Super annoyed with Paradise Arcade packaging, WTF?

[Derick2k]

So I got my ST-V kit package from Paradise Arcade and the first thing I notice is, a padded envelope. So I immediately panic and think WTF?!



Inside is a folded post office mailing envelope,



and then the ST-V PCB ints original shipping bubblewrap sleeve no doubt.
So I get this,



Bent pins on this header, that have ripped off their solder pads on the PCB.
WTF?! They couldnt trouble themselves to put it in a real box with better padding to ship the PCB?
Anyone else get their boards shipped this way? The PCB could have been cracked in half or components broken right off.
Anyways, enough of my little rant about shitty packaging. I still need to test it and make sure it works before I decide how to proceed, its late so I will do that tomorrow.

 

[rewrite]

My CPS2 kit came in alright, but they made me pay for a second shipping charge because they received it back after their error leaving off my apartment number... They're also terribad at the customer service thing. Both e-mail and their webform get ignored four out of five messages...

 

[MissionFailed]

Same Here shipped to me the same way. Bummer. Not mad just bummed out. dont take this post the wrong way. please On the positive side We have one to work with. There are unforeseen issues and human error with all thing, this will work out in due time. Still very happy over all. Every one is so helpful here and have a long, documented history good practice and character. It's all good

Solder points look like they survived but no Stv to test the board atm there is also a slight warp of the Pcb from middle to right. probably a non issue.

U-line has 8x6x2 or 8x6x4 200lb crush test boxes for 0.43 and 0.31 cents per 25. i make a freight order of boxes and packing material from them every six months or so, and that's just to sell off my garbage on ebay. Not sure why a retailer wouldn't have appropriate shipping material. its not rocket science. you know the post office is ruff, so pack accordingly.

first class under 3oz is about $2.04 to $2.54 depending on your discounts

I garbed a 8x6x4 and weighed it with appropriate packing peanuts and the Pcb. It would ship first class at 7oz. with a cost of $2.53 to $3.34. packing peanuts no more than $0.03 <--- very generous est.

So if they charged $3.00 shipping and with their highest cost $3.68 . That 0.68 cents loss on shipping is more than worth it to avoid shipping errors that in the long run cost; money loss in 2x return shipping, money loss in time spent fixing the issue, and the potential loss of future sales. they could have just charged $4.00 or $5.00 and that still would be relatively low shipping cost.

cutting comers and cost on shipping only make sense when the product your sending is: bendable, Inexpensive, easy/cheep to replaced. packing should reflect cost of the item.
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I just want to make the following point so I'm not misread and people don't think i'm blaming anyone here. I'm only talking about shipping practices of retailers. they don't make anything there business value is based service provided. People here selling their project kits can ship how ever they please and take as long as they like to do so. it's by their generosity that we buyers have access to their kits. that should be respected, and encouraged behavior.

Darksoft and the others here who sell there project are not retailers. I imagine they would make more money and better time served elsewhere. Being upset with a retailers practices is fair game, But its never productive to have a misdirected meltdown at another member who is really just going out of there way to share and be helpful to others. every issue can be resolved.

i just wanted to rant my piece. not directed or referring to anyone.

 

[Darksoft]

That doesn't look good. Let me talk to them....

 

[kingofpain]

I ordered my CPS2 multi kit from them. It was packaged well, but had broken pins on the sound portion of the board. I was able to solder wires from the Multi board to the correct socket pins on the back of the B-Board, no issues. Was a bit of a pia, but necessary at that point.

 

[Darksoft]

Thanks for feedback. I'll talk to them.

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

I ordered my CPS2 multi kit from them. It was packaged well, but had broken pins on the sound portion of the board. I was able to solder wires from the Multi board to the correct socket pins on the back of the B-Board, no issues. Was a bit of a pia, but necessary at that point.

If you need replacement pins let us know.

 

[SmokeMonster]

Yikes, I've never ordered from Paradise Arcade because, after their exorbitant shipping costs, it's always cheaper to go with focusattack (who have excellent/immediate customer service and great packing to boot). I also had submitted questions on PA's webform before with no response.

Hopefully they don't make a huge mess of this that Mitsu and Darksoft have to clean up after.

 

[kingofpain]

I ordered my CPS2 multi kit from them. It was packaged well, but had broken pins on the sound portion of the board. I was able to solder wires from the Multi board to the correct socket pins on the back of the B-Board, no issues. Was a bit of a pia, but necessary at that point.

If you need replacement pins let us know.

I would like some replacements Mitsu, just in case I need them later on.

I have ordered from Paradise Arcade quite a few times in the past, and they have always done well and have been more than accommodating whenever I needed something. When I ordered some controls a year ago to rebuild a control panel, their system let me order some push buttons that weren't in stock. After a few days of waiting for the order to ship and it didn't, I called them, and they sent the order with different buttons, and said that when they got the ones I wanted were back in stock, they'd ship them out free of charge. A week later, I had those push buttons.

Out of curiosity, are they not in Hawaii anymore?

 

[Mitsurugi-w]

Hopefully they don't make a huge mess of this that Mitsu and Darksoft have to clean up after.

I hope not. lol. If you buy a Sony TV from Walmart online and Walmart ships it with poor packaging and it breaks you don't expect Sony to fix it. We try to keep you guys happy though.

Out of curiosity, are they not in Hawaii anymore?

Nope. They have moved to Minnesota I think. PM me your address and I will send you some pins.

 

[MissionFailed]

I hope not. lol. If you buy a Sony TV from Walmart online and Walmart ships it with poor packaging and it breaks you don't expect Sony to fix it. We try to keep you guys happy though.

I did a poor job trying to say the same thing early. Dark and mtisu would be like distributors to PA and not responsible for any faults in the product caused by PA's errors in services. they are just nice guys.

Darksoft resolving the issue with them would lead to a better long turn solution, than us customers throwing a fit at them. they need to acquire apt shipping material before sending any more out. or just charge $10.95 shipping and mail them in medium flat rate boxes.

PA working solution for shipping errors is probably just have the item sent back for a refund. if you have lots of sale of easily replaceable parts, that would be the easiest working solution. Takes less time than improving your packing solutions. Also US post office priority mail marked boxes and mailers used for any postal purpose other than its intended shipping purpose can be considered mail fraud by a postal worker on a bad day. Regardless if you are using it for just stuffing. They can go bonkers on you for something that small.

most of the product they sell/have sold could go through the mail in a wet paper sack and be fine. they are probably relatively new to shipping such delicate boards and haven't refined their shipping material selection. This feels like just an adjustment and refining period for their shipping practices. they will no doubt resolve it.

Uline.com is the best thing ever PA. I will geek out over whats the best packing material any time you want. heres my Immaculate feedback Look at all the remarks about shipping. Not once have i had an item damaged in shipping and a lot of what i have sold is expensive condition sensitive items. Mind you to the most unreasonably belligerent and condition sensitive buyers you could imagine. they can make people want to quit the internet.

 

[rewrite]

most of the product they sell/have sold could go through the mail in a wet paper sack and be fine. they are probably relatively new to shipping such delicate boards and haven't refined their shipping material selection. This feels like just an adjustment and refining period for their shipping practices. they will no doubt resolve it.

They have been selling however-many-in-1's and programmable PCB's for an eternity. It's certainly not being new to shipping PCB's out.

 

[MissionFailed]

true. and fair point. I'v been vocal an opinionated on the subject. I dont want myself/ one person to come off as bashing them so was trying my best to a be critical, constructive, and understand their perspective on how they deal with damage in shipping. trying to give them the benefit of the doubt when i can.

that was probably bad wording on my part. sorry for that.

the majority of orders are probably :

a ball top, two wires, and a gate

or a microswith, controller plate, 3 wires

the pcb orders could be small in comparison to their easy to pack, no need for protection items. anything over a 1 lb, 3oz is best sent out in a medium flat rate box. so no need to buy boxes for those. It would be far more financially beneficial to them to not buy proper packing material. Under pack the Pcb to save on shipping cost. If its damaged their solution is "send it back and we will send you a replacement." If they have the inventory in stock. wright it off as a loss/make a postal insurance claim for damaged goods up to $50. Not the best way to do things but its easy for them and common short cut.

I was trying to think of a polite way to accuse them of over charge shipping and under packing their orders. Padding profits from shipping charges instead of putting the money back in their company for proper supply's. super fast way to loose customers.

 

[rewrite]

true. and fair point. I'v been vocal an opinionated on the subject. I dont want myself/ one person to come off as bashing them so was trying my best to a be critical, constructive, and understand their perspective on how they deal with damage in shipping. trying to give them the benefit of the doubt when i can.

that was probably bad wording on my part. sorry for that.

the majority of orders are probably :

a ball top, two wires, and a gate

or a microswith, controller plate, 3 wires

the pcb orders could be small in comparison to their easy to pack, no need for protection items. It would be far more financially beneficial to them to not buy proper packing material. Under pack the Pcb to save on shipping cost. If its damaged their solution is "send it back and we will send you a replacement." If they have the inventory in stock. wright it off as a loss/make a postal insurance claim for damaged goods up to $50. Not the best way to do things but its easy for them and common short cut.

I was trying to think of a polite way to accuse them of over charge shipping and under packing their orders. Padding profits from shipping charges instead of putting the money back in their company for proper supply's. super fast way to loose customers.

I can appreciate your need to be polite. I'm more or less past that part with their company after several issues over the years.. They seem like a lot of the older KLOV-types who try to run a business in their spare time and when they trip up just don't deal with it until they're so far backed up that they have to play catch up...

If you search around on KLOV it's like every 3-4 months someone makes an order that never gets shipped out for weeks and they stop replying to everyone's e-mails, a thread goes up in General asking if PA still exists, they finally speak up, claim this issue or that one and a week or two later get back on board. And then the cycle repeats in a few months...

For whatever it's worth, that's of course solely my observations and opinion.

 

[Derick2k]

Now guys I dont want this to get out of hand, Paradise does offer a service in the US that not many others do, and they are usually on point with things and they are very very reputable (I hate their site design and functionality, when it works, its at a bare minimum, like their shipping lately )

But, it seems that lately they have been dropping the ball a lot. I placed a large order of joysticks, buttons and such...which included 4 of their custom sanwa silent joysticks with their prebuilt harnesses with quick disconnects. I get the regular harness that are already included with the joysticks and a note that reads "Sorry, ran out of our harnesses, so you get the ones that come with the joystick from factory " No, we will issue you a discount on your next order, or we will ship you the harnesses when we get more, or we will refund you X amount. So from now on I will be limiting my orders from them to Darksoft's kits and thats about it. For my future purchases or arcade control hardware and such, I will go with Focus Attack from now on. I think they might have better prices, usually offer discounts and their packaging is very well good.

 

[rewrite]

Now guys I dont want this to get out of hand, Paradise does offer a service in the US that not many others do, and they are usually on point with things and they are very very reputable (I hate their site design and functionality, when it works, its at a bare minimum, like their shipping lately )

But, it seems that lately they have been dropping the ball a lot. I placed a large order of joysticks, buttons and such...which included 4 of their custom sanwa silent joysticks with their prebuilt harnesses with quick disconnects. I get the regular harness that are already included with the joysticks and a note that reads "Sorry, ran out of our harnesses, so you get the ones that come with the joystick from factory " No, we will issue you a discount on your next order, or we will ship you the harnesses when we get more, or we will refund you X amount. So from now on I will be limiting my orders from them to Darksoft's kits and thats about it. For my future purchases or arcade control hardware and such, I will go with Focus Attack from now on. I think they might have better prices, usually offer discounts and their packaging is very well good.

That's honestly terrible... Arcadeshock is fairly well priced as well, I've bought a lot from both them and FA in the past. LizardLick was the best, so sad that they're gone now.

 

[Derick2k]

On a side note. I fixed the pin header and re-soldered the broken contacts. Tested it out and its all good, spent an hour playing Radiant Silvergun with my boy, he loves shmups

Another amazing piece of engineering by Darksoft . Mitsu thank you for uploading the SD card image.

Quick question, do I still need to do the auto reset hook up wire and firmware update on this card? And I am going to need the sound hookup jumper from Mitsu, I am too lazy to look thru my junk pile for the right size cap and resistor, plus the house under renovations at the moment. All I can say is saw dust and spray paint cloud/fallout is bad.

 

[MissionFailed]

sorry derick. i apologize.

I will be limiting my orders from them to Darksoft's kits and thats about it.

and agree. I'm still very happy with the kit. i should consider myself lucky to have accuses to one. extremely small production run, high demand, insane build quality. -only one place you can get it.- in any condition PA want to send pcbs too me i am fine. I'll just fix it/have fixed and play some games , have fun, move on with my life. you be you PA

I got a hori vx-se from ArcadeShock. their pretty good imho, proby going to order a few Seimitsu stick to feel out.

 

[Derick2k]

MissionFailed, no apologies needed, this is an open forum. I am still super pissed off with PA and their lack of attention/common sense.

Besides, Darksoft said he would speak to them. So if they dont listen to him, and they continue the same way, it will be their loss in the end.

 

[Darksoft]

MissionFailed, no apologies needed, this is an open forum. I am still super pissed off with PA and their lack of attention/common sense.

Besides, Darksoft said he would speak to them. So if they dont listen to him, and they continue the same way, it will be their loss in the end.

I talked to them and they said they'll offer an option to ship in cardboard boxes. I think that's the only one they should offer. I don't think people will refrain from shipping for $4-5 more and definitely you guys getting a broken kit because of poor packaging is not an option.