Quoted from konjurer:

The people who cite Stern as the model of quality and customer service is laughable. They've had all kinds of quality issues that they haven't stood behind and created huge PR disasters while people waited for some sort of resolution - ghosting, dimpling, cabinets splitting, spike issues, node board failures.
Let's do a little comparison. The Stern warranty is only 2 months and only covers the PCB and 9 months on the monitor. API is 3 months on *ALL* parts of the pinball machine except plastics, rubbers and posts and 1 year on the monitor. I had a plastic bust and API had new plastics shipped to me in 3 days at no cost to me.
This is the first bad node board from API that I've heard about. It's not like a there has been a flood of boards dying. API has bent over backwards to listen to their customers and to help their customers on this forum. Barry was great to deal with.
To the OP, you might want to check with Multimorphic to see if they would cover the part under their warranty. I'm not sure what the terms are but it's worth checking. Plus, the part might be cheaper directly from them.

Quoted from Pinphila:

If AP really wanted to screw the OP, they would bring a defamation action.

Quoted from cottonm4:

Correct. And no one should expect AP to stock every little part laying inside a machine.
Try that expectation with your new $50,000.00 car. Some transistor goes bad inside some black box and the car maker will sell you a new black box. For $300.00.

Quoted from cottonm4:

Perhaps you did not read far enough up the chain. Waaaaaay back up there it was established that the unit was out of warranty. If warranty was a consideration, the company is only going to send you a completed circuit board. The pinball maker is not going to stock every pea-wad part of the many many many parts that make up a circuit board. Why would you expect it to?

Quoted from cottonm4:

Sorry. I had not heard of this replace and return policy in the pinball industry. I cannot see the percentages in an R&R for a $95.00 circuit board other than to keep the damaged unit from being repaired for a cheap spare.
A long time ago I was hanging out the the local Harley-Davidson dealership. The Harley Rep was there. In the parking lot. With a sledgehammer. Standing at a pile of defective parts leftover from warranty work. The parts were broken but many were repairable. I had a lot of repaired parts on my old Harley. He started swinging that sledgehammer. I almost cried. But there was no way H-D was going to take a chance of screwing with its market for aftermarket sales of parts.

Quoted from vid1900:

You are missing the bigger picture.
No one would have ever known about the warranty length and how rigidly it is interpreted.
No one would have ever known about the repair advice given when you call for assistance.
No one would have ever known the warranty only applies to the first owner.
(sure you can say "well they could read the warranty", but what a company puts on paper, and what they actually do when you call for help - are two very different things)
Everyone has owned a few Stern or JJP games, so we have tons of data points and know what happens when we call for guidance.
AP is totally new, so 99% of Pinsiders have no experience with their tech help or warranty.
This thread is SUPER valuable to everyone on Pinside.

Quoted from Ericpinballfan:

Not true. Boards can fail on day one, and have.
Not to bash Rottendog for example. Ive had many a board fail in the first hours, and months later. A few they covered, some several months later, they did not. Jim has, was, and is always helpful. He always had a good reason to either replace a board, or steer me towards who could fix it, or tell me how to fix it myself. Love Rottendog boards and have, and had maybe 40-50 at this point.
Another example, Have had Stern nod boards die in first week, also 12 months later. Every case is different. The Star wars flipper boards after almost a year were not covered and was instructed to buy new. The Batman66, 1 week old motor board was replaced with warranty.
In this case, to refresh memories at this point. OP was second owner had had installed mods., maybe incorrectly?
Yes, what a Great PR campaign American Pinball could of used in this case. But also as a new company, every second owner can't always be pleased.
American Pinball also spent several hours helping the OP diagnose and discover problem. Then offered the board at base cost for replacement.
Also, once again, more than half of the judgements here are from non owners and those that never even had a desire to buy game. Just came to add more logs on the fire.
I would by from American Pinball again as long as it's not Oktoberfest.
They have been nothing but cordial, informative, open with code and taking suggestions. Very helpful with my warrant, had a plastic break, and immediately sent me a replacement out priority mail. March purchase and they don't have to replace plastics either.
Much like Yelp and restaurants, sometimes you can't make every sandwich to someone's expectations.