So, on one hand you will sue someone to the point of making them homeless because they 'stole' IP from you yet will order 'knock offs' as and when it suits you? ..... You've certainly painted a picture there matey.
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Retro Refurbs
- Thread starter jonathan
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So, on one hand you will sue someone to the point of making them homeless because they 'stole' IP from you yet will order 'knock offs' as and when it suits you? ..... You've certainly painted a picture there matey.
D
Deleted member 2463
Yes that's clearly what I said. Holy fuc.kwit batman!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Whether something is a "knock off" or not always depends on if you own the rights.
I come across a load of stuff on youtube etc that I know I own the rights to. Utter waste of my time trying to get it taken down. However, I've got little sympathy with the owners of copyrighted material who won't then allow people to licence it. There's a range of band shirts etc that I want to buy. If the bands themselves won't print them then I'll buy them from ebay etc. If someone made a knock off replacement translight for TAF because you can't get one officially then I wouldn't have a 2nd thought about buying it. I'd always rather pay for an official version but if it's not possible to get hold of it then I'll source it elsewhere.
I come across a load of stuff on youtube etc that I know I own the rights to. Utter waste of my time trying to get it taken down. However, I've got little sympathy with the owners of copyrighted material who won't then allow people to licence it. There's a range of band shirts etc that I want to buy. If the bands themselves won't print them then I'll buy them from ebay etc. If someone made a knock off replacement translight for TAF because you can't get one officially then I wouldn't have a 2nd thought about buying it. I'd always rather pay for an official version but if it's not possible to get hold of it then I'll source it elsewhere.Great topic this I am with pete on something and not on others like most people said if no one can be bothered to produce them then I think pete and others are perfectly in there right to do so
On the other side pps paid millions for the b/w rights and for someone to come along and copy them is not right
I used Pete's decals for my t2 chrome edition simply because I had no other option but on all my other restoration I always use official b/w ones as the quality and color match is much better
On the other side pps paid millions for the b/w rights and for someone to come along and copy them is not right
I used Pete's decals for my t2 chrome edition simply because I had no other option but on all my other restoration I always use official b/w ones as the quality and color match is much better
I shall dob you in to Cadburys - expect a lawsuit in the coming days ;-)
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I may have to unleash my chrome trim fingerprint adding kit to the masses to pay the legal fees. Y'know, to get that Pinball show look in your own home.
https://www.retrorefurbs.com
Are we open? Are we closed? Should I stay, or should I go? I guess I still need to make some kind of statement about all of this. Tomorrow maybe.
For now though, it's a pirate's life for me!
keep it up and **** the begrudgers
haha!!!! love it Pete!!!
Maybe relocate
I think Pete is more like the Robin Hood of the pinball world lol
Agreed but Pirate Pete sounds better than Pete Hood, and I'm not even going to type the other option!
Pete Hood sounds like the name of a front man for a 90's indie band!
Pirate Pete - FAB!!!! or The Swashbuckler !!! LOL
Cheers
kev
Cheers
kev
C'mon Pete let's have this announcement
Website is back up
Hey fellas!
Well since people want to know what is happening, I've been trying to come up with some kind of "professional" looking statement that explains my position, but to be honest, I've not decided on a clear direction to take yet.
Put simply, I want out of the pinball business.
I am miserable and unhappy. I knew I would have to have thick skin when I started making replacement parts and selling them via Retro Refurbs, but I didn't expect to have to deal with the level of abuse I take every single day - over email, over Facebook, and of course Pinside but everyone already knew that place was toxic. I just find that most of the people in this hobby are unreasonable and extremely demanding. I've not experienced treatment like that in any other job or business. Like when you get an email or order at 11pm on a Friday or Saturday night, and the guy expects a reponse in under 1 hour. You then wake up to a nice PayPal dispute on Monday morning and a ton of abusive messages.
Having said that, I do find most of the people on this forum (and generally the UK) and also all the guys in Australia to be very nice, helpful, and supportive. I'd say normal? It's these people that make me want to tolerate the assholes.
Last week brought things to a tipping point. I had a weekend trip away planned and I needed to switch off from it all, so shut the website down, closed Facebook, deleted forum accounts, logged out of email. It's made me realise that I need to change a few things.
To start with, I'll no longer be providing support or getting too involved with people via public fourms. I plan to stay on here but only as a personal user, not representing Retro Refurbs as a business. I'm making changes to all social media as well, so that I/we only interact with customers privately.
I've also gone back to my old full time job where I was much happier, doing something I loved, and will continue running Retro Refurbs as a small sideline. I'm also excited to get restorations on actual pins finished and back to their respective owners, something which has taken a back seat lately due to too much focus on replacement parts. Going back to my roots.
As for how Retro Refurbs will change over the coming months, my initial idea is as follows. The short term plan is to remove Bally Williams products which are available via other outlets, and then eventually all of the others. This gets a few key assholes off my back, and the whiners will just have to put up with not being able to get the stuff they need. We're going to focus more on custom artwork for things like decals and translites, but as this is a very niche market we're also going to start moving over to doing artwork for things like virtual pinball and arcade video games. In fact, 2 video games side arts are being added today. Eventually all traditional pinball products will no longer be available for sale.
There are currently a number of projects going on however which I need to get my money back on. Plastic sets being made and also the 3D translites - which by the way are are absolutely stunning, far more depth than the others currently on the market, and as we are focussed on lesser popular games I think these would have been fantastic. Also, the hologram replacement for CFTBL has been scrapped with minimal loss, as is the T2 Mirror Chrome plastic set which would have been incredible, and inside art / blades.
So a small number of 3D translites and plastic sets will still be available to buy for some time yet, but all further development of new stuff has stopped.
That's pretty much it. It's not a shut down, but scaling down and just evolving in to something else. Please don't send messages asking if I'm still supplying X product - just look on the website. If it's there then you can buy it. Once it's gone, it's gone.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last year since I started doing this. I know there are some people here who I still owe huge favours to, and I'll honour those favours. Promise!
Cheers,
Pete
Well since people want to know what is happening, I've been trying to come up with some kind of "professional" looking statement that explains my position, but to be honest, I've not decided on a clear direction to take yet.
Put simply, I want out of the pinball business.
I am miserable and unhappy. I knew I would have to have thick skin when I started making replacement parts and selling them via Retro Refurbs, but I didn't expect to have to deal with the level of abuse I take every single day - over email, over Facebook, and of course Pinside but everyone already knew that place was toxic. I just find that most of the people in this hobby are unreasonable and extremely demanding. I've not experienced treatment like that in any other job or business. Like when you get an email or order at 11pm on a Friday or Saturday night, and the guy expects a reponse in under 1 hour. You then wake up to a nice PayPal dispute on Monday morning and a ton of abusive messages.
Having said that, I do find most of the people on this forum (and generally the UK) and also all the guys in Australia to be very nice, helpful, and supportive. I'd say normal? It's these people that make me want to tolerate the assholes.
Last week brought things to a tipping point. I had a weekend trip away planned and I needed to switch off from it all, so shut the website down, closed Facebook, deleted forum accounts, logged out of email. It's made me realise that I need to change a few things.
To start with, I'll no longer be providing support or getting too involved with people via public fourms. I plan to stay on here but only as a personal user, not representing Retro Refurbs as a business. I'm making changes to all social media as well, so that I/we only interact with customers privately.
I've also gone back to my old full time job where I was much happier, doing something I loved, and will continue running Retro Refurbs as a small sideline. I'm also excited to get restorations on actual pins finished and back to their respective owners, something which has taken a back seat lately due to too much focus on replacement parts. Going back to my roots.
As for how Retro Refurbs will change over the coming months, my initial idea is as follows. The short term plan is to remove Bally Williams products which are available via other outlets, and then eventually all of the others. This gets a few key assholes off my back, and the whiners will just have to put up with not being able to get the stuff they need. We're going to focus more on custom artwork for things like decals and translites, but as this is a very niche market we're also going to start moving over to doing artwork for things like virtual pinball and arcade video games. In fact, 2 video games side arts are being added today. Eventually all traditional pinball products will no longer be available for sale.
There are currently a number of projects going on however which I need to get my money back on. Plastic sets being made and also the 3D translites - which by the way are are absolutely stunning, far more depth than the others currently on the market, and as we are focussed on lesser popular games I think these would have been fantastic. Also, the hologram replacement for CFTBL has been scrapped with minimal loss, as is the T2 Mirror Chrome plastic set which would have been incredible, and inside art / blades.
So a small number of 3D translites and plastic sets will still be available to buy for some time yet, but all further development of new stuff has stopped.
That's pretty much it. It's not a shut down, but scaling down and just evolving in to something else. Please don't send messages asking if I'm still supplying X product - just look on the website. If it's there then you can buy it. Once it's gone, it's gone.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me over the last year since I started doing this. I know there are some people here who I still owe huge favours to, and I'll honour those favours. Promise!
Cheers,
Pete
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Also, just wanted to share the plastic sets which came in yesterday:
Turtles Full Set:
Back To The Future Mini Kit:
Lethal Weapon 3 Mini Kit:
More photos in full resolution at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/retrorefurbs/albums/72157679559781601
Turtles Full Set:
Back To The Future Mini Kit:
Lethal Weapon 3 Mini Kit:
More photos in full resolution at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/retrorefurbs/albums/72157679559781601
Nice one Pete, welcome back
Nice that your back but a great loss stopping the pin decals because of a few aholes. But I can see where your coming from
Stopping all pinball products, and getting away from pinball completely. Politics and a-holes, it's a strange hobby.
I might start to enjoy the pinball again once I'm not working in it.
Can't blame you at all Pete. You've done some fantastic work and I'm grateful and feel lucky to have been able to grab a plastic set for my Rocky & Bullwinkle when the chance arose.
It's a real shame that the rights holders for this stuff (or the 'alleged' rights holders) aren't willing to make more steps to utilise the skills of people like you. Perhaps if they did there might have been an opportunity for you to do your fantastic work whilst someone else dealt with the customers (including the difficult ones). As it is they seem more focused on just making sure that no one gets the products they need. Sad.
Good luck in the future and I look forward to seeing your continuing restoration posts.
It's a real shame that the rights holders for this stuff (or the 'alleged' rights holders) aren't willing to make more steps to utilise the skills of people like you. Perhaps if they did there might have been an opportunity for you to do your fantastic work whilst someone else dealt with the customers (including the difficult ones). As it is they seem more focused on just making sure that no one gets the products they need. Sad.
Good luck in the future and I look forward to seeing your continuing restoration posts.
Dude, that's a real shame but totally understandable, there are a lot of idiots out there that wand to ruin it for the rest of us.
I for one have had a few of your products and have been very happy with them and grateful that someone (especially in the UK) is doing this service.
Best of luck mate
I for one have had a few of your products and have been very happy with them and grateful that someone (especially in the UK) is doing this service.
Best of luck mate
Pete, first off... really sad to hear of the crap you've suffered. Quite often, people are just scum and don't blame you for getting out. Glad to hear the old job is a better route for you, whilst a loss for us all striving to obtain certain pinball stock. On that note, I really hope you continue to look at the Robowar plastics we discussed.... best of luck going forward.
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Was really looking forward to the T2 stuff. Such a shame. You have to put your life and health first though.
I would still keep it going but on a part time basis. Your website is pretty good and it's a waste just to chuck it all in now. Just make sure folk are aware that you are operating on your own and to be patient with responding to any queries.
