After 3 years of fun, aggravation, anxiety, and a little more fun…the Diamond Heist Laser Maze is being retired. After it’s final use as a mobile laser maze theater on August 1st 2013, it will no longer be available in a mobile format to our customers. Why? Quite simply, this proprietary system designed by Lazer Mazers of Shasta California is quite finicky, and even the company who designed it can not seem to get it operating correctly.
When we first built the laser maze, it was a work-in-progress found at a trade show in Orlanda (IAAPA). After a lengthy discussion with the company’s owner ( Terry Smith), salesman (Tom Martin), and tech support leader (Chris Hart), we thought we were in good hands. Well…we were wrong. From day-1, the maze was a bit “moody”. Some days it would work well, while on others it was frustrating to say the least. The proprietary software and hardware configuration designed by Chris was just not ready for the retail market. That said, we knew we were entering a relationship with a company who was in its infancy. We didn’t, however, expect that customer service and technical support would be so lackluster. We invested tens of thousands of dollars into one big technical glitch!
Don’t get me wrong…the laser maze IS cool. It does have potential. And it WILL return…but in a whole new arena! We aren’t going to give many details on our plans for the future of the Laser Maze, but I can assure you that it will give the ‘experts’ at Lazer Mazers a run for their money. We hope they are watching and taking notes…OMG will take the Laser Maze to a whole new level.
Ohio Mobile Gaming is a family entertainment and rental company dedicated to providing quality products with above average customer service. With the Lazer Mazer’s support staff behind this product, we simply can’t maintain our standards of excellence. We strongly encourage anyone entertaining the thought of buying a product from Lazer Mazers to contact us directly for a straight-forward account of what we experienced over the last 3 years. The one thing I will share with everybody that we learned is this: we now know what NOT to do when it comes to dealing with customer complaints and issues. We have always put our customers first, but our dealings with Lazer Mazers of Shasta CA over the last few months solidified my belief that we are a customer-service company first, and an entertainment rental company second. Without good interpersonal skills and interactions, any company in any industry is going to put themselves on the brink of failure.
Thanks to Terry Smith, Tom Martin, and Chris Hart for an expensive lesson in business management. In a weird way, it helped us more than anyone could have imagined. We’ve dealt with so many ‘heat-of-the moment’ crises that we are hardened now to any situation. I wish you all the best of luck on your journey as entrepreneurs.
Leave a Reply