Long night...

So I took possession of a NIB Beatles Platinum today. Got it unboxed after work and moved it downstairs. I have moved many pinball machines before. Everything was done according to the many YouTube videos I have been watching obsessively as I awaited the arrival of my first NIB game. Everything went perfectly until it was time to get the playfield up and install the tilt bob. So close to being done and ready to play, and then I noticed the playfield.

First off, it wasn't sitting in the correct position. I could tell that right away. The front clips were not set into the lockdown bar and the whole playfield looked way too far "back" in the cabinet. When I tried to lift it into the service position, it just felt wrong. We did get it tilted up enough (see my pics below) to figure out that the table "pivot pins" were not riding on the track. Rather, they were underneath the track. Also, the plastic in the upper right corner was snapped off at one place. I have included a pic of that as well.

So, what do I do here? Is there an easy way to get this playfield out of the cabinet and up onto the track or is it super tricky. I just spent a lot of money here and I am not interested in scratching the thing all up before I ever play it acting like an idiot. Also, the broken plastic - will Stern replace it or will I have to buy a new one? Any guidance about this would be much appreciated, as I don't want to make a bigger mess out of this than it already is. I own 4 other pinball machines already so I am not totally green here. I just don't want to go attempting to move that playfield around and scratch up the side blades or whatever.

please tell me I am over-reacting and that this is an easy fix...

Cheers,

Tim In Motown

20210428_004806 (resized).jpg

20210428_004815 (resized).jpg

20210428_005908 (resized).jpg

OK Cottonm4, I am asking how you know although I am assuming that you have been through some permutation of this issue before. At least I am not alone in this.

In regard to the comments about whether this could have happened during shipping, all I can say is that when we got the legs on and had the table "up" I looked at it and thought something was odd for several reasons:
1. The clips at the front of the playfield that fit into the notches on the lockdown bar assembly were not there. they were a couple inches forward from the lockdown bar with the rest of the playfield.
2. The entire playfield was far enough toward the back of the cabinet that I could see the shooter rod quite well.
3. The upper end of the playfield was pitched LOWER than the front end.

Why didn't I notice this before this point? Because the entire edge of the playfield glass was covered in blue shrink wrap, as it always is for shipping. Couldn't really see before that was gone and, as I said, I was doing everything in the order I had learned from unboxing videos from YouTube.

The scratches on the right side of the support bracket are likely from either my initial moving of the playfield or the subsequent moving forward and back by my brother and I as we tried to ascertain if we could get the playfield over the rails somehow. Meaning: could we pull it far enough forward or far enough backward to get clear of the rails to set the playfield pivots back on them. After a few moments of this I just stopped and took the pictures because I didn't want to scratch my art blades or anything else all up. Not interested in paying for a new game and hen being responsible for screwing it up before it is ever plugged in so we just decided to call it a night.

Not really sure you have any idea about how I did these things based on the pictures I posted. Odd.

Anyway, I am calmer now in the light of morning and it seems from everyone's comments that I can get this fixed myself carefully, so that is what I will do when I get a chance and have another set of hands with me. I was just super concerned last night because it seems very tight in the cabinet with not a lot of play between the playfield and the sides. I will update once I can try to follow your suggestions.

OK got this resolved last night once I had a second set of hands to help me. We just took the playfield and CAREFULLY rotated it up toward vertical, making sure nothing important got caught up on the cabinet bottom or sub woofer. Once we had the game on a severe angle we were able to slide the playfield backward so that the mechs cleared the playfield rails. Then we basically pulled straight up - again carefully - and lifted it out and then set it on the rails. About 20 minutes later the code update, topper and knocker were installed and we were playing.

I have been in contact with my distributor and they have been amazing and supportive and I have received an email from Stern regarding the replacement of the broken plastic.

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice on this issue.

20210501_022307 (resized).jpg