Poor quality and Stern go hand in hand. But hey, at least they release all of their games with complete code, right? /s

Stern is a manufacturer. They would prefer to sell freezers for 10k instead of Pinball machines.

some screws fell out and some posts needed tightening, and you call that work?!? seriously?? you're on this forum for 9years that I can see, and you own/owned many games from many manufacturers. so you're not new to this. You MUST know that things loosen in transport. It happens with every game, from every maker, new or used. This is not unique to Stern. It's maybe unique to pinball, and even that's a stretch. If you told me the game lit on fire, or the playfield collapsed into the cabinet, then I can see what you mean. But c'mon.

I sympathize... but not too much.

Pinballs break.

They break a lot.

They are broken fresh out of the box.

They are broken a week later.

They are broken 199 plays later.

They are broken a year later.

The reason you don't see pinball everywhere is not because people don't want to play pinball, it's because the machines require a LOT of repair, and it's darned hard or impossible to find a skilled technician to fix pinballs.

You have been buying pinballs for 25+ years. You know that machines can have problems.

You can pay for a qualified repair technician to service your machines, or do it yourself.

What you can't do is demand that complex things with 3000+ parts not break. Not if you have any connection to reality.

I'm not saying Stern's quality is beyond question or reproach.

But seriously, get the problem with your screws fixed. You've got a great game, and it's worth fixing, so get it fixed. And when it breaks again, fix it again. I've never seen or worked on any pinball that didn't need service eventually, and I've been doing this for a while longer than 25 years.

Philips and blue loc-tite and problem solved faster than it took you to post this.

Easy fix: change the marketing to “fix your own pinball kit - comes with pinball machine!” Sad that every owners thread has the common out of box fixes needed.

Also cheap parts are getting out of hand. People buying NIBs are replacing many parts off the bat. There’s a known list now. Can’t use the coil stops or balls that come with your game. Many people replace the bottom barrel speakers.

I’m not picking just on stern. This is a trend with all of them.

This isn't indicative of poor quality at all. When you get a NIB game, you should go around the playfield and hand-tighten all of the screws and nuts to make sure that they are snug. I would much rather have these posts be slightly loose upon arrival than have them over torqued, and damaging the playfield/parts.

I understand your feelings here OP. For guys that have the time and skills to fix pins, they don't see the big deal. But for the premium we are all paying, it would be nice if Stern took some of those profits and improved their QC. I love Stern, 10x more than JJP, but I can take off my homer glasses and call a spade a spade. They definitely have room to improve QC issues. I have ZERO gripes about the coding and fun of the games though, something JJP can't seem to do at all.

Name a company that doesn’t have these issues.

Pinball is hard. Sorry you’re having troubles.

Saw this on FB as well. I get frustration. But I work for a company that manufacturs big ticket items as well. Very often there are new parts needed or adjustments needed at install. It happens. I totally get the frustration though.
For me the thing that has to be flawless is the playfield.

i gotta say that i had the opposite experience with STh LE. it sat in a box for 9 months and then traveled here across the country by train, fedex truck and uhaul and there wasn't a single loose nut or bolt. one of the stickers on the left ramp standups did come off after like three games and i put it back on- no problems since!

I have bought 4 new games and not had problems. You make me f

I have bought 4 new in box. Had 1 cable not plugged in. No other issues. I feel really lucky when I hear all these issues.

If this is all you have to complain about consider yourself lucky. Pooling, chipping playfields, cabinets falling apart, now those are issues worth worrying about

I have never once seen a thread started for how their NIB game was received and played without issue even though we know there are 1000s of them.

You’re always going to see these types of threads though. Just how it works.

Is this the place to list cheap Stern games for sale?
Or did I misunderstand the title of this thread?

Unfortunately stern is more concerned about playfield damage vs tightening posts down tight enough now. Every new stern game we have purchased in the last few years has had these issues. Once loc-tite is applied problem solved.

seems especially misanthropic to post someone else's scam...

1. Pinball machines break. That’s how it goes.
2. You don’t have to buy Stern’s machines. If the quality is bad, don’t support them. It’s really quite simple.
3. Why do you have to order screws from the factory? Is there no hardware store near by?

This is almost as bad as having a loose coin door lock. Stern should be ashamed.

As crazy at it sounds I've seen humidity changes affect screw tightness in wood. If Stern has higher humidity on the assy line and the game let's say goes to a location with low to no humidity maybe possible if wood shrinks ever so slightly that screws could loosen up more over time?
Wood does expand and contract.

That was one of my favorite threads ever.

How did I miss that one?

Looks like a huge scam. Copied address from a legit site. Domain just registered. Email on the domain is a [email protected].... Which google has links to another scam...

Not sure how to find it, but it was definitely a Spooky game. Alice Cooper I think.

Pinball is very mechanical, things come lose, things break. I have had to work on every single pinball machine I have ever owned. Just a fact of life with these things.

I too am shocked and appalled that a hand made assembly line item with a shitton of parts is not perfect out of the box.

For this reason I don't buy them lest I turn into a screaming Karen like yourself and about 75% of pinside.

Is Stern still a private company? Just wondering because it seems like many of the posters here are investors/part owners in the company instead of consumers.

I once had a Ghostbusters delivered without the leg brackets being threaded for 3/8ths. That's something to complain about. But some loose screws? Lol C'MON kid

Why? I seriously don't understand this kind of frustration. When you receive a NIB game, the very first thing you do is inspect it. I'm not talking about the superficial one before you sign the papers, I mean putting your hands on every single thing inside it. Every post, every ramp, every mech under the playfield, look over every switch, make sure the boards are still attached and all cables are stable after shipping.

Yes, I firmly believe that anything I find was probably put in the box that way. But Stern will never take the level of care and checks that I will when I get it. Plus I never know if it was the first playfield put together by "New guy". Anything "out of spec" gets corrected, the machine gets waxed, and then it is time to play. It's just part of pinball.

Yes looks like one of the many scam sites out there advertising games real cheap. Too bad there are so many scammers and theives!

Regardless of the manufacturer these types of issues should be occurring less often due to these insane prices. If Stern, JJP, etc want to charge all time record high prices then they need to offer top quality.

Clearly not. If people will buy them before even seeing a picture of the game just based on the theme, why do they need to do anything differently?

Whats your logic?

Everyone complains about the prices and the quality yet they keep buying and everything is sold out.

They don't have to do anything.

IF?

With the relatively small run size of pinball machines, the fact that every product's is somewhat unique, and the price point can't justify hand crafting everything, a lot of tried and true manufacturing quality practices just don't apply.

I'm actually really impressed with the level of quality from all of the pinball manufacturers given the constraints.

I really see this as a distributor issue. I know my local distributor is very hands on with people that want the machines to run out of the box... it's also part of that model as a mfg.. the reseller should be the first line of customer support?

Still in my collection.

Correct
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/alice-coopers-nightmare-castle-club-enter-at-own-risk/page/23#post-5099304

That’s right. Wasn’t it’s own thread. Haha. Thanks for sharing.

That was some funny shit! The guy now has a Halloween in is collection, so he must have kissed and made up with Charlie.

My company sends stuff out with loose hardware from time to time. Not even finger tight but backed out. Metal on metal. That’s why they pay me the big bucks to install it I guess.

Sounds stressful. Sell them and buy something else. I don't know about Beatles but JP prem will sell fast and probably get more than you paid for it.

Lol Glad someone picked up on that. And a link to the thread just posted, double cheers.

Doesn’t every one of their games come with a sticker on the latch now because of this saying it’s been checked a lot?

Haha. Oh yeah I think they did do that. Hilarious.

I generally agree that Stern cuts corners like crazy, and sometimes too far. They seem to be getting better and legitimately learn. That's a good thing.

I had to rebuild portions of my recent spooky purchase. Your issues are nothin', bro.

I legitimately enjoy going through a NIB game when getting it and checking screws, switches, connectors, playfield, guides, etc. and then running through all the tests before playing it.

There seems to be a big leap in your logic here. What about the videos makes you get to "bad QC"?
Are the videos shot by the Quality Control team or something?

Is it possible to get these screws from the hardware store or a pinballl supply retailer?