It's not your machine and it has ZERO to do with you, Nitro does not have to post on any forum regarding the dealings between THEM and THIER customers regardless of YOU wanting to know the results. If you've no dog in the fight maybe just keep your negative comments to yourself unless it pertains to you, just my .02.

You may be a "none of my business" guy when there's a mugging or robbery or abuse. I'm not. There's a clear problem. Nitro hasn't handled it in almost 4 months and is ignoring the customer who has been RIDICULOUSLY patient. That's not "stellar" distributor behavior, and I'll call that nonsense out regardless of who the distributor is whenever their name comes up. Fair is fair, and I don't stand for unfair, even if it's not to me personally. It's a choice. You make the choice that you can live with, and I'll make mine.

Ahhhh you must be bored.....the clear problem is between the owner, Stern and the distro, not the bored guy that THINKS he needs to wave a flag of justice. I'm certain that IF this is a Nitro issue Tommy will handle it....

And the next Stern Pin is ????

Catwoman

Smurf’s

Yep, it's all about the distributor....I recieved an Aerosmith with an insanely warped playfield. My distributor worked with Stern very closely and checked with them often. After a month or two they decided to replace the playfield, but the real story is that my distributor was going to buy the game back from me if stern did not replace the playfield. That's what your looking for in a distributor.

Tommy IS great for us Canadians but THIS is total bullshit. Should have been dealt with months ago. Did you even bother to look at the playfield Stern sent out? Wtf is that? I know Tommy doesn't open each box and inspect every game. That's not his job, but customer satisfaction should be his #1 priority and someone at nitro should be on the phone with Stern everyday till this is resolved. Just MY 2 cents.

I mean, Tommy and I don't exactly get along... but that's no reason to completely ignore a customer with an obvious manufacturing issue like this.

Full disclosure:
I shopped around for the best price (as Momma taught me), Tommy didn't like that. I demanded that he honour his original quoted price when he tried to jack it up after months of waiting for the machine, Tommy didn't like that. In a past deal, he attempted to upcharge me because I wanted to pay by credit card (something that is illegal in Canada), I didn't like that.

So yeah, we aren't friends. But still, I paid my hard earned money for this machine, and I think he should step up. Instead, he has chosen to ignore multiple e-mails.

He sure got back to me quickly when I was sending money. But, that's how he has chosen to roll.

Who was your Distro?
Give him some props here.

Karma is a bitch sometimes.

Ken Lapoint you are simply bad for pinball and this community. We quoted you a price based on the CDN dollar at the time. You then threatened Adam at P1 in Toronto to match it after the dollar dropped by telling him you would trash him on Pinside. When he wouldn't concede you came back to us and demanded we do the same and also threatened us as well. We work very hard for this community and our customers and ultimately honored the old quote and lost money. We even had to secure the pin from P1 as you were impatient and started making negative posts. Then almost a year later you contact us about your playfield (only after Stern decides it doesn't require replacement) looking for help. I'm sorry Ken, but had we known about your reputation in Ontario beforehand we would have simply avoided the sale.

Tommy Floy you quoted me USD, no need to lie about it. You quoted me 5400 USD over the phone and we agreed. I did pay 5400 in the end (converted to CAD) at your request! Sorry for asking you to honour your original price, but that's how sales agreements work.

This is your reason for failing to assist and completely ignoring a customer who paid in full and has a warped playfield... really? That is just terrible service man.

Exactly. Give the good distributors that are there for the good and the bad some shout-outs.

Hindsight is 20/20, and I would agree that walking away from the transaction before any money changed hands would have been the best course of action, but since you made the sale, and the issue is VERY CLEAR and VERY BAD from the pictures, aren't you on the hook to make sure it gets handled? It's not like you have to sell to him ever again, but at least your reputation is preserved.

Sometimes I do pin repair for people I don't know that were referred to me. If I talk to them and get the vibe that the person is needy or demanding or unreasonable I just quote a very high price that they usually don't take, which is great. If they do take it, I'm compensated for the hassle to come.

Thanks for at least posting your side of it and clearing up why you're reluctant to deal with a bad customer again, even on something that should clearly be warranty. Hopefully Maken has learned something in this as well.

Since the dirty laundry is out allready...

May we also get to know why Stern rejected? It looks pretty bad in those photos.

Hmmmm me thinks that there should be a public apology from you to Nitro!! Slagging a reputable distributor based upon others misinformation on a transaction that has NOTHING to do with you. Stern is saying no to the warranty, NOT TOMMY, so why should he be held responsible?? Next time gather the facts justice league....

Yeah we are now invested in this.. Need to know Basically same reason I cannot stop watching some horrible netflix series...

Taking a wild guess that there was a time delay from getting the game to making a claim? ie a warped playfield would be obvious from opening the box?

...

I've met Tommy, he seems cool to me, but we're not friends or anything, I have zero stake in any of this. But a year? If the playfield was warped that should have been obvious day one. People are busy, a few weeks or whatever is one thing, but you can't wait a year to make it an issue. If you go to Stern directly they either are the final word, or they say "talk to your distributor first", and fine, but again, you can't take a year.

Honestly, I'm in the "don't sell to people who bust your balls" camp. If someone was hassling me about a sale and it didn't feel right? I'd tell them to fuck off and buy from someone else. Sounds like Tommy might need to shift to that tactic after this, who has time for these headaches?

If the game has a legit issue then put it on Stern, not the distributor who didn't make the game.

Sooöoo

Next game will be?

Remake of Orbitor 1, no playfield warping problems.

Oh how I long for the Happy Days of pinball with no cross words.

66144E73-0BCC-48CB-A851-2FC1CE1AD506 (resized).jpeg

Okay, but as a distributor, you have to know that is a BAD playfield - you've seen enough to know good and bad. Why did Stern say it wasn't? It makes no sense unless they said it was because it took too long to manifest. I'm assuming the warp wasn't there day one and only became obvious once the wood dried more.

The pain-in-the-ass angle complicates things, but I hope Nitro has resolved not to sell to customers that are breaking his balls presale because that doesn't get any better. And I hope that Maken has learned that if you break people's balls, you're not going to have them tripping over themselves to give you support if things go south. I'd like to know why it took so long to report it, too.

Munsters Premium color now official.

I wonder what distributers think about this. It's not that appealing to have multiple variations of the same product in stock.

Again....nothing to do with you....again....but maybe an apology to Nitro, it shows great character to admit when ones wrong.

I can vouch for this. I bought an Iron Maiden Premium that had a really crappy finish on the playfield. Initially, Stern wasn’t getting back to me, Tommy or Jason (customer service at Nitro) in a timely fashion. Tommy and Jason both went to bat for me repeatedly. They also went so far as to check in on a weekly basis to update me on their progress. In the end, my playfield was replaced and I know that wouldn’t have happened without them going to bat for me as a customer. Not that it should matter, but I’d also like to point this was first my NIB pin and I’d never bought anything from Nitro before that.

Bottom line, Tommy and Jason at Nitro provided EXCEPTIONAL customer service. They’re top shelf in my books. I’m just glad that the people at Stern ultimately listened to them. Even if it hadn’t worked out in the end, Nitro did everything they possibly could.

Surfs up! Perfect for warped playfields.

All joking aside, if this guy is 250 in the country(meaning he should have seen it right away) and waited a year, thats on him.

I'm not into the music pins but I would have to be in on a tenacious D pin.

cover-episode-35[1] (resized).jpg

Apparently, Jack Black is interested in pinball and Stern has reached out to him.

https://www.facebook.com/136972659243/posts/10157401030849244?s=610538789&v=e&sfns=xmo

So is it still consensus that the next Stern is the Brian Eddy one? The amount of development time seems to indicate he's next up. Announcement in July?

Yeah, it seems like a weird title fit for him. He has a sterling record so far, so hopefully the bean counters at Stern don't press him too hard to scale back his design.

I don't like to get involved in disputes, but it really ticks me off to see someone slagging Nitro over perceived lack of customer service, Tommy bends over backwards and then some to help his customers, sometimes going to lengths that I consider absurd!! Just as an example, I know for a fact that he drove from Vancouver to Calgary to deliver a game personally that the customer needed by a certain date, when the delivery thru normal channels was delayed, he took it upon himself to make it right, if that's no going the extra mile(s), I don't know what is!!

The ultimate decision on replacing a playfield is Stern's, all the distro can do is plead the customer's case, which Tommy has done.

I agree also "vireland" still hasn't apologized

That would be back to back medieval themes for Stern. I doubt they'd do that. I mean, when has Stern ever done back to back themes?

***COUGH X-Men****

***COUGH Avengers***

Sadly I wouldn't count on that.

I'm very much excitedly looking forward to it, while at the same time non-believing being prepared to be badly disapointed.

I hope anyone get's what I mean. XD

Attack From Mars 3

Imagine Brian doing another Mars theme.
Could be about humans invading Mars this time

Look, I made it pretty clear. Knowing more of what happened now, I'm content to leave it alone and not hassle Nitro any further about their support as we're in a gray area rather than the initial presentation of black and white. I've taken money for jobs/customers I regretted, but I serviced my way out of them and just never dealt with them again. So my personal opinion is he's on the hook to get the VERY CLEAR problem taken care of since he took the money and became his distributor. But now I certainly understand why Nitro may not want to, given everything else that's been added to the picture, and am way less hardcore on the support mandate. So, c'est la vie.

Guys, open a different thread on the warped playfield, bad customer satisfaction, Tommy, or whatever. But keep on-topic here.

What will be the next Stern pinball??

@moderator: please moderate this thread.

Likely to be Brian Eddy's pin, then Elvira 3 after that. Lyman's been super low-profile lately, so I'm assuming he's buried in Elvira 3 code, which is a good sign.

Is Elvira 3 been confirmed one version or multiple versions that what I really want to know

I have purchased 18 machines off Tommy. He is the absolute BEST distributor in the industry. His contribution to pinball should be applauded. His customer service is the best I have ever experienced. I could go on and on.....

Let me say this, it is scientifically proven that water and objects react differently to the energies of the people around them.

I think your playfield warped for a reason. Im happy stern rejected your warranty. Get out of the hobby before your contagious negative energy warps any of mine. Good riddance, don’t trip on your way out

Great. I guess I can expect to see a few dozen posts in this thread this weekend. None of which will have anything to do with Sterns next pin.
I think another return to Scifi Brian Eddy would be great. Still hoping for some f my dream titles or a nice Tron vault given the Spiderman treatment.

Yeah, I'm really hoping Eddy's pin isn't Jurassic World. But one thing The Shadow taught me is theme doesn't make a great pin. It helps, but the code and design are where it's at, regardless of the theme. Brian's got a sterling record, so I'm hoping it continues...

I haven't seen it confirmed anywhere, but we're likely getting the usual Stern multiples. I just hope it's not another Batman'66 (bad) or Beatles (worse) situation. Just a straight Pro/Prem/LE and we're good.