Point I'm making is if anybody is expecting a public statement from Stern acknowledging this problem, I wouldn't hold my breath. It's not the way pinball manufacturing companies usually operate. Or any other commercial or industrial company.

I'm gonna relapse if I keep looking @ the new Odin avatar.

Wait... thats right before his boys flipped him to the feds right?

It's almost poetic. That avatar is an image of betrayed trust... in a thread about betrayed trust lol

It won't happen ever, because in the USAs litigious environment, it'll be 10 minutes before someone files a class action lawsuit and breaks the company.

They're quietly handling it on a case by case basis hoping like hell that not too many people complain. And the reality is, many customers aren't even going to notice a tiny bit of ghosting unless someone tells them to look for it.

And their traditional customer base (operators) don't care as long as the machine is taking in bucks on site.

rd

I bought a huo GoT pro built in February that had no ghosting issues. After playing the hell out of it for a few weeks the ghosting arrived. Sweeet.

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I see your point here, but times and circumstances have changed. They directly engage the public with social media now. They have "epic" parties and so forth. I don't see how they can expect to have it both ways.

Like this example. It should happen this way.

So I'm ranting here and that's not my goal. I'm a huge fan of Stern games. I'm also an advocate of good customer service and relations. I know they have the talent and ability to solve these problems and come off to the public as the dedicated professionals they really are.

You need to stop playing that GB at BK RD.
I was told its earning very well

I played it today. Put in my $2, got 3 free games.

Not a good earner when I'm there lol

Jeeeeeeesus that game makes me angry though. F**king drain fest!!!

rd

Where in your house do you have this game? Is it inside or in a garage?

Finished air conditioned basement

Of course they are going to use media as a sales tool. Just like other companies advertise on TV. But you rarely see one take out a full page ad when shit goes wrong.

Here's an idea. I'm not on facebook, but if somebody is, why don't you post some pictures of your cracked clearcoat on Stern's facebook page and ask them directly what they are doing to resolve this issue.

They delete those quickly.

And block the user.

Then there's your public statement.

I'm seeing more new people ordering for the first time. Sales are strong even gambling on the play field.

I am new and ordering a NIB (Premium) for the first time. I emailed my distributor a couple weeks ago asking if they had heard anything from Stern about the play fields and requested to be pushed to the end of the list until all the play field issues are resolved or cancel my order whichever worked best to avoid getting a pin with issues.

I still have not received a reply but I assume it's because they are waiting on an answer/reply from Stern.

I emailed Stern weeks ago asking what would happen if I bought a NIB Stern game with PF defects

They never replied

So keep waiting on that answer from Stern

And waiting

They're ignoring the inquiries

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Only a very small percentage of pinball buyers know about this issue, so to think Stern is going to be publicly vocal about, it in any way, is not logical. The last thing they want is more buyers complaining (or not buying) when they are currently not even aware there is an issue. Not saying they are just going to hope the problem goes away, but they are certainly not going to publicize the issue or fix

Best case scenario I see, is some communication to distributors about what they are going to do.

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I'm not waiting on Stern, I'm waiting on my distributor, and not a small distributor either, which I'd hope Stern would have some sort of communication with.

Why wait for an email reply? Why not call them?

Personally, if I email a distributor and they don't reply I'd probably not give them any of my money. If they won't reply to you now, what do you think they'll do when you fork over thousands of dollars in cash and then have a problem? I'm going to assume "not reply" once again...

Some things are best to get in writing.

Interesting, KPG only got personal attention after he started making T-shirts and thinking outside the box on this. So long as their exposure is Pinside, I doubt they really care......but as much as I don't want to agree with the tactic of making this more public, it seems to have been the answer in at least one case. KPG....still plan on wearing that shirt to the Expo? lol

If I haven't heard from them when they come calling for the balance and the issues have not been resolved then I'll have my answer and cancel. If the issues have been resolved when they come calling for the balance then I'll have the pin I want without the issues.

Just don't see it being necessary to raise a big stink or cancelling right now when it could be months before they call for the balance.

Not fascinating i call it:

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hahaha.. no I wasnt the one to make t-shirts, I actually stole my avatar from the guy who was going to make them and wear them at the expo. It was a damn good idea I have to admit!

It is interesting how many people don't know about the issue. I'm fairly new to pinball and some how just assumed if you owned multiple machines and were big on pin you trolled pinside. But a few places with a large number of pins I play at hadn't really heard of the problem. And one guy is fairly active in pinside!

Having been out of town for nearly two weeks, I took a quick peek at my GB LE. The ghosting spread. Fun times.

You may want to have this lady house sit for you next time you leave town.

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Strongly recommend you have the distributor open the box and plug it in first. No sense having them ship it to you if something's wrong from the factory. Ghosting may still happen after you have it but other things can come loose or be forgotten.

Thanks for the advice. I also ordered the shaker which I assume my distributor will be installing, as it was a separate fee, so I assume it will be looked over at that time but I'll definitely make sure.

I finally got around to looking at our games on location just to see what they looked like. I am not complaining about the ghosting just pointing it out. First is our Kiss Pro (900 plays), only has the lock insert ghosting. Second is our GoTLE (900 plays), middle inserts are not ghosting at all but have 2 of the battering ram inserts ghosted and clearcoat is cracked. But also today I had to set up a new Star Trek Premium for a customer (August build date) and first thing I noticed was playfield color differences from the Star Trek Pro and STLE that we have in the shop. These are in the exact same lighting so its not the camera making them look different. Can easily tell that it is a different playfield manufacturer (shooter lanes have different style wood grains also). Hope that these games dont have the same ghosting problems but only time will tell.

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Damn, the color on that ST is crazy different!

Hope Stern gets playfield production straightened out. I won't even consider buying until it is. A shame since GB is so much fun and Batman 66 sounds like it has potential.

What's odd is the one on the right the blue looks brighter with the top half faded. The one on the left looks reversed. The red/orange and yellow are brighter and the blue looks faded in the bottom.

That's what I thought. I would like to see shooter lane pics to see how different they are.

Not my game, but here are two more examples of clearcoat that I experienced. I was with an owner of a GOT premium and said owner didn't know about all this clearcoat issue. We started to examine the GOT premium. Now granted, I don't know the play count, or playfield build date, but still... (Bottom of out hole and behind drop bank)

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Stern's official PF fix has been released!

Adam West will autograph all chipped/ghosted areas.

Send money now!

Your defective PF is your invite!

Figures a switch went out tonight on my Rocket Vuk...I have to wonder if I didn't post this if it still would have stayed strong..lol...at least it was a easy fix.

I looked at their page last night. I did it with the perspective offered by Kristin on This Flippin Podcast. It's amazing to see the most recent posts and the lack of comments.

I would bet they do nothing or announce anything until after the expo. At this point, they don't want to create any controversy that might impact their party or show presence, so they are going to try very hard to keep everything simmering until their exposure is minimized. The do not want to be embarrassed in their own back yard. it is the only real leverage any of the consumers have outside of not buying their products any longer, and we all know there will always be someone standing in line.

My start button is ghosting...!!!..............Joey

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I wonder if that will cause problems at Expo. It would be embarrassing to have someone bring a playfield to Expo or ask loud questions about clearcoat problems. It's risky to wait till after Expo.

Actually this is precisely what someone should do. Easy enough to get a PF into the expo. Someone with an egregious amount of issues should pull their PF and bring it right to them.

And record it

Any news about "The Program" ?

Will a playfield protector protect from ghosting?

Unfortunately, no. It might add some life or minimize damage, but if clear is separating, the protector is not going to keep it from doing that.

https://www.facebook.com/PinballsandGames/posts/1099907930101360

Stern did live tour today on FB. If you have ever seen any of these you can comment while it's going on and it shows up at the bottom of the screen just like with twitch and other live things. While it was going on a guy asked if they addressed quality control issues yet. He obviously got no response but as soon as the live event was over his comment was missing immediately from the comment section.