Quoted from Esoteric_rt:

Latest update on production received earlier:
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Ladies & Gentlemen,
I am again writing to update you about our production plans. August was our largest month of production for a decade.
We plan to produce games or have in stock games as follows:
Available now in the USA
Star Trek Pro and Premium. Last call. Our license to manufacture is expiring.
Kiss all versions, but not many
WWE
TWD Premium
September in the USA
Ghostbusters Premium – fill many backorders
Spiderman VE – fill many backorders
TWD Pro – fill back orders, some more available
GOT Pro – fill most backorders
Whoa Nellie – fill backorders
October in the USA
Ghostbusters Pro – fill back orders, some more available
Ghostbusters Premium – fill most backorders
Spiderman VE – fill back orders, some available
Metallica Pro – fill back orders, some more available
Whoa Nellie – some available
November in the USA
Ghostbusters Premium – fill back orders, some more available
Metallica Premium Monsters – fill back orders, some available
GOT Pro and Premium - some available
Batman66 – LE’s and some Premium
Best regards
Gary
Gary Stern
President
Stern Pinball, Inc.

Quoted from Manimal:

My dad always said to believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.

Quoted from jeffspinballpalace:

Playfields have not been fixed, this according to Stern three weeks ago, and they haven't announced a resolution since. If you don't wish to gamble $6k / $8k /$10k / $12k / $15k on a new Stern with possible clearcoat issues, put your money away in the sock drawer and walk away until the end of 2016 to insure all ghosts have been busted.
I'd be more concerned about excessive bubbles occurring on some inserts, making them look crappy. That may have been a few bad batches of inserts or it may be still be a valid concern, but you don't want that, and Stern won't acknowledge it is even an issue. Anyways you asked for a status on Stern's manufacturing process and an opinion on buying a new one, and now you have one.

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.

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

Quoted from zr11990:

Really? Have you not been paying attention?

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.

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.

Quoted from ledge:

so one replaced playfield, (not actually inspected yet) and its buy with confidence?
its promising no doubt, long way to go though.

Quoted from 27dnast:

So, I'm curious... how many folks have gotten replacement playfields that have started ghosting?

Quoted from jar155:

HOW ABOUT ALL THOSE CRICKETS NOW?
Stern doesn't need an army of white knights. Stern doesn't deserve one.

Quoted from kpg:

Lawsuit for dimpled playfields? No one ever mentioned that.
Lawsuit for chipping and ghosting playfields? Yes.
Dimples are like suing a car manufacturer for normal wear and tear like worn tires and brakes. Ghosting and chipping would be like suing for shoddy paintwork that chips and fades prematurely, significantly damaging value due to premature failure due to manufacturing defect.
Another thing- there are attorneys who specialize in all areas of the law. Ice and Rob specialize in specific areas not pertinent to this case of the laws protecting consumers, and are likely very experienced and educated in whatever specific laws they deal with.
Look at Lemon Law attorneys.. could they give legal advice on a medical malpractice case? Maybe, but I would take it with a grain of salt.. and they would tell you the same.
I value Stern as a company anywhere from $40-50m, give or take a few million.
There's plenty of incentive for an attorney to take a case like this, as they will attach legal fees onto any suit filed. That's not even a question.
Consumers always get the short end of the stick, and some are fine with that and will come on here and defend the company they buy products from and that's fine. Maybe they haven't been affected and that's good for them. But for those who have been, I'm going to once again see that something is done and made right for us, and that these promises made by Stern actually come through.
As for anyone buying a NIB Stern, just know there has been no evidence they have fixed the playfield issue. Best of luck.

Quoted from oyvindmo:

We received a replacement playfield for GoT back in August, but the old one is still here in the box and we're waiting for instructions. First we were supposed to get a paid return shipping label, but now it seems we're going to provide "proof of destruction" instead. Might involve drilling at some specified places and returning some key parts. The details are still to be decided. In the meantime we have a great source of replacement parts, so there's that

Quoted from oyvindmo:

Shady on whose part, and how?

Quoted from flynnibus:

You're being overly sensitive here.
The guy is in norway.. return shipping will be expensive. So they are probably thinking destroying it vs paying to get it back is the better route. Stern just wouldn't want the PF being sold or circulated. They aren't really concerned about the owner getting an advantage of parts... they don't want the owner reselling the parts to avoid abuse and other customers from getting subpar stuff.

Quoted from YeOldPinPlayer:

I interpreted oyvindmo 's post to mean that Stern's original plan for replacement was the bad playfield be returned but now they are considering asking him to destroy it and provide proof of that destruction. If that's the case I would strip everything off the playfield and break it into pieces, keep all the spare parts that Stern doesn't want returned.

Quoted from oyvindmo:

The other guys' interpretation were indeed correct. English isn't my mother tongue, so I sometimes write things in a way which has a slightly wrong ring to it, so to speak. I sincerely apologize for making you look like an over-sensitive twat

Quoted from Pinballlew:

This is what is keeping me from buying right now.

Quoted from ledge:

yeah wheres KPG at ?.