salawrence

You'll probably need to reverse the charges. I ordered a couple of the classic2 joysticks back in April or May and have never heard a single peep beyond the initial order confirmation. If you try to contact Curt Vendel (the 'proprietor' of Syzygy), I'll be stunned if you get a response. The general consensus, at least this year, is that you can place orders and your card will be charged, but it just goes into a black hole never to be seen or heard from again. I tried to contact him very politely in a number of ways (Syzygy website, Syzygy Facebook page, and direct message here), and the most response I got was my post to his Facebook wall got deleted. No message back to me, nothing. Just deleted. That pretty much told me all I needed to know. I did reverse the charges on my order and it went through without a hiccup, so in the end no harm done other than wasting the time I spent dealing with this company. It's just a shame people choose to do business this way. If he's going to continue accepting orders (and charging credit cards) but he can't be bothered to ship products, I wish he'd just shut the website down completely. It's rude, and really, it's criminal.

Fair enough, that's why I said at best he had poor business practices and at worst a scam artist. I don't know if it's either extreme or somewhere in the middle, but based on the number of other folks who have had similar troubles, it's safe to say that this isn't the way business is commonly done. I agree that life's too short to get that frustrated, which is why I won't be ordering there again, and I'm just going to throw in the towel on pursuing this other than to get my charges reversed. The Fair Credit Billing Act is a wonderful thing; I'm just glad I used a credit card instead of a debit card. I, too, am mystified as to why it's so easy to delete a message and block me from posting on his Facebook page, but so difficult to just send me a message saying that my order will ship on such-and-such a date, or just anything. If it's this painful for him to fill orders, why is the Syzygy Company website even accepting orders? He could just do us all a favor, save what's left of his reputation, and just stop taking orders on that website. I've seen the previous conversation in this thread about Brad at Best Electronics, I'll definitely look him up. I have the Atari 2600 I got in 1980, so I'll compare their product to my original CX-40s. I played enough Decathlon though that my old joysticks have seen better days, which is why I was looking to get some USB sticks to play using an emulator on a PC. I'm not such a purist to pick nits if it feels even remotely close to the original. I just know that I'd rather play my old Atari games with something at least close to the original joystick vs. my Tankstick (which is great too, by the way). Thanks for the response Bob. I'd much rather be posting positive reviews of a product I'm happily using. It sucks that any of us have had to go through this nonsense.

Classy guy. I posted on the Syzygy Facebook page this morning, simply stating that I'd unsuccessfully tried to contact him via the Syzygy website, so I was trying there. I referenced my order number, said that I'd ordered 2 classic2 joysticks, and asked for either an email to the address in my Syzygy account or a message to me via Facebook. Instead, now the message has been deleted and I've been blocked from posting anything further to that page. I've been nothing but businesslike in my dealings with him, I didn't spout any vitriol or provide false information as he's accused others of doing, but still I can't even get the courtesy of a reply from a business that has taken my money and not delivered either a product or so much as any kind of information as to when I can expect it. Given that all I've asked for is the courtesy any other business would provide to a customer, I think he's going to have a hard time playing the victim in this case, as he's done in several others that I've read about. I was going to give him until next week, but based on the prevailing opinions I've read about this guy here and in several other places across the Internet, I think I'm just going to go ahead and start getting the charges reversed. I'm sad, it looks like it's a good product. Unfortunately, it's being marketed by someone with at best poor business practices and at worst a scam artist. I genuinely feel for the people who gave him even more money and have been waiting years for the 7800XM.

I wish I'd known all this, oh, two weeks ago. I ordered two classic2 joysticks on 4/22, and they're still in the "Processing" state. I got a little nervous when my credit card was charged immediately and nothing happened after about a week, not even a order confirmation email. Since then, I started digging and have found that I probably made a mistake. Unfortunately, no reviews on the Syzygy website indicate any problems with receiving products that have been paid for. None of them on Amazon (through which it is no longer available) did either. In my most recent message through the Syzygy website, I said that if I didn't get some kind of reply by next Wednesday, I will be going to my credit card company to reverse charges. I see that many of you have given him more time than just two weeks, but given your experiences, I just think I'd be wasting my time. I'll give him until next week, though I'm sorry to say I'm not optimistic. It looks like it's a good product, worth the money, but this is no way to do business. If I'm forced to reverse the charges myself, I'll also post reviews on both Amazon and the Syzygy website to try to help anyone who doesn't frequent this site know what they're getting themselves into. I hope it doesn't come to that, but like I said, based on what I've read since I placed the order, I have a hard time being very optimistic.