(Topic ID: 272125)

Mirco Playfields - WARNING for potential buyers

By Kobaja

3 years ago


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  • Latest reply 8 days ago by vec-tor
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Topic index (key posts)

31 key posts have been marked in this topic, showing the first 10 items.

Display key post list sorted by: Post date | Keypost summary | User name

Post #583 Mirco failure photos. Posted by ForceFlow (2 years ago)

Post #703 Alternate Playfield Restoration service Posted by petebest (1 year ago)

Post #795 List of Mirco playfield issues by HEP Posted by High_End_Pins (1 year ago)

Post #896 Response form PPS concerning playfield issues Posted by PPS (1 year ago)

Post #940 Response from Mirco Posted by Highclasspinball (1 year ago)

Post #1045 Peeling clearcoat Posted by Warzard (1 year ago)

Post #1096 quicksliver clearcoat failure under posts Posted by gdonovan (1 year ago)

Post #1097 Black Knight clearcoat failure under posts Posted by wolffcub (1 year ago)

Post #1119 Example of another playfield company standing behind their products Posted by ForceFlow (1 year ago)

Post #1123 Response from Mirco Posted by Highclasspinball (1 year ago)


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#125 3 years ago
Quoted from pinballmachine:

I have read this topic with great interest. I want to order a playfield for my scared stiff from mirco soon. So far communication is going well. I also asked if i am not satisfied if I can return it and that was no problem. I also don't find any crazy messages on his facebook page
When i see the pictures on the forum i am worried because it is a ā‚¬ 1000,- . I have specially created an account on Pinside to be able to give my feedback when i recieved my playfield.
regards

Don't do it, wait for a decent 2nd hand playfield or CPR/NOS. Mirco is a shark/shonk. Does not stand by his product, has all the excuses in the world, does not take any blame for issues which are clearly Mirco's fault. I have two of his playfields, one is drilled incorrectly, the other had clearcoat issue which cost me 100's of dollars to repair. A poor or faulty product is one thing, but his #@$%*^! poor attitude and customer service is even worse. Just makes my blood boil.

1 week later
#161 3 years ago
Quoted from Bundy:

No, I am simply stating my experience with Mirco.

I'm happy to provide my contrary experience in detail to prove not every experience is rosy. Mirco is a fucking ass clown! I'm sure more people have had positive than negative experiences, but the gap between the two seems to be significant. When shit hits the fan, Mirco is not someone to be replied upon. It's great if you've had a positive experience as he does offer an important service to the pinball community, but there will be plenty here screaming "we told you so" the day things don't go so well for you.

7 months later
#241 2 years ago
Quoted from Kobaja:

Just making sure this is not forgotten.

Love your work Sprudel!!

#247 2 years ago
Quoted from JodyG:

He's giving a 9AM presentation at Expo this year...that would be a good time to ask him in person.

Man!!! What I would to do meet this clown face to face.......

1 week later
#256 2 years ago
Quoted from mufcmufc:

You wouldn't, he's like a politician - always defensive, never gives a straight answer, always someone else's fault and zero chance of admitting any liability.

My experience exactly. Just flat out refused to acknowledge any fault at his end. Was beyond frustrating.

Would simply never put another dollar in his pocket and am happy to go out of my way to warn others. Just a dirty shark.

2 weeks later
#275 2 years ago
Quoted from meSz:

did he back out or did he have to cancel? I know the EU has restrictions on flying to the US.

Maybe the the US has restrictions on letting crooks in?

#286 2 years ago
Quoted from thechakapakuni:

The fact you had to clearcoat over a brand new Playfield doesnā€™t sound like a great experience to me. Isnā€™t CPR in Canada?

I had to re-clear my brand new Mirco playfield, it was soft 6+ months after production. Micro believed that was perfectly acceptable

2 months later
#334 2 years ago
Quoted from kruzman:

I agree, with an asterisk. My process is 650/750 wide. The pf mirco provides is a little misleading by the name (but he is gerrman). Its just like a ford mustang. you can buy it stock, or you can supe it up to 600 hp and race the hell out of it. If he did a clear like mine he would have to add AT LEAST 7 or 8 hours just to sand the last coat and polish it and clean it (not including sealing it) and the price would be way too high.
I believe mirco pfs are what they are. His print is as close to screening as it could be and very good. You should know what you are getting. if you dont know what to expect, send me an email, I will tell you.
Now when it comes to buying a $10, 000 dollar game and the pf looks bad and has flaws, that would bind my panties for sure!!!! Lucky for us its a hobby, and we do have options. Back in the 1980's you couldnt buy a good american car, and no performance, so we restored and built our own. Now days they are made, but too expensive for me, so again, I invest the sweat and time and build and dial in something my self. There have never been the parts and free info for restoring a pin like there is now. I bought my first game in 82, and if you needed a rubber, where you gonna get one? No internet. after years of a dead machine I found a mag with pin resource in the back. So at least I could find some of the parts. Just 10 years ago the only repro pfs were like 3 titles gene made with IPB, found only at shows, and you cant imagine how off the colors were, the screening has chunks all over, the back was not dimpled and on EBD the holes fro the GI were not wide enough for the can to go thru. Not to mention the clear.
We have the options available. If you like elite, nice stuff that is better than most folks, you have to do it custom in everything! You cant buy a show car at the dealership. At least we have so many people making parts now. many of them are guys in their garage (like me)
So it is unfortunate that if you want the best clear in the hobby, it cost you another 650, and I am always the last to raise my price. I set my prices as low as I can to stay in business. Thats it. seriously, I make so little I am well below the yearly poverty line of 28K a year, and I am known around the world. I dont even own one of my own pfs installed because I cant afford it. So I know what a bummer that extra money is. Though when you invest that money, you end up with something that is better than ANY others, and I have made sure will stay that way for a long time. People pay more for a cell phone for the kids to play with and drop. Pinball is getting or got stupid expensive, Mircos price is reasonable. 10 grand games with a crap pf are not reasonable. the good thing is we can build our own.
I will get off my soap box. I am not trying to fight or even defend mirco. I just wanted to say this and maybe a couple people will hear me. Trust me I understand not being able to own a game that cost over 3 grand. Lucky for me there are a lot of titles I like before DMD. So I write this with love and a positive angle.

If you aren't making a reasonable profit while being regarded as one of the best in the industry, it's time to raise your prices Kruzman.

My biggest knock on Mirco isn't his product, it's his customers service, just atrocious. Both of my Mirco playfields had fundamental issues, but I had to resolve them myself as Mirco refused to acknowledge the issue may have been a production problem. That said, once fixed, they look and play beautifully.

1 month later
#362 2 years ago
Quoted from Jecco74:

CPR playfields are no better. I have a restored Medusa done in 2018 with a CPR Gold playfield from 2016. The wood is shrinking and the inserts are raising. The machine has always been in a house or temperature controlled warehouse.

I think most people concede manufacturing from any company be it Stern, Mirco, JJP, Spooky etc are fraught with potential danger. What puts Mirco in a category of his own, is his utter dismissal of customer issues. My personal experience and many others, he just doesn't GAF.

1 month later
#416 2 years ago
Quoted from nerdygrrl:

You are correct. I just went back to look they made the announcement in 3/19 and the PF was from 12/17 which I guess makes it even worse if it was one of their screened PF's and not a first run of the digital as I had remembered. The ink adherence or lack thereof was unlike anything I have seen in my years collecting.

I have a CPR WW playfield lying around waiting to be used. Ink adhering beautifully!

11 months later
10
#939 1 year ago

Mirco has cost me countless dollars fixing issues which he refused to acknowledge. His willingness to pass the buck, typically placing blame directly upon me was beyond infuriating. I will never deal with this asshole ever again and anyone who backs his bullshit and negligence can eat shit!! Goodnight.

12
#969 1 year ago
Quoted from Highclasspinball:

As I stated above. If you are a REAL customer who bought a repro playfield from me, you are welcome to send me an email to my email adress listed above.
Regards,
Mirco

I did... and was utterly fobbed off. Like many other scorn customers of yours, I've been happily and proactively warning potential clients ever since.

I have a couple of Micro repro's. My most recent I spent a bunch of cash correcting the clearcoat which was downright garbage. Now however, it's gorgeous. A lot of what Mirco do is absolutely fantastic, the rest makes me want to run into him in a dark alley. Pull your head out of your ass and become a pinball supplier that people love!

1 month later
#1192 11 months ago
Quoted from hool10:

I'm currently doing a restoration of a Bram Stoker's Dracula with a new Mirco pf. Everything is fine so far pretty much except for some pilot holes being slightly off which isn't a huge thing. This isn't "in the files" to do slight adjustments to the rails on the side of the pf. So he certainly does minor adjustments.
What would you folks suggest I do to prevent any issues from happening with the clearcoat? My JJP GnR: SE had terrible pooling/chipping even with silicone/PETG washers.
[quoted image][quoted image]

Personal experience... do not place ANY trust in Mirco's clearcoat!!!!! If you're wanting to keep the pin long term, bite the bullet and have someone (who knows what they're doing) re clear it.

#1196 11 months ago
Quoted from sethbenjamin:

ā€¦but if the problem lies with topcoat adhesion (or, as we have seen, print layer adhesion, or both), how does applying an additional layer of clear solve anything?
The new layer of clear would be applied over a compromised base, and would delaminate along with whatever underneath it is losing purchase on the base surface.
This is the thing that makes me wary about using Mirco playfields. If there is something causing the printing or the topcoat to detach from the surface, thereā€™s really nothing to be done about it. Itā€™s a catastrophic failure.

Hence why I said "someone who knows they're doing". From memory my guy essentially entirely removed Mirco's clearcoat and started again. Looks amazing now. Zero wear, zero cracks, zero pooling.

#1237 11 months ago
Quoted from sethbenjamin:

Don't misunderstand, Iā€™m not trying to challenge the validity of your statement. I'm glad you've got a trouble-free playfield!
From my experience (as someone who likes to think he knows what heā€™s doing (couple dozen full restorations, full spray booth, taught by a professional finisher), itā€™s hard to imagine how anyone could remove all of the topcoat without damaging the art layer below. Again, I say I "like to think I know what I'm doing" not to be snarky, just by way of saying I do this work as well. I'm always ready to learn new things though, and reach out to other people doing finishing. I'm by no means an expert.
On the other hand, what you're bringing up raises interesting questions for me: was your playfield one that would have held up well regardless? It isnā€™t *every* Mirco that fails, after all.
Or, did the finisherā€™s work help the playfield longevity more from removing some of the clearcoat? (i.e., a thinner layer is less prone to cracking or lifting.)
I agree with other comments here that clear coat applied too thick invites problems. It didnā€™t seem terribly heavy to me on the WH2O playfield I installed, though - but that's only an isolated example.
Kruzmanā€™s process is highly regarded, but it also takes a few months. On the other hand, given how many people are allowing months or a year of ā€œcure timeā€ on playfields anyway, if new playfields needed that from the factory, I bet buyers would respect a lag time between time of purchase and date of delivery. Certainly better than feeling like they had to then spend additional money to have someone redo the topcoat.
Mirco, if you are listening: there are people out here like me who see the quality you are striving for and respect it. If you cannot work with individual owners to replace defective playfields - you say these are very few in number, so it shouldn't be enough to hurt your business - then you shouldn't be selling playfields, just stick with JJP production runs. I want to buy your products, but I need to know that they are reliable and that on the rare chance that I receive defective merchandise, you will stand by your product. Seriously.

I hear what you're saying I've done a number of complete resto's also, there is no way I could have resolved this myself though.

The "trouble free" playfield was actually a massive pain in the ass. I got absolutely shafted by Mirco, he refuted my claims, refusing to acknowledge any issue, leaving me to spend MANY $100's of dollars to resolve. I've since gone out of my way to turn people away from supporting this monumental ass clown. Regarding your questions of my playfield. I had line art missing which I don't care too much about, the clearcoat however after waiting 6 months to cure was still soft. Like soft soft. There was also distinct sinking of clear around majority of the inserts. I know another Aussie who bought the same repro approx the same time. Did a full playfield swap only to have excessive pooling on every post, resulting in clearcoat cracking, absolute mess. From memory, Mirco did offer a solution of sorts with him. Still a disheartening and huge waste of time.

In all honesty I probably shouldn't be promoting re-clearing so haphazardly as a reliable solution. My clearcoat guy was very hesitant to even touch it. I do know however, majority of the Mirco clearcoat was removed. Exact details I don't recall, but it's thankfully been perfect since. Kruzman seems to be the world guru on all things clearcoat, pinball is lucky to have such experts to clean up the inadequacies of douche bags like Mirco.

2 months later
#1311 9 months ago
Quoted from cottonm4:

I'm not sure if this is the right "Mirco Sucks" thread so if I am in the wrong place please let me know.
3 years ago I sent Mirco a very rare play field to reproduce. 3 years !!!! I can't get the man off the dime. We have gone beyond the being nice to each other bullshit phase.
I have told him several times to just send the play field back and I would pay for the shipping.
I finally called him out for his 3 years of excuses of not reproducing this play field. He says Jersey Jack is keeping him busy. OK, Mirco, I get it. You can't do the job. Just send it back. He pretty much told me to fuck off.
I told him I have no idea if he will be taking another 1, or 2, or 3 years to produce this play field.
And now he ghosts me when I send him an email.
How do I get some action out of this lying POS ?
Thoughts? Ideas?
Thanks

It's just bloody anger now that I feel when reading Mirco threads. How this crook is still able to do business, sheltered by JJP is fucking astonishing. Asshole doesn't come close to covering this clown. His sheer arrogance, ambivilance to customer complaints, unwillingness to recognise issues and resolve them and an unwavering inclination to hide behind physical distance to majority of the world. Such a shame.

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