Mirco's response to questioning drew exact parallels to his customer service... could not give a flying fu(k!!

His condescending tone and lack of care is simply gob smacking. How this ass clown is still in business is a blight on the Pinball community. We simply can not support someone who treats us with utter disdain.

He has stuff no one has produced or will produce at this time.

Simple as that.

If CPR geared up and produced the same products, Micro would be out of business overnight. CPR isn't perfect, but they do consistently put out a better product. A shame because the machining and art on the Micro playfields is very good in my experience.

It is a brutal area to try & compete against the big boys with deep pockets. I did not survive the competition! I stood behind my customers if they had a problem with my backglass & playfields done by contractors mostly.

IMO CPR has some worse QC issues (misprints and things). CC can be fixed (though at a cost).

You pick your poison and put your money down.

I have issues with CPR, clearcoat blowing off isn't one of them.

While not personally impacted, I do understand the disdain for the situation with Mirco. However, all of this negativity and bashing is really getting to be off putting. Again, I recognize that many have been impacted and want to express their opinion, nothing wrong with that. However, what I've not see are constructive ideas and/or cooperative measures to address the issues. I'm not saying they are not out there, but the negative posts are far outweighing anything constructive I've seen.

Again, I don't have any firsthand knowledge of the issues or Mirco's response, but it's obvious those on the defensive are putting up a wall as a result of the hostility. Maybe it's time for a new approach if those looking for answers/accountability are ever going to get it.

Interesting post. First question I would like to ask is ... why is it anyone's responsibility to come up with ideas or even a solution, shouldn't that be on the manufacturer?

Also, how do you give ideas/solutions to a manufacturer that simply states "there's nothing wrong"? I think this is the reason you see so much negativity as Mirco feels nothing is wrong. So you can suggest all the ideas/solutions you want, not going to work!

Also just a reminder, the one time I seen Mirco ask for input on one of his playfields, think it was EBD, people provided input. There were a lot of errors on the pf, so many that he fixed some then released the pf with errors instead of fixing them.

I guess my point is multi-fold:
- It's okay to vent and complain when you've been harmed, I have no issue with this
- Some people naturally put up walls/defenses when confronted, which appears to be what Mirco is doing
- When this occurs, all of the complaining in the world will not change their actions/response
- At this point, somebody needs to come up with a more creative approach and/or a more impactful way to facilitate meaningful change

I don't have the answers, but as an outsider it seems like the grief process needs to move beyond complaining and personal attacks, to something that evokes/demands a meaningful response from the responsible party. If someone is not going to take accountability on their own, then like it or not the responsibility falls upon those harmed to find a way to make it happen.

His business is nothing more than a hack. He found a niche market in which there is virtually no competition so he can get away with trash products.

The whole digital art is a blessing for him, he can now produce new playfields even faster. Who cares about misprints, alignment issues etc etc.

Lets say you were "personally impacted" on your $10k-$12k pin and you ask both Micro and Jack about the issue's happening to you and they both tell you:
1- Micro: "there's nothing wrong here"
2- Jack: "Playfield issues are the owner's fault, here's a pack of washers"

So of course you are going to get a slew of negative posts because both parties are ignoring you and many others on the issues. Plus, how can you make a
"constructive idea" when they refuse to acknowledge it in the first place.

Whilst I don't disagree with your post, with the quality of product he puts out and the denial of responsibility people are going to complain and rightfully so. With the internet we also have a lot of keyboard warriors out there so you have to take that into consideration as well.

Keep in mind that Mirco has put out pf with quality issues. He's also put out RadCals with quality issues (panels different colors, holes not lined up) and now his TOTAN 2.0 reveal was a failure. The guy doesn't care about quality!

Valid point as, it's my understanding, that JJP parted ways with Baldor (apologies if spelled wrong) and has no option for pf then Mirco. To take in house then that would be a big undertaking not to mention the cost to set it up. He's stuck with Mirco till someone else comes along.

At some point I'm sure Mirco was getting his hands dirty, or paying someone to get their hands dirty. I've seen plenty of HEP videos. Real, solvent-based clearcoat is caustic, hands-on, unforgiving work. Mirco found a way to automate the dirty work, customers be damned. If robots can only shoot water-based clear, "who cares?"

Just gotta vote with your wallet. I don’t buy any of his products anymore.
Enough people do that he will change.
$$$$$$ speaks

The bottom line is that both Micro and JJP will continue to sell playfields and pins regardless of the complaints/issues. It has been posted 100's of times that the only way to get results is to stop purchasing the product.. Lets see what happens when Toy Story is announced/released.

.

Since JJP uses Mirco and JJP changed their warranty to exclude the crappy playfields. I don’t buy anymore JJP either. I don’t care how good Toy Story may or may not be. I don’t like their business practices so they are not getting my money. Hopefully people start voting with their wallet, but jimmy cracked corn and I don’t care, I don’t buy the shit so I don’t have to deal with the problem.

UUhhhh, what a bunch of dumb asses, still giving us their money

download (resized).jpg

Not to defend Mirco..... but it's understandable why he was doing TOTAN 2.0

It's not like JJP doesn't know there's a problem, they're just waiting until they have another option (IMO). It has to be the bane of their existence to hear over and over from their customers that the PF's suck. If it wasn't for that one issue, they'd have it made. They have to know this better than anyone.

Mirco has to know once their largest customer is gone, they're finished. Time to pivot and go into some other niche (2.0 games). He can't fix his own PF problems or he'd have done it already. The writing is on the wall and he knows it.

I think you're giving him too much credit. TOTAN 2.0 was a flop at TPF. Reading the post that the game wasn't even playable for the vast majority of the show.

As stated above, playfields aren't his only product that he has QC issues with. RadCals and TOTAN 2.0 also have their issues.

Granted JJP is his biggest customer but JJP also is still putting out one game every two years. Up till GnR they weren't exactly blowing games out the door. POTC production was low and only became a big deal once no one could get them anymore as JJP said they wouldn't make them. Wonka sat at dist. till FOMO set in!

Ultimately, BMW time is over - everyone put their heads together and figure out what can actually be done about the problem and take action. Personally, if I was impacted by it I would be relentless, but venting in an open forum is just the first step.

Yeah but, essentially: If it's printed, Mirco can't make it properly.
I have just seen so many rats try and jump off the ship at various companies they destroy.... it makes me think the same thing here.

What would be curious (to me) is: If we removed his reputation, PF's, etc.... and it was someone else with the TOTAN 2.0, would people be excited and patient for it? Probably yes.
If Mirco's printing business is going down the drain imminently, then it makes sense to try and diversify to survive.
There has to be some pinhead who is looking at this problem and thinking to themselves "yeah I can fix this problem and make some money off it" and start a new company to kill off Mirco.

i don't know the solution as I am not an expert in clear coating, but hobbit playfields had no issues, what changed? Stern had similar issues, they seem to have figured it out. Spooky too if I recall. CGC never had any issues like this, what do they do differently?

They don't use mirco

Here's a factory tour of churchill, and it looks like they do playfields in-house for CGC:

https://www.pinballnews.com/site/2019/11/20/inside-chicago-gaming/

[edit]: Doug goes into some details here on their playfields:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ccr-cactus-canyon-remake-hype-thread/page/76#post-6598704

exactly, there you go. But stern did have significant pooling and chipping issues and I don't think they were using Mirco. I don't know how they fixed it in terms of process or materials, but what you do notice is that playfields now have a much thinner coat. I think the correction started with EHOH as I recall asking GG about it at expo in 2019 and he told me my playfield would be perfect, and it was.

Yeah, I know...I was half kidding.

I did find a link from Doug at CGC which offered more details about their production process.

Not to mention how many kits are you going to sell? Limited by both the small number of games and smaller number of people willing to cough up the money for the kit.

Are you talking lawsuits? That's always a possibility but it's a lot more expensive and time-consuming than complaining on a forum.

I don't know if legal action is the answer or not (I did not intend to imply anything specific). Sometimes it's about getting to the right people who do have influence over someone and persuading them to action. Sometimes it's figuring out how to impact them financially to the point where they take action. Sometimes it's about their reputation suffering to the point where they take action. Sometimes it may be a combination or some other means entirely (including legal action).

I have offered numerous advice over the years about the 300+ playfields done by me over the last 15 years. Never had any of the problems he has at times using uv ink & finish clear coats. I cannot blame the robots, none used by me for playfield production.

The thing is, game manufacturers need speed and volume. There are very few shops that can create playfields at the quantities and speeds necessary (ie, thousands per year, rather than just 20 per year).

Mirco put himself in the position of being able to do that, and likely at a pretty attractive price, compared to shops that would have to do most of the work manually.

It'll sell like hot cakes !

Or in my case you get attacked here on the forum by the distributor who lied to you.

A bunch of amateurs, the lot of them

Exactly

Let me fill you in on the pinball hobby

Company announces kick ass product...
people will trip over themselves to pay for it before they can even touch it.. 3x as much if it's believed to be limited or hard to get

Company announces product and puts it in the hands of people to try
People will gripe, moan, and nitpick it to pieces.

Totan 2.0 looks to be in trouble because of bad product choices (display path), rushed to market, and what looks like hack-job hardware compared to what a 2.0 project COULD be. It's got bad product management marks all over it.

It's a reflection on his inability to professionally bring a product to market - where in the past all he had to do was get the PFs on a website and people would buy.

I got one of the first funhouse 2.0 kits. So far I'm pretty impressed hopefully Pedretti sets the standard for 2.0 kits going forward. Ive seen enough of the totan kit to know it was either rushed or put together by people who put no pride in their work.

He had to hurry home to lube up his robot.

His AFMs were pretty good

bad mirco (resized).jpg

I don't know why that is so difficult. What difference does it make if Mirco admitted to any faults or not? He could say "oops, sorry about that" and nothing would change. If you know his products are junk, don't buy them. That's the only solution.

hell, at this point...
"under the advice of legal counsel; I choose not to answer" would have been better than what he did.

That said; he is clearly just interested in selling you the next PF or 2.0 kit so that he can continue making money from the "unsuspecting", trusting souls in the hobby. There are a lot of them.

Buff right out!

And this shit head will be manufacturing the Toy Story play fields?

Same reason I did not buy GnR or Quicksilver

Mirco will never change unless manufacturers like Jack stop using them as a supplier. And that would require Jack to trust his customers more than his suppliers. And that will never happen unless it hits his bottom line.

We need to get started right now with the Toy Story bashing before anybody decides to buy one!!!

Meh. I’m fine with letting the next shitshow play out. Between the ‘screw you’ warranty, dropping Lloyd and Butch, forcing folks to buy buy buy after buying ( I’m looking at you, at cost(?)playfields!), and ignoring the success of others in fixing pf issues in general, and I could not care less about a Pixar cartoon…well; ya gets what ya pays fer. In this case, you don’t!

The biggest problem is that as soon as Toy Story is announced, a large majority will forget all about the playfield issues until they open their NIB Toy Story and the playfield quality is still piss poor.

And that is because every theme is a “dream theme” to someone….then there are those that feel they have to keep up with the Jone’s and then add in the flippers…been happening with every new release for a while.