Ok, so if I see the clear "pooling up" near the post do I contact Stern or wait until it chips off?

Nice! Keep an eye on the post in front of the upper flipper. If yours has not been modified, you may want to loctite it. My neighbors would not stay tight at all, and it wound up stripping out entirely. He is also waiting on a populated swap to be delivered (due to other defects).

Wow I forgot about that upper post.

Does the big washer indicate newer or older build date?

Newer build dates will have the artwork pulled back from the sling posts...you will see bare wood in the circles printed on the PF instead of art all the way through. The washers were applied to games the first couple weeks they made them, when the pooling was first reported on the first released games.

Ok sounds good, I'll look for that. What does stern do if you start to see pooling on the posts or dimpling on the PF?

Depends on how bad it is. They will probably do nothing for pooling alone. Once the clear cracks, you may be able to get a new bare playfield. If the damage is extensive, you may be able to get a full PF swap if you meet their criteria, while standing on one foot, with your left eye closed, and flossing your teeth with the other foot. That is about how simple the latter process is It has been several months of waiting so far since the initial commitment from Stern.

They say, go F yourself lol.

Just kidding

Update on my IMDNLE: I'm going to recieve an unpopulated pf, who knows when. I'm decently satisfied as I'm definitely out of warranty, even if I see it as a defective product issue. Populated would be the best solution, but unpopulated is far better than the crickets I recieved for quite some time. I went straight to Stern, skipping the distro middle-man headaches. Had to send many emails, but Pablo helped move the situation forward.

Buy used IMO.

What do I do with the upperpost, apply some locktite?

Same issue I have been having. They (Stern) has done nothing for me and it has been months! JJ has still not even returned my phone calls.

Newer builds have a lock nut underneath, older games just have a t-nut you screw the post into, which takes all of about a couple days to work itself loose from shots to it. If you have the t-nut build of the game, contact Stern and they will send you out a service kit which has a new post and lock nut. You have to completely remove the upper flipper to install it.

Read Lesmanley’s post above he knows exactly what is the solution.

Just make sure you keep a constant eye on that post at the upper flipper.

All of this is crazy and seemingly exclusive to Pinball.
What are these distributors good for in the end?

At this point, why buy NIB unless you are an operator or $$$. Even if you want the super duper limited 'Whatever' at least a few will be for sale aoon after launch. See how the pin turns out first.

When is everyone going to agree the games coming out of production are safe to buy again

Agreed, but sometimes I still take the dive. Picked up JP2 Premium NIB and it worked out great...PF was perfect and trex worked great. Still needed some dialing in, but overall very happy with the build quality (11/22/19). It's a stunning game and was worth the risk. From my perspective, the best game Stern has produced in a very long time! I liked IMDN (Keith Elwin's first Stern game), but JP2 is in a different league. Definitely looking forward to Keith's next effort...hope Stern continues to give him the resources to thrive.

Never, at least with Stern. Its one issue after another. Playfields, cabinets splitting, coils... Id wait and see, as issues crop up fairly quickly it seems.

If you consider pinball's coinop roots, it all makes sense. The entire culture isn't consumer friendly. The business wasn't/isn't setup or optimized for dealing with the flourishing collector community. Arcades employ tech folk to keep everything up and running. Now, we are the "tech folk". Without Pinside, it would be very hard to deal. When I call Stern/JJP tech support, they are often unaware of issues we discover & solve here!

I got a Wonka CE in December and it’s fine. No pooling at all that I’ve found. I believe Jack when he says the problem is fixed.

I received my replacement playfield for Wonka yesterday. (Because the box is pretty large, my kids and I were reminded of the scene from Christmas Story where the dad receives his 'special award') The playfield was made by Mirco, and it arrived in perfect condition.

Also worth noting, I believe I followed a pretty standard process for opening a case here. After noticing the issue, I contacted my dealer and opened a case with JJP. Jack reached out to me as he has with others. When we spoke, he let me know that JJP would be sending me a new playfield, which he and his team followed through on.

For me the unpopulated playfield is acceptable - in my case there is no hurry to replace the PF. I have 'ironed' the playfield (thanks @yelobird), added mylar rings (thanks @vireland) and installed silicone washers under the affected posts, and all is holding up really well. I think I would enjoy the challenge of installing the replacement pf, granted I'm a noob so I won't take this on lightly. (Anyone know of a good a how-to guide for swapping a playfield?)

Overall I have been quite happy with JJP's support on this issue as well as other minor issues I have reached out to them about.

I believe Jack also when he says I wont stand behind what I sell and you're screwed! Just sayin

I started a thread today about that.

Good to know someone, somewhere is getting a free playfield from JJP.

I thought Jack was sending all POTC owners who had problems a unpopulated playfield?

He’s just stated as I did the newer Wonka’s are good without playfield issues.

Supposedly yes but I don't think anyones gotten one yet...

Jeff

It would be interesting to know how many games were sold that had the bad clear. I would say thousands on Sterns case for sure.

Get HEP to clear it before you install it. May be worth it.

How many layers is the ply?

Is is different from the one that’s installed?

The game they sold me - every post contacting the playfield was finger tight at best some loose and of course the washers under the starposts, so obviously they knew about the playfield issues.

Still pretty much every post on the playfield has pooling around it, and the lane guides that contact the playfield have big blobs of clear pushed up. And I have contacted them and they said unless it gets worse (actually chips) they wont do anything.

So the future premature wearing of the playfield and loss in resale is apparently my responsibility not theirs for shipping me a defective product.

That is awful. I really can't see why anyone would risk a NIB purchase from them.

That sucks so bad. I know I would be literally hoping it starts to chip and fall apart sooner rather than later. What is Stern thinking, I can’t imagine a worse customer experience.

Not sure who is getting a populated play field I was told by stern they don't issue populated play fields.

I received a populated playfield for my GBLE...Installed it in Oct. 2017. Has yet to have a ball played on it.

All I know is that Jack called some people and told them he would be sending them one. He didn't call everyone, JJP announced nothing and several of us, at least, spent $550 to get one when that was our only option. I didn't get a call or a refund, contacted Jack and didn't get a response back. I don't believe he likes me much at this point.

-edit, maybe something was said on their private google group, I was never able to get access so I don't know

Sending out I unpopulated playfield is ridiculous I doubt most average collectors can do a swap in a reasonable amount of time .

If you car had aN external
defect would you swap the engine ?

Heck a CE is more then half the cost of a lower end car .

I agree but also think it's the best compromise. It's not ideal for either party. Stern can probably absorb it but I am guessing other manufacturers can't and I don't think anyone here wants people going out of business over this. Ideally, a local pinball pro could swap playfields for you and it would all be paid for by the manufacturer. I just don't see that ever happening, there is no reason for them to do it. I doubt any of them have seen any decline in sales from this situation, do whatever costs the least to make it go away.

Assuming there is someone nearby who swaps playfields routinely, how long do you think said person would need to do this - 16 hours ?

Depends on game and if new playfield has t nuts installed. New pins are much easier to swap than 90s pins due to all the lighting being on boards and plug And play. Also most/all coils are on plugs so not much soldering compared to older pins. Everything is new so litterly everything just needs swapped over from one to another. Still some work but nothing like it is on older pins.

Depends on how clean and extensive they are. Drilling out the clear from holes, counter sinking, etc. I'd wager someone could swap playfields in these games in a day if they were good and had the tools.

Actually, kind of not kidding in most cases

Just picked up a new maiden yesterday and day 1 had quarter inch piece of clear and art chip off by the newton ball...on top of that lower left flipper is sticking up :/ will be calling Stern monday.

Man that sucks!

I just saw the new Elvira near me, cough cough gag, the finish looked just fine, if you are blind and wearing a welding mask. No problems at all.

not to add insult to injury but just curious why you would buy a nib machine like that from stern knowing the current ongoing, unacknowledged issues?

100% of nib sterns, currently have massive dimpling/cratering issues at the very least.

stop buying them for home play. location play, i understand why operators want them they make money anyway. but home buyers i dont care if you're a multi-millionaire. only way to really make this stop is hit them where it really hurts, sales.

hell, buy a secondary market one dimpled to hell for 1500$ off in a few months, you know they're coming.

Where exactly do you get your facts?