FS:Xboxes w/ Media Center. Limited Editions Availible. Prices Start At $48

[pcc08]

I really don't think it is very appropriate to post someone's address on a message board. It certainly won't get your money back anytime soon.


At any rate, the last time I saw progace in #vbender (this was about a month ago), he was having a lot of problems with losing his house, and I believe his job as well. We suggested that he try to settle the deals here, and he dreaded it because of said issues.

So, he's having issues like many people are in this economy, but to know he's left a lot of people unhappy here and he's just going to ignore it? Nice. :grrr:

[Carey85]

I think RCM and Portnoyd are the only two left with unresolved issues, and the problem on RCM's end stems from a DVD drive failure on an Xbox that Progace tuned up that he volunteered to make right as an act of good faith. More than a few of the people in this thread can't help themselves but to jump on a lynch mob bandwagon, so whatever. Just remember it and choose not to do business with him later if it burns your asses so much about it. That's the great thing about a free market.

[pcc08]

I think RCM and Portnoyd are the only two left with unresolved issues, and the problem on RCM's end stems from a DVD drive failure on an Xbox that Progace tuned up that he volunteered to make right as an act of good faith. More than a few of the people in this thread can't help themselves but to jump on a lynch mob bandwagon, so whatever. Just remember it and choose not to do business with him later if it burns your asses so much about it. That's the great thing about a free market.

No, I paid for a DVD Remote and Dongle, which I still haven't received. To me, that is stealing, plain and simple.

[geezuzkhrist119]

Me and my brother bought our 500gb Xbox's from omnedon here a couple years ago. They were expensive though and the HDD's weren't formatted properly (which is why I ended up sending them to ProgrammingAce). He is in Canada however, so shipping wouldn't be much: http://www.oldschoolgamer.com/

I see people selling modded Xbox's all the time now for dirt cheap. Just keep an eye out in the Buy & Sell forum and some will eventually show up. You should easily be able to get one now for under $200 shipped.

i see alot of ppl selling on craigslist and kijiji but with stock drives

im mainly looking for a pimped out to the extreme xbox like with leds, usb ports and a lcd screen on the front

[portnoyd]

At any rate, the last time I saw progace in #vbender (this was about a month ago), he was having a lot of problems with losing his house, and I believe his job as well. We suggested that he try to settle the deals here, and he dreaded it because of said issues.

Let me tell you, not acknowledging them only makes it worse. If I hadn't been left hanging for almost 4 months, I'd be less vaginal about the whole deal.

[RCM]

I've tried not to pile on Phil (ProgAce) and have tried to give him the benefit of the doubt every step of the way. But at the same time, if you look back at this thread he's had to work through a lot of issues which could've been solved in part by better communication. It was like a cat and mouse game just trying to get a status update regarding the systems when he had them, and once I finally got them one was "busted" (which could've/should've been tested before it was shipped).

I certainly feel for him and his struggles, but it's his duty, especially if he continues to lurk on these forums and go on Xbox Live with other DP members, to address us. Each and every day his silence is just a fuck off to every one of us who has unfinished business with him.

I invite Phil to not only address the people he owes, but the entire forum. His contributions to DP and his own site (is it still up?) were great, and I'd hate to lose his insight. And regardless of how this shakes out, I hope he gets back on his feet.

[tubeway]

Also, whatever happened to the Bio Force Ape game he was developing? I'd hate to see it go unreleased because of this situation. Although I realize he's got bigger things to deal with right now.

inb4 modern warfare reference.

[skaar]

I think he's still making his way through season 2 of the L word on Netflix :D

[Eternal Tune]

I think he's still making his way through season 2 of the L word on Netflix :D

Lesbian?

[tubeway]

Bump (sorta, it's a sticky post).

What happened to Bio Force Ape?

[dao2]

probably dead now... least around here :| hes obviously been ignoring dp.

[MachineGex]

I loved reading his posts about the progress on Bio Force Ape. I hope he can get back on his feet, make things right, and get this game going again. I was really looking forward to this game.

[Vectorman0]

Is anyone owed anything from ProgrammingAce, other than lost time?

Portnoyd, I already know about you.

[pcc08]

Yes, he owes me a Xbox DVD Remote and Dongle.

[chandler_455]

his site is gone and many forums he frequented (Assemblergames most notably) he has vanished from

[RCM]

@ VM

Yeah, he owes me a working modded Xbox. I was actually going to post to see if somebody in the NJ/NYC area could fix what he sent.

It's too bad he fucked people over and ruined his cred. considering everything he offered to the scene. With that said, I wouldn't be sad if someone jacked his ass up.

[neuropolitique]

@ VM

Yeah, he owes me a working modded Xbox. I was actually going to post to see if somebody in the NJ/NYC area could fix what he sent.

It's too bad he fucked people over and ruined his cred. considering everything he offered to the scene. With that said, I wouldn't be sad if someone jacked his ass up.

no stabbing folks in the face please.

[megasdkirby]

RCM, depending on what he did, I might be able to help out, as I have softmodded the Xbox several times on several units.

I would love to make a tutorial on how to do this, but something much easier than those found on the 'net. Problem is, some files might be considered illegal, but to be honest, I don't know for sure.

If I can find this out, and if the admins/mods let me, I can setup a nice guide for those who want to repair their Xbox units or softmod theirs.

You will need an Xbox Action Replay, though. And a memory unit. An certain game titles, which are dead cheap to find.

[RCM]

no stabbing folks in the face please.

No threats to stab him in the face in front of his family from me (joking or otherwise). I'm just really disappointed with this situation and upset by the loss of Phil to the community. He's around and should've at least made some sort of statement.

[megasdkirby]

He's online now. I hope everything gets sorted out.

[ProgrammingAce]

@ VM

Yeah, he owes me a working modded Xbox. I was actually going to post to see if somebody in the NJ/NYC area could fix what he sent.

It's too bad he fucked people over and ruined his cred. considering everything he offered to the scene. With that said, I wouldn't be sad if someone jacked his ass up.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but you mailed me 2 xboxes to mod. Both of them showed up at my doorstep broken, one had a blown motherboard (MCPX chip was fried) and the other had a hard time reading discs. I offered to replace the one that wouldn't boot for a small price (i don't remember what exactly, but it was cheaper then what i bought them for). I mailed them both back to you, and now the one that didn't read discs very well doesn't read discs very well.

What exactly do you want me to do about it? You mailed me an xbox with a shitty drive, i modded it and sent it back. What would make you happy?

[Carey85]

That bowling ball is engulfed in that damn windshield!

[RCM]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but you mailed me 2 xboxes to mod. Both of them showed up at my doorstep broken, one had a blown motherboard (MCPX chip was fried) and the other had a hard time reading discs. I offered to replace the one that wouldn't boot for a small price (i don't remember what exactly, but it was cheaper then what i bought them for). I mailed them both back to you, and now the one that didn't read discs very well doesn't read discs very well.

What exactly do you want me to do about it? You mailed me an xbox with a shitty drive, i modded it and sent it back. What would make you happy?

He finally speaks.

I have the PMs to prove (mods can check my inbox or I can post 'em here) that you agreed to fix whatever you claimed to be wrong with the system, not both, but one (they both ran original Xbox games fine before I sent 'em out, but I trusted your opinion) for a small increase in the fee and the Xbox parts from the faulty machine. I agreed to give you the faulty machine plus an extra fee for two functioning Xbox systems. You agreed and I sent the money. Once I received the systems (after extensive delays) one was ‘broken’ and one functions perfectly. Bottom line: I didn’t get what I paid for (even though you did refund what I paid in part to make up for all the delays and general unresponsiveness).

Regarding fixing the faulty machine after you sent it back, I hit you up here and on Facebook , spoke to you via FB messaging and exchanged messages on Facebook as well. At the time you intended to look at the faulty machine you sent and fix the issue, but then you dropped off the face of the earth.

I’ve given you the benefit of the doubt on several occasions (just look back in this thread), but I’ve fuckin’ had it. What I wanted from you were two functioning Xbox systems (for a great price at the time, but I guess you get what you pay for), and instead I got a bunch of fuckin’ headaches. What I desired most from you was communication, Phil. If it’s true you’re going through a lot of personal issues I feel for you, but I get a little pissed off when you blow off this community while you’re fuckin’ around on Call of Duty. A simple message explaining what’s up would’ve gone a million miles. I’ll never do another deal with you again and suggest others on DP consider this thread before they deal with you.

But looking at the bigger picture, again, if you’re really going through a lot of shit in your life I wish you luck and hope you get through it.

[ProgrammingAce]

I don't repair DVD drives... ever. Never have, never will. It costs me $65 to buy replacement drives off of ebay. Nobody wants to pay $65 + labor to repair a system I sell for $48. I also don't scrap working systems to repair broken consoles people mail me. There's no point in ruining a working console to fix a broken one, and I really don't want a bunch of broken consoles laying around.

There's no way on earth one of those xboxes worked when you mailed it to me. It was covered in dirt and would instantly power on the second you plugged in the power supply. The transistor on the +5Volt rail going into the MCPX had fried. This is a known defect on the 1.0 and 1.1 systems. I told you all of this when I received the consoles. Transistors don't fry in shipping, that thing was junk from the start.

The second console *you sent to me* was a crappy thomson drive that had a hard time reading discs. After a couple of tries, it usually seemed to work. I was able to transfer 1.1 GB worth of data with a lot of trouble. It worked well enough to mod, and that's all i really cared about. I'm not going to put a warranty on something you didn't buy from me, go talk to whoever you got it from and see if they offer the same lifetime warranty I do. I'm guessing not.

You sent me shit in the mail, I got it working as best I could. It's not even worth offering DVD replacements because i'd have to charge at least $75, would you have paid that?

[ProgrammingAce]

his site is gone and many forums he frequented (Assemblergames most notably) he has vanished from

My site isn't missing on purpose, it was there last week and my hosting is paid in full. The only thing I can guess is that I got hit by some PHPBB virus that wiped out the forums. I should have a backup somewhere.

I haven't been on assemblergames since Assembler kept resetting my password so he could read my PM inbox, that was 4 years ago.

[ProgrammingAce]

Yes, he owes me a Xbox DVD Remote and Dongle.

Do me a favor and send me an email at ace@hackur.com with your mailing address and i'll get one out to you.

Are your consoles working the way they should be? I know you were having some issues.

[RCM]

Produce the messages where you explain this stuff in such detail. You can't because they don't exist. I kept a majority (if not all) of our PMs regarding this transaction, Phil. Like I said before, I tested both systems before I sent them and they worked without any issues I could detect and were clean. You told me one was fucked up and I agreed to your proposed solution.

It's really surprising that you're trying to turn this shit around on me. You're the fucking asshole who dicked over the community, not me.

[megasdkirby]

Just a quick note about the drives: can you just replace the lens, PrgAce?

In the mayority of the drives I "repair", all that is needed, in order, is:

1)A good cleaning

2)A pot tweak

3)A lens replacement

Only very few, probably like less than 5% of the drives I've encountered, require an actual drive replacement. Usually, options 1 and 2 do the trick nicely. Rarely have I have to resort to option 3, but when I do, it works wonders.

[ProgrammingAce]

Produce the messages where you explain this stuff in such detail. You can't because they don't exist. I kept a majority (if not all) of our PMs regarding this transaction, Phil. Like I said before, I tested both systems before I sent them and they worked without any issues I could detect and were clean. You told me one was fucked up and I agreed to your proposed solution.

It's really surprising that you're trying to turn this shit around on me. You're the fucking asshole who dicked over the community, not me.

Dated 7-20-2009

Sorry, i was out of town over the weekend. I have both machines finished and ready, but there seems to be a bit of trouble with one of them. Sometimes it's turning on as soon as you plug in, and it isn't always responding to the power and eject controls.

This is usually a sign that the MCPX chip (it's a chip that controls most of the power functions) is dieing. I don't think there's much that can be done to fix it, it's a defect on these early systems.

There are a couple of things we can do here. I can send it back to you, and it might live a long happy life. I'll charge you the agreed price, and i'll include a disc with the save files from each system in case something happens.

Or, i can copy all of the save files from the dieing system to the working xbox and just mail that one back to you. The total charge would just be $10 to ship the one system. I'll give you the mod for free in trade of the working parts from the dieing console.

Either way, let me know. They're both ready to ship out.

- Ace


------------------------------

Several minutes later:

Oh, the other thing i can do, and i forgot to mention this, i can swap out the dieing xbox with a working one that doesn't have the flaw in the motherboard. I can copy over all of the save files and everything.

$40 total + shipping and I'll give you the mod on the working xbox for free.

I normally sell the modded boxes for $48 on their own, so you're basically getting a $25 trade in on the dieing system.

- Ace

[RCM]

There, you mention one system has issues, not both. Not the same thing, Phil, sorry.

My message to you:

"So for $60 shipped I get two functioning Xbox consoles with the new dashboards, emulators and windows media center? Sounds fine to me.

....ps - I can send payment via paypal whenever you're ready"

And I did send the cash with the understanding I'd get two working systems. It's pointless man, you're not winning this and I've already lost.

[ProgrammingAce]

That's pretty much word for word what i just posted in this thread. Detailed enough?

So I charged you $40 for a new xbox and 2 mods, and now you're threatening to stab me in the face because the xbox you mailed to me has a lame DVD drive?

I'll ask again, what exactly do you want me to do about it? Propose something.

[RCM]

What you sent me via PM vs. what you posted are not the same. Your public post is much more detailed and in it you claim potential flaws in both systems. Futhermore, you set the prices which I agreed to.

As for the threat (which is total bullshit), someone made reference to a joke that got me banned several years ago and I responded. Again, trying to turn this around on me is bullshit. Fuck you.

[GrandAmChandler]

It's pointless man, you're not winning this and I've already lost.

Rob, you of all people should understand Phil deserves a second chance and is trying to make this right with everyone. Please work with him and suggest a desired outcome.

-GAC-

[ProgrammingAce]

I'm not trying to turn this around, i'm answering the questions you've asked.

So again, what do you want?

[Vectorman0]

Rob, you of all people should understand Phil deserves a second chance and is trying to make this right with everyone. Please work with him and suggest a desired outcome.

-GAC-

I couldn't have said it better myself.

I know and like both of you guys, please try and work this out.

[chandler_455]

I am just glad to see PA is back and that is shitty kevin kept doing that to you like its any of his business

[RCM]

Rob, you of all people should understand Phil deserves a second chance and is trying to make this right with everyone. Please work with him and suggest a desired outcome.

-GAC-

It doesn't seem like he's trying to make this right. He's trying to make himself look good after the fact. Fact is, he stated one system was faulty, he came up with the terms and price for two functioning systems, I agreed. I'm not an IT guy and saw he offered a service I wanted which I paid for. I'm not in the wrong here. If he thought I sent him shit or thought the price was too low he should've been up front and rejected the work. More than that, I even defended him in the face of other angry DPers.

What I wanted was two working systems modded in a timely manner and consistent communication if things were delayed. What I got was one working system and the feeling like I'm the dick for wanting what we agreed to. Phil knows exactly what I wanted, but it looks like I'll have to go elsewhere to get it.

[ProgrammingAce]

I'm willing to do what I can, but the only solution you're willing to accept involves time travel.

You're asking me to provide a warranty on a product you didn't buy from me. The mod on that console was already free, i didn't charge you for it. I sold you a replacement xbox for 17% less then my advertised price, and gave you a bigger trade in then gamestop on an xbox with a blown motherboard.

You're obviously still not happy with my service, so i'm willing to offer you 110% of your money back, $44.

[skaar]

Now when men get to fighting, it happens here. And it finishes here.

Two men enter, one man leaves. And right now, I've got two men.
Two men with a gut full of fear. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. . .

. . .dying time's here!

http://llamabutchers.mu.nu/archives/mad_max_beyond_the_thunderdome.jpg

[RCM]

You gave me a partial refund already. I'd really like to just end it here. From what I've heard you need it more than I do anyway.

[chandler_455]

ill take his refund lol when will your site be back up ace

[ProgrammingAce]

You gave me a partial refund already. I'd really like to just end it here. From what I've heard you need it more than I do anyway.

I'm not trying to be an asshole, I've fucked this up pretty bad already. There's no questioning that. I couldn't find any record of a refund in my paypal history, so what more do I owe you? I can't make this right, so you deserve a refund.

I found it. It looks like i still owe you $30, I just refunded that. If I understand the transaction (paypal lists it weird because of the partial refund) that should also refund you the return shipping you paid me.

[GrandAmChandler]

I'm not trying to be an asshole, I've fucked this up pretty bad already. There's no questioning that. I couldn't find any record of a refund in my paypal history, so what more do I owe you? I can't make this right, so you deserve a refund.

I found it. It looks like i still owe you $30, I just refunded that. If I understand the transaction (paypal lists it weird because of the partial refund) that should also refund you the return shipping you paid me.

Excellent. Anyone else have any issues, please PM ProgrammingAce.

[ProgrammingAce]

Excellent. Anyone else have any issues, please PM ProgrammingAce.

It's probably better to email me, my inbox is full and I don't want to delete any messages from people I may owe something to.

ace@hackur.com

Or you could probably send me a post card since my address is still posted in the thread somewhere. (ProTip: That's not my address)

[Bratwurst]

Holy shit Ace I missed you. Get back with me when you can let's wrap up Bro Face Monkey.

[ProgrammingAce]

Wait, you actually believed it was real too?

I've been polishing up the code the last few weeks trying to get the performance running on real hardware. I have an idea I hope you'll like. Let me work on it tonight and get you more info tomorrow.