Laying It On The Line

Native Hardtop XP

Recently I submitted my Native Hardtop XP sunglasses for a warranty repair on the temples (second time in less than 2 years).  The hinge, although clever, is not durable at all.  I have a friend who also has the Hardtop XPs and he has had issues with the hing point since day one.

According to the Native replacement parts site, I could have bought a new set of temples for $25 (plus $2 s&h).  My warranty repair is costing me $30 (pluse $9 s&h).  So, my “lifetime” warranty claim is costing me $12 more than if I’d just bought the pieces and fixed them myself. This doesn’t seem right. 

 I bought these glasses partially because of the lifetime warranty but I’m not sure the warranty is really worth anything.  Also, since this is the second time I’ve had to return the glasses for the same issue I’m not sure of the quality of Native eyewear. 

 I originally bought these for about $150.  I now have an additional $75 invested in these glasses.  I’m pretty sure these aren’t worth $225.  I think if I have another claim in the future it may be time to switch to a different sunglass vendor.  

It’s sad really.  I love these glasses when they aren’t broken.  They’re light, stylish, have polarized lenses and overall just fit my face really well.  Too bad they just aren’t up to my standards in regards to construction.

A little less than a year ago a built a nice redwood deck on the side fo my house.  Since I had the new deck I decided I needed a nice new grill to finish my outdoor living area.  To Lowe’s I go.

Before I went to the store I had searched online for grill reviews to see what the best buy for my price range would be.  Almost everyone suggested the Weber Genesis line.  Built like tanks and able to sear your steak to perfection, the Weber is considered by many to be the “Cadillac” of grills.  Of course, since Lowe’s is a dealer of the Genesis grills, this is what I went to buy.

Being a normal American male, when I got to Lowe’s I couldn’t simply go to the Weber grill, pick it up and walk out.  I had to look around and see all the shiny toys.  In my perusal I found a grill called theSonoma by Altima.  This grill looked really cool.  Stainless steel grates, infrared (IR) burner, side burner, brick lining and more grilling area than the Weber.  Oh yeah, it was about $50 less as well. 

Normally $50 wouldn’t keep me from buying what my internet research had led me to believe was the superior product.  However, after dropping about $5000 on the deck I was trying to keep all additional purchases at a minimum.  Since the Sonoma seemed like a really well built grill and it had a couple things I liked better than the Weber, I had to go for it.

Sonoma by Altima (Surheat)

To make this story shorter, overall I am extremely happy with my purchase.  This grill is very stout, looks great on my deck and cooks like a dream.  Once I get the natural gas kit installed and the grill plumbed into my house I will be in grilling nirvana.

I have had only 2 issues with this grill.  About a month after I bought it the control knobs starting having issues.  The knobs are solid plastic and are prone to deformation because of the heat of the grill.  A quick email to customer service and I have 4 brand new metal knobs that not only funtion much better than the original but look better as well.

The second issue is that about a week ago the electronic ignition went out.  I changed the battery but still no go.  Again, a quick email to customer service and a new one is on the truck to me. 

Sureheat customer service is fantastic and the grill is awesome!!  I highely suggest that anyone looking for a good grill but balk at the cost of the Weber Genesis, look at the Altima line.  You won’t be sorry.

Here’s another update to my Bresnan story. 

Recently Bresnan updated some of the equipment in this area to expand the overburdened system.  After the upgrade though I had major issues connecting at anything over 1 mbps. 

Well, after submitting my testing (speed tests, trace routes, ping times, etc.) and going back and forth with my local tech person (Hey Robin!!) I have to say that my issues seem to be resolved.  I’ve been consistently connecting at over 8 mbps with ping rates below 150 ms (often they are below 100 ms).  All my streaming (hulu.com, netflix.com, etc.)  seems to work flawlessly and I can now download podcasts while my wife plays on Facebook and my media center dutifully plays Hulu.  Exactly what I wanted when I switched from Qwest to Bresnan. 

Thanks Bresnan!!

We have a pseudo-underground sprinkler system at our house.  What this means is that we have the underground lines and sprinkler heads but we do not have the solenoids, control valves and electronics that would finish the system.  For now we use one of the Orbit Automatic Yard Watering Kits.  These things are great.  I can water 4 different zones up to 3 times a day and each zone can have a different watering time.  For about $60 this is a great deal. 

Now, I have had some issues with this system.  It seems like the valves aren’t very robust.  Since I’ve owned this (about 3 years) I have had to replace 4 valves.  At about $16 a piece, you quickly eat through whatever savings there were between using this system and a real sprinkler system.

Anyway, this year when 2 of the valves that I bought last year went belly up, I decided to contact Orbit.  I wanted to see if they had a recall on these or if they had redesigned them to be more durable.   In both cases the answer is no, however, the very nice person with the Orbit customer service  sent me two new valves to replace the ones that died.  She didn’t require my receipt or even ask for me to return the old valves.  She only asked that I do a quick troubleshoot to make sure the valves were the issue and not something else.

Although I would prefer not to have to replace the valves as often (perhaps the design has been changed and these new valves will not fail?) but with customer service like this I contiue to be satisfied with my sprinkling system.