Some of you guys are killing me.
I would love to see your reaction if I tried to sell you a new car with a 4 inch crack in the rear window and pay the same price as the perfect car on the side of it.
No worries it's the rear window and you won't see it driving forward, right?
Maybe it will crack more with temperature change or vibration but hey it's gonna be a used car as soon as you leave the lot, right?

My money is a reflection of my labor. I put in 65-70 hrs a week dealing with all types on the highways.
I like getting my monies worth from whatever I buy.
This playfield...wether it's ok now or cracks open later, why risk it?

-Mike

You are right. I guess for some 5500 is nothing.

Black Knight Cracks of Rage.

does not look smooth to the touch to me, but I could be wrong. Looks like a crack.

I assumed that was covered with clear and smooth to the touch, which I think would be fine but if it's not I'd have a major problem with it. I hope you get a suitable resolution without too much hassle!

I got a bad MET playfield a few years ago. The artwork and clear was just falling off the playfield. It took some time, but Stern finally shipped out a fully populated playfield and I swapped it out. Then sold the game a couple months later. I would have taken a huge hit on value if Stern had not helped me out.

First I would go through Distro and see if you can get a new game and let him take care of getting the old game fixed. If that does not work then I would call Stern and get them to send you a populated playfield to swap. In the mean time, play the heck out of it.

This is where you get to see if your distro will be your distro in the future. LOL

Anything new?

More like: Black Knight: Rage of Cracks.

I would play the game and wait patiently for the distributor/Stern to take care of you. If you get taken care of, you got to put a ton of plays on that game before given a brand new one.

When I got a new playfield for one of my sterns they didn’t want me to play the damaged one too much, I was like huh? Sure.

Would a few drops of clear fill in that crack nicely?
Why not start there?
-mof

I guess be happy it is not this (yet)

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FA1F4A47-9A56-4DD5-A256-0AD9E7C0E846 (resized).jpeg

I have the same problem with my IMDN Pro, and Stern refused to do anything. I went back and forth between them and my distributor and jumped through all the hoops, but in the end it was decided by the powers that be that it was normal. What a bunch of BS.

This is NOT normal Stern! This is a major issue!

Sadly it seems to be happening since maiden. See it on maiden, Beatles, and now bk3000. Started around 300 plays I would guess.

Imagine that pf on the line sans apron.....and no one said whoa, wtf.... it has to be pretty f’n obvious with no apron. If it’s not cleared over and solid I would absolutely reject it. At a minimum it needs to have clear injected into the opening, sanded, polished. Otherwise moisture will get in between the layers. Compound that with the ball rolling over it and cracking the existing clear.

My maiden pro had them everywhere.

Did they replace it?

I didn’t do anything about it. They did replace my AC/DC vault premium that had a crack in clear coat though.
I saw these bumps around all posts on my maiden and my friend said his had them so I figured it was maybe the new norm. I sold my maiden after three months because I couldn’t stand flight of Icarus.

I think before you buy another nib game you may want to inspect it out of box first before accepting it. This may be my new norm. You inspect and test drive a car first right? These games are big bucks for most unless you’re above middle class and have disposable cash.

Agreed completely

More likely their supplier rebrands them for Stern. It wouldn't make sense for Stern to set up an LED factory just to make their own bulbs.

OP: Have you spoken to Stern about this directly? I would send photos to the support email and then call them to discuss.

[email protected]
800-KICKERS

Your supposed to go through distributor first. Just saying that’s what I was told.

I would give my distro a heads up on the issue and also contact Stern. I have had two playfields replaced this way.

Two? Jeesh.

Just to clarify, are you getting a populated playfield to swap or a blank playfield?

great to hear!

my question also

i have NEVER heard of that. In the past, they ship you a populated pf and you use the box it came in to ship your defective one back to them.

I wonder if they had issues with people not returning a pf?

They have been doing it this way for awhile (at least for home customers); it may be different for route machines but I wouldnt be suprised if they took your CC info to bill the replacement playfield if they dont get one back.

Either way, it's very good to see that Stern is starting to take quality control issues seriously.

i think its wild that it took 25 days for them to offer to replace it //shrug

Could be. My distributor told me that they are really holding back on replacing playfields, period, (like mine and the one that you pictured above with the same cc issues), because people are “abusing the system”.

I’m glad they at least took care of the OP on his issue, but it’s too bad that they don’t take care of everyone with crappy playfields.

Congrats!

I went through this on a GB. Just make sure you have an extra set of hands to help take it out and put it back in. I believe my pin was down for about a month while I waited for the new one. Not too bad of a wait considering what you're getting.

if they don't take care of their current customers then they will lose future sales.

With so many options on the table, then need to be consistent good communicators when these severe quality issues arise and take care of people immediately.

Small things are going to happen in pinball, but bubbling and cracking playfields is not acceptable.

darcangeloel when your PF is out I'll give you all the super value credits when we play on location. I know a spot up near you.

Glad they took care of you, but I expected it based on your specific situation. Yes, the standard practice is you ship your playfield back in the coffin they provide, then they ship the new one. Its usually same day turnaround.