Quoted from punkin:Should have seen the Avengers thread. I ordered Avengers just before Gunners and was pleased to have them both coming. I got so nervous about all the issues with avengers that i cancelled my order. Their QC was incredibly lax, people were getting machines with many issues. Some of them were design issues where the balls would be stuck constantly in the subway etc. Haven't kept up with that thread since, but the amount of issues out of the box here are miniscule compared.
I think it's a bit of a crap shoot with respect to QC, because in my limited time in this new hobby, it looks like whomever is on the line doing the work could actually affect the quality. Regarding AIQ, I have a Premium and like you was concerned about the subway issues but after following the forums realized that Stern fixed it so I purchased one and sure enough the mfg date was after the subway mech update and it has worked flawlessly. I did have 1 issue after just 10 plays with the spinner disc (disheartening), but Stern responded quickly (from a helpful contact from a Pinsider) and it was a 5 minute Loctite fix. Working perfectly and I probably have 700-800 games on it.
Now.....this is a JJP GnR thread.....so, like you I've been reading it closely to help me decide (thanks all of you owners - really appreciate the insight and thoughts on the game) and I'm slightly concerned reading about all these issues. When I test drove a LE recently, it did have some issues (balls getting stuck, odd ramp rejects sending the ball OFF the playfield and draining). My gut feel is major issues will get sorted out and minor issues can be dealt with DIY - realistically any order I place is 4-6 months out anyway so I'm more confident things will be OK.
GnR played well - lots of fun and and had that "one more game" feel - I'm leaning yes on it, but have some other considerations to deal with so can't quite pull the trigger yet.
Overall, although I'm a total noob, I'm coming to the conclusion to buy what you want to play because if you make a decision based solely on some type of QC reliability perception you may end up being more disappointed in the long run. I'm guessing there is a large standard deviation in pinball with respect to QC based on the assembly/manufacturing process. Also, those who have problems tend to report them more than those who don't - so there's that aspect.
In summary: Buy what you want to play. If I didn't have the other considerations to deal with at the moment, I'd order the GnR LE and not worry about any QC issues.
Just my 2 cents.