The current status of Ram Controls:

[Vigo]

Ragtag, This is another outside perspective, but there would be no issue as soon as people get their money back or get their product owed. From my understanding, there is no inventory on a number of product that were ordered. The issue is that people were screwed, and they haven't got anything yet. Talk is worthless, and Dan will just have to prove himself, that's all.

He has the opportunity to turn things completely around, and nobody will show any anger once he sets things straight. It is understandable why everyone is once bitten, twice shy.

From the way I see it, it would take a day to cut refund checks, and only a few weeks max to ship out all the inventory owed if it exists. We will see if that happens.

[milkit]

one thing that confuses me...

you say you took over ram controls because he owed you $25k worth of stuff. Yet you also say you aren't from an arcade background.. so why were you dealing with RAM?

[Malenko]

one thing that confuses me...

you say you took over ram controls because he owed you $25k worth of stuff. Yet you also say you aren't from an arcade background.. so why were you dealing with RAM?

I took it as he bought stock, as an investment.

Dan, what about the money Ram controls owed to people like GameRoom mag for advertising? Im pretty sure him not paying is what was the nail in the coffin of that awesome mag (well, it needed more pinball too)

[ChadTower]

Seriously, I'd be ok if RAM made good on all the back orders...  except Chads.

You're out of luck.  I already have a tracking number.  

Dan has been fully reasonable in private conversation.  We had a long and civil conversation about Ram Controls' legacy.  I am fairly convinced this will all work out.  Of course, I had high hopes for the last "new guy" brought in to salvage Ram Controls, and he did nothing but stretch people out via empty promises.  This doesn't feel like that did.  I'll post again when the parts arrive from Dan.  So far, in my direct experience, Dan has been everything he says he means to be.

That was a great post from Delgar.  Thanks for the expert opinion.  I was one of the ones who mentioned that he could issue all of the refunds out of his own pocket.  Note that I did also say it wouldn't be the most viable option for Dan.  I was pointing out that there are options besides new orders here.  The "if you don't give him new business then nobody gets refunds" pressure is not the only way.

[SuprSprint]

I am not too concerned with what liabilities Dave has, that is really not my concern. If people can get blood out of that turnip I will commend them. My concern is to salvage the business, make things right with those owed, and release some new products.

You would do well to be *very* concerned about what happens with Dave. Your contracts with Dave don't mean a hill of beans here.  When a business engaged in fraud dumps assets, especially large percentages of the total assets, the court can (and often does) seize those assets until the issue is resolved. Also, unless you paid fair market value the court will likely go over your transaction with a microscope to see if you were unfairly enriched. And if they feel you were, they may well seek to enjoin you in the case as a co-conspirator.

At the very least, you stand find yourself owning nothing more than a domain name, an empty warehouse, and a pile of debt.

[smalltownguy]

Apparently Dan's an exceptionally busy business man with all the time in the world to post on forums and respond to e-mail from Chad. 

 

He responded quickly to my requests too.

[Zakk]

I am not too concerned with what liabilities Dave has, that is really not my concern. If people can get blood out of that turnip I will commend them. My concern is to salvage the business, make things right with those owed, and release some new products.

You would do well to be *very* concerned about what happens with Dave. Your contracts with Dave don't mean a hill of beans here.  When a business engaged in fraud dumps assets, especially large percentages of the total assets, the court can (and often does) seize those assets until the issue is resolved. Also, unless you paid fair market value the court will likely go over your transaction with a microscope to see if you were unfairly enriched. And if they feel you were, they may well seek to enjoin you in the case as a co-conspirator.

At the very least, you stand find yourself owning nothing more than a domain name, an empty warehouse, and a pile of debt.

Legal advice from a first time bandwagon poster!  Well at least we now know KLOV people have smelled blood in the water.   

[milkit]

one thing that confuses me...

you say you took over ram controls because he owed you $25k worth of stuff. Yet you also say you aren't from an arcade background.. so why were you dealing with RAM?

I took it as he bought stock, as an investment.

Dan, what about the money Ram controls owed to people like GameRoom mag for advertising? Im pretty sure him not paying is what was the nail in the coffin of that awesome mag (well, it needed more pinball too)

he said in first post that like many people, dave owed him money. $25k. so, why did dave owe him 25 grand if this guy doesnt have an arcade background is my question. why else would an arcade company owe him that

[Zakk]

one thing that confuses me...

you say you took over ram controls because he owed you $25k worth of stuff. Yet you also say you aren't from an arcade background.. so why were you dealing with RAM?

I took it as he bought stock, as an investment.

Dan, what about the money Ram controls owed to people like GameRoom mag for advertising? Im pretty sure him not paying is what was the nail in the coffin of that awesome mag (well, it needed more pinball too)

he said in first post that like many people, dave owed him money. $25k. so, why did dave owe him 25 grand if this guy doesnt have an arcade background is my question. why else would an arcade company owe him that

Cocaine.  duh. 

[milkit]

Also, I'd like to point out that the domain name records show the following:

Record expires on 21-Jun-2011
Record created on 21-Jun-2006
Database last updated on 28-Jun-2010

This means that the domain has NOT been transferred to you, otherwise the database update date would be more recent than almost a year ago.

the who is info actually does show a change on june 9

   Updated Date: 09-jun-2011
   Creation Date: 07-jul-2006
   Expiration Date: 07-jul-2012

[Spunkmeyer]

 

one thing that confuses me...

you say you took over ram controls because he owed you $25k worth of stuff. Yet you also say you aren't from an arcade background.. so why were you dealing with RAM?

I took it as he bought stock, as an investment.

Dan, what about the money Ram controls owed to people like GameRoom mag for advertising? Im pretty sure him not paying is what was the nail in the coffin of that awesome mag (well, it needed more pinball too)

he said in first post that like many people, dave owed him money. $25k. so, why did dave owe him 25 grand if this guy doesnt have an arcade background is my question. why else would an arcade company owe him that

[RayB]

the who is info actually does show a change on june 9

   Updated Date: 09-jun-2011
   Creation Date: 07-jul-2006
   Expiration Date: 07-jul-2012

Ah yes. That would be for ramcontrols.com, which redirects to ram-controls.com

ram-controls.com is the one expiring soon and that doesn't show any update since 2010.

[saint]

one thing that confuses me...

you say you took over ram controls because he owed you $25k worth of stuff. Yet you also say you aren't from an arcade background.. so why were you dealing with RAM?

I took it as he bought stock, as an investment.

Dan, what about the money Ram controls owed to people like GameRoom mag for advertising? Im pretty sure him not paying is what was the nail in the coffin of that awesome mag (well, it needed more pinball too)

he said in first post that like many people, dave owed him money. $25k. so, why did dave owe him 25 grand if this guy doesnt have an arcade background is my question. why else would an arcade company owe him that

If I recall correctly, he didn't say he didn't have arcade machines, just that he wasn't an arcade tech.

Guys (not directed at anyone in particular), keep this civil please. Snarky comments are not helpful. Speak your mind if you're pro or con, but civility please. Thanks!

--- saint

[leapinlew]

(not directed at anyone in particular)

FRIZ GOT IN TROUBLE! 

[ChadTower]

civility please

I nominate this for Friz' custom title.

[CheffoJeffo]

(not directed at anyone in particular)

FRIZ GOT IN TROUBLE! 

Usually I read "not directed at anyone in particular" as being directed at me ... or Xiaou ... but I think rew hit this nail on the head.

[milkit]

one thing that confuses me...

you say you took over ram controls because he owed you $25k worth of stuff. Yet you also say you aren't from an arcade background.. so why were you dealing with RAM?

I took it as he bought stock, as an investment.

Dan, what about the money Ram controls owed to people like GameRoom mag for advertising? Im pretty sure him not paying is what was the nail in the coffin of that awesome mag (well, it needed more pinball too)

he said in first post that like many people, dave owed him money. $25k. so, why did dave owe him 25 grand if this guy doesnt have an arcade background is my question. why else would an arcade company owe him that

If I recall correctly, he didn't say he didn't have arcade machines, just that he wasn't an arcade tech.

Guys (not directed at anyone in particular), keep this civil please. Snarky comments are not helpful. Speak your mind if you're pro or con, but civility please. Thanks!

--- saint

well, he said " I do not come from an arcade background " which to me seems odd that he had been owed $25k in arcade parts. having some machines doesnt warrant that much $ out, unless it was for something totally unrelated

[ChadTower]

Usually I read "not directed at anyone in particular" as being directed at me ... or Xiaou ... but I think rew hit this nail on the head.

I think he's turning Japanese I think he's turning Japanese I really think so.

[SuprSprint]

Legal advice from a first time bandwagon poster!  Well at least we now know KLOV people have smelled blood in the water.

And I caught a troll on my very first cast. Nice! 

[CheffoJeffo]

Legal advice from a first time bandwagon poster!  Well at least we now know KLOV people have smelled blood in the water.

And I caught a troll on my very first cast. Nice! 

Best hold on to your rod ...

[rikitiki]

well for starters the films are currently in my possession
and have no intentions of screening them for RamControls
and Dave was told this numerous times as well as to remove that information.
I dont think I need to get into the details of the absolute ridiculas claims Dave was making and of his delusions of grandure.

Hang on here.... Going O.T.

Are you the dude who snagged crazy amounts of old Atari materials when Atari closed their headquarters? I recall someone snagging oodles of manuals, memos, films and pallets of other stuff. I know he started scanning and posting the more interesting bits but since a particular install of an annoying OS that shall remain nameless decided to barf all over my files I haven't been able to recover the URL or the name of the person.

No Im not the owner of nor was the person who aquired all the Atari art and memos
But I am currently printing this art from those SW films and have been for the past year or so

[FrizzleFried]

(not directed at anyone in particular)

FRIZ GOT IN TROUBLE!  

May I direct your attention to the quote in my sig (specifically the last sentence).  It applies here as well.

[RayB]

well, he said " I do not come from an arcade background " which to me seems odd that he had been owed $25k in arcade parts.

Did he say he was owed parts? I thought he said he was owed cash. He might even be owed rent or value related to other activities. We shouldn't assume it was parts.

I think he should post his Ebay Power Seller account name so people can check his feedback history. A good feedback might go a long way toward assuaging any fears of this "new management".

[ChadTower]

If you go back this thread is nearly impossible to follow now thanks to all of the edits that happened 5 posts after the fact.  Way too many people are editing after hitting post rather than before.

[dan_ram]

The debt Dave owed me has nothing to do with the arcade industry. I have known Dave for a very long time and his debt to me is for other business ventures that I put money into and were never repaid. There is a statute of limitation that covers even written contracts and that time was approaching so I figured this was the best way to get 'something' for that debt. I knew he owed a lot of money to a lot of people but I was not aware of the scope of the problem when I made this deal with him. That being said, I did the deal and now I have to live with it and make the best of all of this I can. Some of you told me that I should have immediately changed the name well I believe all of you would have seen through that and I made decisions based on the information I had at the time. Hindsight is always 20-20 and given the facts that I know know I would have definitely done things differently but it is what it is. 

[matsadona]

It is a bit amazing that the people crying most about the whole thing is people that have not done any business with RAM controls, less have been screwed.
People that has been screwed are of course entitled to yell about what a bad person Dave (or whomever it was behind that company before) and that they want their money back. Strangely there hasn't been many of those who surfaced here yet.

Now we have a situation that somebody stepped in and took over not only the stock, but also some of the business. As it appears it also seems that this person is trying to help thoose who has been screwed by the previous owner. He had no obligation what so ever to do that. As stated before, he could just put it all on ebay and try to do as much profit as possible, to reclaim his debt from Dave.
Now, he is trying to salvage the business and keep the parts accessible to the comunity and also has the intention to keep up the business in the future.
It is amazing that more people are bashing than supporting him. I really thought that this communit was more supportive than that.

Of course, in the best of worlds Dan had a lot of cash and paid back all debts. Not because of that he has to, just because he has the intention to reclaim a good reputation of a business that hopefully will be successful in the future and bring more parts to the arcade community.

Give him some slack and a fair chance to show he is the real deal. It might take 1, 2 or maybe 6 months before he has enough time and cahsflow worked out to go through all back orders. I think that is just fine, if the alternative is to be screwed forever by Dave.
If he can do some paralell business with new customers, to both guarantee future business and the continued back orders delivered that should be fine too.

It would be more constructive if those with delivered back orders step forward rather than having the same person spamming this thread with constant wining about how tainted the company and pourly updated the webpage is.

So once again - what is the best situation for those with backorders/debts and the comunity in total?
* everything goes down the drain and a lot of people will be screwed forever and no more part available
* somebody actually gets a fair chance to make things right (even if it take some time before everybody is happy)

Of course, everybody is entitled to an opinion, and as a soldier it is my job to make sure you are also allowed to express it. But some songs are getting old here now. We all know already that Dave messed up and that he ows a lot of money to a lot of people. That is history. Pleae look forward and help Dan to help others!

[dan_ram]

And just to keep this info within easy access:

If you are owed something from Ram Controls please send me an email at:

sales@ram-controls.com

and I will work to take care of you. I have a business plan that includes compensating all buyers of Ram Controls items EVEN those who purchased the ill fated Star Wars Cabinets. This will take time to implement and I will cover more details of this plan soon. I have a lawyer, CPA and other past business executives helping me with this but I need to make sure I have the details correct before I make a bunch of public posts about it. I am already in a rough situation I do not need to make it worse by shooting myself in the foot. The best thing to do if you are owed something is send me an email and start the conversation going.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

So let me get this straight... Duke Nukem Forever has actually been released AND Ram Controls looks like it has a future?


We are so doomed.

[CheffoJeffo]

So let me get this straight... Duke Nukem Forever has actually been released AND Ram Controls looks like it has a future?


We are so doomed.

 

[Vigo]

I have a business plan that includes compensating all buyers of Ram Controls items EVEN those who purchased the ill fated Star Wars Cabinets. This will take time to implement and I will cover more details of this plan soon.

Just as long as this business plan does not involve time shares in Tijuana, selling sets of knives and encyclopedias, or a wealthy prince in Nigeria, we can't wait to hear about your plan!    

[Cakemeister]

I will be following your career with great interest.....

[pinballwizard79]

Personally I think a review of IP addresses on this thread would be quite interesting.

I sometimes secretly think we live in the matrix & Saint is not only himself here but also Xiaou2, Dave Foley, Christian, Ram Controls, Pixel Hugger, Fritz, that woodcarving girl & when unable to figure out plywood sheets Chad too.....

You know, to keep things interesting 

[Woodshop Flunky]

Personally I think a review of IP addresses on this thread would be quite interesting.

I sometimes secretly think we live in the matrix & Saint is not only himself here but also Xiaou2, Dave Foley, Christian, Ram Controls, Pixel Hugger, Fritz, that woodcarving girl & when unable to figure out plywood sheets Chad too.....

You know, to keep things interesting 

  Love it!

[FrizzleFried]

I am not Friz!

-saint

[Hoopz]

I will be following your career with great interest.....

Nice reference!   

[taylormadelv]

It is SO RARE that I AGREE with Frizzle that you know something is very fishy going on here. First off, I hope that people in the arcade community can show some solidarity in NOT ordering from RC until all the people that were ripped off get restitution, PERIOD. Look, I understand just how "hard up" one can become for  very difficult/impossible to find parts but this particular situation deserves another level of tact here. Ordering more stuff from RC just grinds more salt into the wounds of those ripped off, really think this through.
Another thing, when "Dan" has sold off his inventory of MH rollers and SW Yokes, where do you expect to get more built? From Dave, really??? So Dan must still be buying more stuff from Dave, since nobody else makes those parts.
If Frizz and I agre on ANYTHING, something is going on.....

[TheShanMan]

The sad thing to me in all of this is how it divides the community. I'm really not a fan of the name calling ("you'd have to be an idiot...", etc) or putting people on a "do not deal with" list as we have been seeing, particularly on klov. But at the same time it's hard to argue with some of the arguments being made on that side of the fence. There's no question that RAM is tainted. Whether Dan fixes that or perpetuates that will ultimately be seen in time. I hope he does fix it but by no means do I have full confidence in that. I hope that no one puts in any expensive orders because I don't want to see the list of screwed people balloon in 3 or 6 months. But on the other hand, personally I'm content to sit on the sidelines and watch things play out. If some people decide to place orders (I hope small ones, like < $50) and that gives Dan the cash flow to gradually take care of more people who are owed products and/or refunds, then I'm happy to see progress gradually made. But that hinges on whether or not Dan is legit, and that is obviously a big "if" at this point, which again is why I hope people don't jump in with both feet right away, placing $100, $200, $1000 orders (start small and slowly work up to bigger stuff as trust is gained). And that's also why I worry about people outside of the online community who don't know what's happened still being able to jump in and place expensive orders.

Dan, if you're legit, I think it's in your best interest to distance yourself from Dave as much as possible as fast as possible. As long as you're dependent on Dave for technical information or whatnot, it's going to be that much harder for people to support what's going on. And that certainly includes a major revamping of the website (not just change a little wording here or there) as well as not operating under the RAM name. Have the website redirect to a different one. If you're insistent on perpetuating the RAM brand, how about using it just in product names like "RAM SW Yoke" rather than using it as the business name and website? And on that note, it seems you've muddied the water regarding the degree to which you own the RAM company. I think it would behoove you to make that crystal clear even if it means introducing a little legal mumbo jumbo into the discussion. Finally, you mentioned being an ebay seller. Well why not start doing a lot of your selling of RAM products (if not all) on ebay where customers will have more protection and doubters and fence sitters can see your feedback? Include an obvious reference to your ebay store on your website so people can easily connect the dots and see the evidence of how legit you are. Since it's hard to hide there it would seem to be your fastest route to gaining trust.

Time for me to go back into lurk mode, sitting on the fence to quietly watch what happens with great interest, hope, and fear.

[WareWolF]

Well I decided to give this guy a good faith chance and ordered a SW Yoke USB interface.  I expect either one of three things will happen.  

1) Order cancelled-not in stock,  2) Order actually shipped and recv'd in 2 weeks,  3) screwed out of $70.00.

Will report back.   #3 is assumed if no action after two weeks and is not convertable to #1 or #2 even if resolved.

[rikitiki]

Well I decided to give this guy a good faith chance and ordered a SW Yoke USB interface.  I expect either one of three things will happen.  

1) Order cancelled-not in stock,  2) Order actually shipped and recv'd in 2 weeks,  3) screwed out of $70.00.

Will report back.   #3 is assumed if no action after two weeks and is not convertable to #1 or #2 even if resolved.

unbo-leavable

and the circle of life continues.....

[taylormadelv]

This is exactly why RC is still doing business, peeps just HAVE to have SW yoke parts.:facepalm:
When I personally finally read that ALL the SW Cockpit people have been made good, with actual testimonials; then I will believe that RC has come clean. If Dan took over, then he took the responsibilty of making those unshipped cabinet orders good. I still have not read that they have been made good. Since the guy that cuts the wood for the cabinets and the two guys that make the artwork are not doing(or will ever do) anything for RC, it sure looks like a big chunk of CASH will have to be refunded.