Wow. That is the closest thing to a direct answer I've ever seen on this form. And even though I disagree with the final conclusion (better to halt shipments for two months than to replace a few hissy units) I certainly understand the reasoning and appreciate the explanation.

Bstan: I personally see no evidence that you would receive a hissy unit if they had kept shipping while resolving the problem. More likely, you would have been perfectly satisfied, like me. My unit is NOT HISSY and I don't plan on sending it in for replacement.

It is certainly not dishonest to ship a product when you know a small percentage of units will be returned. That's simply common business practice; you simply cannot ship something with a 0% return rate; all you can do is hope to get it as low as you can.

Scott's right, though, a small percentage of unsatisfied customers seem to blow product defects out of proportion. He might even be right that a small, vocal group could hurt them even more than the large number of grumpies still on the waiting list.

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Matthew J. Hill
matt@idsi.net