What I don't get, is why some people fawn over the manufacturers, it's the same on Pinside and other forums.  If the product isn't good quality then the customers has every right to complain and ask for the issue to be rectified.  It's that simple.  Having to swap out a playfield of all its components is just not right, sure it's a solution that Stern and Nino settled on, but it's just not right and could be argued sets a precedence.  If Stern and other manufactures can get away with this sort of treatment, what onus is there for them to do anything over and above that??

Once upon a time, on the rare occasion there was major playfield defects that couldn't be swapped out easily, the old time manufacturers would send NOS wired playfields out and ask the operator to swap their defective playfield for the new one and the manufacturer/distributor would take the defective one back.  Or a heavy discount was provided for their next purchase.  Why would Stern do either of those things, when people accept less??  They can and would do more if pushed by their customers.  Same as any business that wants to stay in business would do.  If the penalty for poor playfield quality control was the expense of building and sending a replacement playfield, I'm sure they wouldn't cut corners in future!

Just my 2 cents on the whole affair, it pisses me off that Stern take their customers for granted.