Yes! Yoke from Ram Controls!!! <^.^>

[LeedsFan]

First of all a couple of apologies... one for this being such a long post and another for starting a new thread about this same subject. But if you read to the end you may understand my reason for this.

I missed all the shenegans of the previous threads on these boards regarding this subject. I only realised that the yokes were even available in the last couple of months. All I knew is that I wanted a yoke if there was any realistic chance of getting hold of one.

I was reading the most recent thread on Saturday, and Dave was getting some heat to say the least. I also caught up with the history about it all through the various links supplied. However, I could at least see that Dave was trying to defend his most latest position on Saturday as he was posting in that thread.

I decided to shoot him an email. I basically asked if he had a yoke, interface and decal available to ship now. If he did I would place an immediate order but only under his confirmation that he would email me a UPS tracking number within 7 days (I figured 7 days was fair).

Dave emailed me back and said he had the goods available to ship now, but that the cost of UPS international shipping would be $80. He explained that USPS had been a bad experience as far as international orders were concerned, but that all his intl. UPS orders had gone fine.

I had insisted upon a UPS tracking number so I was quite prepared to pay the $80 for shipping.

He promised me he would pack the goods up that day and have them to UPS on Monday, with tracking number emailed to me same day.

On Tuesday morning I awoke and checked my email. Sure enough there was a UPS tracking number from Dave. (He's 8 hours behind me remember)

Today I reveived this parcel from UPS.....










Yes folks.... that's less than 100 hours from order to delivery. And I'm in the UK!

My initial reaction on removing the yoke from the box was a surprise. This thing just screams quality! It's quite a hefty piece. There's nothing cheap looking about anything that I can see. Even the art overlay and interface board are of a pristine standard.

I have tried the unit on my desktop PC and it worked in Windows Vista control panel instantly. I even had a go at Star Wars in Mame but without mounting the yoke properly it was impossible to actually play. But it was working in Mame with no adjustments and the all the fire buttons and triggers were responding as they should. I can only imagine this thing playing like silk when it's properly mounted.


Now I'm not posting here to defend Dave from any of those past problems. It certainly didn't look favourable from a buyers point of view I gotta admit, but hopefully all that is behind him now.
 
All I can do is post about my own personal dealings with the guy (as of now) and speak as I find.

This has been a flawless transaction from start to finish. The goods are of a fantastic build quality and the communication between myself and Dave has been swift and easy.

If any of you guys are serious about buying one of these then give the guy some support. By all means check the availability first by shooting him an email. Insist upon a tracking number in a reasonable time.

And that brings me to my next point.... don't skimp out on shipping! I paid $80 for Express UPS delivery to the UK. That may seem expensive but let's look at this transaction. I'm buying niche, specialist items here that cost over $350 and are simply not available from anywhere else in the world right now. And they have travelled from California to my doorstep... in less than 100 hours!  Suddenly that $80 doesn't seem so expensive after all does it?

I did have to pay £20 in cutoms clearance and taxes on delivery but I was half expecting that anyway.

However, I really think Dave needs to rethink his shipping costs. He simply cannot be expected to ship goods like this at a flat cost of 10 bucks to just anywhere. That's simply ludicrous. He really deserves to make every cent of profit he can on these items, just like any other vendor.

Obviously I use UK suppliers where I can such as Gremlin Solutions and Ultimarc. Both of whom have great reputations for customer service. I've only used two overseas vendors so far while persuing this hobby. They were MameMarquees (now GameOnGraffix) and Arcadeshop.de. I am pleased to add Ram Controls to this list of quality, reputable overseas vendors that I would quite happily deal with again!

This hobby needs vendors like the guys I've mentioned here. We are blessed (if not spoiled) by the dedication, support and quality of the goods and services these guys bring to the table. And that's why I started a new thread so that hopefully people will order these from Dave if they are serious about buying one. Those other thread titles will only serve to hit him hard if that's all people see.

Let's see a little balance now and hopefully people who receive their orders will post here so Dave can get some positive reaction.

[yotsuya]

Glad to read about a positive interaction with RAM Controls.

[RayB]

$350
$  80
$  40
------
$470+

 

[meherenow]

Well I was one of the moaners on the other thread, also in the UK.

My yoke arrived too today and I'm glad to see that Dave seems to have his act together.

100 hours from order to delivery, not bad - I waited around 12000 hours  

Dave took the $10 shipping off me and never once mentioned anything about the extra cost it might take to ship it over the months, only in the last few weeks was it mentioned (he never asked me for any extra in the end, but then I had waited for 17 months).

I would have paid the extra had I known and had he told me - this was my biggest gripe, folks who had ordered their yokes long after me were getting them at the beginning of this year!

But I agree, the $10 shipping was/is ludicrous!

And, like I mentioned in the other thread - cannot fault the yoke at all....


Now - anyone have any detailed plans for a yoke mount/box?

[pinballwizard79]

I checked snopes

It said this isnt true 

Just kidding, looks cool dude!

[SammyWI]

Glad to hear this.  We need to hear honest feedback on vendors both good and bad.  Hope you get that yoke mounted soon!

[mytymaus007]

POW POW About time send some pics of your cab when you finish installing YOKE! How much was that!!!!!!!!!

[LeedsFan]

Actually I don't have a Star wars cab to put this onto. What I'm doing is making a modular Mame-In-A-Box where the CP is easily swapped out. Star Wars was one of my fave games back in the day and you just can't play it without the proper controller. (Not to the point of it being enjoyable in my opinion). So this controller was definitely on my list for this project once I'd seen the feedback of the ones that had been delivered.

I've been thinking about how to mount this myself. I know they were set at 45 degrees on the original cabs. I may need to make a metal frame on 18mm MDF base.


Oh... and I omitted one other quality overseas vendor I've previously used.    The Real Bob Roberts 

[mytymaus007]

Actually I don't have a Star wars cab to put this onto. What I'm doing is making a modular Mame-In-A-Box where the CP is easily swapped out. Star Wars was one of my fave games back in the day and you just can't play it without the proper controller. (Not to the point of it being enjoyable in my opinion). So this controller was definitely on my list for this project once I'd seen the feedback of the ones that had been delivered.

I've been thinking about how to mount this myself. I know they were set at 45 degrees on the original cabs. I may need to make a metal frame on 18mm MDF base.


Oh... and I omitted one other quality overseas vendor I've previously used.    The Real Bob Roberts 

Thats even better Id rather have a modular control panel then the real cab. Send pics when your done I actually made a SW control panel which is similar to mr do's Cp but didnt completed yet Have to order the Yoke just hadnt had the time

http://mameworld.info/mrdo/swyoke.html

[LeedsFan]

Actually I don't have a Star wars cab to put this onto. What I'm doing is making a modular Mame-In-A-Box where the CP is easily swapped out. Star Wars was one of my fave games back in the day and you just can't play it without the proper controller. (Not to the point of it being enjoyable in my opinion). So this controller was definitely on my list for this project once I'd seen the feedback of the ones that had been delivered.

I've been thinking about how to mount this myself. I know they were set at 45 degrees on the original cabs. I may need to make a metal frame on 18mm MDF base.


Oh... and I omitted one other quality overseas vendor I've previously used.    The Real Bob Roberts 

Thats even better Id rather have a modular control panel then the real cab. Send pics when your done I actually made a SW control panel which is similar to mr do's Cp but didnt completed yet Have to order the Yoke just hadnt had the time

http://mameworld.info/mrdo/swyoke.html

That looks pretty good and is actually just the kind of setup I had in mind (minus the gear lever).  The only thing to keep in mind is that this yoke is quite front heavy. I was thinking of setting it a little further back than in that pic to try and keep the weight more in the centre of the panel. Not sure if that would be an issue anyway when it's actually mounted firmly. It's just when I hold it I can feel it's front heavy.

[pinballwizard79]

Dude that is exactly what I want to do (set up an auxiliary plug n play SW yoke panel).

I had an idea too

Cut a 3" hold in the bottom of the panel so it will fit over a trackball all nice & snug as well as tiny rubber feet to keep it from sliding.

Hurry up & build one so I can learn from your experience 

[Breaker]

Hi all,

I built an add-on SW holder which attached to my CP;

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=103507.msg1095890#msg1095890

for interest sake...
Breaker.

[mytymaus007]

Hi all,

I built an add-on SW holder which attached to my CP;

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=103507.msg1095890#msg1095890

for interest sake...
Breaker.

Nice looks great but looks far away from the monitor how does it perform.

[wp34]

Hi all,

I built an add-on SW holder which attached to my CP;

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=103507.msg1095890#msg1095890

for interest sake...
Breaker.

Clever mounting idea. Nice review as well.  Thanks for posting

[taylormadelv]

Nice to read some positive feedback about SW yokes! I notice that COD is printed on the box. If you did your transaction COD, Dave will have to be very patient to get his money and really bent himself backwards to offer COD to an international buyer. COD funds are MAILED back to the shipper here in the USA, not shipped UPS.

[LeedsFan]

Nice to read some positive feedback about SW yokes! I notice that COD is printed on the box. If you did your transaction COD, Dave will have to be very patient to get his money and really bent himself backwards to offer COD to an international buyer. COD funds are MAILED back to the shipper here in the USA, not shipped UPS.

The COD is only for the duties and taxes which were just less than £20. That sticker was probably put on there as it cleared UK customs. That charge was payable on my doorstep when it was delivered.  I paid the $80 shipping up front when I ordered.

[Breaker]

Hi mytymaus007,

Sorry for the delay.
Regarding your question about my mount and the distance fro the monitor...it's
no problem at all, thought I did have the same thought before I built the mount and
tested to ensure it distance would not be an issue.  I have a 27" monitor (which is large)
and the yoke is approximately 3 feet from the screen and there is no impact on game play.

Cheers,
Gord.