You sir are Hired! That's your office over in the corner there! next to trash can.....

Yeah, at 8K a pop that may just be you.

And not a great player at that

Remember you said it I didn't.

I’ll remember. Every time I play with my group of pinball buddies I end up fixing their games. Oh well.

You are not a troll. Only in mmr

Next business day when?

Play at your house!

If you like it so much swap him games. I don’t want it. Bad quality control. They must not even look at their games when boxing up.

LE lately is the the “latest errors”

Only Stern and JJP does that on a populated playfeild. Seems simple to me.

You are first to mention chipping. Time to apologize to him. In his original post he called it wear.

It's not wear man, stop misleading people. We were all talking chipping, and he called it wear, but no wear to be found, and people will think he played 90 games and it resulted in the mess in the picture. Not cool.

Wear, Chipping, Grinding, Rubbing, Burning, Flakeing Lifting, whatever.... It's a flawed play field period.

Well, in the U.S., the next business day is this Tuesday as Monday is President's Day.

What does CGC do? Tell their customers to go screw?

If true, the company trying to hide issues by telling people not to share them with the community that may also be affected is not cool.

Can you post this response from CGC?
I am really happy with my LE, but if this was their response to this issue, they will definitely not have me as a customer in the future. There is no way in hell that a playfield filled in with putty in a visible area should have left the factory. I am really hoping that there is a misunderstanding here. That is just not acceptable.

Tells them not bad enough to warrant a replacement play field. Planking, color differences, filler, clear coat issues is craftmanship on a natural product which is artistic character and these “are to be expected on a hand made product as each is one of a kind.” Not a manufacture issue under warranty. Warranty on playfeild is only 1 year on LE but that warranty is discretionary.

I will tomorrow when I have a block of time. A lot of info. By the way the playfeilds are cedar and ash mix from a “secret supply source”.

That is what made me so mad the more I have thought on it the last few days. Wanting to silent customers has never worked in any industry. The beauty of the internet. I am not stupid as I have 27 games currently and have sold around 75 others to get the games I like and want. I have bought new games from all major manufactures and have encountered issues. I bought the MMR LE and the AFM LE as an orginal owner with matching numbers. I also own both of these in originals which I have been comparing.

One of two things will happen: You'll be exposed as a liar and be called out on it, or, if everything you're saying is true...someone is going to lose a lot of customers. I believe I've said it before that stern will never get another NIB game out of me again. My wallet will also speak out against CGC for future purchases.

Yep I know. I have no reason to be called a liar as it is all verifiable. I was asked to post the info. In the end CGC will have to replace them all as this isn’t going away and more owners have had enough. Some have sold and moved on but others aren’t going away. What experience did you have with Stern? In the end they came through on Ghostbusters replacements after the buzz started to happen. On that one, my GBLE is still perfect. I got lucky but German playfeild protector day 1. On this one I am one of the unlucky owners. I would imagine the warranty replacement issue will change here shortly as people keep noticing the issues and posting. You know CGC/Churchill made Ghostbuster and Walking Dead playfeilds which both are in your previous owned on your profile. I assume it was one of the two or both. Be good to hear your issue or issues you had.

Look at text and pictures to see it in the below link. Walking Dead listed in “the multiple screens for various games” picture and so is GB.

http://www.pinballnews.com/learn/churchill/index.html

Off topic, but great article I somehow missed.

In a more polite way yes. They try and convince you that these conditions are normal and just part of a handmade process. Funny, they also claimed that the process was not correctly administered. ?? Mixed signals.... The bottom line is these pf s are either not holding up or look like crap from the start. I wonder how many owners that have grainy wavy play fields were told "oh that's normal" and they believed them and just moved on?

Wow ,that lane looks like wood filer with clear coat over it.

Could someone copy and paste the support thread from a conversation like this with CGC? I'm really curious to read it.

It sounds like they were phone conversations so there is nothing to copy or post. I am sure that is all part of the plan.

Man I hope CGC makes this right or no more games from them. Like some thoughts on my shooter lane as I have never had one that looks like this but don’t have a ton of experience with games either as I’ve been in the hobby for about 6 months. This is how the shooter lane looked when it arrived two weeks ago and I have less than 50 games on it.

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My shooter lane looks similar, and was like that when I got my game 4 months ago. No chipping or wear on mine yet though.

What concerns you about your playfield? It’s hard to see detail in your picture because it’s a little dark.

Nothing really with the playfield, it’s the shooter lane. Just haven’t noticed one with the coloring like this before.

What is planking?

That is the interesting part. They won’t post on the ticket system thread. You get a call from Doug. Some also Rick (I did not hear from Rick). Some have recorded these conversations. However after legal counsel they were advised that PPS is Nevada and need both people’s permission on phone to record so we’re immediately destroyed. CGC is Illinois which also is a two party consent state. Both of these states are the few that aren’t one party consent record as both have mob ties a long time ago in their history when these laws were created. Slick talking only over the phone to convince no issue. I wish others would post but are afraid. Not worth it in their minds. Take the $1000 to $1300 loss and move on. Then CGC off hook as second owner not covered under warranty.

That looks normal to me. The shooter lane is deep and cuts though several layers of plywood, what you’re seeing is the different colors of some of the interior layers of plywood.

While my AFM doesn’t look like that, a bunch of my other games do including my recent Mirco CV repro.

vid1900 is usually a great guy to talk about wood and playfields.

Planking is wood grain that starts to show. Can be from poorly prepared wood by lack of sanding or prep. Can be wood humidity was higher than current climate and did not cure/dry correctly. These lines get worse and split apart. In the picture you can’t see the splits like in person. This is not major but come on it is a relatively new game. Anyone have picture of major? I had a TZ that had it major once as game must have been next to a swamp cooler and then had a new home in dry Denver. The CFTBL and other picture are more major. This quote is from a six year old pinside post:

“Here is a pic of someones CFTBL that I found on RGP that has planking. Lenc Smith (LS) pfs are notorious for planking. Some of the worst ones were on TZ. You can spot a LS TZ pf just by looking at the door. TAG and Sun Products (SP) are the prefered pfs to have.”

Notice who they say is the playfeild manufacture to avoid. Lenc Smith now Churchill/CGC. Same building and all.

Topic here in full.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/planking-bsd

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A3209929-2F0D-4124-B8B1-A410CE2E4545 (resized).jpeg

Interesting.

It would appear CGC and PPS should be avoided if these stories are true.

I think he is on to something.

Yes, my facetiousness doesn't translate well online.

Interesting comparing to an original. My game probably had 10000 plays plus but quality of the clear back in the 90's seems way better.

IMG_2575 (resized).jpg

The sheer number of questionable characters in this business never ceases to amaze.

I agree with you there. I ordered a part off eBay two weeks ago from a newer pinball seller with free shipping. Once I received it turns out our old friend at MAD amusements as he created a new alias again since most of us avoid from past experience. They sent the wrong colored part. After trying to convince me it was fine I provided original Bally game pictures. They did the right thing in the end. Sometimes just not worth the time. Should have just ordered from Marco and paid the shipping.

Man that is a nice shooter lane!

A couple of those Cracks look like they are very close to the wood. That is certainly going to get worse.....

could it be they used varathane instead of clearcoat? ( like on basketball courts or bowling alleys )

Wow nice repost! That TZ looks like an extreme case. (what it ends up looking like)

From the playfeild gurus I have talked to no. That is on natural wood colored products as it goes into the wood is what I was told.

something badly wrong with that. have you checked the balls?

back in the 90's we could use serious chemicals. Look at car paint also, my 16 year old M3's paint is better looking than my 15 month old M4.

Neil.

As a prospective AFMr buyer, this thread has been bringin' me down somewhat lately. Just sayin' (I realize how important this info is to share and I appreciate it as such).

How about a happy post or two to change things up though? Any AFMr buyers still overjoyed with their game and experience with Chicago Gaming?

This is not good and kind of depressing. I want a new game but i just cant pull the trigger on a 8k game and CGC not stand behind it if i get a bad one. I may just get a BM66, its a theme i love and i hear the game is getting to be pretty awesome right now with the code updates. At least i know Stern will stand behind their product if i have a problem. CGC was awesome when they first started making these games, they would come on here and talk to the people that bought their games etc but now they seem to have disappeared all of the sudden.