Nobody was born knowing how to work on a pinball machine. The OP is frustrated and wanted to vent - nothing less, nothing more.

I'm relatively new to the hobby as well, and it IS intimidating! Hell, I remember how scared I was the first time I had to figure out how to open my T2... And then was even more nervous about opening up my MET Pre because of how much I paid for it. I still haven't done anything I would consider "difficult" when it comes to fixing 'em, but I've done a little soldering now for the first time, used a multimeter for the first time, and stuff like that. I have a ton more to learn, and I'm sure I will when something else breaks, but give the guy a break - he's busy for another month or two and barely has time to play, let alone fix, but I'm sure he'll tackle the problem when his day job settles down.