Heighway....

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chrisnack
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Heighway....

Post by chrisnack »

Pinside has some pretty heated discussions... so lets have our own! :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

I know Hilton has been a supporter but holy shit, that company is a sham! Andrew was a crook.

The number of offline discussions i've had including with shareholders... there was so much shady shit going on in the background.

I'm not sure if the "new" investors will really turn it around or not. No way in hell any of my money is going to them though.

....and go!
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QuyN
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Re: Heighway....

Post by QuyN »

I've only been in the hobby for a short time, but they seemed to be a legit pinball company. Shows how little I know. Makes me really sad since it hurts the hobby on the larger scale and in the public's eye. Also makes me really nervous to buy anything NIB or to put down a deposit for anything. Stern, and JJP seem to be the only companies "big enough" where they can put a machine into production without having to have a "start up" fund going first, and Stern has had their fair share of negative feedback with the PF/QC issues. I'm still really unsure about Spooky, which kind of makes me skeptical about putting down a deposit for TNA, which would be my first NIB purchase.

Anyone care to shed some light on what's been going on? Thoughts on Spooky?
chrisnack
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Re: Heighway....

Post by chrisnack »

I had zero issues with CGC on my MMr and I'm in for a AFMr LE. I have confidence in receiving that machine. On the plus side CGC has been around for a long time and is established making pinball parts and other arcade items. So manufacturing and running a business is not new to them.

It's hard to know what's the full truth around Heighway. I would have never gotten involved had i known what i know now. I was only in for a short period of time. After repeatedly missing deadlines and dates promised by Andrew personally, I bailed. They refused to refund my money and I disputed everything and received my money that way. To date they still never refunded the full amount. I believe most of the issue was Andrew (CEO), but can't confirm. He was lying to suppliers and not paying them, he was lying to people about when things would ship. They would promise to bump you to the front of the line if you stayed or gave them more time. They would offer you money off the game if you stayed in longer etc. But all those items were asked to be kept confidential even though he was doing the same shit with everyone. They did everything they could to keep people excited and involved and make sure they were at all the shows so people could see and play the game. From what I gather they haven't made more than 150 machines in total between both titles in 5 years. No production Alien machines were ever actually made, only several prototypes. Maybe 20 at best, there isn't any evidence to support anything beyond that. There were blatant supports on pinside who would back up Heighway on anything, but again never any real evidence to support games were shipping.

The original investors somehow took it over and kicked him out now, but they have a huge mess and a TON of people are asking for refunds now (rightly so) so I don't know how the hell those people are getting their money back and that new management will right the ship so to speak.

I think the theme was great and they were doing some super cool stuff around the design and how the machines were built, or at least supposed to be built. It would be cool to see it actually built and the company succeed, but i don't have high hopes. I got an email from the new management asking to speak with me and restore confidence essentially regarding my refund. Wow, so out of touch! I just told them there was no way I could ever support their company.

I don't know anything about Spooky so can't comment.
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Hilton
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Re: Heighway....

Post by Hilton »

chrisnack wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2017 2:59 pm He was lying to suppliers and not paying them,
I dont care for any drama over here on WIpinball, but can you please forward on any evidence of this. I had not heard this and would like to see the details.

feel free to PM or email.
chrisnack
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Re: Heighway....

Post by chrisnack »

Yeah I don't mean for it to turn into the shitshow that's on pinside. Just a healthy discussion, nothing more.

I'll hit you up offline.
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ralphwiggum
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Re: Heighway....

Post by ralphwiggum »

This isn't limited to just Heighway, but pre-ordering from any company other than Stern, is a gamble. JJP has come around quite a bit, but WoZ was in limbo forever. I don't know much about Heighway, but I am sort of surprised to see them struggling this far along. Usually machine #2 gets out faster and cheaper than your first release.

I rarely go on Pinside, so a TLDR version is fine.... What happened with Heighway? Were they just out of money and were trying to still fund game #1 with sales from Game #2?
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chrisnack
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Re: Heighway....

Post by chrisnack »

ralphwiggum wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2017 4:13 pm
I rarely go on Pinside, so a TLDR version is fine.... What happened with Heighway? Were they just out of money and were trying to still fund game #1 with sales from Game #2?
I think the stuff that is undisputed is that they missed deadline after deadline and kept promising ship dates and those would come and go. I know they came on and said the LE's would ship in June but as of mid-May they hadn't even ordered the fiber optics parts and it was a minimum 2-3 month wait for the parts from the supplier once they did. So it was kind of this constant dangle the carrot and keep people in.

People have been waiting for refunds for 30-45 days plus and Heighway was flat out ignoring emails and apparently you couldn't get any parts for Full Throttle.

I also believe Coin Taker dropped them too.
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ralphwiggum
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Re: Heighway....

Post by ralphwiggum »

Yeah, that definitely sounds like a cash flow issue....

"Making Pinball machines is hard expensive
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chrisnack
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Re: Heighway....

Post by chrisnack »

ralphwiggum wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2017 5:18 pm Yeah, that definitely sounds like a cash flow issue....

"Making Pinball machines is hard expensive
LOL, indeed!
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Re: Heighway....

Post by DeaconBlooze »

I also haven't kept up on that one, I have no idea what's going on with Heighway other than some noise in other threads. I can't even bring myself to open that has 3k+ unread posts..


Tim's right, pre-ordering is just something to stay away from. Spooky has been really transparent and has actually made games. I don't think they share in the cashflow problems that other boutiques do since they did really well to get AMH out (from an outsider perspective) and were also smart to pick up some contract games (dominos, jetsons ).

As some may know I was in on TBL. I got in before all of the other debacles. I bought into the hype of that first Expo reveal and one of my dream themes. They painted a picture of games shipping ahead of schedule (3-4 months). After the other boutiques started to fail and that first "conservative" deadline passed I started getting cold feet.

I reached out and came to an agreement with Barry that if they didn't have my game ready by December (2015? 2016? I can't even remember now) that he would issue a full refund. I saw the game had made almost zero progress at Expo that year and I had to pull out. I took a bit of a loss on the PayPal fees, but I decided to tell myself I had made a mistake buying a $300 DP t-shirt. I wanted the game, but I was getting really nervous and it wasn't fun anymore.
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Re: Heighway....

Post by jasonm »

I've been emailing back and forth with Morgan; one of their customer service people; about some parts and it feels like I'm just getting the run around. Didn't really know they were in any sort of trouble, but might explain the emails; I'd be nice to get either get a yes or no if they have the parts or not. Not going to shift through a super long pinside thread.
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Re: Heighway....

Post by Hilton »

jasonm wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2017 9:07 pm I've been emailing back and forth with Morgan; one of their customer service people; about some parts and it feels like I'm just getting the run around. Didn't really know they were in any sort of trouble, but might explain the emails; I'd be nice to get either get a yes or no if they have the parts or not. Not going to shift through a super long pinside thread.
Do you have a fullt or aliens? I have some spare parts and may able to help depending on what u need
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jasonm
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Re: Heighway....

Post by jasonm »

Hilton wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2017 9:15 pm
jasonm wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2017 9:07 pm I've been emailing back and forth with Morgan; one of their customer service people; about some parts and it feels like I'm just getting the run around. Didn't really know they were in any sort of trouble, but might explain the emails; I'd be nice to get either get a yes or no if they have the parts or not. Not going to shift through a super long pinside thread.
Do you have a fullt or aliens? I have some spare parts and may able to help depending on what u need
I have their first game they ever made ;)
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Methos
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Re: Heighway....

Post by Methos »

ralphwiggum wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2017 4:13 pm This isn't limited to just Heighway, but pre-ordering from any company other than Stern, is a gamble. JJP has come around quite a bit, but WoZ was in limbo forever. I don't know much about Heighway, but I am sort of surprised to see them struggling this far along. Usually machine #2 gets out faster and cheaper than your first release.
I agree with Tim - Stern is the ONLY company that I would put a healthy deposit on. Even Spooky and JJP - when the distributor has it in stock I"ll send the check. WOZ and TH were in limbo with unconfirmed reports of cash flow issues You are taking such a risk,especially on a company that is unproven. Paid in full before the game is produced? Really?

Plus it always seems that these newly released games get back on the open market before the pre-orders are completed. But let's be honest - as long as there are BBBs and Magic Girls that exponentially increase in value with 5 to 1 odds, people will take a gamble.
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Re: Heighway....

Post by Ken »

jasonm wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2017 9:29 pm
Hilton wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2017 9:15 pm
jasonm wrote: Tue Jun 06, 2017 9:07 pm I've been emailing back and forth with Morgan; one of their customer service people; about some parts and it feels like I'm just getting the run around. Didn't really know they were in any sort of trouble, but might explain the emails; I'd be nice to get either get a yes or no if they have the parts or not. Not going to shift through a super long pinside thread.
Do you have a fullt or aliens? I have some spare parts and may able to help depending on what u need
I have their first game they ever made ;)
BACARDI!?!? :twisted:
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