Summary of my order with Betson.

[TheManuel]

I just wanted to share my experience since I know many of you plan to buy trackballs so this is kind of my mini-review on Betson www.betson.com.

I placed an order for a re-furbished trackball at $29.95.  Shipping was showing as $0.45 on the website so I was happy.  I then received a paper invoice by mail stating that the shipping was $8 so I was unhappy.  I e-mailed them and they replied they would credit me the difference since they are working on the web software and it was not clear to the customer what the shipping charges were.  The differnce got credited a few days later so I was happy again.

When the trackball arrived, it would not roll very well and looked rather beat up.  I proceeded to disassemble it and it was filthy with grease and dust inside.  The rollers were in bad shape.  I was pissed off.  I e-mailed them and they inmediately replied that it was a mistake and was sent a unit that had not yet been re-furbished.  They said they would send me a brand new one at now cost.  I would just have to return the old one.  They did send it.  It arrived on Monday and it was indeed new.  I still have to work on its lubing/break-in to get the best performance but it is NEW.

So, in general, I have to catalog my experience as excellent since I paid for a refurbished ball and got a new one.  But it goes to show that despite having some logistics problems, they go to great lengths to ensure the customer goes away satisfied.  This is why I recommend them.  Other people in this forum have ordered the refurbished ones and gotten very good, solid units at a great price of $30 plus shipping.

[ashardin]

I've order 4 of these refurbed trackballs at different times during the past year and always had very good luck, so it sounds like you just had a spot of bad luck.  I've always been very happy with the product I got for $29.99.  I mean, its not brand new, but all of the ones I've gotten seem pretty close.

Good for Betson to stand by the sale though.  Sounds like everything worked out for you in the end, even if it took a little more time.

[TheManuel]

I've order 4 of these refurbed trackballs at different times during the past year and always had very good luck, so it sounds like you just had a spot of bad luck.  

Can't really say bad luck as the outcome was very positive as you point out at the end of your post.
I'm a happy camper on this purchase.

[TheManuel]

Everyone please realize that I am not encouraging anyone in any way to try and take advantage of Betson to cheat them out of a new ball.  I mean it  .

I simply wanted to share my experience so that you know that Betson is a good source for trackballs.

If you are on a budget and don't want to pay $70 or more for a new unit, their re-furbished products is a great alternative.  I started out buying a Crystal trackball from CompUSA but just could not resist the temptation of buying a genuine trackball (especially after recently going to a Dave and Buster's and seeing a Centipide/Missile Command machine with a huge trackball that seemed about 4" to me at the time).  I thought more than $50 was too much and would have quit on the idea except that someone posted about Betson's re-furbished units and I realized it was a great deal.

[DeafBug]

Which mounting plate do you use from Happs for this trackball?  I read that the Happs has a better mounting plate that is flushed and works good on a 3/4 MDF for the 3 inch TB.  But I am wondering what the item number is that will do the job as they have several listed. Or do I get it from Bob Roberts?

Thanks

[tmasman]

So where the heck do I find their refurb'ed stuff??? I'm having a had time getting around the site... I think they expect me to know the maker of the product I'm looking for or something...

I did a search for "trackball" and it returned a few new ones, but I don't see anything about a refurb'ed trackball anywhere... (I'm downloading the PDF catalog as I type... I'll check it when it's all here.)

TIA...

~ tmasman

[TheManuel]

Which mounting plate do you use from Happs for this trackball?  I read that the Happs has a better mounting plate that is flushed and works good on a 3/4 MDF for the 3 inch TB.  But I am wondering what the item number is that will do the job as they have several listed. Or do I get it from Bob Roberts?

Thanks

I'm not sure which one fits it exactly since I'm going to use an alternative method that allows me to mount it flush with the lexan.
Check this other thread for more information: http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=8619;start=msg63154#msg63154

About the plate, you can do a search for older posts since that is a recurring subject here, or wait for someone else to post.

[TheManuel]

So where the heck do I find their refurb'ed stuff??? I'm having a had time getting around the site... I think they expect me to know the maker of the product I'm looking for or something...

I did a search for "trackball" and it returned a few new ones, but I don't see anything about a refurb'ed trackball anywhere... (I'm downloading the PDF catalog as I type... I'll check it when it's all here.)

TIA...

~ tmasman

Go to this search I made:
http://www.betson.com/search_results.asp?search=&find_deptId=&find_PrtName=trackball&Pagecount=3

I think the reason you did not find it is because you probably did not see the links "previous" and "next".  Use those to navigate back and forth among the search results.

Also try "track ball" (without quotes) on their search engine.  It will give a few additional trackballs including the "high ring" model which is the one they sent me.  I was happy to see that because it allows for flush mounting on lexan and a nice clean look.

[TheManuel]

Which mounting plate do you use from Happs for this trackball?  I read that the Happs has a better mounting plate that is flushed and works good on a 3/4 MDF for the 3 inch TB.  But I am wondering what the item number is that will do the job as they have several listed. Or do I get it from Bob Roberts?

Thanks

Check out this older thread which contains a lot of information about mounting plates.

I believe they are standard and will work for most trackballs.

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=8392;start=msg61240#msg61240