WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

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Riot
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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by Riot » Mon Jun 22, 2015 6:42 pm

I live right by an elementary school and I remember the big freight truck blocked all the buses from going on their route. Machine was delivered right when school was getting out lol. It caused quite a scene.
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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by BenMadsen » Tue Jun 23, 2015 4:48 pm

I live on a residential street, but I can ask my two neighbors if they will park in their driveways for the few hours they will be delivering it between.

I decided to go with STI. The price was marginally better with UPS, but they exclusively required pallets, and I preferred STI's "White Glove" service. All of your recommendations and assurances were too good to pass up on, so I gave Michelle the go ahead. Waiting on her to send me the invoice now :).

I guess that means they will be picking it up tomorrow and delivering it late next week.

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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by Riot » Wed Jun 24, 2015 9:15 am

Word about STI gets around like.... well, an STI.
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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by BenMadsen » Mon Jul 06, 2015 10:56 pm

Machine is being delivered tomorrow between 8 and 5. I'm very excited, but nervous hoping that they can move the machine down the borderline treacherous outside stairs and get it inside. If they can make it down 3 or 4 old, sunken steps, the rest will be smooth sailing. I'm sure they have moved worse, and it's 3 movers coming so I think that it'll be fine in the end.

Unlike the rest of you guys, I have actually had a pretty poor experience with STI. I haven't been impressed with Michelle's personality. She comes off to me like I'm an annoyance and not very important. Additionally, we had a nightmare this morning when the shipping company called me to set up a time.

They called and asked for Eric, and I told them they had the wrong number. Michelle emailed me and asked what the contact number was for Eric at delivery, so I told her it was to my house, and my name was Ben, and there was no Eric involved. She had them call me back. They knew nothing about the outside stairs (which I made very clear multiple times before getting the price quote), and only had 2 movers slotted for the machine instead of the 3 Michelle recommended. After I explained all of that, the lady on the phone informed me I was to pay with cash or a money order upon delivery. When I told her I paid instantly nearly two weeks ago, and had proof of payment, she said that the machine was marked as unpaid and she'd have to call to make sure it was paid for.

After the call, I emailed Michelle to try and figure out how everything could have been such a disaster, and she responded with a short "sorry its fixed now" email.

Hopefully the machine gets delivered safely and everything goes as planned, but I can't say that the STI charm that has spread around to you guys is reaching me :(

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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by Ho » Tue Jul 07, 2015 12:45 am

Bummer. It's been a while since I've shipped anything, so I don't have very recent experience. And personally, I think I've only worked with Michelle maybe once or twice. I think I called her early on and was passed off to someone else on her staff. I believe she actually left the agency at some point when I was doing most of my shipping and I just continued to work with various people there.

That was Beltmann. They tended to book STI for final delivery. I actually tried to book STI directly once and they told me that I had to go through another agent. But that's kind of ancient history at this point.

The last time I worked with Michelle she remembered me and I knew how everything worked since I had done it so many times. So my impression of her (and her of me) may be different than someone just starting out now. At any rate, I'm sorry you've had a bad experience.

In the end, it's gotta be better than trying to set all that crap up yourself. It'd probably be one company to pick up, A warehouse to deliver it to and pack it. Another company to transport it to a depot near you. And then possibly yet another carrier to do the final delivery to your door. And getting them all to coordinate and fill out all the paperwork. The first time I shipped anything, I went with a little less full service carrier and got a glimpse of that process. It was confusing and terrible.
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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by MonMotha » Tue Jul 07, 2015 2:27 am

That's disappointing. I've also not done this in a while (maybe 4 years?). I'm trying to remember if the last one I booked was with STI directly or through Beltmann. It thought it was STI directly. I didn't have any trouble. They even helped me get it up a couple stairs into my house at no charge despite me not paying for it or requesting such service.

They've always seemed to prefer COD (which did have to be guaranteed funds) and, when I first started, would not accept anything else unless you had credit terms with STI. I never had problems using their credit card service once they started offering it, though.

Beltmann booked STI because Beltmann was a broker for NAVL, and NAVL had, at the time, some sort of interest in STI. When NAVL divested their interest in STI, Beltmann ceased being able to book with STI and, as I recall, started turning down arcade game moves. At least a few of the people with Beltmann ended up somewhere else able to book for STI, and Michelle was one of those. Among those happened to be the people who handled the arcade game moves (and probably other stuff like industrial machinery, etc., which seems to be the STI "high value product division" group's bread and butter). I wonder if Nicole is still there? I worked more with her, I know.
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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by BenMadsen » Tue Jul 07, 2015 4:42 am

It's alright, I was just venting a bit.

I'm sure that in all honesty, moving this one "small" machine is not very important to them. They are delivering it between 8 and 5 and it's supposed to start raining around noon. Not sure if they have it wrapped and will deliver it in the rain or if they will reschedule. I'd die if it got wet.

The stairs on the outside of my house are partially sunken into the earth. There are 7 of them, and the top 3 are sunken about 6 inches and tilted at about 20 degrees. I'm freaking out wondering how they will get the machine down them. I'm sure they have moved stuff much heavier and in much more annoying places, but I still fret about it.

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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by Ho » Tue Jul 07, 2015 9:04 am

Big or small, they shouldn't treat you poorly. It sounds like something just got goofed up on this order and the recovery was a bit agonizing. I think it will all work out in the end.

Hopefully they bring a stair climber for the stairs. Though their condition could be slightly problematic. I have never ordered stair delivery and have always just had them roll it into the garage, so I don't really know how that part will go. They usually only send just the one driver to my house, so he doesn't have any help. But he really doesn't need it just to roll it into the garage.

Your machine will probably be blanket wrapped. It might be plastic wrapped over the top of the blankets. Sometimes mine have been, sometimes not. Either way, I wouldn't worry too much about the rain unless it's an absolute deluge. It's not likely to really hurt the machine as long as the wet stays on the outside.

Just be sure to wipe away any water that might accumulate on the surface so it doesn't sit on it long term. And by long term, I mean hours. The finish on the wood should keep out any water, but if it's been damaged or it finds its way to a crack, it might start to soak the wood a bit if you just let it sit.

Now, I can't really speak to what rain might do for the terrain you're moving the machine over. I have that worry at my house since machines have to travel over a relatively steep hill, the bottom of which is shaded pretty much all the time so it doesn't really grow grass. It's sort of a soft, mossy mess.
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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by BenMadsen » Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:37 pm

4:40 and no call yet (they promised to call me an hour ahead of time so this is a bad sign). When I try and call the number back they called me from yesterday it is silent for 30 seconds and then rings busy. Sigh.

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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by BenMadsen » Tue Jul 07, 2015 10:36 pm

Never called, never delivered it. Number for the STI delivery lady never worked again, I probably tried to call it 30 times. Called Michelle and she was out of the office, so I asked to talk to another agent.

They asked for my contract number, which I pulled from Michelle's credit card form she sent me. When this new agent (Judy) pulled up the contract number, she said it was delivered to a warehouse and I was supposed to pick it up from there. Trying not to lose my mind, I explained that they called yesterday and said they would deliver it between 8-5. I paid for residential home delivery and there must be some mix-up. She asked for my name, and looked up the contract by name. Turns out Michelle sent me the wrong contract number, which would explain why there was initial confusion with me not having paid (since I wrote the incorrect contract number on the credit card form). She looked it up, saw that there was to be in-home delivery, down outside stairs, with three movers. Supposed to be delivered from 8-5 and that they were to call an hour prior to delivery. She said she has no idea what happened, but all she can do is try to call them in the morning and then get back to me.

All I can really do is just try to be patient and laugh at the misfortunes. I don't think much else can go wrong (queue lightning striking the machine while being carried in). As usual, I'll keep you all updated. Hopefully this is an entertaining story for someone, at least.

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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by MonMotha » Wed Jul 08, 2015 12:03 am

They do key almost everything off that contract number. Having a disconnect there would do some pretty crazy things.

If I had to guess, the weather is why it wasn't delivered today. They still should have called to re-schedule, of course.

Who was the other agent you talked to? Between me, Ho, and the others on here, I suspect we've worked with many of them, though there may have been some turnover.
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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by BenMadsen » Wed Jul 08, 2015 12:47 am

Michelle was who messed everything up in the first place. Judy was the new agent I talked to.

Latonya (sp?) was the person who booked the delivery.

I'd assume weather was also the reason, but if they didn't call to rebook it, I bet they don't deliver it tomorrow either.

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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by Fluffyumpkins » Wed Jul 08, 2015 8:31 am

:(

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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by Ho » Wed Jul 08, 2015 10:09 am

I remember LaTonya. She was always nice. Although if she was booking the wrong contract number based on being given bad information...well, yeah.

Never talked to nor heard of Judy. Hopefully she'll get everything thing back on track for you. Keep her number. If you have to do this again, call her instead. :)

Are the contract numbers still two letters and then 4 digits?

I discovered that the digits are sequential. I was having two shipments one time and the numbers were sequential. So I guess they just start at 0001 and go to 9999. I asked once how the letters were determined. I was told they just make them up when they get to the end of numbers for the last one and try not to use a combination that's been used recently. :P
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Re: WTB: DDR Extreme Arcade Machine

Post by BenMadsen » Wed Jul 08, 2015 1:51 pm

Still can't get in touch with the delivery people. Michelle says they aren't answering their phones and neither are "their bosses bosses". What in the hell. I don't know what to do :(

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