Iphone Xs Max w/ 256GB is $1250, or it's $1450 for 512GB of storage

I ordered from pps and paid early too. But I was told it would arrive for the holiday, while I had family visiting.
Sounds like CGC was overzealous. I'm still waiting for a new ETA. It's a bummer...

No one expects or prefers a bad, rushed product.

Because customers were told their games would be delivered soon (after request for full payment). I don't think they misled on purpose, but since 'pinball is hard', you'd think pin businesses might be more conservative. Also, this is their third remake, and they shipped a bunch of classics, SE's, and LE's....

Frankly, my only REAL frustration is the handling of pre-payments in this hobby.

Well, I've learned a lesson. Regardless of a vendor's first, 3rd, or 50th game, the next time I'm asked for full-payment and told 'it SHOULD ship in two weeks', I'll tell them to call me back once they've got my game in-hand with the shipping labels printed. "It's pinball" is not an excuse for bad business behavior. Misinformation and failed commitments should be unacceptable as the norm.

My impression is that CGC is better and faster than most. But again, my primary comment is around pinball payments (which involves the distributor).
Deposits are already used to mitigate risk/expense, so full-payment shouldn't be requested until the game is available and ready to ship.

Out of curiosity, what are you guys expecting CGC to do about cracked decals?

Since there is 'some' process variance, it makes good sense that they (say) playfields are QA-sorted to justify the LE premium price. It's good, proper marketing.... particularly since it doesn't affect gameplay and you can't demonstrate any real playfield quality improvements on an LE game.

Got my LE setup last week. After ~50 games, I've noticed 3 issues so far:

-- the scoop goes SDTM ~10-20% of the time
-- the center spinner switch stopped working (it worked fine for the first ~25 games)
-- the trough kickout can't kick the ball out properly and fires over an over... after 3-8 tries or shaking the machine, the ball escapes

Mine is the same. If they follow-up and have a suggestion for alignment, I'd be curious to hear about it.

I'm still struggling with the popups on my game. I've had multi-balls time out because it can't kick a new ball into the shooter lane (game gives up trying). I also have the SDTM issue with the scoop every 5-10 balls. I've swapped balls, tested elevations between 6-7.5 degrees, leveled and re-leveled, and set power to 'max'. These issues affect nearly every game played. It's as if the ball is resting in the trough properly and the striker is loose and hitting off-center. It's inconsistent but visibly noticeable.

Short of bending things, is anyone else having this issue and sorted it?

Thanks, I'll try that

Would you mind posting a pic?
This? https://www.amazon.com/Comfort-Zone-Super-Moleskin-Extra/dp/B07FCRHXHF/

I had the same issue. Ball would fly straight-up and hit the scoop lip and drop onto the playfield. I fixed it by addressing the slop/movement between the coil and coilstop. Now it's entirely consistent, straight to the left flipper every time. Apparently there is a product for that:
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/20-9612

I received the same advice but this didn't address the problem.

I was thinking the same... Sensors? Magnets? Lifted playfield... what!?
Seems lame. Would've been relatively easy to address the playfield art change too.
Would love to hear a good reason for why it was designed and left that way.

See my prior post. Put a washer or something between the coil and coilstop. This reduced movement/slop and now my scoop shoots consistently.

https://www.7-zip.org/download.html