No good deed goes unpunished. Redditor Boomerjinks was contacted in the summer by a rep from Telltale Games. They told him they wished to borrow the jeep to use at a promotional booth at PAX. Who honestly doesn’t like Jurassic Park? In addition, an acquaintance of his was able to rack up some dollars for letting them use his DeLorean for a Back to the Future game a while ago. But then things went terribly wrong.
What went wrong is quite appalling. Boomerjinks let them use the very nice jeep, clearly worth a good amount of cash and kept in excellent condition to where it makes my car look totaled. What he wanted? Insured and covered transport, travel expenses covered, and passes to PAX. Very reasonable. However, the jeep took some nasty damage and marks during transit, was transported in an open car transport in defiance of the agreement, and was switched between trailers before winding up in Seattle. Torn seats, paint damage, nothing major but enough to catapult the story to the first page of Reddit’s r/gaming in a short space of time.
After getting the scratched up car back, Boomerjinks got in touch with Telltale about the damages, not paying travel expenses, and the improper handling of the item. Make sure your table is firmly nailed to the floor now, just in case you’re the type to suddenly (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻.
Telltale told him to contact the transport company, who in turn told him they were not liable as Telltale signed for it after receiving it, leaving Boomerjinks with the paperwork to have $2000 worth of restoration done to the car. Small change at best but regardless you don’t scratch up a man’s car.
According to a comment by Boomerjinks, Telltale employees who were at the booth, including Kevin Burner himself were showing concern about the damage and that they would make things right after the convention was over. Reasonable people all around but as of writing his calls and emails haven’t reached a resolution. This is why you don’t hire complete morons and try to cut corners when doing something that can spread like wildfire.
Boomerjinks was at fault for not saying “Piss off, come back with a real carrier.” when the unenclosed transport showed up, but I can hardly blame the man. To mishandle such a freakin’ awesome custom job is a capital sin. You can read the full story on Reddit here along with photographs. I hope this can be resolved and the ones who caused this screwup get thrown in the stocks.
I prodded a member of Telltale’s PR staff to see what he thinks, I’ll update this if he responds.
