That's ok, I knew you would be here in this thread sooner or later

No ghosting at all, the ink just chips off the PF and Jack will tell you to go pound sand.

Well I think the current delays at Stern stem primarily from the makers of their playfields not producing good enough quality playfields. It's tough because the maker of the PFs should be required to produce very good quality work to get paid. They (CGC & FUN) are not stepping up to the plate putting Stern in a tough spot.

Taking it in house (or paying Mirco to do them) is probably the best solution but that would take a lot of development time & initially increase development cost. Once ironed out cost (to Stern) would be reduced and hopefully the quality would be solid. I hope it gets worked out and Stern can get back to zipping these pins out to pinheads worldwide!

This is all just my gut feeling on it I have no inside info on this.

Do we know this?

Guess not.

For all we know, CGC is providing them will new PF's and that is why the LE's stopped until the new PFs arrived.

I have no problems with inserts on any of my Stern games, including SMVE. I do have some slight scuffing on SMVE, but I can't even see it unless the light hits it just right. It will probably buff out. My Stern games are all HUO in a finished basement.

My new MET pro has one insert ghosting that's very noticeable. Kind of bugs me but not enough to make a big stink over it. While getting my MET, noticed a SMVE in the showroom had bad ghosting on a lot of inserts.

I have a Met pro built 4/16 with zero ghosting

95 votes !!!
Whhoooooooaaaaaaaa

Like other buyers with "ghosting / crazing / insert lifting or other play field problems" I have contacted Stern (through the forms on their website and directly to Patrick Powers) and explained the situation (+pictures).

I asked them politely to at least give an update on what Stern is doing with the play field issues. I can understand that they have to look deeper into the situation before they can come with a statement on how they're going to solve this, but just no reaction is slap in the face of us buyers!

This weekend I'm going to contact my distributor and ask him what he's going to do about this.

Are there any other buyers with problems who contacted Stern that have a reaction? Or is Stern ignoring us?

im just waiting to see how long it takes Stern to respond. Official announcement or something.? leaving the loyal customers hanging? so what are distributors roles and obligations in this hot mess?

Contact your distributor first. That is what they are there for. Patrick and Chas, etc. are not the right people to contact about cosmetic issues like this imo. They can help you troubleshoot and fix things on your machines, help out with broken parts/plastics. They are not going to be able to authorize you a whole new playfield, or new pin, or comment on Stern policy with an issue like this.

Distributors are Stern's customers. They are the ones placing the orders. Where most people buy one or two pins off of a distrib, a distrib buys 10, 20 100, whatever from Stern. They can talk to the sales guys and managers and can get a lot more traction in Stern with issues like this. A good distributor will be on this and will hear something about it long before any one person emailing Stern tech support would.

I also wouldn't hold my breath about some sort of big announcement from Stern. They might, I know nothing about what they are thinking, but historically I don't remember it happening. Not with the magnet boards in Met, Aux boards in X-men LE, cannon motors in AC/DC. They might post a service bulletin on their own website, but they aren't in the habit of taking out press releases to highlight problems.

It's not in there benefit to address this at large with a statement on Facebook or there website then people who didn't even know something was wrong are now requesting a new playfield.

My ST Premium is also April, and has no issues. I was thinking a vote with dates might be more telling. Anyone keeping track and know the earliest known incidence?

Have any of the newer Metallica's with metal back boxes been affected by this?

apparently.

some customers recently, havent had much luck so far with their "distributors".
but lets see what happens, hopefully that gets sorted out.

Thats because distributors aint getting any luck out of Stern.

I have contacted my distributor, he is aware of the problem and has tried to contact Stern about it, but even he as a distributor doesn't get an answer from Stern....... I just can't believe this! It seems to look like Stern is going to sit this problem out...... If they really are going that way, then we as buyers have no other option then to look at legal options. Let's hope that is not necessary, but I'm sure going that way if there's no other option..... For this kind of money I can't accept a bad quality play field like this.

It seems like the vast majority of playfield issues are isolated to games made in the past several months. Since Stern unfortunately won't tell customers and even distributors what is going on we have to connect the dots ourselves...

We know that in the past several months Stern has changed playfield manufactures and is now trying to make playfields in house. Personally, I would hold off buying a Stern game for a year while they sort out these issues and work out all the bugs with making playfields in house.

Until then I'm sure Stern thinks they can just stay silent and keep selling people games.

184xl8_(resized).jpg

Yes, several people on this forum have said that their recently built Metallica Pro LEDs have some ghosting inserts.

I was planning to buy one... Now? Not.

Waiting a year might help but odds are the bad playfields would still be in inventory and not disposed of. 'If?' it takes playing to find the problem, stuff in inventory won't even appear to have an issue. So you wait a year and then playfield #??? which is in the set of bad batches gets used. Hopefully playfields sitting around will start ghosting so they don't get used.

Iron Man VE (Dec '15 build) - Playfield is perfect...not even a dimple.
Spider VE - Playfield is perfect - not even a dimple
Got LE - Playfield is perfect
KISS LE - playfield is perfect...I have a cliffy for the scoop
Star Trek LE - playfield is perfect...lots of dimples and cliffy on VUK
Transformers LE - playfield is perfect

Ghostbusters LE - I will report back in a week or 2, once it comes in.

That sucks. Do you have any links to pics of the ghosting on Metallica? I've seen the pics of Spiderman VE, GOT, and Ghostbusters, some of which are in this thread.

I just ordered a Metallica Premium... crossing my fingers.

hoping that perfect record continues.

Stern got back on my emails, for the woofer not working I should do a factory reset. I did, still no sound. I can get a new board as the CN4 connector is probably the error. That will have to go through my distributor. Also they said they are looking into the playfield issues.
The funny thing is that under european law the distributor is not the one providing the guarantee. It it always the producer who will have to provide the new parts. So I will talk to my distributor, but that is just the way Stern wants this. It looks to me that Stern is not completely on track with EU customer laws.

They don't have to be.

http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm

Under EU rules you always have the right to a minimum 2-year guarantee at no cost.

This 2-year guarantee is your minimum right. National rules in your country may give you extra protection: however, any deviation from EU rules must always be in the consumer's best interest.

If goods you bought anywhere in the EU turn out to be faulty or do not look or work as advertised, the seller must repair or replace them free of charge or give you a price reduction or a full refund.

As a general rule, you will only be able to ask for a partial or full refund when it is not possible to repair or replace the goods.

Stern builds the machines.
Distributors buy the machines from Stern.
The end user buys the machines from the distributor.

Distributors get a discount from Stern, partly because they are supposed to be handling the end user relationship.

So while yes, Stern is the one providing the warranty, you have to go through the distributor in order to get the warranty service, just like you would have to go through a local dealer if you need service on a car. In some cases for small parts Stern may allow you to skip the distributor, but for things like boards, etc. they generally like you to go through the distrib.

If your games have 0 plays this is the only way this statement is true. If you have played 1 game, I guarantee you have dimples.

No ghosting on met from what ive seen snd heard but some inserts jeweling was a little off but not bad at all.

thats not true

you have the guarantee where you have bought the machine.

So the distributer must find a solution or must take the game back, cash back

It would be greener if owners can vote more than once...

Smve here, no issues
GotLE , no issues
GBLE, no issues, yet...

But sending the game back comes with a 15% restocking fee plus you pay to ship it back right?

15% restocking fee? its not like you've just changed your mind. your returning a defective product.

why isnt the distributor responsible for taking the machine back? then sorting out the mess with Stern themselves about what to do with it.

No pics sorry, just taking other pinsiders at their word.

This is the bad insert on my new MET pro. Not sure what to think of it. Could be worse but wish I could fix it.

image_(resized).jpg

I wonder how long Stern will keep on producing GB's. I want one, but I will only order when I have confirmation these problems are under control. Would be sad if that is after GB went out of production.

Waiting on Stern to have all their problems fixed is like buying the latest Apple product, a new one is always around the corner, so you might as well just cross your fingers and buy what you want.

I've got some ghosting. Is it a bad thing....I suppose....am I going to suicide or lose sleep over it......No. I don't put general life under the microscope so why should I start over a stupid pinball machine. I am having major fun playing this title and that's what counts. If I take a good, hard look at my wife, I'm sure I'll find some problems too. Get one, enjoy it, and forget about all the drama.

Btw I wish most people took their jobs so seriously and to the nth degree then maybe I'd be obsolete.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/gozer-worshipping-wontt-fix-this-problem

I've played this machine. I was there when it was removed from the box (NIB) and it had one badly ghosted insert, the rest were fine. In less than 150 games you've now got that same insert sinking (you can tell by simply feeling the playfield), a lot more ghosting on other inserts, the clear coat cracking around some of the ghosting inserts and the clear coat cracking running from one insert to another across the playfield. You can see all of this in the photos. I love the game and I am a bit of a Stern fan but I'm definitely staying away from Stern machines/playfields with similar build dates, it is a massive lottery to what you will get.

Such problems I understand are issues but I think many others are going your way of thinking without good reason. Sorry to hear about yours and hope it can be solved via a new pf

Without good reason? Can you explain how inserts dropping, pf cracking after 150 games is not a good reason to be careful about build dates on stern games.

Good question from John1210! I have a GBLE with 3 ghosting inserts, after 35 plays. Am I entitled to go that way then? Or is 3 ghosting insert but not a crack in the play field not bad enough? Not knowing if the problem gets worse over time (maybe after years...) So if you buy a new car and it has a dent in it after minor normal use, you don't go back to the car dealer?

Let's be very clear here, Stern has made and delivered pinball machines to customers with production failures in the play field in the last couple of months / half year or so. They can't ignore that and have to come with a solution! It's really annoying that Stern isn't willing to respond to any of us with play field issues.....

I won't accept this and if Stern doesn't come up with a solution, I give my GBLE back to my distributor. If this turns out bad for us affected customers (who are demanding a solution), then I will never buy a Stern again believe me! Sorry, but I'm really upset getting this kind of quality at a price of almost €10.000,- and being ignored by the manufacturer. Shame on you Stern, shame on you!

I don't have a machine with insert issues, but I think the people acting like those affected are just whiners for voicing their concerns here need to stfu. The problem may start as a minor cosmetic blemish, but likely won't stop there. If the playfields are getting so much worse after only 50-100 plays, how are they going to look after 1000? 5000? 10000? I'm sure the inserts will start redirecting the ball and affecting gameplay, not to mention increased wear on the clear and eventually the artwork. Owners have every reason to be concerned and I'm glad that so many have stepped up to make the rest of us better informed.