(Topic ID: 161795)

Hey Stern! Are you serious?

By mayuh

7 years ago


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There are 6,561 posts in this topic. You are on page 97 of 132.
#4801 7 years ago
Quoted from Travish:

No, there have several who said they "talked to stern" and said they would be taken care of but no one has actually received a replacement yet.

Playfield swap program starts in January. See, even Stern is waiting until end of year to see if the problems are fixed I suggest putting your new Stern money into a lockbox and reopening it after January 1. Found a link to Gary speaking publically at Expo about playfield ghosting at 7 min mark.

#4802 7 years ago
Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:

Playfield swap program starts in January.

In the video he says that they will start exchanging PFs "later this month and it will go on probably through January". So, looking at my calendar, that means "now".

#4803 7 years ago

At least the ones getting a replacement can beat the heck out of what they have now until Jan.

15
#4804 7 years ago

Wow

"It's not that bad"
"Game operators never cared about it before"

Yes it IS that bad

And you aren't selling BDKVE66' to operators...nor the majority of your LE's. So maybe it's time you start caring more about quality. His dismissveness is actually kinda sad. Talk about a complete disconnection.

37
#4805 7 years ago

so via Martin at Pinball News he posted a picture that I thought was interesting. Churchill are indeed now making play fields for stern again, when they are assembled into machines who knows but apparently Stern used a company called Fun and thats when the problems started. Here is a picture Martin took at Churchill with a well known play field Lets hope this is the beginning of the end of this shit.

So we know there are atleast two suppliers now.

14680759_10154069107439366_7518549163844422842_n (resized).jpg14680759_10154069107439366_7518549163844422842_n (resized).jpg

#4806 7 years ago
Quoted from NeilMcRae:

so via Martin at Pinball News he posted a picture that I thought was interesting. Churchill are indeed now making play fields for stern again, when they are assembled into machines who knows but apparently Stern used a company called Fun and thats when the problems started. Here is a picture Martin took at Churchill with a well known play field Lets hope this is the beginning of the end of this shit.
So we know there are atleast two suppliers now.

Thanks for sharing!

#4807 7 years ago
Quoted from extendo:

There are 4782 posts and 96 pages. Has anyone on this thread had a playfield replaced?

dont worry
as soon as it will happend, the world will know it in less than 5 minutes, tanx to pinside

#4808 7 years ago
Quoted from NeilMcRae:

so via Martin at Pinball News he posted a picture that I thought was interesting. Churchill are indeed now making play fields for stern again, when they are assembled into machines who knows but apparently Stern used a company called Fun and thats when the problems started. Here is a picture Martin took at Churchill with a well known play field Lets hope this is the beginning of the end of this shit.
So we know there are atleast two suppliers now.

How can this be, Gary said himself NOTHING changed in the process several times. Weird...

#4809 7 years ago

so i get mine next week, does this me i get the churchill playfield? Things got me nervous but i am also convinced these issues are a small percentage of production. My disti said its about 1 in 50 that they get a call in about the new playfield and i trust what they say.

#4810 7 years ago

Maybe Churchill made Ghostbusters playfield from the beginning and these are the ones that are holding up in the machines and owners are happy with.

#4811 7 years ago
Quoted from NeilMcRae:

so via Martin at Pinball News he posted a picture that I thought was interesting. Churchill are indeed now making play fields for stern again, when they are assembled into machines who knows but apparently Stern used a company called Fun and thats when the problems started. Here is a picture Martin took at Churchill with a well known play field Lets hope this is the beginning of the end of this shit.
So we know there are atleast two suppliers now.

Thanks for posting, I think I am going to hold off on getting a game until the "Fun" brand PFs are gone and all are Churchills again, but that means waiting for current stock to run out and my dist getting a "fresh" order. It may have been discussed before, but does anyone know how to distinguish a Churchill PF from a Fun one, other than the obvious ghosting and chipped clear

#4812 7 years ago
Quoted from NeilMcRae:

so via Martin at Pinball News he posted a picture that I thought was interesting. Churchill are indeed now making play fields for stern again, when they are assembled into machines who knows but apparently Stern used a company called Fun and thats when the problems started. Here is a picture Martin took at Churchill with a well known play field Lets hope this is the beginning of the end of this shit.
So we know there are atleast two suppliers now.

He must of been allowed in the Churchill factory

Its sad that Stern refused to communicate this news themselves. Obviously they knew before Expo and yet still said nothing...

-6
#4813 7 years ago
Quoted from pindude80:

Thanks for posting, I think I am going to hold off on getting a game until the "Fun" brand PFs are gone and all are Churchills again, but that means waiting for current stock to run out and my dist getting a "fresh" order. It may have been discussed before, but does anyone know how to distinguish a Churchill PF from a Fun one, other than the obvious ghosting and chipped clear

all the machines are made to order. The only 'stock' would be at the stern factory and I doubt they would knowingly use bad playfields.

#4814 7 years ago
Quoted from Bing_Party:

so i get mine next week, does this me i get the churchill playfield? Things got me nervous but i am also convinced these issues are a small percentage of production. My disti said its about 1 in 50 that they get a call in about the new playfield and i trust what they say.

They're likely to exhaust existing supply of 'Fun' pfs, and there's also no information yet that Stern will return to using Churchill exclusively.

I would wait. There's absolutely no reason not to.

10
#4815 7 years ago
Quoted from nowakster:

I doubt they would knowingly use bad playfields.

They've been doing exactly that for pretty much 9 months, since the first wave of badly effected SMVEs shipped.

#4816 7 years ago
Quoted from nowakster:

all the machines are made to order. The only 'stock' would be at the stern factory and I doubt they would knowingly use bad playfields.

My dealer has a couple in his warehouse. So he has some and who knows what stock Stern has. As far as them not knowingly using bad PFs, as others have said they have been doing just that for a while now, we would have HOPED they didn't, but they obviously have. This is not a new issue, they have known of it, if they wouldn't have knowingly used bad PFs they would have halted production on all new games, which would have been the right thing to do, but we know Stern obviously didn't do that.

#4817 7 years ago

We should flood Sterns Facebook page

#4818 7 years ago
Quoted from nowakster:

all the machines are made to order. The only 'stock' would be at the stern factory and I doubt they would knowingly use bad playfields.

Really? Have you not been paying attention?

#4819 7 years ago
Quoted from Biv:

Maybe Churchill made Ghostbusters playfield from the beginning and these are the ones that are holding up in the machines and owners are happy with.

I think thats a distinct possibility.

#4820 7 years ago
Quoted from PanzerFreak:

He must of been allowed in the Churchill factory
Its sad that Stern refused to communicate this news themselves. Obviously they knew before Expo and yet still said nothing...

yeah but to be fair they are probably trying to manage some sort of re-compense from the manufacturer thats cocked this up...

-3
#4821 7 years ago
Quoted from zr11990:

Really? Have you not been paying attention?

I can't find a distributor who actually has them in stock. Can you point me to at least 5 that do?

#4822 7 years ago
Quoted from pindude80:

My dealer has a couple in his warehouse. So he has some and who knows what stock Stern has. As far as them not knowingly using bad PFs, as others have said they have been doing just that for a while now, we would have HOPED they didn't, but they obviously have. This is not a new issue, they have known of it, if they wouldn't have knowingly used bad PFs they would have halted production on all new games, which would have been the right thing to do, but we know Stern obviously didn't do that.

I have my suspicion that they slowed ghostbusters production significantly. The random updates from Stern that a distributor posts implied that all orders would have been filled by October and the latest update suggests November is when the orders will be filled. That sounds like a significant slowdown to me.

I was unaware that your distributor had stock. My statement was about premiums being made to order. I saw other folks talking about the machines being made to order. Some distributors risk purchasing a bunch and try to sell those. I haven't been able to find more than 4 that do that. So, that's where I was coming from.

33
#4823 7 years ago

Stern will use the shit PFs and worry about replacing the ones that actually go bad later. They will cross their fingers and hope that it doesn't ghost enough for them to have to replace it. They only do what they HAVE to do. Stern is not your friend and they do not care about you or pinball. They care about making money. Do not think for a second they wouldn't pass a turd off on you and hope you wouldn't smell it.

#4824 7 years ago
Quoted from NeilMcRae:

yeah but to be fair they are probably trying to manage some sort of re-compense from the manufacturer thats cocked this up...

I'm pretty sure they got exactly what they paid for ...

#4825 7 years ago
Quoted from pindude80:

Thanks for posting, I think I am going to hold off on getting a game until the "Fun" brand PFs are gone and all are Churchills again, but that means waiting for current stock to run out and my dist getting a "fresh" order. It may have been discussed before, but does anyone know how to distinguish a Churchill PF from a Fun one, other than the obvious ghosting and chipped clear

I believe that you can see it in the color. If the overalls are greenish it is a good playfield, if they are more brown/beige, they are the bad ones. I have compared two GBLE's next to eachother and the difference was very clear. But this is only comparing one machine to one other, cannot speak for every playfield out there. Also the colors of the bad playfield looked more washed out.

I could not see any clear marks on the sides of the playfields which identify them.. Maybe someone has more info but this is what I know.

#4826 7 years ago
Quoted from zr11990:

Stern will use the shit PFs and worry about replacing the ones that actually go bad later. They will cross their fingers and hope that it doesn't ghost enough for them to have to replace it. They only do what they HAVE to do. Stern is not your friend and they do not care about you or pinball. They care about making money. Do not think for a second they wouldn't pass a turd off on you and hope you wouldn't smell it.

I completely agree with this. They will use all the bad playfields up and hope for the best. Either that some won't ghost or some will go to a person or operator who won't bother to complain and will accept minor issues.

Shitty thing to do but I guess the most cost effective decision for the business.

#4827 7 years ago
Quoted from zr11990:

Stern will use the shit PFs and worry about replacing the ones that actually go bad later. They will cross their fingers and hope that it doesn't ghost enough for them to have to replace it. They only do what they HAVE to do. Stern is not your friend and they do not care about you or pinball. They care about making money. Do not think for a second they wouldn't pass a turd off on you and hope you wouldn't smell it.

Unless there was a health or safety risk, this is what most businesses would do. A risk analysis would be done that weighs cost to trash all the playfields from the suspect vendor still in inventory against the cost to replace a calculated percentage of bad playfields with new playfields.

The percentage would be based on number of direct complaints from buyers that received their games already.

They then apply that percentage against bad playfields still in inventory to determine if it makes sense to use them up.

Hell...even if there were a safety risk companies elect to do this analysis.

#4828 7 years ago
Quoted from zr11990:

Stern will use the shit PFs and worry about replacing the ones that actually go bad later. They will cross their fingers and hope that it doesn't ghost enough for them to have to replace it. They only do what they HAVE to do. Stern is not your friend and they do not care about you or pinball. They care about making money. Do not think for a second they wouldn't pass a turd off on you and hope you wouldn't smell it.

This is probably the most honest assessment I have seen. I think you're right.

#4829 7 years ago

Frankly...the other end of the spectrum is the Jpop debacle were nothing ever happens because the principal cannot stop tinkering, making improvements, or even begin to execute against a business plan.

#4830 7 years ago

There's a big problem with this mess...

How in the world will NIB buyers know which version of a playfield they are getting: Churchill or FUN?

Say you buy a GB Pro next March... what guarantee do you have that the game will ship with a Churchill installed? Based on the fact that Stern has continued manufacturing even though they knew (and we knew) there were problems... what guarantee does a buyer have that Stern isn't stock piling NIB games right now that won't be sold 4 or 5 months down the road?

This whole thing just sucks for those of us that like to buy NIB, simply because Stern hasn't been transparent over an issue that they easily could have used to gain trust and approval over.

#4831 7 years ago

look for green overalls. Besides, if it hasn't ghosted or chipped after a few months it probably wont.

#4832 7 years ago
Quoted from ronaldvg:

I believe that you can see it in the color. If the overalls are greenish it is a good playfield, if they are more brown/beige, they are the bad ones. I have compared two GBLE's next to eachother and the difference was very clear. But this is only comparing one machine to one other, cannot speak for every playfield out there. Also the colors of the bad playfield looked more washed out.
I could not see any clear marks on the sides of the playfields which identify them.. Maybe someone has more info but this is what I know.

Thanks for the reply, that is good info to know, as you said might not be conclusive, but gives me something to go off of. I was hoping there would be a name or some code on one to identify, but doesn't sound that way.

#4833 7 years ago
Quoted from nowakster:

all the machines are made to order. The only 'stock' would be at the stern factory and I doubt they would knowingly use bad playfields.

stern does not keep games in stock, they make them fill a truck and move them. They do not want to be a warehouse for completed games, that's bad business.

#4834 7 years ago

All of these problems have been Fun!

#4835 7 years ago

There was a time I thought, the pinball manufacturer are our best friends.

After this mess I bury my imagination.

#4836 7 years ago

How many of the currently produced games are affected by the sub standard playfields? I've seen posts about GOT SMVE and GB.
Are the latest MET also having problems?

#4837 7 years ago
Quoted from nowakster:

all the machines are made to order. The only 'stock' would be at the stern factory and I doubt they would knowingly use bad playfields.

They've been knowingly using stock for 6+months now.

Big involved elements like the PF are made in batches... the batches are large to drive down costs. Those batches are often made long before the actual assembly of a game. The outcome is inventory from that batch you can use or reject. Stern has been supposedly more selective, but the PFs are a lead time item.

#4838 7 years ago
Quoted from volcanodiver:

stern does not keep games in stock, they make them fill a truck and move them. They do not want to be a warehouse for completed games, that's bad business.

No, that's called a 'distributor'

#4839 7 years ago

I just saw a FB post where Lyman and George were atuographing BM66 playfields "before hardcoating". Maybe this is the problem: Hardcoating separating from clearcoat..
https://www.facebook.com/sternpinball/photos/a.386178974243.167508.136972659243/10154642446374244/?type=3

#4840 7 years ago
Quoted from ronaldvg:

I believe that you can see it in the color. If the overalls are greenish it is a good playfield, if they are more brown/beige, they are the bad ones. I have compared two GBLE's next to eachother and the difference was very clear. But this is only comparing one machine to one other, cannot speak for every playfield out there. Also the colors of the bad playfield looked more washed out.
I could not see any clear marks on the sides of the playfields which identify them.. Maybe someone has more info but this is what I know.

There are some really bad printing errors, so it could be variance within batches from the same manufacturer. Unless one has Churchill's markings on it, and the other no identifying marks, I wouldn't take that to mean different OEMs or that one is Churchill.

#4841 7 years ago
Quoted from Hijacked:

How many of the currently produced games are affected by the sub standard playfields? I've seen posts about GOT SMVE and GB.
Are the latest MET also having problems?

Yes

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#4842 7 years ago
Quoted from flynnibus:

No, that's called a 'distributor'

exactly.

#4843 7 years ago
Quoted from SadSack:

I just saw a FB post where Lyman and George were atuographing BM66 playfields "before hardcoating". Maybe this is the problem: Hardcoating separating from clearcoat..
https://www.facebook.com/sternpinball/photos/a.386178974243.167508.136972659243/10154642446374244/?type=3

no, that is the clear.

#4844 7 years ago
#4845 7 years ago

Is it verified Stern switched manufacturers? I heard they've always used Churchill and the problems occurred when Churchill veterans quit. They took their secrets with them. Stern is planning to make all PFs in house but that project has been delayed. The whole thing is a mess and the main reason I avoided GB like the plague.

#4846 7 years ago
Quoted from MinusWorlds:

You must have missed it, chambahz said there are no issues after Sept 1st, Sep 3rd, Sept 8th, mid-September , never mind.

That's some funny shit right there!

#4847 7 years ago
Quoted from Farhan:

Is it verified Stern switched manufacturers? I heard they've always used Churchill and the problems occurred when Churchill veterans quit. They took their secrets with them. Stern is planning to make all PFs in house but that project has been delayed. The whole thing is a mess and the main reason I avoided GB like the plague.

Nothing has been verified yet, but rumor has it that Gary has been spending a lot of time in front of a mirror practicing Frank Drebin quotes.

#4848 7 years ago
Quoted from Hijacked:

How many of the currently produced games are affected by the sub standard playfields? I've seen posts about GOT SMVE and GB.
Are the latest MET also having problems?

My MET Pro is effected. Clear coat peeling and at least 2 ghosting inserts.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/metallica-owners-thread?tu=zene10#postbox

#4849 7 years ago

So basically the only person making playfields that are worth a damn right now is Mirco?

#4850 7 years ago
Quoted from Drenden:

So basically the only person making playfields that are worth a damn right now is Mirco?

The playfield on my FTh LE that arrived today is beautiful.

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