Has anyone contacted Stern? What is their reply?

This is getting beyond ridiculous at this point with all the issues these games are having. So to have a nice playfield that doesn't crater like the moon's surface you need to install a playfield protector, cliffy protectors everywhere possible before you play your first game and now you have to install bally/williams leg brackets as a preventative measure before you play your first game because the side of the cabinet might split. I've been waiting months for a PF replacement, haven't heard a peep from Stern of course, if I see cracking in my cabinet corners I will be getting the Attorney General's contact info that KPG posted up and be in contact.

This is making me sick of the quality we get from Stern these days. They are "playing" us, getting all our money and giving us crap product.

Is this splitting only happening at the front? The reason I ask is because I guess I'm going to have to order Williams leg brackets and don't know if I need 4 or just 2?

let us know What their response is.

Jjp deserves my money a hell of a lot more than stern and that's where I will be spending my money on my next NIB game this year, I wouldn't even consider AS or anything else with the current flaws stern has.

don't forget the playfield protector to keep from getting craters like the moon! lol

Can't say I agree with you. I didn't even know there was a cabinet issue until I read this thread. These cracks are small and probably difficult to notice without looking for them. My GB is in a dark room and I can tell you if there is any splitting I wouldn't have noticed, I'm afraid to look at mine in the fear it is splitting, but I will look at it and if it is I am not going to be happy and will do what I need to do to get it addressed.

It is very obvious Stern is cutting corners to fatten their pockets while we pay more and more for their products that don't even hold up in a HUO environment. You can keep waving the Stern pom poms in the air, but people have a very valid reason to be concerned and have a bitch.

Local barcade owner just posted on facebook that the front seams split out on his GB pro. I think his is a pretty early run, anyone able to say this happened on any games made in the last 6 months to possibly narrow it down? My gut feeling is all of the newer cabinets are/will be prone to this failure.

That's kind of what I figured, January isn't that long ago, I doubt that cabinet was that old, but who knows. Regardless of when it was made we same games built late last year/early this year with it. So mine built Sept of last year will obviously be prone to it, great, thanks Stern for building such a tank (sarcasm) more like a cardboard box!

Call Chaz or the other guy direct, sounds like your distributor isn't doing you any favors going through him.

I am victim of the splitting cabinet also I have always felt a little something on the left side of the cabinet towards the top. I thought it was just the overlap of the decals before. I turned on the flashlight on my phone and gave a closer inspection. The left side of my cabinet is splitting pretty good and the right side is starting to, you can see a vertical line under the decal where it is starting to separate.

I contacted Chaz at Stern. I sent him pictures, he said they will review it and let me know within a week. I asked him how making this right works. He said, if approved, they will send out a cabinet that is mostly assembled and I will have to transfer a few things over such as backbox, node board, etc. I also reminded him it had been 5 months since I was told i would get a new playfield and haven't heard a peep since then about it, said he would look into it and get me an update on that also.

My game is on caster cups with felt on the bottom side on a slick hardwood floor, it does not take much effort at all to move this machine. So those blaming this on rubber caster cups is a load of whahooey. I agree the rubber doesn't help anything, but I've used them in the past on older games without any problems, can't say I will anymore, but rubber caster cups aren't the cause. The problem lies in the manufacturing/design/materials used to assemble the cabinets.

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You couldn't have been more wrong. Take a look at my pics. This is obviously beyond the "small percent" and "occasionally" like you said. I bet there are a lot more out there than people even know about, like me. I didn't know it was there until I looked, I was disgusted when I saw it. There is no reason for this happening in modern times as others have said, cabinets have been being made successfully for 50+ years, sure there was corner separation in the past, but no way at this rate in a babied HUO environment. I guess I have some bad luck with your "small percentages" because now I have a bad cabinet and bad playfield on my almost $7k game.

LOL! Why don't you take a look in this thread, there are more than the one you know of. Trust me my game does NOT get abused like crazy, like the one that you said on route "probably" does, more speculation on your part. Mine is more babied like crazy and both sides are blowing out. They didn't say I was for sure getting a cabinet, they said they will look into it. To me, my pictures shouldn't need to be reviewed, it should be obvious that my cabinet is garbage and needs replaced.

I could see it being more widespread than the PFs, it's very very disappointing. I expect it from a $2000 25 year old route game, but not a $7k game that is only months old and babied in my game room.

I agree how can he even be somewhat sober, wave the Stern pom poms and say "there is little to any problems."
I won't be buying anything new from Stern for a while, if ever again. The owner of my company's wife approached me last week about wanting to get a pinball machine or 2 for a game room she is putting together. There is no way I can recommend a Stern game to her. She mentioned JJP's WOZ, I will be sending her down that road or buying a nice classic B/W, sorry Stern you did this to yourself.

I know what you are saying. I love the art, audio, toys on my GB, but with all the current problems, lack of code, etc it takes the fun and pride out of owning it. It's very disappointing and sad frankly that we pay this much for these machines and they literally fall apart in a HUO environment

If I were you, I would pull the lock down bar and look at that corner. from the top I didn't know my cabinet was separating on the right side until I pulled the lock down bar and could see it starting at the top and then noticed a clear line going down the decal showing further evidence the crack had started on the right side and before much longer would look like the left side of the game, which is much worse. Post pics of what you find so others can use as a reference if they just see a small hairline crack, I would say it's the beginning of something bigger starting.

Nothing but frustrations and heart breaks for me on this game. Last night i was playing EBD next to GB and I wanted to spit on GB because I'm so frustrated with it. I thought pinball was supposed to be about having fun and not being pissed off??

Can't upvote this statement enough, it's soooooooooooo true!

I called Chas and sent him pics while we were on the phone. He said they will review it and let me know within a week. It's been 5 days and I haven't heard anything back yet. Will give them a couple more days and follow-up.

I was playing my GB last night, trying to enjoy it despite it's obvious defects, and noticed this new cool little trick it does. I accidentally bumped into it and heard a squeak and was like WTF? So I bumped it a few more times with my hip and it makes a couple nice squeaks, from each front corner, it did this every time I pushed on it which is an obvious sign that cabinet is flexing and not tight.

I thought I would try another game, my Eight Ball Deluxe is right next to GB so I gave it a try. This game is older than me and by the looks of it was on route for a long time and had a lot of play. I shook the hell out of it and you know what........... no cabinet squeaks. Stern really needs to get their sh*t together when a 36-37 year old well-loved game has better integrity than a $7k game that is only a few months old.

I talked to Stern over a week ago about my cabinet and still haven't heard anything back about it or an update on my replacement PF I was promised 5 months ago

SOB!! I have a Mustang and Metallica from 2015, that I need to worry about now. I thought/was hoping these cabinet issues were limited to the newer games.

Not entirely true, my Meteor and TSPP cabinets were good!

Nice looking Drac!

I knew you were joking, that's why I gave you a thumbs up on that post I love Meteor not sure why I like it so much, maybe the simplicity in audio and it being a one-shot pony. If it were the only game in my collection I probably wouldn't like as much as I do, just good to go play every once in a while.

How long ago did you notify them? Did they give you a window of time when you should hear something back?

Hopefully you beat it again and you can buy many more pins, my thoughts and prayers are with you.

I was thinking something like this, but my GB Prem was made in Sept, both sides are splitting on it, Gryszz posted up pics of his Mustang made in 2014 that is cracked down one side. It seems the issue has been there for quite sometime, but getting worse lately. So maybe a bad design all along and just recently they quit using as much glue or different glue supplier? The later cabinets definitely seem more prone to it though.

I don't see how wood glue and and strap will fix my torn decals

I checked out the construction of my buddy's new WOZ last Saturday. It has the old school B/W style metal brackets in the corners, so they are built better and will be less prone to problems than what we currently see in Stern's cabinets. Not saying JJP won't have problems, but they won't be as likely to experience it IMO.

my thoughts also, especially if they are indeed using the same manufacturer.

^^^ The same thoughts run through my mind. Yeah the excuses get me, shipper dropped it, rubber casters, etc. There were one off problems in the past, but never like this. Stern cheapened up the games and it's becoming very apparent they did so. You can only strip something so far before it's starts falling apart and that seems to be where we currently are. It really sucks. I don't want to see Stern fail, but they need to own this. I don't feel like I should have to be reinforcing/beefing up a game less than a year old that I paid close to $7k for.

We are paying the premium price, but by a long shot not getting premium quality we deserve. I hope Stern gets this straightend out and this sends a clear message to quit stripping everything out of the game that they possibly can to improve their profit margin.

guys in the GB issue thread recommended cutting off or bending the ear on the one way gate to me when I was bitching about how the right orbit shot rattles off the plunge and hits Stay Puft

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/ghostbuster-issue-thread/page/61#post-3723941

I see a very small tear at the top of the decal, but that does not appear to be in the same area of the seam where the front and back meet where the splits are occurring. I might see a little bit of unpainted wood at the top of the joint indicating possibly a very small movement here, but not for sure. Both possibly from the un-strapped ride in the minivan. I would do as other say- install the brackets and it would more than likely never get any worse.

No offense, but people do brand you as a Stern Fanboy with obvious comments like the AS that wasn't setup, still on it's back, arrived with the cabinet split, the owner said the box was perfect and you say it was obviously damaged in shipping

You're right they are handling people's PF replacements, but at a snail's pace.

I can't say they are a good company anymore, I wish I could, but I feel the same way as most, they are pumping games out as fast as they can, the games don't play smooth, design flaws that the customer ends up having to straighten out if even possible, code is questionable at best when games first hit the street, and there are obvious quality control issues that you downplay.

Those of us that have defective games have a right to be pissed and voice our opinions and people researching buying a new Stern game have the right to read what we write so they can make an informed decision on the $5k-$10k+ of their hard-earned money they are about to lay down for a NIB game.

^^^ wow, is solid looking after all these years!

did you use sheet metal screws or wood screws? Someone advised against using metal screws and I've being waiting to find wood screws to do the job. I was thinking of doing the same as you with #10 sheet metal screws, but I was going to drill a small pilot hole, might not do that now that you tried it out and it's okay not using a pilot hole with the #10 screws.

thanks for the info! Good idea on the plumbers strap to fill in any gap, I will make sure i add that to my shopping list. Did you do any other brackets or just the B/W brackets? I know others we're adding 1 or 2 additional brackets. Did you do all corners or just the front 2?

UPDATE: Stern Finally made it right

As some of you may know I fell victim to both Stern quality issues of late on my GB premium having playfield issues and then about 1.5 months ago I found that both front sides of my cabinet were split. I reported the PF issues back in October. They said they would replace my PF. I didn't hear anything from them for months. When I noticed my cabinet failure I contacted Chaz at Stern, sent him pics while I had him on the phone, and reminded him it had been close to six months since I was told I would get a replacement PF and I never heard back from them. He said he would submit the cabinet pictures to his guys and see what they say and would call me back. Several days go past and I never hear from him so I call him back and said what's going on I never heard back. He said they would replace my cabinet, but they were considering just getting me a whole new game rather than me having to swap the cabinet and PF myself, which i didn't feel was fair to me or something I wanted to do. He said their sales guy, I think named Joe would call me back with the final verdict, he may have had to check with my distributor and make sure it was ok with him to just swap out my whole game. A few days, maybe a week went past, no return phone call so I called Chaz again and asked what the verdict was. He checked with Joe and said my dealer, Trent at Tilt Amusements would swap my game. I explained to him I didn't really want another GB because my GB experience was a let down from the time I got it with all of the problems and I would rather have an AS, I told this to Trent also. So this past weekend my friend and I loaded GB up, made the 250 mile round-trip to Trent's place and came back with a new Aerosmith Premium.

To sum it up I am happy with the end result, but I wish the problems didn't happen in the first place or they would have been resolved sooner and not taken as much effort on my part; I probably made 12-15 calls myself to my distributor and Chaz at Stern to get resolution. I do like AS so far and am looking forward to learning more of the rules.

Thanks to Chaz, the other folks at Stern, and Trent at Tilt Amusements for the game swap!

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This is true. I did the B/W brackets on my AS the day after I got it and I looked closely for glue that ran out like you mentioned seeing in older games and there wasn't any. Seems the cabinet manufacturer is skimping on glue and I firmly believe this is why we are seeing the issues we have/are seeing.

I would like to hear what Paul says also. I did my AS and I had to use plumbers tape to fill the gap between the bracket and cabinet and it was a PITA. It wouldn't have been bad if they butted up to the sides but mine didn't. I still have to do my Metallica and Mustang; not looking forward to it either, but I have figured out a system to make it a little less painful.

Funny you ask because I always thought of it as plumber's strap. I asked the guy at Lowe's if they had plumber's strap, he was a little confused at first and said I've heard it called plumber's tape, he took me over to it and sure enough the bag was labeled plumbers tape.

That was the problem with my AS, it wasn't a nice tight square fit, probably about a 3/16" gap between the backside of the bracket and the cabinet surface. My AS was only out of the box for 2 days when I installed them so no cabinet problems, but was added as an insurance policy. I am pretty sure I'm going to add corner brackets also and like you said as long as the cabinet is square it should fit tightly w/o any mods.

I did your method and used 3/4" # 10 screws with a lock washer. I bought # 10 x 1/2" screws. I held the brackets up to the top of the cabinet with my plumbers tape installed and didn't feel the 1/2" screws would get enough bite in the cabinet so I went with the # 10. Kind of weird that my brackets had a gap behind them and yours fit snugly. I only did my AS which was built a little over a month ago so I wonder if some of the cabinets specs changed or my brackets are made differently from yours. I bought the B/W style brackets from Pinball Life. We'll see how they fit on my older games- Mustang and Metallica

How long ago was your Kiss made? Where did you get your plates from? These are the ones I ordered: http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=144

I wonder if they increased the size of the corner wedge and that's why mine was spaced off?

Good point about if I didn't have a gap, but I held the bracket, spacers with lock washer and screws up at the top front of the cabinet under where the lockdown bar would be to see how far the screw would go in the wood and it was about 3/4 of the way. I might pull one out and put back in to see where it starts biting, but seemed like more than enough threads going into the cabinet. It sure seemed like a lot of thread when I hand screwed them in before I used my drill

I can guarantee there are more than the 25+ cases in the world that you refer to. The 25+ are just the ones that have found their way onto pinside in this one thread. As I mentioned earlier I had no clue my GB cabinet was cracking until I stumbled upon this thread, got my flashlight out, and inspected my game. I would consider myself to be pretty in tune of what is going on with my games and I didn't know until I looked.

So yes I feel there are a lot more than the 25+ mentioned here. I also believe Stern has addressed this issue with their cabinet manufacturer and I bet it's fixed, but I have no proof of that nor am I going to be like whoever it was that kept saying the PF issues are fixed then more issues are reported, then he says the issues are now for sure fixed, more problems. I listened to him, bought my GB then the PF had several issues.

I did get resolve finally being trading out my GB for AS, which I am happy with, but the issues were real. After owning GB and AS back to back I feel GB was a low-water mark at Stern or at least the time mine was made last Sept/Oct and the feel of AS is better, but that's just my .02, never going to say it's a for sure thing until we see less and less of the manufacturing issues at Stern. I fully agree Stern should be putting the metal brackets on all 4 corners for the additional low investment on their part moving forward after the latest cabinet debacle.

Honestly, I'm not sure who was on here saying the issues were resolved. Good find on that statement from Pat; I almost forgot all about it! I guess I would expect him to say that though since he's a Stern employee.

you could try and contact Stern and see what they say since this a known issue. I would think you might have a chance of them working with you, but not sure since it's 2 years old and you aren't the original owner, but wouldn't hurt to ask. Call Stern's tech support (708-345-7700) and talk to Pat or Chaz. If you call let us know what they say.

It looks like the wood is a light color before it's painted and that's why it looks that way, take a look at the pics in the photo gallery of this thread and a lot look white or really light at the split.

No problem! Let us know how it goes. If they shut you down you can always glue it then add the B/W leg brackets, but the decals will always be torn unless you replace them