It's called venting. Also, in some cases, that is the only way you get them to take notice.

It is very discouraging to see this, especially on a machine with only 100 run? Zero reason for lack of QA.

If they don't they should. It costs them more to fix it later than fix it up front. Don't make excuses for poor quality on high priced items. I don't care who the company is or what their overhead is. All the companies everyone hates is due to that simple fact - they knew about an issue and chose to not worry about it rather than just fix it (because it might cost them money and time).

If this was an isolated issue, then it might be excusable, but it isn't.

If I was Primus and I had commissioned these, I would be upset and probably never do it again with that company.

Now, if Stern is quickly remediating the situation, then that is fine. However, in the bigger picture and everything else we see happening with parts it doesn't look good.

I don't know, seems like it would make sense to play the hell out of one of them (not going to customers) to check for any bad parts, before going and making them all. This particular issue isn't a few years of play, this is a few days. It looks bad. The whole "i've been in this for decades and it is just how it is" doesn't cut it when you are dealing with people who aren't pinheads who just dropped 8k on a toy. Pride and quality is a lost art these days.

This is the problem with analogies. Child seats cost considerably less, have many different manufacturers to buy from, and if a childseat fails, those people will sue for millions. Not really an option with pinball machines. The best we can do is complain and hope things get better or just not buy.

Just like the monkey, right?

I don't agree with this at all. You are basically dismissing anyone who is concerned about quality. It doesn't matter if someone has bought or not because after you buy it, it is too late. Regardless of this pin or any pinball it's the wrong attitude to have. I'm not outraged, but every new thing that pops up (which is a good thing to know about) further tells me not to waste my money on bad products. You can take that and have the 'better off that way' all you want, it doesn't change the fact that the use case for these things have changed and the majority of people have an expectation of some sort of quality. I'm expressing my dismay and yes it will impact future purchase decisions, and not in a good way. if the goal is to make less people buy machines, then sure, I guess that attitude works. Not everyone is so addicted that they'll dismiss every little thing with some excuse.

P.S.: I am not discounting the fact they are replacing the parts (which they should be), that isn't the issue here, but this is one more example of shoddy workmanship.

Pinside: laughs off and defends shoddy build parts and prices. Judges and condemns what people do with their machines complaining how it 'washes out the art'.

Well duh, if you wanted it working out of the box you need to pay another $8k