Just a long overdue follow up on my ghosting GBLE. Stern told my distributor the 2 ghosting insert issues weren't enough to warrant a playfield swap. Apparently it takes 3 or more like mine or something severe to qualify.

Well so far I have not heard one complaint of MMR or AFMr ghosting? So it's not all pinball manufacturers. JJP Woz had a chipping issue in the beginning.
MMr had some playfields with light insert printing.
But I don't recall seeing any posts about TH or DILE having insert ghosting.
Or spooky either.

And also due to the fact that Stern has had so many issues. And can't seem to release a pin on spike that doesn't crash when idle or being played. And that every pin they make now is a rehashed layout with no innovation. And that they deny all issues. And try to sweep them under the rug. Not just ghosting inserts. I am never purchasing another machine from them again.

So at least part of what you said is correct.

My MMr LE doesn't even have noticable dimples. After over 3000 plays. But when I had GB, MET, and IMVE they all looked like the moon within the first few weeks. And you could see the wood grain on my IMVE playfield out of the box.

If you look at the pins I currently own and what I have owned in the past none have had serious playfield issues. Other than what you would expect from years in an arcade. Not like in a few months for the NIB Stern's I have owned. The clearcoat either chipped or dimpled. ST not too bad. XMen LE ball drain.
GB, met, and IMVE all soft crap. My Potc was clearcoated by the previous owner because the playfield was crap from the factory (woodgrain). Hell, kiss LEs in my distributors showroom look like they put the art on unfinished plywood. So it's nothing but cost cutting. Not enough clearcoat, Crappy Soft wood and profit over pride in their product.

It's not normal, it never was, until Stern started mass producing pins with the same issue.

Honestly sorry for the long rant. But this "it's the norm now" attitude really pisses me off.
And the fact that Stern pinball now has no soul.

Pretty sure that when the MMR games first came out there was some clear coat chipping going on. Stern is having some issues right now and there is no denying it but you have to remember that they are also selling a hell of alot more games than anyone else is too, so it only stands to reason that you're going to see alot more complaints about their games.

3 week old Star Wars has at least 8 ghosting inserts. I have an email into Stern and my distributor. Should be interesting to see where this goes with the new policy

I own 30+ Sterns , so far no issues, SW Premium should arrive in a few weeks. After comparing my AFM rm to recent
Sterns, this may be my last. Changed to premiums with AS because LEs are just not worth the difference, but depending
on any issues with SW, buying remakes and high end restores should be a better choice.

I believe that you will have no problem getting a replacement. Thats unbelievable though....sorry about your bad luck, that sucks. Stern really needs to get on top of this and fix this problem once and for all. There's no reason that they can make AS playfields with such high quality and then they can't make SW playfields worth a crap.

That would be my guess as well...they'll probably do something. I have no problem waiting till they figure out whats up.

Our AS is fine. You would think they could figure out what they did with AS and just use that process...unless it wasn't fast..or cheap enough.

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I'm going to get in the next 4-6 months that almost everyone has banana inserts that ghost on Star Wars.

It seems to me that banana (sometimes we called them hot dog) shaped inserts always seem to be the most problematic shape for inserts. Forgive me for bringing up my ancient Williams/Bally history, but I swear I've had to re-level banana/hot dog inserts more than any other shaped inserts on my older W/B games. It just seems that there's something about the large curved shape that makes this style of insert want to shift around more than others.

My premium should arrive in the next few weeks . If stern continues with these issues it might be my last .

Haven't seen your pics, but guessing your encounter goes something like this.

1) normal
2) normal
3) normal
4) normal
5) normal
6) normal
7) normal
8). normal

Next

*edited*

Changed my mind. I'll give Stern a chance to make things right before posting images of my SW PF. It's a great game and hopefully I'm in the extreme minority here.

You do realise that Stern more than likely manufactured your MMrLE? I will keep finding as many reasons as I can to enjoy pinball and my much loved hobby.

Happy Flipping!

Yeah but as far the the supplier of the MMr play fields......well they got the good stuff. Who knows where that ghosting junk is coming from, but doesn't seem to be the same supplier.

True, they did assemble my mmrLE.
But it was not manufactured by Stern. Or built using any Stern parts.

I totally agree with you. As you, know, there are many comments on many threads with plenty of different opinions on the playfield issues at the moment. That is why I love Pinside!

You just keep your blinkers on! Total denial that your machine came out of the Stern factory. If you take a little time and go back through some of the threads on Pinside, you will find plenty of examples of ghosting and chipping on MMr's. That is the beauty of Pinside. Plenty of passionate pinheads that post good and bad.

Have another drink

Bahaha!
Not denying that Stern assembled my machine.
Don't know where you got that?

A quick search and.....voilà.

0 threads related to MMR ghosting
9 stern generic ghosting threads
129 mostly stern game specific ghosting threads

And for more hilarity Google Medieval madness remake ghosting.
Then Stern pinball ghosting.

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Nooo... never bring facts to a pinball argument .

That's just a vicious haymaker, will the kid be able to get up off the mat and come back?

Awesome, you win! I should have just given you the thread and post numbers with the photos. But that would no fun would it? You seem to know everything so I cannot argue with that!

You are not a very good shit stirrer. I just found a thread about MMr playfield issues and you have commented:

"I don't think it will be easy to find out. People who don't have the issue are saying they do, to try and get either some $ back. Or whatever else PPS decides to do about the issue.

Honestly it is not that big of an issue. It's still a new MM with new tech. Not that noticeable. I could care less if I was to buy one.

Pinball collectors lying"

Boom! Calling yourself a liar. I love that shit!

Bahahaha!!!!

Is the post about perhaps the light insert printing? And not about chipping or ghosting. Which I actually mentioned in the 4th line of my initial post.
And I do like your feeble attempt to spin a post I made about allegedly people reusing photos of the light insert issue to try to scam CGC for playfield replacements into something that in your mind fits into ghosting?
Nice try.
However I can see reading comprehension is not your strong suit.
But it is fun to prove someone wrong over and over with facts.

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Dup

You definitely know everything. I cannot argue with that.

I must say I'm very impressed with Stern on this one...

I sent a single email on 8.15 with pictures to Chas and my distributor (Marco) of the 8 ghosted inserts...Chas replied saying he was going to FWD them to his quality control manager. To be honestly I thought it was going to get filed under 'we'll get to it'

On Tuesday 8.22 I received a voice mail from Patrick to call him about the issue. I was a little busy at the time dealing with a 17 year old dog that had to be put down the next day .

I received another call from Patrick on Thursday (8.24) offering a shipping container to send my PF back for a fully populated replacement. I requested a blank playfield.. so I could have it cleared and installed down the road.

I really had no plans to follow up until next month..but they beat me to the punch.

They also sent me a replacement Tie Fighter wing for the one that got blown off in battle.

Kudos to Stern, Patrick and Chas for incredible service. I'll post back when I receive the PF

Im very DISSAPOINTED with Stern on this one. This summer i purchased a Game of Thrones which ended up having 7 inserts with ghosting in them. Im not a super picky person, and can accept slight issues within reason, but 7 inerts on one playfield? Compleate bullshit.

So I messaged the distributor, and recived the reponse that 'stern hasnt had any issues with game of thrones playfields, and doesnt replace them.'

Anyways, I like to give a company a chance to make things right before I complain, but they are unwilling to do so. I will no longer be purchasing any new Sterns, and I had a Guardians of the galaxy on order, but will be canceling it if it hasnt shipped yet.

That sucks. Don't know who your distrib is, but my guess is having a good one who is going to go to bat for you is a big part of the battle and depending on the distrib I would take what they say with a grain of salt. Might be worth emailing Stern (through Chas/Patrick maybe?) directly before giving up.

Definitely email Stern pictures with every instance of ghosting highlighted. That sucks your distro isn't going to bat for you. I had near instant approval for my SW, 7 definitely sounds within parameters for replacement.

Stern quickly agreed to replace my GB playfield with 3 (pretty minor) ghosting inserts. My dealer was useless. I just dealt with Chas directly. I agree it’s not worth giving up yet. Good luck.

Thanks for the posts guys, I'll try contacting stern directly

All that Stern hate and you never even contacted them about the issue.....

Good luck, and let us know what the outcome is.

Yeah your distributor SUCKS dude and I would post their compay name on pinside if I were you. I would be in shock if you talk to Stern and send then pics if they don't replace your playfield. Also tell your distributor that there has in fact been a few issues with GOT playfields. Your distributor is horrible.

I contacted my distributor, I assumed they should communicate with and represent/convey sterns decision. There should be no difference, but it appears that that may not be the case - and some distributors may not even bother asking.

Hopefully that is the case, and stern will take care of it. I've owned a dozen or so sterns and only had one issue I had to contact them with (node board on my GB) and I had a new one in a few days.

Yes, it was bought from player 1/ starburst whatever you want to call them in Canada, and yes I dont care for them and try my best to avoid them.

Yep I know I would avoid them. They did not go to bat for you like a distributor should. Terrible customer service there now!

What happened to this being "normal"?

They're selectively choosing who they're going to satisfy, and who they won't.

That's cool....

Of course it's their decision, who else's decision would it be?

Either fix them all, or don't fix any. It's that simple. Why revise your warranty guidelines, then, balk on encorcement?

Of course they should fix them all, but they still have the final call on it. I’m sure there will be people’s that they don’t feel like deserve a replacement but if your playfield has seven ghosted inserts that’s pretty much a no brainer there.

Apparently not. Response from Stern is that "its perfectly normal, and not a problem"

Well it is for me, Gotg order canceled, no more new Sterns for me.

Did you talk directly with Chas or Pat. I know they don’t have the final say, but a direct call to them might help. I have never gone through my distro, just took care of it myself and called Stern direct...not 1-800-kickers...the number on Sterns website. If they still won’t send a new playfield, Mylar over those inserts to protect them. Sorry for your situation.

Dang even after you reached out directly? That’s pretty shitty if so.

Super bummer, they took care of me just a month ago. I also just picked up a used GBLE with a new PF.

Really hope they didn’t get official word from the top to stop addressing this issue... I’m sure it’s quite costly for them. But so is neglecting their customer base.

They have to read this site religiously, if we all didn’t complain about the ghosting issue they never would have addressed it to begin with. So may as well show some pictures and raise some outrage, can’t hurt if they already said no

I'd be interested to see what your playfield looks like.
Got any pics?

Sure, not the worst ghosting Ive seen, but still 7 inserts like this:

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How.many plays on your game and how old is it?

Not sure on plays, it was bought new last spring

Finally on my home PC, so I can post them all, maybe I'm being unreasonable, but my concerns are:

-Just how many inserts are affected, not to mention GOT has large black rings around each insert so probably many more are started. Obviously something was improperly prepped during playfield production.
-How the ghosting will progress, I tried to report this when the game was only 5-6 months old, since in a few years obviously nothing would be done.
-Although its not affecting gameplay, damn right its going to kill my resale value when I'm done with the game down the road.

As mentioned I love this game, and just want one without issues.

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