This sounds like the auto industry back in the 70's. Bad QC and the little guys got a foot hold and became the major players.

I'm gonna assume that's a no further comment

Check one of my last posts in this thread for an example of recent JJP cracked cabinets. It was typically ignored by posters of certain persuasions. It seems I got called out as a Stern lover for some basic comments and interpretations. Crazy spin considering only two of the six pins listed in my collection are Stern. There's a real negative side on the forum here. I should know better than to have posted in these type of threads; it's not worth it.

No obvious succession plan in place and the average age of upper level management is mid to late 60's/early 70's.

Scorched earth policy is the interim short term strategy with broader long term consequences.

Price everyone out of the market but the most hardcore home collectors who will overlook/justify QC and other manufacturing defects combined with alienating the one segment (operators) who are the only viable option in revitalising the hobby with new entrants and mainstream appeal.

I really hope stern doesn't go out of business. If they do all the W/B pins will skyrocket band I'll never be able to buy any.

Stern isn't going out of business because of 25-30 jerks on Pinside that want to spew their unwarranted non factual hate about them trust me. Stern is kicking Ass and taking names right now in the pinball industry.

Dude, no offense but Stern deserves to go belly up. The won't but they deserve to. Their prices are astronomical and the quality has gone to shit and they refuse to complete the rules of a pin . The only thing saving them is that their games are finally equal to or greater to , in most cases,the old W/B games. Why you continue to defend them So aggressively to the point of calling names amazes me. If you bought a mew car and the bumper fell off 2 weeks after you bought it or none of the lights worked or the paint peeled off and they ignored you when you told them about it or sent you some tape or some touch up paint wouldnyou defend the auto dealer? Probably not. You would be pissed. Whatever, I have no skin in the game as I will never buy new. As a used car dealer it seems stupid to buy new bit if no one did there would be no used. Have a good weekend.

Sorry James, you can keep buying those POS W/B pins all day long. Just kidding old timer but Stern ain't going nowhere.

Can anybody tell me who is going to push them out? It's comical.

The solution to the cracked cabinets problem cost me $20 per pin. Agreed I shouldn't have to even spend that on a new pin but otherwise my GB and AS have had no problems at all. They are a blast to play and I am very pleased overall with both.
Let's give Stern a chance to acknowledge the problem and a little more time to fix it. Stern will be around a long long time I hope.

Nevermind

Thank you for some common sense. Good lord.

I'll add BM66 to that list and its a blast fest.

"Stern deserves to go belly up"?

Wtf do you think is going on with the rest of the hobby?

I love my Stern pins and I'm not calling anybody names!

The quality hasn't gone to shit, period. I have a TWDLE, GBLE, BM66LE and and now ASLE and i have ZERO issue with the quality.

I also have 4 B/W pins. Sorry but I play my Stern pins 10x more.

I have 4 new Sterns also, no quality problems here either and mine have all been built in the so called "terrible quality" years!

Stern is not ignoring people, they are taking care of customers with bad playfields and if your cabinet falls apart they will make that right also for you!

It's the most overblown pile of BS ever. Shit happens and needs to be fixed. And they do.

If anybody thinks another pinball maker can do it better for less, then they are clueless.

JJP still announces a pin and can't get it out the door 8 months later.

We aren't in the F ing 90's where TAF produced 25k machines? Want a pin? It's a different world today. Sorry

Exactly and this thread has been nothing but crickets the past week, where are all the bad cabinets at haters???

It's people like these 25 or 30 on here that gives pinball a black eye, I really wish they'd find a new hobby if they hate this one so much. It's seriously pathetic, like you said....a 1% failure rate in cabinets WHICH THEY WILL REPLACE FOR PEOPLE and you got all these ********* (insert your own word) people on here coming out of the woodwork acting like every single cabinet is falling apart. Give me a frickin break!!!

I would like to see EVERYBODY on Pinside who has bought a new Stern in the last year or so to come on here and tell these haters that your cabinets ARE NOT FALLING APART and shut these people up once and for all. Nobody wants to speak up or get involved in fear of being hated on Pinside.....I say who cares what the haters think!

Now wait a minute, are you including those in that 25-30 group who DO have real problems with their games and just speaking out and are frustrated? If you are that number should be way down.

Can somebody please tell me WHO is offering the quality of something like an AS pro for $5200?

Crickets.

That's why Extreme Pinball just bought one to put on route despite saying he'd never buy another Stern pin again.

Why? Because its a "win win" and he ain't getting that ROI on anything else. Drop that mic. Period.

Good lord, my cats destroy my furniture and they don't get near my pins!

My 2 leg plates per game only cost me $10 shipped. What else are you doing to yours that brings it up to $20?

Yeah, what's the entry fee for the other manufacturers games? And that $5200 isn't what the street price is either.

I've stated many times that my ST Pro, Mustang Pro, Avatar LE and GB Pro are still perfect with no issues that I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

Part of the issue is that Stern is the only one actually making and shipping pinball machines in some major quantity. Awesome ones at that.

No brainer.

6 pack of beer - makes the install better.

You can't design and build games like WOZ, TH or Dialed In in short period of time. Those games are the Ferrari's, the super cars, of pinball right now. I guess Ferrari isn't successful because they are not building as many cars as Ford right? No. Sorry for another car comparison in advance, lol.

Stern appears to be a very successful company. They are making more games per year then ever which is awesome but I think that is also part of the reason why quality and code issues are now coming up more often then in the past.

I just checked - $30.49 for 4 B/W corner braces from Pinball life. The screws (stainless) were 27 cents apiece - 12 are needed per game

lol dude gimme a break. Jamming a bunch of mechs into a game doesn't make it fun or more interesting. I couldn't get rid of my Hobbit fast enough. Compare Hobbit to a game like IM which has maybe 1/10th the play field mechs and i'd take 3 IM's before ever bringing in that clunky crapfest of a game back into my house.

That's your opinion which is cool. I think Iron Man is rather boring due to how bare the playfield is and find its heavy use of plastic parts to be unappealing. I also don't find Iron Mans ruleset to be interesting...also just my opinion , a ton of people enjoy the game just like The Hobbit.

Lol

Send the bill to Stern.

Here is a 1000% guarantee for you.

When Stern drops the Star Wars pin, Extreme pinball will be dropping one on route.

It's a no brainer GIVEN. What else are you gonna do?

Win Win.

Btw, its still crickets on the AS pro value?

The game kicks ass and the whiner parade is winding down.

The distributor and Stern are required to fix your issues! Take control, wtf

and you haven't screwed your fingers to the cab yet?

Hmmmmmm I bought 24 of them ($95.76) and 10-4 packs of the clear plastic cab protectors ($139.90) and $10 for shipping and it came to $245.66 from Marco. This box of screws was $4.99 so .0415833 cents each.

IMGA0091 (resized).JPG

Bwaaaaaa haaaaaa haaaaaaaaaa haaaaaaa now that is one of the funniest things I've ever heard anyone say on here hands down! Good God son, even if you wanted one their over priced games it would take you 2 years to get it built! Sorry but I'm not paying their asking price and I dont want to wait that long on a game. I wanted an Aerosmith and called my distributor and BAM .....I was playing a brand new Aerosmith that very next day!!

He should have a sign out in front of his business that reads "come in and play my low quality sh*tty pinball machines and make me rich"

Did you not read my post on how perfect my games STILL are.

Yes I up voted it. Most people do have good games, that's kind of my whole point of all this

In Corolla there's one hardware store. They have one screw with a socket drive head (which I prefer) and that's stainless.
Stainless screws were $0.27. 'Guess I got screwed but that's what I wanted. Home Depot with cheaper screws is in Nags Head and 30 minutes each way ( that's if no slow ass is going 35mph in a 45 zone on the only road in and out). Pinball Life did charge $30.49 delivered for 4 corners but I was pleased with their fast service. I really didn't shop around.

To be honest, it's an unfair comparison. I've only purchased 3 NIB JJP games. I'd have to go back and count the exact number of NIB Stern pins I've purchased, but it's probably near 30. So obviously I've experienced more issues with Stern at a 10-1 ratio. Plus, I'm currently only operating Stern pins right now.

I've had my fair share of problems with JJP too. So much so that all 3 are off route right now. A few Sterns are off as well. I simply have more important projects to work on right now, so I'm currently not repairing pins.

The fact is that there has been an increase in defective equipment coming out of Stern. And I certainly include unfinished code. That's just a disservice to everybody. I'm going to spend north of $300k on new arcade games this year. You can bet, with exception of a rare update, they all ship with finished code. So I know it can be done.

Don't say can't get ROI on anything else. Honestly, I have video arcade games, cranes & pushers that earn 10-20x that of a pin. Which is why Fremont Arcade is down to 6 pins. The cashbox doesn't lie. Plus I personally shop & maintain every pin on route, so the value of my time needs to be considered.

I'm no longer an active collector. In my opinion, I find the obvious money grabs, lack of code, and cheapening of components, no longer a good value for my discretionary dollars. I've moved on to another hobby.

But I am in business to provide modern and entertaining products to the public, and knowing the expected ROI of AS, it absolutely made good business sense for me to buy one. It's a win/win/win(NYNY gets another brand new game). But understand, in my tourist locations, titles make the money. Gameplay is meaningless. So I would simply never route a DI. There's no brand recognition. Plus the entry level price point is even worse. Original titles are great for the collector market, not the tourist route market.

Of course, I will buy a Star Wars pro for NYNY.

What makes you think I don't already have that sign?!?!

We got it and we are glad for you as we are for everyone else who hasn't had problems.

I don't understand why anyone who observes flaws in a manufacturing process is branded a hater ? Kind of thing that happens in high school.

Ferraris? Maybe this car would be a more apt comparison.

rd

IMG_5760 (resized).JPG

buyers have reported QC issues.. with pics.... factual.

where'd you get that 25-30 number from ?

No its not like that at all. If there are legitimate flaws that is fine. You just have certain people on here that take every opportunity they can get to try and make things a far bigger issue than what they really are just to make Stern look bad and its BS.

Stern takes a lot of unnecessary flack from certain individuals on here and if anyone says anything in sterns favor those people bring the pitch forks out after you. Stern has their problems just like any other company does but they are also pretty good at making things right with their customers.

I'm not a stern fan boy at all and if they do something wrong I'll call them out on it just like I did on how they handled certain peoples playfield issues. I'm also going to give them credit for replacing peoples playfields like they're doing right now. Bottom line is they make great games and I feel that if I have a problem that they will make it right. They are a good company and they are the reason pinball is becoming big again and I'm going to support them because I love this hobby.

If you have a QC issue that's fine, report it and don't be a dick about it. Call your distributor and Stern themselves if necessary and give them a chance to make it right. If they don't make it right and they screw you then come on here and let everyone know about it. Its that simple really.

The people I have a problem with are the ones that gotta throw gasoline on the fire and try to make things bigger than what they are. Problems suck, but give them the chance to make it right before you go ape shit on them.

yup

me neither

That car would smash a Ferrari like a bug and might wrinkle a fender.

Wow your out in the boonies. I like the socket head too.