# The Pinball Show Ep 172 BONUS: Deal Of The WTF?! Dennis Laughs & Zach Cries

**Source:** Pinball Show Patreon Feed  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-03-11  
**Duration:** 18m 25s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/pinball-show-ep-124125114

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## Analysis

A dealer recounts a nightmarish customer experience involving a Stranger Things Premium pinball machine sale that went catastrophically wrong. The customer's payment bounced mid-shipment, leading to a series of contradictions, delays, and ultimately the customer playing the unpaid machine over 350 times in one weekend before returning it severely damaged. The story illustrates the operational and financial risks small pinball dealers face.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Customer's payment bounced 5 days after a Stranger Things Premium (~$10,000) was shipped — _Dealer describing the incident in detail_
- [HIGH] Customer unboxed and played the machine over 350 times in one weekend despite not having paid — _Dealer's recounting of discovery after machine was returned_
- [HIGH] Shipping and damage losses totaled approximately $3,000+ (two FedEx shipments ~$1,000+ combined, unboxing damage ~$2,000, additional damage from misuse ~$1,000) — _Dealer's itemization of losses: 'once somebody's unboxed this game, we've lost a couple thousand bucks. Now that you've beat this game up, we've probably lost another thousand bucks. I've paid shipping now twice that was in excess of $1,000'_
- [MEDIUM] Flipping Out Pinball loses more money to fraud/chargebacks than all other big dealers combined — _Dealer's assertion about company losses_
- [HIGH] Small claims court recovery is not practical for out-of-state disputes — _Dealer's reasoning for not pursuing legal action against New York customer_

### Notable Quotes

> "I just sent a nearly $10,000 pinball machine to somebody, and at this point, they haven't paid for it because their payment bounced."
> — **Dennis (Flipping Out Pinball dealer)**, ~5:30
> _Captures the moment Dennis realizes the severity of the situation_

> "I'm going to have a shipper come pick this thing up. They're just going to pick it up, and you can figure out your bank stuff, but I need to get this thing picked up. Whatever you do, don't unstrap it from the pallet."
> — **Dennis**, ~9:20
> _Shows operational knowledge—FedEx requires palletized loads; demonstrates insider baseball about shipping logistics_

> "You've got a ten thousand dollar product that is not yours. You need to make Friday work."
> — **Dennis**, ~11:00
> _Shows escalating frustration and firm boundary-setting with the customer_

> "She played this thing over 350 times in one weekend. I don't know if she put it on location, I don't know she routed it. That's how she made rent."
> — **Dennis**, ~15:30
> _Reveals the shocking truth about what happened to the machine—potentially used commercially without payment_

> "If the game had been totally destroyed, then I think it would have made more sense because the dollar amount would have been enough to warrant it."
> — **Dennis**, ~22:00
> _Explains why pursuing legal action was deemed economically impractical_

> "Be friendly to your small business owners out there because the really, really good ones are losing money to make sure things are right."
> — **Dennis**, ~24:00
> _Philosophical reflection on small business challenges and societal expectations_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Dennis | person | Owner/operator of Flipping Out Pinball, a pinball machine dealer, recounting a customer fraud/negligence incident |
| Zach Sharpe | person | Co-host of The Pinball Show podcast, listening to and reacting to Dennis's story |
| Nicole | person | Mentioned briefly as reacting emotionally to the situation (likely partner or staff member) |
| Flipping Out Pinball | company | Pinball machine dealer owned by Dennis; claims significant losses to fraud and chargebacks |
| Stranger Things Premium | game | Stern Pinball machine that was the subject of the fraud incident; valued at approximately $10,000 |
| The Pinball Show | organization | Podcast featuring Dennis and Zach discussing pinball industry, community, and personal anecdotes |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Stranger Things Premium |
| FedEx | company | Shipping carrier used by Flipping Out Pinball; mentioned as more expensive but faster option |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Dealer operations and fraud risk management, Payment processing and chargeback/bounced payment handling, Small business financial losses and cost of business, Customer accountability and dispute resolution
- **Secondary:** Shipping logistics and carrier relationships, Pinball machine condition and damage assessment, Machine routing and secondary market use, Legal remedies and practical limitations

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (-0.6) — Dennis is frustrated and financially damaged by the incident, but frames it with dark humor and philosophical acceptance. Zach finds humor in the situation while acknowledging Dennis's stress. The mood is comedic tragedy—tragic content delivered with comedic timing and perspective, which is the intended format of the bonus episode.

### Signals

- **[operational_signal]** Significant operational challenge for small pinball dealers: payment bounces after shipment, customer fraud/negligence, and difficulty recovering funds. Demonstrates why rental models and payment terms are avoided. (confidence: high) — Stranger Things Premium case: bounced payment, customer played unpaid machine, returned damaged, dealer ate $3,000+ in losses; also mentioned recent chargeback incident with brand new machine.
- **[business_signal]** Flipping Out Pinball experiences significant losses to fraud, chargebacks, and negligent customers. Dennis claims dealer losses exceed those of major competitors combined. (confidence: medium) — 'My company, I guarantee you flipping out pinball loses more money than probably all the dealers combined... people that do chargebacks and shit. I recently had a chargeback dentist that, a brand new pinball machine.'
- **[market_signal]** High operational friction and financial risk in pinball dealing—FedEx premium shipping costs, fraud losses, chargebacks, and legal remedies are impractical for out-of-state disputes. (confidence: high) — Dennis pays premium shipping ($1,000+ per shipment) to differentiate on speed; eats multiple shipping costs when shipments must be reversed; small claims court deemed impractical for New York dispute.
- **[operational_signal]** Specialized knowledge about FedEx palletization requirements and freight carrier constraints. Unpalletized loads cannot be picked up; rerouting requires expensive freight carrier. (confidence: high) — 'If you unstrap it from the pallet, then FedEx can no longer pick it up... if that's the case then i have to call a different shipping freight company which is double the price'
- **[community_signal]** The Pinball Show offers unique dealer perspective often missing from other pinball podcasts. This bonus episode illustrates 'the dark underbelly' of customer-side friction in the dealer business. (confidence: high) — Host acknowledges: 'one of the unique things that this show offers is because you're a dealer, and so you come in with a lot of dealer perspective that's not really reflected in many other podcasts'
- **[product_concern]** Stranger Things Premium machine returned in severely damaged condition after weekend of heavy play: broken key in coin door, missing spare key, legs jammed in cabinet, all goodie bag contents loose, pallet straps made to look secure but weren't. (confidence: high) — 'Tore the fuck up... beat up... looked like it got dragged down a hill... she got it out of the fucking box... played it all weekend long... Where are the legs of this thing?... Legs are shoved in there... every piece of paper out of the goodie bag, separated all in the back of the cabinet'
- **[community_signal]** The Pinball Show uses Patreon bonus episodes to share candid industry stories, dealer anecdotes, and behind-the-scenes content that illustrates real-world challenges. (confidence: high) — Episode positioned as exclusive Patreon content with adult language and comedic framing; listeners encouraged to discuss in Discord.

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## Transcript

 Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. Thanks again for the ongoing support as a Pinball Show Club member. Enjoy this exclusive TPS content and make sure to visit the Pinball Show Club Discord to chat about the bonus material. Dennis, I don't even, I'm not even looking forward to this exclusive content here. Well, you know, we, I understand and we discussed several ideas. However, this really amused me when I heard about it. I get it because it's at your expense. Tragedy is when something happens to you. Comedy is when it happens to someone else. The listeners, they're used to us giving them little tidbits, like little behind-the-scenes, little discussion of rumors. I think one of the unique things that this show offers is because you're a dealer, and so you come in with a lot of dealer perspective that's not really reflected in many other podcasts. and but they often just hear about like the sale side of it like dealing with the manufacturer they don't know about oh the dark underbelly that is the consumer and i think in the main show you kind of hinted a little bit at it when you talked about the frustration with the you know what what harm is it when someone asks and that there can be harm when someone just like low balls you but what about when the actual sale itself goes awry oh it happened truest low lowliest of the low So true. And it happens so often. There's so many examples, but the one that I described, I think it was during our happy hour hangout. It was. You got such a kick out of it. It was very funny. But I do still sympathize with you while I laugh. Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Here's how it goes. Tell the story. As I do, we try to do a lot of flipping out pinball. Well, one of the things is we like to be efficient, and we like to be quick, and we like to serve better than any other dealer in the whole world. So whenever people purchase things from us, we like to turn around really quick, get that game out to that person. A lot of times, a lot of you customers can even attest if your customers are flipping out. You say, damn, you already got that thing to me. Some of that reasoning is because we go FedEx, which is quicker than most other carriers, costs us more. but it gets to you faster. So we want to make you happy. So we do that because we're good people and we're kind people. So I had the joy three weeks ago, maybe longer of having a customer. She had bought a stranger things premium. Oh, great. First game she's ever bought. You know what? Uh, congratulations. Paid through the website, purchased it. We, you know, within a couple of days we got the, got it shipped out to her. And I would say probably five days in the process as the game was on its way to, I could randomly say, let's say New York. Okay. Let's say it's going to New York. Sure. All right. So it shipped to New York. On its way to New York, we got notification from our bank that said, hey, sorry about your bad luck, but payment has been canceled or has bounced from said customer. Uh-oh. Yeah. Oh, wait a minute. I just sent a nearly $10,000 pinball machine to somebody, and at this point, they haven't paid for it because their payment bounced. Oh, shit. Usually that happens within the first couple. It doesn't usually take that long because, I mean, was a retailer going to hold on to something for a whole month before they – no. So it's just common business practices. It is what it is. So I quickly, very quickly after hours contacted the customer and said, hey – I think I messaged him and said, hey, your payment bounced. And this game is like on its way to you. So I need you to immediately take care of this or else I'm going to have to like get that game coming back to us. And they're like, oh, my God, I'm so sorry. Yeah, let me reach out to my bank. And then I didn't hear from him. And the next day, that's another day. I'm like, oh, shit. Hey, what do we figure out? Because I've got to cancel this shipment. And they were like, yeah, it's good. I talked to my bank. they froze my account right now but I'm yeah just your standard like laundering fraud cases so like a red flag came up I was like oh shit So I said okay well I going to have to get that And they were like, well, let me talk to them. I'm going to be able to use my credit card, or they're going to issue something out. I should be able to pay by the end of the day. So at that point, you're like, fuck, what do you do? Do you cancel the shipment? Because if I cancel the shipment and it comes back to me, and then it ends up going through, I'm not going to charge her again. And so then I'm going to have to pay another $600 to get it to her again. Like, oh, my gosh, this is horrible. So I was like, okay. Got to the evening. I said, any updates? Where are we at here? Yeah, I didn't get any updates from her. So at that point, I was like, shit. Called my shipping person. Yeah, panic setting in. Yeah. I said, ship this thing back. Stop the shipment. Even if I lose, you know, $1,000 in shipping back and forth, that's better than somebody scamming me out of the entire game? Because at that point, I didn't even know. Is this a scam? Is this just somebody that doesn't have any money? Or is this just a bank error? Like, what is going on? Regardless, I need to minimize my damage here. So I contact the shipper. The shipper says, unfortunately, it is too far in the process to return. Like, it's already. Right. It's on route. Yeah, there ain't no getting it back. So the only way to get it back is if that person would cancel, like reject it once it got there oh shit so i contact the person hey you need to cancel that uh whenever or reject that shipment because you haven't paid for it and she yeah that'll fix their and she said i accepted it no i'm like why you haven't paid so i got it's already there so i got a little stern and she i was like a little stern she got a big stern she was like she she did get a big stern but it was like she was the victim she was like i told you i'm working with my bank to pay for and i'm like listen ass i don't care who you're working with you've got a ten thousand dollar product and you haven't paid for it that's a problem and she was like i i accepted it but and I said, whatever you do, I'm going to have a shipper. I'm going to pay them to come pick this thing up. They're just going to pick it up, and you can figure out your bank stuff, but I need to get this thing picked up. Whatever you do, don't unstrap it from the pallet because a little inside baseball here, people. But if you unstrap it from the pallet, then FedEx can no longer pick it up because it has to be palletized or they won't pick up anything. anything and if that's the case then i have to call a different shipping freight company which is double the price because they have the pallet says don't unstrap it don't unbox it you just leave it there you shouldn't even accept the fucking thing yeah damn it and so she left it on the pallet you see why this is so funny from an outside perspective complete bullshit it's a it's a tragedy of errors so she was like i'm still working to get i said look if you want that batches use your credit card or something like i don't have time for this shit you've got my product i need it back or else and she was like i'll uh i can and i said i get the shippers coming back friday this is a thursday i got them coming back tomorrow she said tomorrow doesn't work i said well i don't give a fuck if tomorrow doesn't work you make it work you've got a ten thousand dollar product that is not yours you need to make friday work this is when they're coming she said no uh that's not gonna work i work on friday i'm looking you better be working a lot harder to be able to afford this pinball machine and uh i said but it's got to be friday what do you mean and i said it's on the pallet can you not just have somebody meet the shipper over there to let them she said well it's not on the pallet i will come away huh what do you mean it's not on the pallet why would it not be on the pallet you didn't pay for the game why would not be on the pallet she said well it was raining and we were protecting i said no that that that contradicts it that makes no sense it should be on the pallet so it stays out of the rain why is it off the out and she said i'm not available friday monday i can do monday and i was like i think i need to call the police and she was like no you don't need to call the police why would you need to call the police i said because you got something that's not rightfully yours and you will not let me pick it up tomorrow so she calls back and she says i actually contacted my local police and i told them what's going on uh and told them that i would have i can meet to your shipper on monday for this game and i said well can you get it back on the pallet how are you going to get i'll I'll strap it back to the pallet. Okay, thank you. I was waiting for her to say can you pay for the straps too This is what happens every day And I said all right Monday And Nicole like i don feel good about this like this is bullshit why does she have our stuff if like and i like i know just monday monday comes along i send a shipper out there as agreed upon i swear to you listener you can't make this up she refused the shipper but wait for it like the whole contradiction of the pallet being off because of its safety in the rain thing in the water she said the reason she did was because of wait for it Carl Weathers now this doesn't make sense because if the shipper is willing to come pick it up why does it matter if it's snowing on her behalf she merely has to open the garage door to let the shippers get it yeah so my shipper is like she canceled the appointment i'm like oh my god this is a scam i got scammed i've got scammed out of a ten thousand dollar thing nicole's never going to forgive me and this is horrible so needless to say i said i messaged her what the fuck are you doing why are you why are you delaying this again not what well tomorrow works better oh All right. So finally, I thought it was a scam. I was like, oh, this is going to go on indefinitely. I'm going to do a small claim or whatever. But the shipper did confirm that they picked up something on that Tuesday. So I'm like, okay, I've got something at least. And it was headed here. Two days later, it gets to me. I've received the Stranger Things premium, Dennis. Oh, good. Well, it was not good. it was not good so what this sweet person had done after fucking me over as much as she had apparently this thing was tore the fuck up it was beat up it looked like it got drugged down a hill it might as well have been spit on it was just it was ugly and what apparently happened was she had to work Friday, but the asshole didn't have to work Saturday or Sunday because apparently she not only got it off the crate, she got it out of the fucking box. She set it up and her and her shithead friends played it all weekend long like it was a party, a sweepstakes, playing my game that she had not paid for and tried to scam me out of, played it all weekend. And she took everything out of the goodie bag and just threw it in the cabinet. I was like, where are the legs of this thing? Well, first I got to find the keys, Zach. Where are the keys? Oh, the key is broken. in the coin door. Of course it's broken in the coin door. Wasn't there a spare key? There's two keys. Oh, she kept the other key. How fucking sweet is that? So I get the key, lock off the thing and look inside. Legs are shoved in there. Everything's, even the balls are free. The screws are free. The bolts, everything, every piece of paper out of the goodie bag, separated all in the back of the cabinet, just strung a muck and she didn't strap it to the pallet. No, no, no. She just took the little green straps and tied them together to make it look like it was strapped every corner of this cabinet was beat up tore up um what else it it had a smell to it like it she played this thing over 350 times in one weekend i don't know if she put it on location i don't know she routed it that's how She made a rent. Oh, my God. What a horrible, horrible experience that was. Wow. So, needless to say, what's it like being a dealer? I've heard it's very easy. Sure, if those are the kind of random things that you're okay with. Did you have any communication with her after you got it back? I did because I'm not the most tactful person if you've done me wrong. So, I messaged her back, and I thought, well, this is probably not going to be good on Google Review, But I said, I just, you know, kindfully just wanting to know what the fuck is wrong with you. Why would you do this? Why would you play it knowing you hadn't paid for it? Number one, like, why be so indecent here to do this to another human being? I just don't understand it. And I was like, because you did all of this and you tore it up and everything like I don't even know how you. Oh, that was the other thing. she was like well I don have help getting it down the stairs What do you mean down the stairs Why is it up the stairs Until like Monday or something To get it away from that rain Oh, my God. And be safely ensconced in the game room. So I don't know if she just drug it down the stairs. I just asked, why would you do that? And I said, in fairness, I'm going to bill you and send you a bill for at least the shipping. I said, once somebody's unboxed this game, we've lost a couple thousand bucks. Now that you've beat this game up, we've probably lost another thousand bucks. I've paid shipping now twice that was in excess of $1,000 right there. So I'm going to send you a bill for at least some of the damage accrued on this game and the shipping. And she never responded again. Never. No. So needless to say, I'm out all of it. Yay me. So I think totally – It's pretty terrible, but funny. Shit happens. Life goes on. Now, a lot of you listeners are like, take her to small claims court. A lot of people say that. Well, that's just principle only because you're going to waste a lot of time and money just to get back what you've lost. Small claims is a little frustrating if you're not local, I think. Yeah, I'm not going to New York. I did it once, and yeah, it was really more the principle of the thing at that point. But because it was local, I was able to just go and turn in the paperwork and go and then servicing. The person was local, so I could just use the sheriff's office and all that. I don't know. With it out of state, that's a lot of work. I'm a principal guy, so I understand that, but I'm not a time guy. I don't have any time to do that, so I have to just take it. If the game had been totally destroyed, then I think it would have made more sense. because the dollar amount would have been enough to warrant it. And then the other thing is like you could send her to collections because she's not paying bills, but that's a whole thing too. I mean you just have to, as a small business owner, and a lot of you listeners know, you just have to chalk it up to like the cost of business. Now my company, I guarantee you flipping out pinball loses more money than probably all the dealers combined, like all the big dealers combined, I just, because we do just move on. We just try to keep moving forward. I get people that do chargebacks and shit. I recently had a chargeback dentist that, a brand new pinball machine. They did a chargeback, and their credit card company was like, yeah, sure. Here's all your money back. And I was nearly out an entire game. Did you finally get that one back? Finally got it back, yeah. But, yeah, that person just thought they could keep the game, too, after they erroneously and fraudulently did a chargeback an entirety of a game after they've owned for over three months. But, yeah, small business is not easy. And I just try to say, you know, bigger picture, greater good. Keep moving forward. Don't get drugged down. Just got to give 110%. You got to keep pushing. Got to keep pushing. So, you know, be friendly to your small business owners out there because the really, really good ones are losing money to make sure things are right. I'm glad you got a kick out of it. I did. I do feel a little bad because it clearly was very stressful. She's doing a rodeo on my Stranger Things premium over there. I would love to be a fly on the wall to see what all went down that infamous weekend in the snow-ridden New York. It makes me wonder if she ever intended to keep it or if she does this all the time. We thought about that. Because of the associated lies and rationalization, my guess is this is pretty common for this person. They find themselves as the victim as if I'm treating them poorly because I'm asking for immediate payment. Oh, yeah, that was the other thing. She was like, I'm kind of frustrated because I told you within a couple weeks I can get $1,000 and I can do a payment plan on this. And I'm like, fuck you and your payment plan. You have a luxury item. It's a $10,000 item that you just screwed me on. And then everybody's like, why don't you rent out games? Well, this is why. Well, thank you for sharing your story. See, now I want to go drink. Yeah. Well, now you can because we can stop this. Because we got the Patreon dollars enough that I can buy some bourbon. Yeah. All right, everyone. You can push stop now. Thanks for the support. Don't be a bad customer, people.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 59dee047-aec4-4961-bb3c-7c9574cf2d60*