Quoted from Eryeal:

This doesn't make much sense really .. It almost sounds like Stern wanted Cineplex to eat some/all of the cost? I mean - Cineplex is the distributor - who are they to "tell" Stern they aren't going to allow Stern to ship a customer a part for free? That makes no sense - it's the other way around. It also doesn't make sense that Stern can ship the part anywhere, but needs an order from a distributor to do so, even if it's free. Something just doesn't seem right here, as if a key piece of information is missing.

Quoted from RipleYYY:

as aid above, yes
for my TRON LE, needing few small replacements parts for the spindisc, warranty was over, Patrick P. send me what i need directly by air mail, was very quick, and all free
than when its good, it has to be said too
(OK, now i want my GB code update !!! lol)

Quoted from Bronty:

mods aren't the same as replacement parts though. I could be off base; I'm just picturing a scenario where the contract says they can't sell replacement parts without the distributor. That's different than a mod