Comcast HD boxes unstable?

Perhaps it is just a random hardware failure. At least I hope.

When I first started this blog back up, part of me said " What if I don't have enough content to make it interesting". The other part said..."This is the reason you started it up again".

On a normal day, having your cable box fail is a non-issue. Put in context to all the other ridiculous crap like this, it makes for one tiring life. If I have one more piece of equipment fail, I am going to become very unstable.

Okay... so let me say this... I am a hardcore insomniac. So I know within a very small window of time when this box failed. Four mornings ago.

I am still a little paranoid about messing with the wiring on the heater, even though the more logical part of my mind knows the fuse will catch a problem. So when in the wee hours of the morning I start hearing an electrical "click" my brain pops wide awake. Ah... no alarms, so the house must not be burning down. Now, as I lie in bed, I start to diagnose where the sound is coming from. It's sort if a fun little game you play now days. "Where is that beep coming from", "what is that electrical noise", and so on.

I finally realize that it is our cable box cycling on and off, over and over again. Yeah... when you are an insomniac the sound of your cable box cycling can keep you awake. Though it is oddly loud. I manage to eventually get back to sleep, and break the news to my husband later that morning to the chorus of "what next".

It seems to stop at that point, and because lately at night we have only had time to watch Tivo stuff, we didn't realize the box had frozen on one channel.



Besides...when something happens with your cable, you can never realize it before Friday, so you never get it fixed before the weekend.

I guess I am have some residual bitterness... because one, this box is less then 2 months old. In the eight years we have lived in this place, we have only had to replace a bad box once, after several years of dutiful service. This one is failing after two months? And 2, my husband just informed me last week the roll out to HDTV has been moved back.

We didn't really intend to be ahead of the curve, but our 3 year old SONY TV died. My husband didn't want to get HD, but I convinced him that fully half the TVs in every store were HD, and that proved they were going to transfer sooner than later. We would have to upgrade within a couple of years anyway, so we should just buck up now. Plus...baby...HD looks so cool.

It just pisses me off... because we have like 20 HD channels, and fully half are f-ing sports. Listen Comcast! Women make up roughly half of the electronics buying decisions, and most of us hate sports. So as I am bitching about this.. my husband makes some snarkey comment about "what, you want HD Oprah"? Which I think.. no what are you, high?.. and then reconsider. Even HD Oprah is better than f-ing football. Besides... I dont think Oprah is on the weekends.

RoboNexus is much better this year.

Took a break from the whole house thing to check out the RoboNexus. Last year I was a little surprised at how small it was. I had never been. Don't get me wrong, it was great, but I expected more. I thought there would be a lot more companies. Last year seemed to be more hobbyist's. I would say fully half was hobby kit type companies, and of course the Battlebot robots were there. So again... it gave a more "garage" type feel.

This year however, I was pleasantly surprised to see that not only had the venue had changed, but the feeling was more CES or trade-show-ey. The space wasn't really all that bigger, but there were less hobby booths, and more application type booths. I completely filled all three of my camera cards. So... lets start with iRobot. The event sponsor, and the first booth you see when you walk in. Because, lets face it, iRobot has become our friend. If you have a roomba, chances are you have named it like a pet. This is one item helping our people in Iraq:




Then, there is the much awaited Scooba. The item that will make some of us lazier, and others able to deal with their crazy hectic lives. If you have pets and construction, you just can't live without iRobot. Even though this was a prototype, it really did a decent job. The second shot is of the Scooba taking care of some spilled Pepsi.




You just can't live without one of these shirts.



I'm willing to do product placement for iRobot. We early adopted Roomba. I believe we had one problem in more than a year, and iRobot sent a free replacement part lickity split.

The second coolest item this year? The future, man. The future is here. 3D laser printers. My husband and I have been watching this technology for a couple of years now, and I was super excited they had a booth.





These are the items they had on display. Including a replica of the machine itself, and colors here and here!

There were a lot of miniature toy robots. Robosapian, and Croino. We were bummed we didn't get to see the demo, but we arrived right after the first demo, and weren't going to stay for the next. Next time, they should at least have a demo every hour.

These people had a big crowd everytime they did a demo. Here, here, and here. I had stepped out of the crowd after getting a few shots, and wished I had stayed, because I couldn't get close again after realizing the demo was much longer than I first had thought.

The Sony Aibo dog was there. I was more impressed than I thought I would be. It was very good at mimicing a real pet.

An oddity was this theraputic robot seal. Here, and here.

Lastly, a robot show would not be complete without movie robots.

ROT IN HELL HVAC TECHS.

Let me give you a little background. A situation occurred at the beginning of the year that I may talk about later which has caused my husband and I to need to sell our house, as soon as humanly possible. We were about 50% done with a fixer-upper, and have needed to complete the other 50% by the end of the year. Much of the process has been like crawling through broken glass. No... make that crawling through broken glass while having a seizure, while having someone jump up and down on your back so the glass is imbedded really deep.

While trying to complete the house... many, many things have interrupted the flow of getting things done. This is just one of many.

I would say about a month ago, our really old dinosauric heater died. My husband and I debated whether to just replace the unit. Normally, that is what we would have done. The hitch is that if we replaced the unit, we would have to add AC. If we don't, likely the new owners would have to - due to the heat in our area. Or wonder why if we spent the money for a brand spanking new heater, we just didn't spend an extra few grand to add AC. Adding AC to this house has always presented a problem because of the location of the furnace. Perhaps new owners would be okay with an AC unit on top of the house. I personally have never liked the idea. Let them figure out what they want to do. AC doesn't add that much to resale value anyway.

So after trying to diagnose the problem, we threw in the towel and started calling HVAC techs to come out. Since our pilot light stayed lit, the net was almost useless to us. The usual route went "blowers wont ignite". Resolution "check your pilot light". Thanks a f'ing lot.

The first company couldn't get to us for a few days. No problem. I called on a Monday, and had an appointment for Thursday. They called back later that day to move my appointment from the morning to the afternoon. I am fine with this. It isn't cold yet, but I am watching the news everyday and getting a little jittery. 70 bucks just to knock on the door. Still no problem. On Wednesday, the company called to reschedule for the following Monday. I was kind but firm and told them no way, my furnace is broken. The receptionist actually told me" Well, we thought it was warm outside". I of course was speechless. In my head I am thinking "are you people insane!?!", but I can't actually even say anything.

First, my repair doesn't hinge on your feeling that it was warm enough to put me off for a full week. Second, why would we trust a company that conducts business like this? The weather turns on a dime around here. Often, like flipping a light switch. After I balked, she actually started dialing the time back.

Her, "how about Saturday".
Me, no.
Her, "well what about Friday".
Me, "speechless".
Her, " maybe we can get you in Thursday afternoon".

The same day in fact the appointment originally was. At this point I want to be really sarcastic, but I just can't bring myself to do it. I call my husband who is more level headed and have him tell them we are going with another company.

So we call the next company. Discovery Quality Service Inc. 3393 Clayton Rd. Concord California. 925-687-9860. They can come that day, but my husband isn't home, so I schedule for the next morning. 45 bucks just to knock on the door. Again... no problem. The house call seems pretty cheap compared to the other company. The techs actually arrive. I am super happy. It hasn't been easy to get workers to even show up. The economy can't be that bad because contractors don't seem to be hurting for work.

Then the trouble begins. They spend about a half an hour on our fuse box. To this day, I really can't figure out what they were trying to do, but the end result was they broke the box, and wound up wedging it out of the wall. The fuse was unrecognizable. They diagnose the problem as a bad fan center. $395.00. The estimate is $687.00 including $85.00 to replace the fusebox that they themselves broke. Not counting the $45.00 just to come out. At this point we are still in HVAC illiteracy. We weren't that happy about them ripping the fuse box out of the wall, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. So we weren't pissed. It is an old machine after all.

I take the fuse box to a lighting store who had a lot of retro parts. This is when we started to figure out just what fuck-ups these guys were. The lighting store guy wedges out the remaining piece of the fuse, and is able to give me a replacement. 3 bucks. BTW, the fuse screwed out like any other fuse of the type. The box is still broken, but he says if we can't find a new box, in a pinch we can just superglue it back together. Not happy about that...we start looking on the net to find the part they were going to charge us 85 bucks for, was $10.00 retail. Still not upset at this point. We get markup. My husbands dad knows people in the HVAC trade in a far away state, so I figure he can find a new compatible fan center. My logic is that they are at least charging 100% markup on the part, so with shipping we would still come out ahead.

Come to find out, the part is under 30 bucks. Now that we know what we are looking for, we again look on the net and are able to buy the part retail for about 50 bucks. Getting a little irritated, and shocked considering they were going to charge us almost $400.00 for just the part. Not even labor.

We wire in the new fuse box, and the new fan center, still dead. My husband (who is not an HVAC tech) started tracing back the electricity and finds our fan motor is blowing the fuse. My husband pulls the housing, and we take it into a parts shop, who opens it up. Low and behold.. the motor has fully fried. I feel relief. Yeah.... we are going to have heat. No mistaking the fan motor is bad. New fan.. 150 bucks. At this point, we have spent roughly 200 bucks. No big deal. We are irritated they didn't diagnose the motor, but shit happens. Well.. maybe that is not the honest truth. I am getting more irritated, because for the first part that cost 50 bucks they were going to charge $400, so I start to wonder how much they were going to charge for a part which cost us 150 bucks.

So we clean up the housing, put the new motor in. It spins beautifully. We're gonna have heat. We're gonna have heat. Wire it up, we are still dead. The blowers don't fire. Which they did before the HVAC techs came out. I'm going to slit my wrists, and start talking about just bringing a tech back to the house.

At the last minute we decide to wire the old fan center back into the furnace. We get it back in, fire the pilot light. Turn the thermostat up, and whoosh... the blowers ignite. I stand there looking at them like someone walking the desert for days who happens upon a lake. We are gonna be saved after all. We aren't going to die!

Well... all that is a lot dramatic, but this has been a long horrible, trying situation. Getting information has been incredibly difficult.

So let us recap. Discovery Quality Service Inc. 3393 Clayton Rd. Concord California. 925-687-9860 were going to charge us practically 700.00 for a part that was perfectly good. <insert heavy sarcasm> When it didn't fix the problem, they would simply tell us our motor had fried and take the other part out.

Unless specifically requested, I bet they wouldn't even have tested the old part to make sure it was bad. Plus.. I think most people would have just been so excited to have it fixed, they wouldn't have even questioned it.

Now, I don't mind paying a guy to come out to diagnose my problem (which right now is trying not to go ballistic), but what I do mind is paying for them to come out and railroad me into paying for a few unnecessary parts. I also mind that they have you bent over fully lubed because they charge for a house visit, and they count on you not wanting to pay for more than 1 or 2 house calls. Who wants to pay a couple hundred dollars to comparison shop? I also fucking mind paying 1000% markup. I mind paying $165.00 in labor for a part they broke, and to replace a part that would have taken an experienced tech 15 minutes to replace. (It took us less than an hour, and we have no experience at all.)

Don't get me wrong, the first time we put in the fan center it was a bitch, but mostly because we wanted to make sure we were careful with the wiring. The second time it took us about 10 minutes. Yes.. I know they charge an hourly rate, but 165.00 an hour is fucking excessive. I really fucking mind that the reason they do this is so they can sell you a new set-up. And don't give me that bullshit about energy efficiency. Apparently just putting in a new motor makes it quite a bit more efficient.

A new direction.

This blog has been silent for a very long time. I had grown very tired of blogs who did nothing but bitch and complain about... well... everything. It wasn't just the bitching really, it just seemed to be the needless bitching. The "Starbucks Espresso bar" got my coffee wrong this morning, and it must be George W. Bush's fault type bitching.

Perhaps I may fall into this same trap, but this blog may now be a mix of the bitching I list above, and consumer type issues. Feel free to tell me I am a hypocrite, because I have had it, and I probably won't care.

Having said that... the bitching will commence.

A Politically Correct (True) Fish Story

Living in California, you come to expect crazy liberal standards...but even I am floored by what happened this morning.

My husband and I decide to go out to the "design center" to find a light fixture for the bathroom from hell. (should a bathroom remodel really take 10 months?) At any rate, we aren't morning people. But somehow we manage to get out the door early, and arrive 20 minutes before the store opens. Across the parking lot is a Petsmart.

I had been trying to find a friend for "Puffy" our puffer fish. He is sort of a demon fish. When I bought him, I didn't expect it to be a lifetime experience. I figured fish live a few years, they die, and you figure out your next move. Which for me would be be a saltwater tank. Well... five years later, he's still alive, and as a responsible pet owner I have to go though this weird fish ritual to find him friends. He is suppose to be aggressive, but he lived happily with one of those goofy glass fish they inject with the color. But like all fish (I thought), after a couple of years he died. So then I decided to get him another friend, a more aggressive breed who should be in its same temperment category who turned out to kick his ass. He had to go, because we have been feeding Puffy all this time. He has seniority. Okay... enough about the stupid fish friend stuff. After all, this wouldn't even be worth telling if it weren't for what happens next.

So my husband and I walked through all the fish, and didn't find anything suitable. But they did have crabs. Crabs are entertaining, but no matter how giant of a crab you put in the tank, Puffy will find a way to eat it. So we decide to blow a couple of bucks to get Puffy a treat. I mean... who doesn't like crab... right? So I have got the salesgirl, net in hand, in the crab tank fishing out our crabs. She asks me "so what kind of tank are you going to put them in"? I say "they're food". Because I know that eventually, they are just going to be Puffy food.

She says "I don't think I can sell these to you". I say "What"? (Let's say it all together: "What?") She calls to another gal and asks "she wants to feed these crabs to a puffer fish. I can't sell them right"? The other girl confirms, that these crabs are to be no fishes food. Then the first girl says something about a guy wanting to buy mice to feed to his snake. Which I kinda understand. I thought pet stores had mice precisely for that, but what do I care? (If I'm being realistic, I'm betting more mice die in their store waiting for homes, than die winding up being snake food.) I try to plead my case again, and tell her I understand about the mice, but these are crustaceans... crabs for Christ sake. She isn't budging. I walk out without them, muttering about political correctness.

My husband and I go to lunch, wind up at another pet store, and I now have six crabs in my tank. Making sure of course when I was buying them that I didn't mutter anything about them eventually getting eaten.

Your Happy Feel Good Animal Story of the Day

Dog calls 911, saves owner from seizure, and even unlocks the door for the police.

Just In The Nick Of Time.

While watching Prime Minister Iyad Allawi this morning, I couldn't help but feel proud. Less for his exact words, although his "thank you" was huge, but more for the hope he portrayed. I couldn't help but drift back in my mind to the buildup to the war. When human shields were flying to Iraq (many from the exceedingly liberal area I live). When pretty much no one I encountered thought it was a good idea. When the news media was clearly slanting against the war. I thought about the disagreement after disagreement I had with people. You see, I didn't care why we were going to war. People were incredulous with me. Time after time I told them, I didn't care if they found absolutely zero WMD. My stance was "those people" deserved the hope that we enjoy. They deserved a chance to make their own lives. They deserved to not be brutalized just for speaking out against their government. The very thing we so take for granted, that people can say anything about our leaders. Up to making a direct threat.

Every time I watched the old stock video out of Iraq, and saw not one smile. Only despair. I scoured everything I could about Iraq. Every voice I could find. Every once in a while I would read reports from people who had made it out of the Kurdish area. They were waiting for us. Please come.

You see, I don't think our government does everything right. But I figured even if we royally screwed it up, it would be at least 50% better than what they had. Anything was better than what they had.

In the beginning I read the Iraqi blogs, and was happy. You could almost hear the excitement in their words. Then as the violence started getting worse and things started seeming less hopeful. I had to search harder for good news. Anything what would make me think it was worth it. It wasn't coming as fast as I would have liked it to. Then as American after American was beheaded. I watched each and every beheading video. Except the last two. I might still, but after the group of men from Nepal were beheaded and slaughtered (who didn't even have troups in the region) my skin became much too thin. The joy they took making it a slow death was too much. Don't misunderstand me. Each one had enraged me, and affected me deeply. I couldn't logically wrap my mind around any of them. I'd seen more pictures of the bombings, and the assignations than probably was healthy. I had also seen tons footage of the brutality the Iraqi's had to endure. I wasn't obsessed, as it may sound. I just didn't want to hide from the horrible realities.

A month or two ago I turned fairly sour. My stance was becoming more and more "screw them". Things like the comments of the Iraqi soccer team at the Olympics were exceedingly unhelpful for my state of mind. I would still find tidbits of hope, but it was becoming too little too late for me. I was decidedly feeling like I was wrong. They were just a brutal people. That is just their culture.

Frankly, it sucked. I felt that the Iraqi people were a smart educated people, who of all of the countries we might have toppled, they had the best chance of being successful. I wanted them to succeed. After all, who wouldn't want to be the creator of their own destiny. I just didn't see it happening. Maybe they had been repressed for too long, and they would never figure out how to be a democratic people.

So this brings me back to Mr. Allawi. I don't all of sudden think things are great. I know they aren't. His speech made him seem like a leader. Baby step by baby step maybe they are figuring it out. I was proud of him.

Mr. Allowi gave me something akin to that burst of energy that you get when you are running a marathon, you've hit the wall and think you just can't take it anymore. It occurs to me that Iraq and America need hope from each other. Iraq needs hope from America that we will stay and help them just a while longer until they can completely stand on their own. America needs hope from Iraq that our efforts are worth it. That our sacrifice is really what they wanted and couldn't quite pull off on their own.

Vietnam Drones On

I was just being born when Vietnam was wrapping up. Being the usual curious child, I asked my Uncle dozens of times about his service in Vietnam. To this day, the only thing I know is that he was a medic. Each time I asked he declined. It occurs to me that these moments shaped my feelings about being a hero, contributing to charity, and performing good deeds. I could never really put my finger on why I long have had a special distrust about people who went out of their way to tell people how much they contribute to society. A special seething anger about people who over-exagerated their war service. After listening for weeks to the whole John Kerry " I am a Vietnam Hero " mantra, I have to begin to wonder how my Uncle got so wedged into my moral code. It isn't as if when I asked my Uncle got that far away tortured look, or got choked up. He simply changed the subject. Finally into my teens I stopped asking. My Aunt said he would never talk about it. Not even to her. I have to admit, I am still curious. I have always been that sort of person who didn't want to hide from the ugliness of the world. I won't bothering asking, because I know he will never tell.

As ugly as Vietnam was, and the type of duties he performed, it now occurs to me I have never heard my Uncle complain about the war. Never said how wrong and useless it was. The reason I mention it is because after watching John Kerry's Senate speech, the contrast between his words and my Uncles lack of words seem like such an immense contrast. I imagine my uncle was drafted and did a full tour of duty. My uncle was poor and was never wounded, so he wouldn't have been eligible for early release or deferments. Yet he has quietly moved on with his life.

John Kerry on the other hand has taken every opportunity use those four months in his youth to better his career. It is apparent the last thing my Uncle wants is to remember anything about Vietnam. Even to use it for his own benefit. In John Kerry's Senate speech he said " We wish a merciful God could wipe way our own memories". My Uncle acts like a man who wishes for that. John Kerry does not.

Update on Robomower

The mower is in the shop. It has been three days, and who knows how long it will be in. Maybe Monday I will call them and see if they have even figured out the problem, and have begun to order parts. I am already setting my expectations low, and saying it will be in the shop longer than we owned it. (3 weeks) If you have rock bottom expectations sometimes you come out pleasantly surprised. Kind of like going to see a movie you just know is going to be crap.

Amazon on the other hand gets credit for stepping up to the plate and at least attempting to make us happy. Where Friendly Robotics gave us the big screw you. Amazon at least offered to credit our account $120.00. We could have gotten all hissabitchy and made Amazon take it back, but frankly it wasn't Amazons fault. The fact they have to eat the money they are returning us makes me even less impressed with Friendly Robotics. I know it is "just business" and all, but I would think you would want to make early adopters like us happy. While not pissing off your vendors. Now we get to see how many weeks we need to pay a gardener.

You Want To Do What? Part 1.

Last night I developed a tick. You know... one of those subconscious facial things people do when they are stressed. Right after my husband said "ya know.... what do you think about doing this.......". While I am long past being stressed about the bathroom remodel (we are in the home stretch after all) that same sentence has been said in our house over this one project zillions of times for the past six months. You think I am joking. Just wait. This hasn't been an easy project.

It all started out with these tiles.


We knew from the very beginning that we had some issues. For one thing, the tiles were a vastly different thickness.



But I loved the glow tiles. There wasn't any dispute between us. He liked them too, but dismissed the idea as crazy. All of a sudden I felt like Cartman on South Park. "But maaaaa, I want a traperkeeper 2000'. We spent the next two hours in the store. Although we both have a very short tolerance for shopping, we both know better to leave the store with something unless we have an plan. How were we going to incorporate these tiles that wont look to overdone, and still be on the funky side.

I was leaning towards a metal accent:



He was leaning towards having an accent that ties into the floor tile:




Or do we just want to put some subtle lines:

Iran Embraces Queen.

In news of the ironically bizarre.

ROCK icons Queen, fronted by outlandish gay icon Freddie Mercury, have become the first rock band to be given the official seal of approval in Iran.

A record company source said an album of their greatest hits has been released in the country.

Mercury, who died of AIDS in 1991, was proud of his Iranian ancestry and supposed Zoroastrian origins.

It made Queen one of the most popular bands in Iran, but western music is largely frowned upon in the Islamic republic, where homosexuality is considered a crime.

Read more here.

Portal To The Future?

If you have a few minutes to blow, archinect.com has some pretty rockin' photos.

Nothing To See Here. You're Just Paranoid.

Last week CTV reported an odd robbery. A Nuclear densometer. Story here. Not only do you need to be certified to use one of these machines, they are alleged to be very pricey. So imagine my surprise when I found another report of a truck with a Nuclear Densometer inside was stolen December 6th in Canada. The truck was recovered, but not the densometer. More oddly, a "mysterious laser device" was reported being found in March.

Friendly Robotics Not So Friendly

It seems to happen quite often these days. A product breaks down which you have only had for a much shorter time than you expect an item to last. This time, it was our lawn mower. I am out mowing the lawn, and it spins down. Only to never start again. I call my husband. "You aren't going to believe it". Him: "what"? Me: "the mower just died". Him: "but we just bought that thing". Me: " I know. I will hunt down the receipt and see what we can do about it". After rummaging through hundreds of receipts I find it. 14 months old. I am relieved to know the warranty is for 24 months, but now we are left without a mower in the middle of summer when the lawn grows at an insane rate. Then the annoyingly familiar cycle begins. Are they really going to honor the warranty? How much it going to cost us to ship it to wherever. Once we get it fixed how long till it breaks down again. Maybe we should think about buying something new while we are trying to get the old one fixed. After all, we have learned all to well that it never hurts to have a backup.

My husband had been sending me links from gadget websites for weeks about how cool the robomowers were. Very neat indeed. Though at the time we already had a working mower, and I couldn't get past lawn dismorphia. Granted, I am the one doing the lawn work, but somewhere in the back of my mind I think " if I go automated on this, it will just keep going until I am laying on the couch like jaba the hut with machines doing everything for me". In reality, I have a million other projects to do. Saving a few hours on lawn work a week would make those other projects actually move a little faster. So... I finally softened to the idea. We spent about a week marinating the idea. Looking at feedback. Combing the web for people who actually owned one, and were satisfied enough that we placed the purchase through Amazon.

A couple of days after placing the order we start to get positively giddy about the machine. Each day my husband was checking UPS to see when it is suppose to arrive. Finally it does on a Monday the July 26th. Yippee!




We spend the better part of a day laying the ground wire. We get our first mow in by the next weekend. At this point we think "hey... this is great". Did a much better job than we expected. It was very quiet. What a relief! All goes well for the next 2 weeks.


Then it happens. Soon after setting the mower to go on August 19th I notice when it goes in reverse it is making a squeaking sound. At first I didn't think much of it, and figured dew on the lawn was causing it to make a little noise. After a few cycles in reverse though, it starts to bother me. After sitting out and watching it for about 10 minutes I realize the thing is listing, and when I shut it off and look at it I notice a groove has been worn in the wheel. I email my husband who says " this may not be a problem - pull the battery and see if the wheels have slipped their height setting". I pull the battery, and put it into the higher setting, set the battery back in, and the chassis slumps to where it is sitting. Just slightly higher than where it was wearing a groove in the wheel on the lower setting.
Right side (good) Note the cleareance between the wheel and the wheelwell

Left side (bad):

Crap. It just figures. I look through email and alert my husband that we are three weeks into the 30 day period in which most companies let you return defective items for exchange. At this point I am super annoyed because while we thought we would have to repair it before the 24 month warranty, we didn't expect a failure at 3 weeks. I call the distributor in Texass, and gives me the local repair shops. Now, when I say local, I mean an hour in each direction local. I already know that it will cost around 50 bucks to ship it to a repair shop. It is a heavy oversized item. Now, If we had the mower for more than 3 weeks, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. But now we faced with a huge hassle or another 50 bucks for an item we spent over 650 bucks for and have only had 3 weeks. And have treated extremely gently.

My husband calls the distributor back the next day to put some firm pressure on them to send us an RMA, and give us an exchange. No luck. He sends me email -"they don't do exchanges - ever, but they claim it will be fixed free of charge". At this point I am in disbelief. It doesn't state that on their website. Honestly, that might have swayed us into not buying the mower.

The more annoying thing is the distributor in Texas made absolutely zero effort to make us happy, apologize for our inconvience, and frankly wasn't even pleasant to either of us on the phone. Some might think the distributor was merely reflecting the attitude we were projecting. I assure you, neither my husband and I are the type to stomp up and down being loud and yelling at people. We are reasonable people. Firm, but reasonable.