One word sums up this entire rant. Expectations. It's clear to me that nothing is going to make you happy. Blaming others makes people feel superior.

If you know anything at all about pinball, you should know that buying a $8,000 pinball toy is not the same as other $8K adult consumer toys.

Depending on how anal you are, pinball requires tweaking, leveling, updating code, replacing balls and rubber rings (yeah), fixing the mistakes the assembly line made, tightening screws, adjusting guides, replacing bulbs, and yes, sometimes EVEN REPLACING PARTS OUT OF THE BOX! Sounds like you are very picky so I would suggest that your game is going to need a lot of this attention.

So, you are now angry and shaking your fist at Stern. This has nothing to do with Stern. This has nothing to do with Kiss pinball.

Who is to blame again?

Sounds like you wanted to buy new in box because you expected the game to be "ready and up to your standards". The reality is, you should have bought a home use only game from a collector that is just as anal as you because they would have worked out the bugs already, making everything perfect. TRUST ME, those people are everywhere!

At least pinball machines hold a lot of their resale value. LOL.