Did Chaz advise which manufacturer is the culprit and if there is a way to identify if you have a potentially bad cab?

I wonder why that they didnt replace your playfield or cabinet or whatever it was that was wrong but they seem to stand behind everyone elses? Why is that, any ideas??

How do you know they stand behind everything? Maybe it is case by case and only the worst ones where they have no choice are reolaced. Maybe those with milder cracking or the beginnings of it may not get the same treatment.

I'm not pretending to know how they make decisions. However, I think questioning someone's personal experience because your own or your friemd's may have been different doesn't carry much weight..

I never questioned his personal experience, i simply asked him if he has any idea why they didnt fix his game? Just a simple question, not trying to debate him or anything like that.

I also have no way of knowing if they fix every single persons game that has a problem. I dont work there or know anyone who does but my guess is that they do not have 100 percent customer satisfaction, no company does that i am aware of.

I can tell you this much though, they definitely have a pretty good track record of making things right with their customers and i have seen playfields replaced that wasnt bad at all imo so kudos to Stern. I would probably suggest that you dont buy a new Stern because i just have this feeling that you are going to end up unhappy with your purchase no matter what. It also would just be dumb on your part to spend 6-8k on a product that you feel is of low quality. I would never do that in a million years.

Like I posted previously, I have no intention of buying anything nib from Stern anytime soon. That may change in a few years if they get tbeir QC issues straightened out.

It's never going to change.

Stern's QC is better than Williams or Bally ever was, but it's still just a piece of commercial vending equipment, not a Patek watch.

Spot on thank you !

Ok. Sorry I couldn’t reply sooner. I just got back from buying my new jet ski.

What did you get?

I have a Sea-Doo’s RXP-X 300hp with speed control bypass and HP prop.

Stupid fun.

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I imagine that stern is passing some of the cost to replace a cab to the MFg of said cab, if not all. Perhaps it gets down to which end ok'd the penny pinching.

Do you have any splitting of the seams on that Sea Doo yet?

I have to respectfully disagree...Stern is now building for the home market and the build is home-quality grade. That's not meant to be a negative statement, but they're certainly NOT building to commercial standards.

Has anyone actually read the stern warranty? It covers damn near nothing. I found out the hard way. My SW had playfield issues with raised inserts. Their solution? A unpopulated playfield. 4 months have gone by and I am still waiting on that PF they promised me. Sterns a joke, and anyone whos had an issue with them knows first hand. The rest of you are just speculating.

The rubber cowl lip tore out (someone at the factory screwed through the material, rather than through the eyelets). I had them send me the part rather than take it to the dealer and lose a week.

They also forgot a clamp on the fuel line, but I had a bunch of those.

Other than that, it's been great.

Sorry but i call bullshit! You just had your star wars for sale 2 months ago for 5200 dollars which is what you would have paid for the game new. Are you telling me that you were trying to sell a used game with raised inserts for new money??? There is also no speculation about stern taking care of people who have problems because they have sent lots of people new playfields and cabinets. Please show us some pictures of your raised inserts and maybe then i will believe you, but until you do that i dont.

I notice that SW is not in your current collection and you are still waiting for a playfield? I do not really understand.

That split looks small enough at the moment that I think you can get away without having to do any cabinet repairs. If you simply apply some pressure to press the split/gap shut when you screw the W/B brackets in I think you'll be okay.

If you wait you risk the split widening and requiring of repair.

Speaking from experience, I would not bother pressing the issue for a replacement cabinet unless it's split real bad because replacing a lower cabinet is A LOT of work. You will get a bare lower cabinet and have to disassemble the entire pin in order to transfer everything. This will take an entire day and is not recommended for a novice.

Regarding not hearing back from Stern, have you tried simply picking up the phone and calling Tech Support? Those guys are VERY helpful and great to deal with in my experience.

Installed my Williams leg brackets and some "L" brackets in the cab last night. Man that wood is soft. Also did my stern shop art blades (I hate that product name, but everyone calls them that) while the PF was out.

I wouldn't buy a new Stern machine without putting the brackets in. They're cheap and they bring some added peace of mind. The way things have been lately, maybe buying a secondhand game that has proven to hold up is your safest bet. If a game has issues when you inspect it that are beyond what you deem acceptable, keep looking. You can't inspect a new game, and if it has issues, you just have to hope that they're bad enough to warrant replacement. If they are minor (by Stern's standards), but major to your own, it's never going to stop bugging you.

When buying a used machine, check the cabinet edges, check the decals, check for ghosting, check for playfield art/clearcoat bubbling around posts, and look for clearcoat chipping. If you don't see these things in a well-played game, it's probably solid.

My Ghostbusters LE was a quality nightmare, but Stern did eventually make it right. But out of the box, it was literally unplayable due to things installed improperly. It must have been skipped over on the QC check, which I guess can happen. It took a few hours to get the game playable. I was confident enough to do that. The ghosting was addressed with a playfield swap.

The next time I buy a Stern, it will be secondhand, which is oddly the best bet for getting a nice machine.

A little late to the party...So the splitting is being caused by Stern's factory leg plates?

Splitting is because of crappier cabinets, but the more robust leg plates and some L brackets, spaced apart, help hold the cab together.

Just wanted to repeat that according to Stern a very small number of cabinets from one of their Cab MFG's (they have several suppliers according to Chas)had a problem, this issue does not effect all cabs.

Thanks for the explanation

Personal thought...since the Premium and LE have the same layout and gameplay, go with the Premium since the LE gets built first. The Premium should have all the gameplay bugs worked out by then.

Hell no. I bought a Yamaha. If I want QC and more mechanical headaches, I'd have bought a Sea-Doo.

Buying one of those new is kind of like buying a nib Stern pinball machine .

They are putting better brackets on the new games. My Batman 66 has a build date of July 11, 2018

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Keep it indoors. Your welcome.

Great to see !

Hoping this is on all new machines.

Can others confirm?

Yes, my IMDN Premium has them and was built on July 23rd.

my build date July 17th imdn pro has brackets as well.

My Maiden Pro was built in June and still had the baby brackets. I wonder if it's a pro/prem thing, or if they just started with the better brackets in July

Got it. Good on Stern for finally making the switch

Let's hope they stick with it on all machines going forward.

Yes, good on them for switching back to an old industry standard that they never should have strayed from in the first place. Let's all applaud.

Yea, now they'll raise their prices 200.00 more dollars for 10.00 in parts that they should've used in the 1st place.

No brackets in my IMDN LE. So they started putting them in at Star Wars (?) then stopped and in July started again.

Star Wars Premium and LE had the brackets due to the extra weight of the playfield. The magnets for the hyperdrive made the playfield very heavy. Try lifting that one and then a regular playfield, big difference.

Evidence that Dead Pool pro has the better support brackets in the cabs on the line...

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so for those who have had cab splitting did anyone repair it with the brackets and maybe wood glue on the inside seam? asking because my areosmith has now done it and I am not thinking stern will replace the cab so thinking I will fix it and make it more solid.

The only way it would split is if you nudge or push the thing around . Or you slide the whole machine around on the floor. The thing wont split by itself just sitting there!

Go fish!

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So basically don't touch the machine and it won't break. Noted.

LMAO

Well considering it will be on location I am sure it will be nudged, and possibly moved a few times. I had it in my game room, got played but with 28 pins in here, none of which have that style joint or have the split issue, got played very mildly and not all that often. I will say I am not sure when it happened, just that I noticed when I went to start tear down to move it.

what do you call that cab joint with the big square cut out?

Not sure but it probably includes synonyms for feces and cost reduction..

I call it a split down the side of a machine that I just took out of the box! Someone said the only way it splits is by moving it around well I call BS! My photo is proof of that.

Love the Quality Control stamp right next to the split

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