Quoted from PinballAlley:The notice was headed as "New Language on the front of the service and operations manual." That as the pinball market continues to expand globally that they needed to add language to the front cover of service and operations manuals. "The language is intended to inform new participants in pinball about common occurrences associated with the game including dimpling, crazing, and ghosting." Stern goes on to further assure that "The language does not impact our warranty coverage." We stand behind our products and services. I must state that in my years of dealing with Stern , they have been great when it comes to making things right. I have had only one issue that was contentious. In the end Stern saw that I felt strongly about the issue and gave in. Because of this I must give the guys at Stern the benefit of the doubt. I have no unhappy Stern customers to date. I must admit that the notice left a queasy feeling in my stomach. Perhaps there is a "Legalese" issue with overseas rules and regulations that made the legal department deem this necessary. Right now there is too little to speculate. The real point of my post was that it is always best to err on the side of caution. In this case, look at what you are going to buy before you pay for it.
-J
The voice of reason. Thanks for jumping into the fire and giving us some much needed info and answers.
Pinside (especially fuel seekers), love to bring out the pitchforks at a moments notice. And there is a higher standard to quality as newer, more wealthier, investment collectors join the hobby.
That all said; it is no secret that 'something' has changed with the way stern is manufacturing their playfields. It's a revolving door of issues when it comes to pinball; fix one issue, another arises, and so forth. If stern still does replacement programs and supports customers as they have in the past, which I suspect they will, then they should have no problem continuing to sell pins. But, the experience and all that had occurred in 2016 + this new policy + continued price increases has put a sour taste in a lot of our mouths making it a tougher pill to swallow moving forward with nib purchases (from all manufacturers). I hope they, all of them, continue to support the snot out of these newer higher priced pins as they have in the past but there are gray lines in policies and warranties.
Only time will tell what the future of our hobby holds, but hopefully people who are so easy to burn these manufacturers with no intent to buy or support, take a few steps back from the hobby and let the ones who do buy + support products do what their desire wills.
Plantsville, CT
