Quoted from jrcmlc:Unrelated to Spooky or anything specific at all, but get used to it. LOL When I was in this hobby before #'d games weren't really a thing as much, this kind of access to everyone although pinside has been a thing for a long time, back in the day (get off my lawn) this wasn't a thing...now, it appears in my very humble opinion that the ever present overwatch of the internet and all of the buyers makes it difficult for everyone. They, the vendors, want to make us happy, but they have to do their thing to get games out and get them to locations, shows etc to hype them so they can sell them all, and that is the rub, I think. I may be rambling but I am sure Spooky just like Bof and everyone else is doing the absolute best to do a solid, fair job for everyone. I know that's not of much help when you're waiting, but I really do feel like that's the case. Truly.
This is not a commentary on Spooky not doing a great job. I want to make that perfectly clear. I have no doubt that they are doing the best they can to get machines into the hands of people who bought them in as good a condition as they can. This is about expectation at time of ordering versus what is happening in reality. I’m the type of person who could care less about how long something takes. If I go into a restaurant and they tell me 90 minutes for a table and I am good with that, then I don’t mind waiting. But if they start taking other people before me or the 90 minutes becomes 3 hours, I start to get upset because it is not what was agreed upon at the beginning, and I get particularly upset if the restaurant stops communicating with me about it (especially if I can’t leave the restaurant because I have already paid for the meal).
The default here is that game numbers are fulfilled in order, otherwise, why have game numbers at all. When you assign a number to a game and the person ordering is told that number, the are being led to believe that, when the 32nd or 75th or 123rd game is made, it will be theirs. Game number one is always the first game made, otherwise, why call it #1. The 888th game will always be the last off the line or why call it 888? What is the purpose of numbering games other than to denote the order of their manufacture? Other than the occasional vanity number (420, 666…), nothing at all.
With regard to that show game being in the 200’s, that is to be expected as they had already sold the numbers before them (or promised them to distributors). Now, perhaps game 89, to which I referred earlier, was a number that someone requested specifically and so they obliged (and maybe that person was supposed to get machine #32 or something), there is nothing wrong with that. If that is so, then tell us. But I firmly believe that a company that operates by using deposit capital to fund orders (which is not a bad thing, by the way) has the obligation to be a bit more communicative with those deposit holders by telling them that games are either being made based on when they ordered them or based on the game number assigned to the distributors, especially when the deposits are non refundable. If we could get our money back, then the company would have zero obligation to say anything, but we can’t (and nor do most of us want to), we just want a reasonable expectation of when these things will be in our hands and not silence. I may be the most vocal about this, but I am not the only one thinking it. A simple “we fulfill orders based on time and date” or “we fulfill orders based on game number minus trade show offerings” would be all that it took to put things at ease here.
EDIT: And I don’t mean that Spooky need to hash it out here on Pinside. A simple note to their distributors would probably be best. Tell them what is going on and them tell them to send their buyers a email update. It is as simple as that.
Little Rock, AR
Launceston
Calgary, AB
