Negative feedback thread for kcarcadegame

[benime]

KC's MO absolutely is greed. The only reason to disassemble and risk losing parts of these and other cabs is so you can cram as much into a container as possible to maximize your return. That's it.

It's pretty interesting that whenever the subject of KC is brought up, and the fact that he continues to violate the rules here (hell, half the time he doesn't even post prices, sold or otherwise, in his thread), the Staff never have anything to say.

I've personally had a shit experience with the guy and I've taken to PMing potential buyers of his, and linked them to threads like this and other accounts of his behavior, since the Arcade Projects staff refuse to take the appropriate action. God forbid you mention ANY of this in his FS thread, or you'll get dogpiled by sycophants and your posts will be moderated for some bullshit reason like "we let people get taken advantage of because buyers have to do their own research" and "no drama lol".

Any other community I'm in, real life or otherwise, we warn people about abusers and scammers because it's the right thing to do.

 

[skate323k137]

KC's MO absolutely is greed. The only reason to disassemble and risk losing parts of these and other cabs is so you can cram as much into a container as possible to maximize your return. That's it.

It's pretty interesting that whenever the subject of KC is brought up, and the fact that he continues to violate the rules here (hell, half the time he doesn't even post prices, sold or otherwise, in his thread), the Staff never have anything to say.

I've personally had a shit experience with the guy and I've taken to PMing potential buyers of his, and linked them to threads like this and other accounts of his behavior, since the Arcade Projects staff refuse to take the appropriate action. God forbid you mention ANY of this in his FS thread, or you'll get dogpiled by sycophants and your posts will be moderated for some bullshit reason like "we let people get taken advantage of because buyers have to do their own research" and "no drama lol".

Any other community I'm in, real life or otherwise, we warn people about abusers and scammers because it's the right thing to do.

 

[GeeDee]

And yeah for sure, it would be really helpful if a business owner was able to, say, enlist the help of someone to pick up where they fall short doing everything themselves in exchange for, I dunno, monetary payment for their time, effort, knowledge and skills.

((((This is a Job/Employee and KC has commented at this suggestion publicly before when transparency issues came up with a "no need just do my best".))))

Also, weird how we've already looped back to the solution being make sorting through KCs messes someone else's problem instead of just holding KC accountable hard to sort through which cabs are the least trashed when the seller is so upfront about choosing to poorly ship them; almost like the meaningful changes would be those that KC has to make himself and not those that a middleman could quality control. the KC feedback cycle is real, time is a flat circle, etc.

I am a one man show, and I import more volume than KC right now.

I buy from most of the same distributors he does. I do not have those problems.

He took that risk, and his customers aren't supposed to be the ones getting punished for it. He is.
Don't bail out KC just because he's "too big to fail".

 

[mrasmus]

Also, weird how we've already looped back to the solution being make sorting through KCs messes someone else's problem instead of just holding KC accountable hard to sort through which cabs are the least trashed when the seller is so upfront about choosing to poorly ship them; almost like the meaningful changes would be those that KC has to make himself and not those that a middleman could quality control. the KC feedback cycle is real, time is a flat circle, etc.

Yeah, when I suggested it it didn't feel... particularly realistic. Feels like KC would begrudge them for making money he thinks he should be making, instead. But IDK.

KC's MO absolutely is greed. The only reason to disassemble and risk losing parts of these and other cabs is so you can cram as much into a container as possible to maximize your return. That's it.

<snip>

Any other community I'm in, real life or otherwise, we warn people about abusers and scammers because it's the right thing to do.

I have no trouble with a business optimizing for profit... as long as those optimizations don't screw over the customers. Fitting more cabs into containers seems like a great way to improve profit margins! But you gotta be equipped to actually put it all back together again; if you're not, then yeah, greed is an apt descriptor. And he is not.

I tend to agree that I don't think letting repeat-offending scammers stick around is a great reflection on a community. If he's already been banned elsewhere, the question of "why hasn't he, here?" comes to mind. And if the answer is "he hasn't actually broken any rules", then the rules may be worth re-evaluating.

For those that have had good experiences with him... consider that it was probably cheaper and easier to provide acceptable service in your case than not -- if he doesn't make a mistake in shipping the wrong parts, then he doesn't have the chance to mess up a make-good, for instance.

The fact that none of his cabs come with locks, and you just have to know that, is just... a sticking point, for me. It just feels very nickel-and-dime-y, and it's his standard operating procedure -- but a new person buying a cab can easily miss that, and be out $50. That's a sweetspot of "... shit, I'm not gonna return it over something so small..." as far as costs and inconvenience, so he can get away with it pretty much indefinitely. Feels bad.

 

[Derick2k]

I have purchased candy cabs from just about every reseller here in the US and directly from Japan.

KC hasn't screwed me over on what I purchased from him, on one occasion stuff wasn't 100% as I expected and he made up for it. I guess I got lucky.
Not gonna lie, I almost shit a brick that time he got locked out of his warehouse and could not ship all the cabs I bought from him, and I had already wired like $12K to him.
So yeah, I was getting on a flight out to Rosemead, CA with a shovel in hand....if things turned south.

I have bought cabs from @Cereth and I will say it was a pleasure dealing with him. He is a true gentleman. 100% professional/100% accurate on what he represents and does. He is a true part of and a true friend of the community. Plus, I love his videos, I want to raid his place, so much cool stuff he has!

Also, not leaving @GeekMan1222 behind, bought a cab recently, also 100%/zero issues/as described and very easy to deal with and understanding.

So yeah, for me, both these guys are the ones to go to for your candy cab needs!.

Or you can gamble with a KC, think of it like those used car auctions, where they show you the car running, but you don't know 100% what's going on with it, better just go in person for the purchase if you do.

@kcarcadegame What is going on with you man????? Making things right for a few hundred $$$ is not going to end your business. You don't know if this one person that ends up feeling screwed could have brought you another 10, 20, 100 more sales. Just saying little guys make a difference too.

 

[mrasmus]

You don't know if this one person that ends up feeling screwed could have brought you another 10, 20, 100 more sales. Just saying little guys make a difference too.

This is kinda the bummer here, like... I'm not a huge volume buyer, and I shouldn't have to be to get decent service, but... I am gonna be in the market for a Vewlix in the next year or two, and I've got a few friends who are looking for DRS and potentially other cabs. In the early phases of this, I was excitedly watching his thread and kind of... daydreaming about pulling the trigger on various listings.

Luckily there's other sellers out there (Cereth has been a saint to me with advice and even helping me source the missing parts if KC failed to come through, so he's basically made me a loyal customer and advocate without even selling me anything yet). It just sucks that KC can't figure out a way to run his business that doesn't leave people feeling scammed after buying an arcade cab (something that should be a happy occasion!)

 

[SNK-NEO-GEO]

It is extremely important to document the bad experiences for the forum over all and new members.. sorry to hear OP story. It is also important to here other experience as well.

I have purchased from KC, 2 Vewlix L, 3 diamond black, 7 DK, 4 amuzy and a few other things and zero issues.. I only had one issue with an Eggret 2 cab that was not as described and why I don’t recommend KC for CRT purchase but I do for everything else due to my experience. As for Cereth, I have not purchase cabs from him but I also never seen anyone create a tread with negative feedback for him. He is the white glove service..

 

[mrasmus]

It is extremely important to document the bad experiences for the forum over all and new members.. sorry to hear OP story. It is also important to here other experience as well.

I have purchased from KC, 2 Vewlix L, 3 diamond black, 7 DK, 4 amuzy and a few other things and zero issues.. I only had one issue with an Eggret 2 cab that was not as described and why I don’t recommend KC for CRT purchase but I do for everything else due to my experience. As for Cereth, I have not purchase cabs from him but I also never seen anyone create a tread with negative feedback for him. He is the white glove service..

I will say that a lot of the strongest positive reviews are the ones that have high volume of cabs bought from him and others. This isn't discounting your experience -- and the fact that you're remote and getting good service is totally valid and relevant info for the discussion, but... it does make one wonder if he takes a little more care with sales to people who he thinks have the potential to buy another half dozen cabs from him in the future. It's also possible that it's just luck, we're talking about a small dataset here, just... yeah, it comes to mind.

EDIT: For that matter, it could also be an experience thing -- as a more experienced buyer, you no doubt have a better idea of what questions to ask, and what to expect from him. As a first-time buyer, even one who had heard some of the warnings about him, I no doubt could have been a better advocate for myself at various parts of the sale -- asked for it to be constructed before shipment, and for more, better pictures of it to be sent in final condition, etc. But I did try to ask questions -- asked about playability and completeness, missing parts, etc. And, in retrospect, he dodged getting into specifics that might have turned me off from the sale, from his perspective.

 

[mrasmus]

That actually brings up a question I'd love to hear feedback about: When a seller tells you a cab is "complete", what does that mean to you? What do you expect, from that?

Am I off-base to expect them to disclose missing lock cylinders, missing floor mats, etc? KC seemed to forget/lose track of sending the side cover panels, and the speaker was an obvious mistake of just... not paying attention to there being two different brackets, presumably. But he opted to not disclose that the cabinet was missing its locks (something that earlier listed Chunithm cabs had, in their pictures in his thread), and the mat (which he had some stock of, judging by the pictures from the batch my cab was in). Is it unreasonable to think that, if he was really getting me the "best one", it should've included a floor mat, even if many of the cabs he had come in didn't have them?

 

[kcarcadegame]

Customers got why they paid Will not and to much request I offer the return for full refund ,it’s used game much have some small part missing but the game is complete and working I will do my best for all sell ,why else I can do for the customers request more than what I can do they can return the game with out any questions
No story will do my best!
Thanks

 

[mikaeltarquin]

Just wanna point out how hilarious it is that you can see locks in the cabs in that shipping picture. They are very obviously stripped and sold separately due to greed.

 

[mikaeltarquin]

Customers got why they paid Will not and to much request I offer the return for full refund ,it’s used game much have some small part missing but the game is complete and working I will do my best for all sell ,why else I can do for the customers request more than what I can do they can return the game with out any questions
No story will do my best!
Thanks

What a hilariously bad take. How are you not banned? They didn't "get why they paid", and requesting the damn missing speaker and bracketry isn't "to much request". Don't make him return a gigantic cab across the country, just ship the missing parts that you forgot because you didn't take the care to put things back together right.

 

[benime]

It is also important to here other experience as well.

No it isn't. Should everyone who has had a negative experience go post in a positive experience thread for KC? Pretty sure folks would get moderated for that. This isn't a thread for both-sidesing.

More to the point, OPs experience clearly isn't an isolated one, and it shouldn't take a callout thread every time to get resolution on major incidents like this. And how many people don't say anything because they don't want to bite the hand that feeds, or they don't want to deal with people coming in and minimizing their negative experience?

So how many of these incidents do you think is alright before someone is banned from selling here?

That actually brings up a question I'd love to hear feedback about: When a seller tells you a cab is "complete", what does that mean to you? What do you expect, from that?

Am I off-base to expect them to disclose missing lock cylinders, missing floor mats, etc? KC seemed to forget/lose track of sending the side cover panels, and the speaker was an obvious mistake of just... not paying attention to there being two different brackets, presumably. But he opted to not disclose that the cabinet was missing its locks (something that earlier listed Chunithm cabs had, in their pictures in his thread), and the mat (which he had some stock of, judging by the pictures from the batch my cab was in). Is it unreasonable to think that, if he was really getting me the "best one", it should've included a floor mat, even if many of the cabs he had come in didn't have them?

The rules here state that you are to describe items in a responsible manner and disclose those types of things. Because KC deals in bulk, he gets a pass from the Staff, even though Cereth discloses this information on his sales and also deals in bulk. Go figure!

 

[kcarcadegame]

What a hilariously bad take. How are you not banned? They didn't "get why they paid", and requesting the damn missing speaker and bracketry isn't "to much request". Don't make him return a gigantic cab across the country, just ship the missing parts that you forgot because you didn't take the care to put things back together right.

Just return it it’s not a brand new game

 

[nem]

He doesn't want a brand new game, he wants the complete game that you sold to him.

 

[mikaeltarquin]

Just return it it’s not a brand new game

You are completely failing to understand the problem and solution here.

 

[GeeDee]

That actually brings up a question I'd love to hear feedback about: When a seller tells you a cab is "complete", what does that mean to you? What do you expect, from that?

"My" idea/expectations for "complete", unrelated to AP rules:

Crt cabs: it has a monitor and a psu. Expect monitor burn. Expect a mediocre picture. Expect to recap everything. DON'T expect a control panel. Sure as hell don't expect a 1st party control panel. Don't expect the wiring to be pretty. You WILL get your hands dirty. And no, there is no magic cab in the pile with no burn and a 2l12b panel that has your name on it for a sweaty wad of bills. It doesn't exist. You get what you get.

Crt rhythm games: Expect burn. Expect buttons to need replacing. Case by cases on hardware, but expect the game to be working on arrival; 99% likely missing extra art pops (unless otherwise noted) and of course certain security dongles taken out. Game should (usually, network dependency may vary) work on arrival tho.

Flat-screen/HD "candy": expect a not great monitor, but it should work. Expect a panel, IO, and PSU. Expect the usual cigarette burns and blemishes.

Flatscreen/HD rhythm games: most of the time, expect a pretty good quality machine. Should work on arrival (again, network dependency may vary) and function. Stock monitor usually in pretty good shape. Art pops more commonly included. Still expect the security dongles removed (you don't need them. Don't worry about missing them.)

Time goes on though, so we're getting ever closer to some things being "mandatory maintenence" on these nowadays: jubeats notoriously clogged blower fans needed dissasembly and cleaning/replacing, for example.

 

[kcarcadegame]

He doesn't want a brand new game, he wants the complete game that you sold him.

it complete working just missing small part ( will send it for replacement) I offer for return for full refund it is the best I can do

 

[mrasmus]

The "return it" take, as I've already explained to him, really doesn't make sense when you consider that I have to take time off work to deal with freight -- so I'm already in the hole one vacation day, and returning it makes that two. So if the options are "take the return" or "take what you get", then he has a several hundred dollar buffer before taking the return actually makes financial sense for me.

This also lets him dodge scrutiny from PayPal's human review process, because they consider an offer of a full refund to be a successfully resolved claim (so no need for a PayPal employee to look at it).

"My" idea/expectations for "complete", unrelated to AP rules:

<snip>

Flatscreen/HD rhythm games: most of the time, expect a pretty good quality machine. Should work on arrival (again, network dependency may vary) and function. Stock monitor usually in pretty good shape. Art pops more commonly included. Still expect the security dongles removed (you don't need them. Don't worry about missing them.)

Thanks for the insight! That was basically my expectation -- in fact, I even expected I might have to refurbish or surface the control surface in some ways, because I didn't expect him to do any validation of its working status. I just didn't expect actual parts to be lacking, or the doors needing to be held closed by tape.

I didn't go into the lack of a key chip in the thread -- that was something that wasn't disclosed, either, though I've since learned that they really never are included in Chunithm units. I knew I could get around it anyway, but knowing it wouldn't be included would have let me do my research ahead of time, and get the cab running slightly faster. While he didn't have any resources to help me with that process, he gets a pass on that one, no real harm.

 

[benime]

it complete working just missing small part ( will send it for replacement) I offer for return for full refund it is the best I can do

Side panels and speakers aren't small parts, I'd say that's something that would be considered a base part of the cabinet.

And no, the best you can do is not shipping someone an incomplete cab in the first place. Maybe show some pride in your work and respect for your customers.