this is not the only known issue with Rocky Mountain Slots. Buyers should be very weary of doing business with them in my opinion. It’s very hard to believe that someone would ship parts like this that someone paid for and does not think that this order should be made right. It’s very sad because those WMS parts are getting hard to find and people could have definitely used them. Just goes to show that once money is received, you as the buyer can get totally screwed.


Fusco

[Amechanic]

I bought a WBA and duck bill from Brian within the past month, plus all the tunnel and treasure wheel bulbs he had. I was happy with my purchase but I only had these 3 parts. The WBA was wrapped in bubble wrap as were the mini bulbs. I’m sorry that your items came in damaged and not packaged correctly. Hopefully Brian will offer a partial refund, or so replacement parts.

[MO-man]

My understanding is that one of the non-technical employees packed my parts shipment, not Brian. I don't think he would have taken the time to remove all the parts from the donor machine and then just toss them into a large box with no protective wrapping and let the delivery system do it's damage, that just doesn't seem logical for a longtime slot tech to do. My feeling is that this box was packed & shipped by someone else, purposely careless. No one working at a place selling parts with even a small amount of experience would think it was ok to put plastic reel baskets and bare circuit boards in a box with a heavy power supply, a pull handle arm and other heavy chunks of metal parts.

Nonetheless, Brian is who I made the deal with and it was Brian that said he'd send me replacement parts for the broken ones I received. I have the pm from him saying exactly that. I can forward his pm to anyone that needs to see it, or I can post it in this thread for all to see. It's mine since it is in my inbox and was addressed to me.

So there's a couple of things going on with this-

1) someone at Rocky Mountain Slots (aka Colorado River Slots) thought it was ok to carelessly pack a parts shipment like this, knowing there is no way UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS or whoever could transport it without items getting damaged.

2) Brian acknowledged the problem right away and promised to make it right, then made one delaying excuse after another over several weeks time before I finally decided to post about what happened. The photos speak for themselves.

[Stayouttadabunker]

Personally I've had nothing but good experiences in getting parts from Brian and I want to make sure that we all understand that it does no one any good to keep on bashing anyone for their mistakes - they're only human like us. 
 
In the future, contact Brian and let him know to make sure he has his guy pack stuff better.
That's all that's needed to do.

Thanks! 

[MO-man]

I did contact Brian in a friendly manner, many times over several weeks time. The packing mistake may have been by someone else but my deal was with him. And he personally told me several weeks ago he'd make it right, but it didn't happen. He's the guy there that pulls the parts from machines getting scrapped and gets them sent out, so he's the person that decides if it gets done or not. This isn't hard to understand. And this isn't bashing someone unfairly. He said he'd get this problem fixed with parts to replace the broken ones but he didn't.

What would you do if after many messages from him saying he would send replacement parts you never got them, and then he broke off contact? Without any explanation of why? Do you actually want another person to have a similar negative experience? Look at some of the other posts in this thread by NLG members and what they have to say about the problems they had. I'm not an isolated case.

Yes, as long as nothing wrong happens you could very well be satisfied with your purchase from them. But if there is a problem then you may not get it corrected fairly. What is the NLG community for if it isn't too help others know when to be careful?

Why not ask him for his explanation of what happened on this, I'd like to hear from him and get this cleared up.

[Amechanic]

Did you pay for this transaction with PayPal? Don’t they offer a refund for things like this. Over the past 4 months I have has item received here from two different venders where it’s have come in bent or broken. One box was packaged correctly but looked like it was run over by the truck. The other not as nice and my glass was broken. Should your items have been shipped that way.. No they shouldn’t have been, but it happened. I would try to contact Brian again by text, email or call. If he doesn’t follow thru then contact Paypal if you paid that way to file a complaint.

[MO-man]

ok, I'll give those ideas a try,
I'm certainly hoping for a good outcome on this,
I sent him a pm, we'll see if I can get a reply back.
My payment was with a credit card. Sorry to hear that
you've also had some disappointing shipments.

[Amechanic]

You might want to reach out to who has your CC.. Maybe they can help you with this. It’s worth a phone call.

[hemiroid]

You can always dispute a charge made with a credit card. Not as easy as PayPal, just call the customer service # on the back of the card.

My experience with RMS was pretty OK. They were SLOW to fill my glass order and I had to call and email them to remind them but I got a well packed box of glass/plexi. Every company has 'that' employee that doesn't belong in the shipping dept. I hope they make it right for you...

[MO-man]

Wanted to let everyone know that Brian answered my pm and is working on this problem, says it will get straightened out. He's working pretty much by himself at the shop and got a lot going on, so some things didn't get done like he wanted them to. So I'm hopeful this will get made right soon.

[Amechanic]

Wanted to let everyone know that Brian answered my pm and is working on this problem, says it will get straightened out. He's working pretty much by himself at the shop and got a lot going on, so some things didn't get done like he wanted them to. So I'm hopeful this will get made right soon.

Good to hear. Keep us posted.

[MO-man]

Wanted to let everyone know that Brian answered my pm and is working on this problem, says it will get straightened out. He's working pretty much by himself at the shop and got a lot going on, so some things didn't get done like he wanted them to. So I'm hopeful this will get made right soon.

Good to hear. Keep us posted.

Well, it's been over a week since Brian pm'd me on March 16 saying he was getting my replacement parts packed and shipped "this week", but nothing has arrived and I've gotten no further messages from him. It is looking like the earlier assessment of Rocky Mountain Slots customer service is correct, they are iffy when handling or fixing problems with parts orders. This ordeal has dragged on much too long. I don't see how anyone could recommend purchasing from them and risk this type of bad experience. Maybe if you are a friend or you just get lucky then a deal will go ok.

I contacted my credit card customer service and they've opened an inquiry, said they will attempt contact with RM Slots and also check with the BBB and other online ratings places like the Chamber of Commerce to see if there are other customer complaints on record. Those findings will influence their decision and I'll get a report from them. Perhaps their BBB record is good and my deal was an isolated event, we'll see.

[Joeylc]

(Full disclosure) Brian is a personal friend of mine and I have visited his shop monthly. We go all the way back to the days in Reno Nevada. When we both first started out as slot techs.

With that said I have asked Brian about this home Depot box and the broken parts.

Brian told me he is never ever sent out parts in a home Depot box. I have seen his shipping department there's not a home Depot box to be found anywhere.
 Everything is wood crates. And heavy duty Van line boxes. 
 
I would suggest taking a picture of the original shipping label attached to the box to verify. This is the box it was shipped in.
The weight and the dimensions of the box should be recorded online with the UPS tracking number.


This will put this topic to rest as in my opinion it is becoming threatening slanderous and very one-sided towards Rocky mountain slots.
I am NOT not taking one-sided another. But I too have had overzealous customers. Threaten me with the better business bureau charge-backs and lawsuits over shit I never did.
Just my 2 cents... Joeylc

[Jim]

I have know Brian for over twenty years, we go back to the days when He and Frank Lawson (Casino Glass) worked in the same units. Visited them both many times. Received skids of machines and parts from Brian, when ever something happened in shipping he always took care of it.

Just a brief item that happened to me, Bought 4 skids of glass from a company going out of business, received three of the skids as shipped, the fourth came boxed up and banned to the skid, it had alot of broken glass in it, the company claimed it was like that when they received it, the people who shipped it claimed they never put it in a box, so the freight company somewhere along the line damaged the skid of glass, repacked it in the box and sent it on its way. so I could see where this could happen. Maybe the original was damaged and the freight company repacked it.

I just ordered glass from Brian, it came in a Uline Box, bubbled wrapped along with peanuts to protect it.

arrived safely, no damage.

Jim   

[MO-man]

(Full disclosure) Brian is a personal friend of mine and I have visited his shop monthly. We go all the way back to the days in Reno Nevada. When we both first started out as slot techs.

With that said I have asked Brian about this home Depot box and the broken parts.

Brian told me he is never ever sent out parts in a home Depot box. I have seen his shipping department there's not a home Depot box to be found anywhere.
 Everything is wood crates. And heavy duty Van line boxes. 
 
I would suggest taking a picture of the original shipping label attached to the box to verify. This is the box it was shipped in.
The weight and the dimensions of the box should be recorded online with the UPS tracking number.


This will put this topic to rest as in my opinion it is becoming threatening slanderous and very one-sided towards Rocky mountain slots.
I am NOT not taking one-sided another. But I too have had overzealous customers. Threaten me with the better business bureau charge-backs and lawsuits over shit I never did.
Just my 2 cents... Joeylc

It's NOT slander unless I'm lying - and I'm not.

Joey, perhaps you should be talking to Cheri instead of Brian. Cheri was on the phone with me on December 6 when she got the parts box shipped, she was talking to me as she made out the shipping label, she said "it's on the way today". She didn't use UPS, she shipped it with the Post Office. And the box I received is a Home Depot box, see photos of box with RM Slots shipping label attached below. Cheri made the shipping label on Dec 6th and Post Office picked it up on Dec 7th a little after 10:30am. See tracking info below. I got the box on Dec 10th, the Post Office had marked it "Damaged", the box was way overpacked and too heavy for the strength of the cardboard, it had tears and gouges in it. And many of the parts inside were damaged due to no padding or any protection of delicate parts that were banged by the heavier metal parts.