Say what you want about Stern, but one thing they have going for them is their tech support. I know we have all been critical of the company for one reason or another (Some deserved, some not), but besides the pinball industry, where do you call tech support and right away get to talk to someone that actually knows how to troubleshoot their products, and isn't just reading a menu off of a screen? Luckily I don't have to talk to them often, but yesterday I was running into an issue on an older S.A.M. game that just had me perplexed. After trading a couple of emails with symptoms/suggestions, Pat called me direct and was able to walk me through a troubleshooting process that I was overlooking because of stubbornness. I had it in my head a new part was functioning correctly because it was new. In reality, that new part wasn't working in this machine for some reason I am still trying to figure out. I overlooked the obvious testing because of that assumption, and it would have taken me a long time to come to that realization. As I said, this was a game that was many years out of warranty, and I am probably the third or fourth owner. I have had this type of experience with Stern and JJP before, and it is always good to know they are willing to help with a challenge. Not trying to be a shill, but if we are going to complain about what is bad, we need to also recognize what is right.

Same tech support...not sure about warranty. The tech support guys are always willing to help with one of their games no matter how old.

I think some folks here are confusing customer service with tech support. I will readily admit Stern can sometimes be less than a stellar in customer service. General questions about code, artwork, parts, quality, etc....those all go through customer service. I was referring to Technical Support. These are the guys you call when you have an electrical gremlin, or some other functional issue. They know the games inside and out, and they work with you to figure out the issue and get the game back functional.

Maybe....but I think like any company they have their good and their bad. I see a lot of complaints scattered around Pinside, and I always have to keep in mind we only hear one side of the story. Taking them at face value, there are many complaints that I would say are valid, but then there are a lot that I personally believe result from unrealistic expectations. We want what we want when we want it, but we don't often stop to put ourselves on the other side of the issue and look at it from a different view. Like I said, I am not lumping every gripe into this category...god knows some of the Stern folks are their own worst enemy, but we unfortunately tend to lump them all together.