My opinion...take it for what it is worth...

Back in the day ALL arcade games were built for the Operators where the main goal was for them to be fun and make money. Dings, dents, and imperfections from the factory were acceptable as most (probably all) players did not care or notice them. In short time the games got their own bruises from the public....battle scars. By the time the game became too beat up it would lose it's money making abilities (players lost interest) and be pushed to the back of the warehouse. The operator did not want to pay for a perfect piece of furniture or art...they wanted cheap, fun somewhat reliable games that made money..period.

Now fast forward...where the problem develops. The Pinheads grew up and have interest in owning games in their homes...so Stern supplied their needs. Unfortunately Stern is stuck in the "Operator" mentality of making the game just good enough for a route. They are not geared to meet the high expectations of the home buyers. At first this high expectation was the fault of the home buyers because the price of the pins ($4.5K ish) was still in the Operator quality level. But now Stern is to blame because they raised their prices to $7K ish without raising their quality to a home buyer level.

I cannot think of a reason pins jumped $2-3K in the past few years without raising the quality bar. So now I agree with the OP that this is not acceptable....nor should a new buyer have to do much of anything to get their NIB pin working. Now down the line...sure, repairs and maintenance should be expected. And I do agree that if you own a pin, you should know your way around it (at least basic diagnostic stuff).

We do that with cars...while it is under warranty we let the dealer fix the small and large problems....but after the warranty we do more and more to save money and time. Or we choose not to fix that door ding because we don't feel the cost to repair justifies the fix....but if my new car came with a door ding you bet I would not accept it. Hope this makes sense.

Anyway...just my thoughts.

G