[WITHDRAWN]

As someone who used to complain about Stern's ridiculously short warranty, they seem to largely ignore the timelines, routinely providing service for games that are in some cases years old.

Correct, except you can in fact add whatever nonsense you want. The manufacturer still has to show that the defect you are reporting was caused specifically by your mod(s), and the remainder of the warranty remains intact. Manufacturers try hard to convince users otherwise and blatantly lie to you ("Opening this [whatever] will void the warranty") but the law is the law.

I didn't write the law. I'm just here to tell people it exists, and is intended to be consumer-friendly. If you don't choose to take advantage of it and instead take pinball manufacturers at their word that you cannot alter anything without voiding your warranty, you certainly have the choice to do that.

I think one of the many reasons so many people have left Pinside is this weird fetish-like corporate-worship that goes on here. The Manufacturer Gatekeepers of Pinside®, here to invent fictitious scenarios that have never happened nor will ever happen in the real world. I don't get it.

In reality, the manufacturer has no idea what mods you have in your game nor what you did to cause a defect. NO IDEA. They don't come out to your house to inspect your machine, unbeknownst to apparently several in this thread. Know what they do instead? Ship you the part you need. Because they DGAF as much as you think they do. Ask me how I know. Unlike some of the folks in this thread, I speak from experience. And this applies in nearly every scenario inside and outside of pinball.

The point of this post was to inform the many pinsiders who don't have a clue how warranty coverage works and the laws that cover you for altering or repairing your machine, that you are protected and feel free to make changes to your game w/o worry that installing a 3rd party shaker, for example, voids the whole machine's warranty. And yes, this specifically includes mods. Just like your car's warranty remains intact if you add on a 3rd party exhaust, your machine's warranty is protected if you add a non-factory shaker. While a pinball mfg can try to prove that you caused the defect, they can't do this if they can't inspect the machine. Period. However, with a car, the manufacturer has a higher rate of succeeding in a warranty denial claim on account of a mod because in most cases it's still attached to your car when you bring it in - they are in a position to prove your mod caused the defect. Pinball manufacturers are not doing this. In fact, most manufacturers don't do this. That's why they put the "opening this voids your warranty" - because otherwise 99% of the time they'd have no idea you caused the problem.

TL;DR: Read the law (Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act) for yourself. Be aware it exists, and protects you. That's the point of the thread.

[WITHDRAWN]

There seems to be some confusion here. I'm not trying to win an argument. I realize that's the Pinside way of discussion. I couldn't care less. If you want to interpret the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act to have all sorts of strawmen gotchas and it stops you from filing a warranty claim, you have the freedom to do this. If you wish to use the law's protections, you also can do this. Nothing anyone claims here matters at all. Not the lawyer guy. Not the guy who posts in every single thread on Pinside. All that matters is the law. I don't need to cite case law or prove any point in this thread to make use of the Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act. I posted that the law exists, that many Pinsiders (as this thread has hammered home) are confused about warranty coverage, and so I invite you to read the law and take your own actions. Don't let corporate-worshippers and gatekeepers convince you that your warranty claim is invalid. That's all.