St Louis, MO
Quoted from Ulfast:» YouTube video
I found this video on Youtube lol ...
LMFAO fantastic, let me know when this hits Stern's Official Facebook page
(Topic ID: 161795)
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Game of Thrones (LE)
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Ghostbusters (LE)
Stern, 2016
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Ghostbusters (Premium)
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1 week later
Quoted from iceman44:I'm sure Stern is reading this post and many others like it.
It has to be horrifying to them.
AGREED.
1 week later
Forget the Fix my playfield expo shirts, we should just fight to fix the source problem, the lack of manufactor warranty. Stern should provide a written 1 year bumper to bumper parts warranty and 1 year tech support. It would be a start.
As someone that is fully paid on a GB premium, that is an Expo shirt I can wear!
Quoted from JonH123:I didn't realize Stern's warranty was so vague and doesn't cover much of anything. I may never buy NIB again unless their warranty includes more.
Agreed, it is a new realization for me too. That is the root of the problem and really should be fixed before worrying about code update angry mobs, decal angry mobs, PF angry mobs, etc. Flood Stern with Warranty messages! as every year it seems to be a new issue.
Quoted from flynnibus:While the actual warranty terms are weak... Stern has a pretty good reputation for helping customers with replacement boards and parts outside their actual window.
I 100% agree, I called Stern support last year about my HULK LE and they sent me some parts for free, so that's impressive. But, the problem with nothing in writing is all the run around when Stern decides they don't care, then someone like KPG is stuck with no real recourse and that is not right. We need to force Stern to put a stronger warranty in writing.
Quoted from Manic:I'm sorry - I thought you had an LE? This whole thing is getting confusing... actually do you have a company stamp on the edge of your PF? Like "Churchill" ?
I'm interested in who is actually making these things... you wouldn't think it would be such a well-guarded secret.
Agreed, I can't believe this is hard to figure out, I mean nobody knows who is making the playfields!?!
Hey Jerry,
Still waiting to confirm you'll ship a pro to my door for $5,000 with 1 year warranty.
Paying retail Stern MSRP or higher in pinball is dumb, glad you found some suckers to pay it, good for you. In STL we have Amini's the pricing is insane as I am sure your's is.
Quoted from ledge:so Trent wont be offering a full refund anytime soon ? Did you actually ask him if you can return it ?
defective goods... you have a consumer right to a full refund from place of purchase. have i missed something here?
Trent is a GREAT seller, I bought my first game from him and he setup in my house and showed me how it works. I had a few issues and he sent someone out no problem, and that person became a friend. I am sure Trent is doing his best, within his Stern agreement. I wouldn't pay attention to PinballAlley's BS about having replacement LE play fields in stock or being able to ship it opened back to Stern no problems.
Quoted from kpg:I did ask Trent if I could return it.
He basically deferred it to John Buscaglia at Stern and said to talk to him as he is the one who could authorize a playfield replacement or machine return.
You guys can take that information as you want when deciding which distributor to do business with. I guess I'm handling it with Stern from this point on..
Again, I consider that to be a Stern problem not a Trent problem. Stern should accept the return machine, I wouldn't expect Trent to take a lose like that and I don't think ANY distributor would be any different.
STERN needs to stand behind their workmanship.
Quoted from PinballAlley:Go to my website and see my customer reviews. It's just too bad you haven't been able to find good customer service. I never said we keep LE playfields in stock. Go reread my post. I stated we try to keep essential parts in stock. I would give the customer a refund or the choice of another game or to stick it out and try to make the current situation work. To be honest you seem to be a troll. Trying to inflame the people on here. The reality is Stern sells many pinballs that have been perfect. I have not had a "ghost" unit yet. I have had issues with a different manufacturer and issued full refunds. We don't just do this for pinball. We do it for all the lines we carry, dart board, juke boxes, pool tables etc. Sorry reputable business is a foreign idea to you. Stern does have responsibility here. They are never going to deal with people individually they are going to deal through distribution. I have been doing this a long time. It is via the dealer that it will get resolved.
-j
Jerry, you yourself said you sell 25-30 NIB pins a YEAR, compare that to Trent, Cointaker, Gio, JJ, etc sales. Give us a break will ya, you have a very small pool to pull from to consider you are getting "Perfect" machines.
2 months later
1 month later
Quoted from 85vett:Not to throw wood on the fire but maybe if the QC guy actually was using his light table he would find more issues. Couldn't believe when they walked up to him inspecting a PF and then Jody asked him to turn it on he had to go and plug it in. I would have been so embarrassed if I was Jody but he played it off well. Bet he wasn't super thrilled when that happened on camera.
11:50 on this - » YouTube video
Wow! As someone with manufacturing experience in a factory what that showed for sure is that little table is only powered on when an obvious flaw can be seen without it on, so Stern's QC is a joke... Every playfield inspected, every game playtested it just doesn't happen.
Between the QC, the code, the pile of mods needed to protect GB, man is GB a cluster f**k.
Quoted from ExtremePinball:Don't forget to mention the ghosting of the playfields. Turns out both my pro & my LE are ghosting and getting worse with each day.
Considering your pinball investment and as an operator, how has Stern responded, did Gary give you a call I hope? Maybe you can find out what is up between FUN and Churchill playfields
Quoted from OLDPINGUY:Mine is held at the correct angle by Zip ties!
This seems to be a game best played on location, no headaches to deal with
Well I just gave up. I put a deposit on my GBLE last December, then sold it before receiving it when the PF issues starting appearing, down graded to a fully paid premium, and now months later I give up and just emailed for a refund. I just don't have the free time and patience I think to mess around with a GB. Even on location over the weekend on a Pro, slimmer was not registering hits. Great game, but too many flaws...
This was a dream Theme. Stern you suck
1 week later
Got my GBPREM refund check for $6700 in the mail today. Unless Stern releases Tron VE at CES, or Pulp Fiction, guess I have some extra money in the bank. I'll still drop quarters in it on location, and I have multiple options, but I will be glad the problems with it are not mine to deal with.
Stern can also suck it for raising the minimum price, even on distro inventory, what a crock of sh*t
Figured I would post here in addition to the MET forum, My NIB LED MET PRO was delivered late July with a stamped April 01 2016 playfield. Backbox dated June 15th 2016. I have clear chipping at around shooter lane and also at outhole. 548 Balls played and 178 total plays. I am waiting to hear back from Stern.... I am also working through Stern on Grave Marker in-line drop targets not resetting properly.
At the very least do not play one game without all the cliffy protectors applied, as I kept putting it on the back burner due to being out of town.
My HULK has zero protection, tons more games, and zero issues, so I think 2016 is a bad year to buy NIB. I dumped my GBLE and GBPREM, thinking I would avoid any issues by going MET, well that didn't work.
Quoted from embryon:Atm I am very concerned about the slow progress of the petition. By reading the comments here, people were vocal the masses are effected and a riot was eminent. Why am I concerned, if you guys don't pull together in some semblance of unity in a hurry, Stern might even pull the trigger on this imaginary pf swap program. Then I'll be pissed. And please guys, use your whole name, not Jerry G, so hopefully Stern can see you are serious by putting your name to it, or are these just appearing in the comments section and real names are actually on the petition. Btw Good luck
I wonder if people are afraid to sign the petition, much less use whole names since Stern has a history of blackballing people
Quoted from Manic:During the entire GB PF drama I never saw a post that said "I called Stern and asked and they said the PF's are made by XXX"
or "I called Stern and asked and they said they couldn't share that info"...etc...
It would be funny if nobody with PF problems had actually called and asked this simple question to Stern.
Even if they wouldn't tell you it would be worth it to hear stern say " Sorry. That's classified!"
If anyone calls please record it
1 month later
Quoted from clg:For me the issue is you should not have to turn all the settings down and mylar and cliffy everything. Stern's quality has slipped while their prices have gone up. Totally fair to call them out on it. Stern needs to fix the quality or drop the prices. I'm cool with either but not with where they are at.
Agreed HUO machines should show zero wear, period, no matter the settings.
Quoted from Who-Dey:I only started owning my own games about 3 -4 years ago, but been playing for 35-36 years off and on. That's still beside the point though, any kind of manufacturing is gonna have problems from time to time. I'm not taking up for them, I'm just stating the facts. I'm very happy with all 3 of my 2016 Sterns so far. The GB is new so the jury is still out on that but the other two get played a lot and they look fantastic.
Everyone defends Stern until it happens to them and Stern goes silent on you. Then and apparently only then will you understand. Congrats on dodging bullets on your three 2016 PF I hope they hold up for you.
Quoted from Who-Dey:Yeah Spooky is really pumping out some great games! Give me a break!
Well TPF is not far away so we shall see what Game #3 brings...
Quoted from Esoteric_rt:I had my Walking Dead Pro finally arrive yesterday (production date 30 Nov 2016)
Playfield is perfect, no issues I can see.
So you can purchase WD with confidence.....for now....lets see how it holds up
Good luck, takes time for problems to appear so don't consider yourself out of the woods yet. Keep an eye on it.
Quoted from mayuh:...as a guy who takes quality management very serious, that was and still is the first thing that comes to my mind, when I see a company releasing 3 products in a row (at that time) that have issues.
Seems that Stern has accepted the new quality yield rates on PF and built it into the pricing we pay so I'm not seeing anything improve now or in the future. They will simply replace bad PF when forced knowing the vast majority of home users will not care or notice and operators will just use overlays, Mylar, cliffys, etc to keep the game on location and won't fight with Stern. It's like VISA not caring about credit card fraud hence we have chip and sign in America instead of chip and pin, they have built the loss into their fee and they move on.
The people who will be most impacted will be pinside collectors and players as we will stop buying anything NIB and move more and more HUO so we can inspect games before purchase.
My biggest hope/dream is that when Gary retires, him and the VCs will sell to a wealthy family that loves pinball and it can be run like a family business again.
Quoted from Who-Dey:I think you are worrying a little too much honestly, but if it Ghost and chips again just raise hell with your distributor and get another playfield. I'm not saying I wouldn't be a little concerned maybe but it's not like all their playfields are just complete garbage. That is just simply not the case. Back when you got your GB, yes many of them were but I haven't heard of hardly any problems lately.
I also know that they have been sending some old playfields as replacements, but that doesn't mean they are bad. It's my guess that they think there won't be a problem with them. Calm down and enjoy your game, it's gonna be fine dude for real, and if it isn't I bet you will get another replacement.
Nothing like getting advice from someone who has not had to go through the playfield replacement process.
Quoted from Rum-Z:I don't want to temper your expectations, but it could be a gallon of clear and a paint brush.
LMFAO!
Quoted from RobF:What did Stern say when you called and shared these concerns? They seemed quite reasonable and accommodating when I needed a node board replaced. It's not a PF, but I was pleasantly surprised in how easy they were to work with.
Haha these continuous comments crack me up, correct, a node board Chas can stick in a box without any upper management approval is different then a PF. Anything other than basic "send out cheap replacement part on easily diagnosable problem" then Stern sucks, goes silent, and your game stays broke.
Quoted from AstonEnthusiast:Received the box for our damaged LE play field today. Had Aerosmith LE on order, but cancelled due to quality concerns. And my wife's never ending nagging about how much these pins cost and the issues out of the box. Although it took 8 months to resolve our GBLE play field concerns, we are very thankful to our distributor and Stern for standing behind the manufacturing defects. Just wish my wife didn't google "Aerosmith quality concerns" as she insisted we pull the plug on our LE order until the quality concerns subside.
The only way things will change is if this becomes the normal, holding Stern accountable for Quality and Coding, and putting money where our mouthes are
1 week later
Still have not heard from Stern on my MET pro, haven't been able to play for months and Stern is not responding to my distro. I agree that at the Pro price point Stern is the only player, but that does not make screwing over your customers right. Again, if anyone wants a good deal on a 2016 MET PRO with a couple hundred plays, clear chipping, and continuous drop target problems let me know I would love to just take the hit and sell this POS
Quoted from Phbooms:Have you tried contacting Stern yourself? Ive delt with 3 distributors in 2016 for 4 NIBs and every one of the games had some issues and the distributors were all worthless when it came down to getting my games fixed. Contacting Stern directly has always been the best route to get anything done for me. One distributor couldnt even get me a new head speaker, going on 4 months now but if i really cared id just call Stern and they would send one right out im sure. Just today i got new head decals for my WWE LE from Stern and i only contacted them early last week. If you need any contact info let me know.
Agreed, when I needed the Avengers Hulk update kit I called Chas direct and he was very helpful, so yes I've gone direct before. I've also worked with Chas before on my MET drop target issue, but PF issues is apparently handled higher up then general support.
1 month later
Quoted from Phbooms:Have you tried contacting Stern yourself? Ive delt with 3 distributors in 2016 for 4 NIBs and every one of the games had some issues and the distributors were all worthless when it came down to getting my games fixed. Contacting Stern directly has always been the best route to get anything done for me. One distributor couldnt even get me a new head speaker, going on 4 months now but if i really cared id just call Stern and they would send one right out im sure. Just today i got new head decals for my WWE LE from Stern and i only contacted them early last week. If you need any contact info let me know.
Well Stern sent me a signed borg met premium "translite" and Pat Powers personally sent me a hardcoat repair kit after speaking to his Q/A department. So six months of a non functioning NIB game to finally get a working drop mech and finally be officially told Stern is not replacing my playfield. I did enjoy my NIB for the one month it all worked correctly. My distro is taking the game back and I'm out $400 in shipping, but at least I believe my last Stern purchase is finally over. I'm not begging Stern for two years like I believe Frax or someone else had too.
2 weeks later
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:Without having to read through 121 pages, what's the best way to protect the shooter lane? My new TWD is starting to show signs of clearcoat damage after ~100 plays.
I'd also like to protect the area where the ball drops into the trough.
I'm hoping this isn't signs of things to come. I waited this long to purchase because I thought the issues were resolved. Unfortunately, my build date is July 2016 and I just got it last week.
Looks how my MET PRO started failing. I'm glad I took the $400 return shipping hit and after 7 months of Stern stalling, sent it back for a cash refund. Just got the check last week. I'm lucky I had a good distro even though Stern is a POS. Sorry to hear your game has issues.
1 month later
Quoted from AtTheArcade:What's been everyone's experience with the playfield replacement program? Or is there another thread for that somewhere?
I have an LE and it's been ghosting and has cracked clear in the shooting lane since before August of last year. I contacted my dealer in August and they CC'ed Stern in but no one ever replied. I knew the program wasn't in place yet so I left it alone. I just wanted it documented that I was having issues that early on. Then I heard the program was rolling out but people were getting bad replacement playfields. So I held on some more to let that sort itself out.
I finally reached back out to Stern and my dealer a month ago and I've barely gotten anywhere. Sometimes they respond to emails, sometimes they don't. The latest word is that they don't have any playfields at the moment but hope to in the next month and I can do the swap then.
My biggest question is this: what's the downtime like for the swap? I know several have said they did an instant swap at their dealer (Stern mails new playfield to dealer, you take your old playfield and swap it at the dealer) and that's what I'm pushing for. But if they insist on going to mail route I'd like to know if we're talking several weeks of a down game or what. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Honestly, tell your distro you will eat the shipping to send it back and you want a refund. If your time is worth $0 then do like myself and others stupidly did and fight with Stern. Tell Patrick Powers hello for me and I hope he enjoyed my returned MET.
3 weeks later
Quoted from Cdonnerusmc:Honestly I was pretty upset when my premium ghost busters started ghosting, I contacted stern sent pictures and let them know what happend and several months later I got a prepaid box in the mail I sent them my old playfield they sent me a new me. It was extremely easy and they 100% made it right. And in the mean time I played the hell out of the playfield I sent back. Has anyone ever not been taken care of by stern? Not what if's and something you have heard happening, but have any of you actually been screwed by stern? Bottom line is I ordered a LE Star Wars and if it's messed up when I get it or even develops some issue I'm 100% confident Stern will make the right as the have done in the past.
I was screwed, Stern did not make it right. I took the shipping cost hit and returned the game. I was able to return because I have a good distro that agreed Stern is a POS and the game was bad.
Stern does not care about you
1 week later
Quoted from Maken:Some of guys who say it's no big deal in this thread are some the most well off active users on pinside. Easy for them to say. We can't all be rock stars.
NIB can be a once in a lifetime experience for people like me who make under 50K. Have some perspective.
110% agree! Pinball is big money, and should be treated that way.
2 weeks later
Quoted from AtTheArcade:The year long wait has mostly been due to Stern flat out ignoring most of my emails. I finally got sick of them ignoring my emails and got my distro involved. Interestingly enough, Stern was quick to respond to all of their emails. They agreed to a replacement in June of this year and said that they don't have an ETA on playfields yet but were hoping to have more in stock in July. We're past July now obviously and inching closer to being past August. My plan was to contact my distro again the first week in September but now I'm worried that I'll just end up with another bad playfield. My current playfield has been ghosting since I got it last year and has been progressively getting worse. I also have chipped clear in the shooter lane.
Return the game, eat the shipping cost, return it, and save yourself the headaches. I'm so glad that is what I did.
2 weeks later
Quoted from ImNotNorm:Someone should write a coffee table book about Stern ripping off it's customers with deceitful & fraudulent practices.
LMFAO, since they stole $50k with Paperflock on kickstarter for the anniversary book, this seems like a good sequel inside TELL ALL book. In fact, I bet we all know a Stern pinball designer that is probably needing to raise legal funds that knows all the inside dirt and would be happy to spill it.
Quoted from sohchx:Just happened upon this thread. I bought a NIB Met Pro today. I didn't read every single page of this thread but from what I HAVE read, I may be destined for disappointment when this thing arrives?? My excitement just got flushed down the shitter If I have all that I have seen here in store for me.
I wish you the best of luck. I hope you bought from a reputable dealer, on credit card, just in case. Any problems, just return it. Don't waste a year of your life dealing with Stern.
Quoted from sohchx:Thanks for the info!! Got my MET Pro today and it's gorgeous with no issues. Haven't had a chance to play it yet due to me immediately throwing every protector and Cliffy available onto it. All of my fears that I had pre delivery are far gone now. I was surprised of the manufacture date being so recent also, June 14 2017
What is the PF date? Post a pic
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