Slikstick still in business?

[torgo]

Placed an order a couple weeks ago...no confirmation email...


emailed to inquire about lack of confirmation a week later...no reply.

What's the deal with these guys?

Are they legit?

Seems awfully shady to me.

I sure would like either what I ordered, or my money back.

Anyone order from them recently and get any kind of reply or product?

[Farmboy90]

My buddy ordered a control panel from there about 2 months ago.  He just got it last week so I know they were in business as of about a week ago.

[mj147]

Do a  quick search on Slickstick and you will find lots of complaints regarding costumer service/response.

I guess that's how they run their business, me Ill rather not deal with folks like this, I require immediate receipt of payment, shipping eta and the likes.

But to answer your question, yes they are legit, just takes a while for any kind of response.


mj147

[squirrellydw]

My 2 cents

Cancel the order and order from somewhere else.

[emerica]

ordered a joystick from them once and received the joystick the day before I got the confirmation email.  Strange but I would probably not order from them again.

[Timoe]

I've had GREAT dealings with them.  Not in a long time but back in the day.

I ordered some Stainless Steel handles.  After I received them I read about their weight affecting gameplay and they sent me some replacement springs for free.

I thought it would be cool to hook up some buttons to a Torndado spinner and they sent me a wiring harness for it after the fact.


the extra stuff was free........

[RayB]

My first rule is to always assume a Spam filter ate your confirmation email.

Contact them from a variety of emails, or especially by phone.

THEN if you still don't get anywhere, contemplate cancelling the order.

[leapinlew]

My brother just ordered a slikstik and I think he would say he had very good dealings with them. Sorry it's not working out for you. I'd say give them another shot

[quarterback]

My first rule is to always assume a Spam filter ate your confirmation email.

You mean not everybody scans through the hundreds of their daily spam emails like I do? 

Having personal domain names with unlimited email addresses is cool a lot of the time, but when it comes to spam, it's a freaking deluge.

[destructor]

For my Tornado I waited over half year. For next order about 2-3 months.
Good contact before order but after -> silence.

[whatzcrackn]

Nothing but good dealings here.  I placed an order on Saturday Morning, I would say about 3:00 am and Monday afternoon my order came.  Nothing but fast shipping and and emails here.

I will do business with them again!! 

[Gatt]

My story...

Placed an order for a blank panel with some custom changes at the end of March(This march 2006).  It's a Co2 panel,  with trackball and spinner,  and a Flightstick instead of dedicated 4-way(I'm going to use 49-ways on the GP-wiz as my primaries).

The very next day Chris from SlikStik called me to discuss the changes I made.  His initial concern was that the Flightstick in that position would block the view on a cab,  I explained that this would be a desktop type installation,  and we were all set.

Three hours later,  Chris contacts me again.  He's working up my layout,  and wants to discuss some stuff with me.  First,  SlikStik is updating the layouts of their CP's based on feedback,  and he's going to give me the updated layout as long as I'm ok with it,  even though it isn't live yet.  Then we discuss button placement since the flightstick is going to shift things some.

One hour later,  Chris E-mails me a screenshot of the Cad design of my Layout for confirmation,  without my asking,  though he told me that's what he was going to do when we were on the phone.  I give him the ok.

That was about 3 weeks ago,  and I'm still waiting on the panel.  The website notes that custom layouts can take 3-5 weeks so I'm not concerned yet.  I really don't expect a running report at every stage of manufacturing,  I'm sure this buisness is a rough one to manage.

So far,  I'd say Slikstik is a decent company to deal with.  The communication on the CP was great in setting it up,  and I'm impressed that they went to the effort to offer me the updated version of their panel before it's even live.

While I'm pimping companies,  I'd also like to drop a good word on Groovygamegear.com

I ordered 2 49-ways,  2 GP-Wiz-49's,  and an assortment of buttons.  I also asked a question about the GP-Wiz's and made the request for the wiring to be pre-installed.  My question was answered very quickly,  and the entire order arrived in perfect condition in record time.  Groovygamegear.com is another website I'll be continuing to deal with in the future,  very good service and products.

[Fozzy The Bear]

Placed an order a couple weeks ago...no confirmation email...
emailed to inquire about lack of confirmation a week later...no reply.
What's the deal with these guys?
Are they legit?
Seems awfully shady to me.
I sure would like either what I ordered, or my money back.
Anyone order from them recently and get any kind of reply or product?

Nothing new here then.... Their products may well be OK but their customer service and delivery times, quite often stink! 

There are more complaints on here about Slikstick than there are about any other supplier. If you can't get a reply within a couple of days, cancell the order and go elsewhere, would be my advice.

Best Regards,
Julian (Fozzy The Bear)

[Xam]

My first rule is to always assume a Spam filter ate your confirmation email.

Contact them from a variety of emails, or especially by phone.

THEN if you still don't get anywhere, contemplate cancelling the order.

This is very true. I know my spam filter usually catches anything from a business. It is a good idea to check in the spam folder. You generally have to tell the filter to allow messages from companies.

Xam

[Teknique]

Spoke with Christian on the phone last week reguarding stainless handles for 49-way's so they are around, though it took them quite a bit of time to reply to my initial e-mail.

Tek

[Circo]

When I ordered my cab and control panel last summer it did take quite a while to recieve it.  The panel showed up first and then the cab about a week later.  It is a bit slow going but I believe that they build to order.  When it did show up it was soooooo worth the wait.  My panel and cab was of the highest quality and when I had a question I called Christian and he was ver helpful.  If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't change a thing.  It does take awhile, but everthing is first rate.  I could not have been more happy.  But I agree it was slow, but worth it plus some. 

 

Slikstik fan for life!

[Nannuu]

Though I've read many complaints about their speed and communication here, I've NEVER read that their products are bad.  From all reports, their panels and cabinets are outstanding quality.  I don't personally own one since I'm a DIYer so I could be wrong.

[BobbyG66]

I ordered a Tornado spinner a couple of weeks ago.
No problems at all with the order shipping or arriving.

I am very happy with my experience with them.

[kaze0]

Getting in contact can be hard. The only suggestion I have is to use the number from their faq.

I bought a CO2 last year on ebay directly from slikstik. Took about a month to get, at that time their communication was great in emails. They even called me to verify that my awful color scheme was correct.

I had a few issues with the trackball that I tried to email them about. Nothing too annoying at the time. Never got a response back, so I just gave up.

A few months ago the problems with the trackball amplified 10fold. It became practically worthless. I tried emailing them and leaving messages in their forum. No responses... I got so fed up, I then called the number that says do not call for tech support. Chris answered and quickly told me to send the tracball back and he'll replace it. They paid for shipping back to me.

Their customer support is outstanding when you actually get in contact with them. I don't know what happens to the emails and forum posts that go unanswered, but when talking to someone I have never been doissapointed.

[Santoro]

I have bought lighted joystick handles and spinner knobs from them and had a good experience each time.

FWIW.

[tumult]

just speculating, but I think they keep their personnel to a bare minimum so they can maintain those low, low prices   Can you imagine what the prices would be like if they hired a secretary?

but seriously, I ordered a classic a couple of years ago and everything went great.  If their responses are lacking, its either the spam filter or they're incredibly busy putting other people's panels together.

[ArcadEd]

I just wanted to ask something straight up.  I've always had good communication with the slikstik gang.  But is this common?  I've considering having a lineup of control panel only boxes similar to slikstik available through arcade-in-a-box but I assumed slikstik had a pretty good hold on the market.

It's something to consider.  If people would like another option for control panels I would be more than happy to give it a try.  I already make custom ones for people if they ask, but it might be nice to just have a few standard options available in my store.  And now is the time, since I have funds .

[Falkentyne]

My problem is that they did an absolutely -horrible- job on the joystick mounting.
The joysticks weren't even routed..even the -x-arcade-, which is mass produced, at least had the ticks routed correctly !  So the joysticks sat too low in the panel for anyone with big hands.

Also, the joysticks were simply force-screwed __IN__ to the wood.  What happened to the normal bolt through method.  And before someone thinks I'm nit-picking, one of the joystick screwholes became stripped and I had to screw another hole myself.   

Using proper bolt-throughs, like Ed does on his arcadeinabox panels, would have prevented any of this from happening.  (Yes I took apart the slikstik and had most of the parts built into an arcadeinabox (cab only); much happier with it   Now if only Happs would get the spacers -correct- on the opticals...3 opticals, only one has perfect movement -.-...(and its the spacer that's the problem)

I had some other issues with after service support with slikstik but I'm not going to bother to post it.

[zaphod]

I just wanted to ask something straight up.  I've always had good communication with the slikstik gang.  But is this common?  I've considering having a lineup of control panel only boxes similar to slikstik available through arcade-in-a-box but I assumed slikstik had a pretty good hold on the market.

It's something to consider.  If people would like another option for control panels I would be more than happy to give it a try.  I already make custom ones for people if they ask, but it might be nice to just have a few standard options available in my store.  And now is the time, since I have funds .

Another option is always great.  SS has their market, X-gaming has theirs, but there is plenty of room for alternatives.  Especially if you could price it competitively, eg. between X-gaming prices and SSs.  Same with delivery time- three weeks or less from payment to delivery would be ideal.

[RobotronNut]

My problem is that they did an absolutely -horrible- job on the joystick mounting.
The joysticks weren't even routed..even the -x-arcade-, which is mass produced, at least had the ticks routed correctly !  So the joysticks sat too low in the panel for anyone with big hands.

Also, the joysticks were simply force-screwed __IN__ to the wood.  What happened to the normal bolt through method.  And before someone thinks I'm nit-picking, one of the joystick screwholes became stripped and I had to screw another hole myself.   

i don't like the bolt-thru method. i don't like the look, and i'm pretty sure i wouldn't like the feel. if you don't bolt thru, you need a lot of wood to hold the screws, hence no routing, unless you use RickDIII's method (which i like, but it eats up a bit of real estate.)

so far, my slikstik is holding up well. i haven't heard of anyone else ripping out a joystick, but would like to know if this is a widespread problem with bottom-mounted joysticks in 3/4" panels.

w.r.t. communication: i found slikstik's email communication to be unreliable but their phone availability was good.

[ArcadEd]

My problem is that they did an absolutely -horrible- job on the joystick mounting.
The joysticks weren't even routed..even the -x-arcade-, which is mass produced, at least had the ticks routed correctly !  So the joysticks sat too low in the panel for anyone with big hands.

Also, the joysticks were simply force-screwed __IN__ to the wood.  What happened to the normal bolt through method.  And before someone thinks I'm nit-picking, one of the joystick screwholes became stripped and I had to screw another hole myself.   

i don't like the bolt-thru method. i don't like the look, and i'm pretty sure i wouldn't like the feel. if you don't bolt thru, you need a lot of wood to hold the screws, hence no routing, unless you use RickDIII's method (which i like, but it eats up a bit of real estate.)

so far, my slikstik is holding up well. i haven't heard of anyone else ripping out a joystick, but would like to know if this is a widespread problem with bottom-mounted joysticks in 3/4" panels.

w.r.t. communication: i found slikstik's email communication to be unreliable but their phone availability was good.

I've always used the bolt through method, I'm sure I understand what isn't to like about the look?

For example


I do all my CPs that way.

[RobotronNut]

i guess i don't understand the bolt-thru method. i thought it meant that the heads of bolts protrude visibly thru the surface of your control panel, like on the x-arcade.

perhaps you're talking about routing just for the bolt heads and applying laminate after installing the joysticks? i know that's a popular and good-looking method, but i still prefer the simple bottom-mount method, because it's easier to swap components (if i'm understanding the methods correctly).

[ArcadEd]

Basically I route the bottom like anyone else for the joystick base.  I use flathead bolts/screws slightly countersunk through the top.  Gorilla glue is used on the heads to secure them into the hole.  That combined with the contact cement used for the formica (I use extra on the bolt heads) makes sure they won't turn in place.

Then underneath you just slide the base into place and use some nuts to bolt it down.  If you need to remove the base, just losen the nuts and pull it off.

Like I said, that's just the way I have always done it to hide the bolt heads, but make it the most secure.  At least in my opinion .  That's the great thing about DIY.  All of our opinions

[RobotronNut]

your method sounds good to me. i take it you've rarely or never had a bolt come loose?

if i were to use your method, i might prefer to use a square head bolt and mortise a square hole for it. what do you think of that idea?

[ArcadEd]

It's a good idea.  The problem is finding a flat head bolt that has a square neck like a carriage bolt. Otherwise you don't have enough room after the route to get the head flush with the wood.  Hopefully I described that ok.

I'm still on the lookout for such a thing, and I might look through some catalogs this weekend just to see if anything sticks out.

But no, I have not has a bolt come loose yet.  Doesn't mean they can't if you really crank on them.  Luckily, you can press down with you finger where the nut head is, on top of the formica and get it tightened if you have too.  There were times I had one come loose before I started using the gorilla glue first.