Yeah buddy, just ordered a Golden Tee 2020, this is a great time to enhance the rest of our arcades while the pinball manufacturers check themselves.

Hey you're doing pretty good, I've been waiting five months with no reply at all. Guess I need to make another phone call tomorrow to my distributor.

A few weeks ago I picked up a cocktail table multicade and soon getting a stand up multicade. Pinball is the best, but these are fun also and a great time to enhance other arcade areas like you said.

I've been wondering if all the playfield issues could be attributed to an industry-wide change in clear-coating / paint chemicals? I know in a lot of other industries, such as automobiles and toys, they've had to change the chemicals they use in paints and sealers due to worker safety and environmental concerns. And in a lot of cases these newer, safer compounds take longer to dry or aren't as damage resistant.

Its one of the only explanations that I can think of to explain why a pinball machine from 1991 can have almost no playfield wear or damage, and a machine from 2019 that's only six months old can all ready have chipping or other signs of damage.

Stern did the same thing for my Iron Maiden when I reported the chipping through my distributor. I was quoted 4 to 8 weeks for delivery but I received my replacement within a week. New playfield looks great. The clear feels super hard so hopefully this one won’t have issues. Comes pre dimpleD and drilled with all Mylar already installed.

Good luck with your replacement.

FWIW my Wonka CE playfield looks great. They did not remove art under the posts or use washers, either.

Same here!

What were the issues with your original playfield? I have an iron maiden premium with horrible wrinkling and a Star Trek final voyage pro with bad pooling

Stern is still doing full populated playfield swaps, but the bar is really high....like 5 levels of approval to get one approved.

How long have you had your game?

If they send you an unpopulated playfield, that’s all you get. It’s up to you if you want to do the swap (at your time/expense), sell the playfield, keep it to sweeten the next sale, etc.

I was told I would be sent an unpopulated playfield Nov 1st for my Jurassic Park that had wear around the post direct from the factory. Still nothing from Stern.
I’m moving on from Stern and not dealing with this shit any longer. They clearly don’t want my business Or want to correct the situation and I’m sick of contacting my distributor to try and make it right. Keep your fucking playfield Stern!

I can’t imagine how frustrating that would be. Sorry man. Really. Fire sale it and go with a real pinball company.

I bought my first game in 2006. Back in the RGP days. So I've seen a lot. Not as much as some, but more than others.

This is the first time I've witnessed countless collectors with significant collections tell Stern to eat shit.

Edit: FML, cant spell lol

Eat shit, Sterk! ...feels so good to get that off my chest.

Somewhere there's a guy named Sterk reading this and feeling really bad.

Bahahaha, you guys can eat shit too (JK)

I have emailed them four times now (over the past two months) and have gotten NO response regarding my playfield.

I'm getting the impression that some people seem to be fine with getting a game that still obviously has a sticker/decal rather than a screenprinted pf as long as there's no problem around the posts ie they have now put a border around posts. It's still a sticker and will stuff up.... Just will take a bit longer.... when warranty is up.

I'm so sorry my friend. Just mind boggling bullshit.....

I just sent my second email today, after two months of crickets. Would emails every day do anything?

Good call and god damn Stern! Wake up. When long time and big time collectors like Tom are saying F your brand then you need to take notice.

Sad it has gotten so bad that even fervent long time collectors are packing it in.

I hear you brother! I cancel my JPLE - was tough decision. Then passed on Elvira. If enough people stop buying NIB Stern will start to listen.

Focus on quality Stern, then build your business. I watch people order the Munsters topper only to have 100% recall and shit on people. Then they resent out subpar quality again.

Pain in the wallet will get their attention!!!

I am a Stern fan, but at this point I am sitting on the sidelines.

I’m in on a CGC MM and inquiring about a R&M pin from Spooky. Stern who? Not even a consideration. They’re out of business as far as I’m concerned.

That’s bs. You should start emailing daily.

I bought a NIB Star Wars premium 2 years ago and the playfield is much better than recent titles, look like the wood is much softer than before.

Any time I've had a problem I CALL them. You'll get someone sympathetic like Chas and he'll ask for pics and that will get the ball rolling. Stern is an old-school kind of business. They figure if you are too unmotivated or timid to actually CALL then your emails will probably end up in the abyss like the other thousand or so they get every single day. They'll figure you should be bugging your "distributor".

They don't exactly have a huge staff dedicated to tracking customer problems so when you call and they hear a REAL person with an issue they are concerned about... you'll get the best results. It may not turn out the way you hope but you won't be ignored.

This isn't Amazon with a dedicated email staff. Just CALL them and be pleasant...because most are nice people that you'll get on the phone. When a machine is new they've sent me several different high priced parts (including a huge ramp and PF)... GRATIS.

Of course one time I also received a baby food jar (no joke) with some gold paint as a solution to my issue so the outcome will vary...lol.

But I've never been ignored.

And apparently this last business year Stern had their best ever year in terms of sales.

I guess complacency comes easily?

Lets see if that repeats itself...

Pooling around the posts but the biggest issue was paint chipping around several of the posts, with others starting to crack as well.

Since it was made (2018), original owner.

AFAIK they just send me a blank playfield that I have to swap out myself. It's not a populated playfield. It's not the ideal solution, obviously, if Stern were really concerned about customer satisfaction they would be swapping populated playfields ala Ghostbusters, but at this point, I feel like it's better than nothing.

Sounds promising.

I don't know why they are no longer answering emails. I have even called, leaving messages with no return phone call.

Call them during business hours. Usually someone answers. Don't leave voice mails or emails. As someone mentioned earlier, they are old school and are not super responsive with electronic communication.

Cuz they’re getting slammed with complaints. But according to them...”nothing to see here. No problems.”

Two JJP pins down and out at level 257.

CCBD2D7A-1DA9-461C-98FA-1874C83E9F8A (resized).jpeg

EC0CA520-8182-4324-99E0-3EFE63D4B697 (resized).jpeg

Stuck balls happen

whats your point? pins go down all the time

Exactly. Lol, our route had like 4 games from different manufacturers down in a single week all with various issues.

Stern dont care nor do distribuor. My GB pre as a issues with playfield chipping. Talked to stern and dis. Its been a year and nothing. Trash company and crooked dis.

Been waiting for a JP pro replacement pf since the first of October. Was told “it’s on backorder”

That is probably a good thing as you will get the newest version.

Hopefully, Stern actually ships the playfield.

and also, what does a game being off or a stuck ball have to do with playfield quality, like, at all?

I bought a Ghostbusters premium from my distributor a little over 2 years ago. It was plagued with ghosting. It took about 3 months working with my distributor and Stern to get a "new" populated playfield. They actually sent me a populated LE playfield with the signature and everything. Right then and there I should have refused and asked for another one. About 8 months ago I noticed that this playfield was ghosting even worse than the one I had before. I was done with it and just accepted it and moved on. I told my distributor about it and he said no that is not right and let's get you another one. It took about 2-3 months of emailing back and forth with Stern to get them to even budge. They then said they can send me another playfield but because GB is no longer on the line it will be an unpopulated playfield.... I was whatever on it and thought it's better than nothing. Well that was 2 months ago and I still haven't gotten it. I'm tired of bugging my distributor and Stern.

That's exactly what they are hoping for.

Stern can and will continue to put out an inferior product as long as people are there waving $$$ at them. From all accounts here, they simply DO NOT CARE. Most people here won't pick up the phone and call Stern to lodge a complaint. Stern seems to know this. They seem to have an attitude that they are the only game in town. They're not. Not anymore. It isn't 2007 anymore and with the other pinball providers coming of age (Spooky, JJP, CGC, et al) with some damn good titles and excellent QC, Stern finally has some serious competition. It may be too late for them, though as potential buyers are keeping their NIB purchases from Stern on hold.
Stern seems to be the classic "victim of their own success".

They arent the only game in town but they kind of are. JJP is too expensive for many people and they also have quality problems and they have proven that they dont give a shit about their customers.

Spooky, it will take you a year to get your game, IF you can even get one and their games arent as fun as Sterns games either.

CGC is the best company out there but they only make remakes. If they start making their own games and they are good, they could really hurt Stern big time..

Deeproot....we will see what happens there. They are big talkers and they plan on taking a nice piece of the pie from Stern but so far they are just all talk.

Stern could bury them all except CGC if they wasnt so stupid. All they have to do is up their quality and they smash the competition but for some reason they don't seem to care about doing that. Stern makes killer games but their quality and terrible customer service is definitely hurting them. I am personally afraid to buy anything from them right now and I'm also pissed about their customer service so I won't buy right now because of that either.

My sentiments exactly. I was going to buy a JP for my wife (she's a FREAK for anything about that film!) but thanks to Stern's attitude towards their customers who needed support, no thanks. I'm done with anything Stern puts out.

I ordered my ACNC at beginning of August and got it last week. That's 5 months. Early adopters are going to have a longer wait. And I love it just as much as Munsters. With the way the code is progressing, maybe a little more...