So you avoided the local distributor but then wanted their assistance when you had problems? If you are talking about Joystix, I have bought games from them in the past when new to hobby. When I bought my ST pro nib, they opened it up and let me play/inspect it before paying. I probably could of saved money buying from another distributor out of state but not worth the risk imo for the exact reason you described.

It sucks you had so many issues but you were not exactly clear what those issues were. It is very common for nib games to need adjustments or small fixes. If Stern had to pay for a tech to come out to every home to adjust switches, swap out bulbs, and dislodge stuck balls on new games they would go broke in weeks. Pinball is different than other industries where the expectation is games will need constant maintenance and end user will do that maintenance. If a game has serious problems like node board failures, Stern support is usually good over the phone to work things out.

So you think every distributor should have a fleet of techs that drive hours away to support any issue whether it's a stuck ball or broken rubber for pretty much any game regardless if they sold it or not? They would then bill Stern for hundreds of dollar and Stern would just pay it regardless? I'm not trying to defend Stern but you got to be realistic.

Pinball machines are not cars and distributors are not service centers. There is just no service industry for pinball machines and few legit pinball techs. Many people buy from out of state or far away distributors because there just isn't one close by. No tech is going to drive hours away in their own car and waste an entire day unless they are paid well. If you expect Stern to pay for all service calls around the world, expect to pay a whole lot more for a pin.

Thing is Stern is a manufacturer not a retailer. You do not typically buy your pins directly from then. That's the distributor's job. I would be bothered if Stern got hold of my contact info from someone else. Distributors should be taken care of their customers but it seems some do a much better job at that than others. I'm guessing some distributors focus on clients that buy a lot of games and not the ones that buy a game every now and then. That said, Stern should really reply to emails or tech questions. Doesn't take much to at least say "we will look into it" or some generic response.

Btw - I get annoyed with companies that feel they have to contact you every time you buy one of their products. I bought a guitar amp for my daughter last Christmas from this online store. They immediately started flooding me with emails asking how it's going, if needed lessons, if I like it, etc. They even started calling on my phone and leaving voice messages. There needs to be a checkbox when buying anything online for "leave me alone".

Well, you are still supporting Stern by putting money in location games and buying their games used. Just saying.

I think it's poor attacking nib buyers and calling them the problem. Let people make their own buying decisions. We are all adults and if you do zero research buying expensive items that's on you. Whether buying new used or not at all it's all decisions that should be made by individual on what is best for them.