jonnyb

Hi

A few weeks back I posted a message explaining that a local arcade had a faulty Bar-x that had misaligned reels...it clearly shows 3 xxx but didnt pay, the Management stated the reels werent in alignment etc..

Anyway, to cut a long story short this is what I did in another arcade that the original arcade owns, I know its not moral/legal but there you go...)

(all made sure I wasnt on the cameras, thanks to PJ for the relevant info to avoid these)...

(1) Took half hour to see which Party Time/bar x's were taking the most money...and it was a very busy Sunday (seafront arcade)

(2) Took my tube of SuperGlue and Cadbury's buttons...

(3) Added amount of Glue to button

(4) Inserted Button into 5 x Part Time Arenas, and a handful of Bar X's did this over the course of 2 hours, playing them with proper £1 at the same time to avoid obviousness!

(5) For good luck also stuck a couple of cancel buttons down, and even stuck a note changer up...


Then, found a Bar-X (old style converted to 25p play/£25 jackpot), noticed it was 'dropping' so played it around £10 and finally got the JP, it was one of those that pays out immediately...It paid all £25 out OK, but I decided to tell the arcade it didnt....and they happily paid me £25 and turned the machine off..

So, for the £10 they ripped me, is has cost them a lot lot more.....

Om sure most of you will not agree with my actions, and it was a very big risk I took...

But at the end of the day, I gave the arcade plenty opportunity to refund. Was funny watching the ONE SINGLE arcade engineer open up the Party Times and trying to unjam the mech at the top which had melted button/glue clinging to it.......

...and it was me who complained that the macine wasnt taking money!

I did this a fortnight ago...and still some machines are turned off, I do hope they have lost a lot of money

Hi

Just returned from an hours worth of fruit playing down the local seaside arcade...Playing 30p/go £25 Jackpot BarX..

Put £15 in, nothing.....Held X on reel 2 & 3 and X on reel 1 popped in...!

Hooray...!! Hang on, nothing happened....

Called the attendant, who explained that the last reel was 'out of alignment'. Believ me, the 3rd reel was 99.9% in alignment with the rest.

After arguing, the arcade supervisor was called who restated that this machine was prone to the 3rd reel becoming out of alignment..

I argued that I (and anyone for that matter) would NOT have held the 3rd reel if it WASNT an X etc...and the fact that everyone seemed to know of the problem probably means that the machine has been this faulty for a long time? Likewise I woulnt have held a '0' just in case it was the 'X' etc.

Cut a long story short, they wouldnt refund my £10 and so I walked out.

My question therefore is who can I write to, other than the arcade (who obviously dont care) about this incident. Clearly people are being ripped off from this machine, and the staff seem to know about it but dont want to do anything about it??

Any suggestions welcome...

(PS, one guy also at the arcade suggested I start pouring superglue down all the COinMechs on the PartyTimes!!!) - Hmm interesting, but I dont want to go down the crimiman damage route!!

Thanks