North Salt Lake, UT
Stern isn't evil. They aren't trying to be evil, but they house some huge egos in that company. They can be mean, petty, vindictive, and ruthless, but it's all just sprouting from bloated egos, not a desire to just outright do harm. And it's not all of them, not even most of them, but a few of them with influence that really make some calls that can make dealing with them awful. Here are a few things they do that can piss people off and get threads like this going. None of this is rumor, it's all substantiated, so before blindly defending any of it, know that it's all real.
They aggressively buy up licenses purely to deny others the chance to use them. Call it good business or whatever, but it's obviously going to rub some people the wrong way, but it's fully in their rights to do it. Most companies that could afford to hold a license portfolio would probably do the same.
They fine distributors and partners for being critical of Stern. If a distributor is upset by anything, and they say, "man, working with Stern can be hard sometimes" online, they can draw a fine for that, especially if Gary is aware of it.
They threaten people. This is probably the closest thing they do to what someone can call evil, I guess. But they'll reach out and make direct threats to you or to those connected to you. It's some serious poor man's mafia garbage, but they do it. Make some comments they don't like, and it won't be too long before Jared is sent to reach out to you to let you know you're in danger of being blacklisted by the company. They'll say that they want to review your content before publishing, just to make sure it's cool with them. They might even call an employer and ask that you be fired. Oh wait, they did do that. Not sure if they still do, but they have.
They strong arm part suppliers to pressure them not to do business with other pinball companies. They'll threaten to pull orders if the supplier is caught dealing with another company. Again, this is within their rights. Lots of companies ask for or demand exclusivity, especially in manufacturing. Like chasing licenses, it's going to irritate other industry members, but that's not really of any concern of the common pinball player.
On the other hand, they're getting better. Putting Zach Sharpe over marketing and pushing Jody off stream has helped their image. Zach is cool, has a good sense of humor, and doesn't fly off the handle and start making threats on live streams to fight people. That's been a great move towards being a more thoughtful company in many ways.
While Stern continually pushes the envelope on cost cutting in materials and QC, they do try hard to make things right when stuff goes wrong. When they need to help a customer who has a warranty claim, they do genuinely worry about making them happy.
Stern has also increased their support of events, charities, and the pinball community as a whole. Just look at prizes over the past couple of years from major events and it's common to see that Stern supported the event. Their partnering with Marco and other large distributors to get A TON of games to shows has been a real help to event attendees who don't want to wait 45 minutes to play the latest release.
You can weigh out the pros and cons of Stern being the top dog in the pinball world. But however you weigh it out, calling them evil is definitely way too far. Jokes aside, Stern is getting better in some ways, but there are always going to be rough edges when the egos come into play.
