Should never reach a warranty claim. This is the issue. I fully understand your points - but - THAT Gene head should never have left the building to become a warranty issue for the Dealer / stern.
Stern are not trying their best. The eyes that have seen this head pass through each phase of construction have not alerted anyone that it IS an issue. THAT is left up to the buyer to highlight to the dealer that has the task of organizing a new head - there's an hour of work and shipping at Stern's cost. Could have been avoided in 10 seconds on the factory floor with a bin marked "imperfect".
Now all the High end collector's are going to look for these problems and consider them. If they are sitting on the fence - Stern have a big problem. They are not JUST catering for Operators anymore. They need to deal with the collectors that expect value for money and at least a basic understanding on what looks good, and what is completely wrong.
+1
And there's the rub. The cost of addressing QC issues under warranty claims might be absorbed by Stern in the interim but will ultimately be passed on to the consumer with further price increases on future titles. The whole process thus becomes a vicious cycle between them and the end consumer.
This is not some defective component that fails after prolonged use, this is a clear visual fault that numerous eyes from the outset (both skilled and unskilled) should have noticed during the original manufacturing process of the original part, let alone actually making it to the assembly line for installation.
As Strangeways alluded to, I don't believe Stern have truly embraced the fact that the market (and consumer expectations) has changed so dramatically in the last 10 plus years. That is why professionally restored machines which are now approaching at minimum 16 years old are achieving the same prices as Stern's Premium and LE range (and in many cases surpassing them in price). The market will pay for quality regardless of whether the machine is 16 years or 16 days old provided the quality is there to begin with.
