Quoted from cody_chunn:

Objection, your honor: hearsay.
"Sustained."

Just because buyers do not use a product as intended does not change the product's purpose.

Informed consumers.

I think you will be hard pressed to find a warranty on ANYTHING ON EARTH that contains the term "reasonably".

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.

Irrelevant.

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.

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...)