Mobile, AL
Quoted from anthony691:Home market sales account for a majority of Stern's revenue, per multiple Stern employees I know socially.
Objection, your honor: hearsay.
"Sustained."
Quoted from anthony691:The "it is a commercial product" line is increasingly untrue.
Just because buyers do not use a product as intended does not change the product's purpose.
Quoted from anthony691:The terms of the warranty itself aren't super relevant in fixing what consumers should reasonably expect (who reads these things?), .
Informed consumers.
Quoted from anthony691:only what they are legally due.
I think you will be hard pressed to find a warranty on ANYTHING ON EARTH that contains the term "reasonably".
Quoted from anthony691:In the consumer context, a warranty just establishes the floor of how poorly you can service your customers without being sued.
It also provides specific limitations to prevent abuse of the warranty, which we have witnessed here. Stern used to send out new playfields for very minor imperfections...only to see them sold for profit. Now you don't see replacement fields sent out much any more.
Quoted from anthony691:If "good enough to not be sued" was the level of service my law firm endeavored to provide, we would promptly and unceremoniously go out of business.
Irrelevant.
Quoted from anthony691:Where Stern can, at a low cost, reasonably help fix issues resulting from latent product defects, arising at any time, by providing replacement parts, they should. Right?
Sure, if it's covered by the published warranty during the warranty time period. Outside that, they are no longer compelled to do anything. The fact that they have provided post-warranty support is an indicator of at least some good faith on their part.
Quoted from anthony691:Does anyone actually expect less of them?
Whether they tend to meet that level of expectations or not is a suitable topic for discussion, but all of this "the warranty says 'get bent,' you're lucky they take your calls" stuff is silliness.
A large portion of their revenue may originate with home sales, but home buyers do not make up any percentage of their customer base. Their customers are distributors and resellers...however they have their network set up. You buy a machine from a distributor and experience problems, you take it up with the entity you bought it from, not the manufacturer. At least until the distributor either rectifies the complaint or punts. From what I have read, Stern then will deal directly with the buyer to try to accommodate their concerns.
IMO, the one area that Stern does right is post-sale tech support (of course that excludes code updates...)
