Friends,
I just wanted to chime in and add some of my thoughts concerning my recent experience returning my Solo unit to Arizer.
This was a unit purchased in October of 2012. I used it as my daily driver until May of 2013, so for about six months, until I decided to pull the plug on my first desktop vapourizer, the HerbalAire. Shortly after acquiring the HerbalAire, I was diagnosed with a severe mental illness, which made it nearly impossible for me to leave the house. This meant that sadly, my Solo sat in a box for about six months. The day I went to use it I discovered it had passed on. When turning the unit on, only the blue Idle light was lit, followed by a beep, after which it would turn off. When plugged into a charger, the Idle and 7 lights would flash intermittently, and it would emit continuous beeps until unplugged.
I assumed (incorrectly) that it was the battery, so I actually wound up replacing it (twice, but that's another tale) which initially seemed to do
something. It would actually charge now, and would turn on, but the Red Heat LED would not light. Once the replacement battery became fully charged, the unit returned to the exact same behaviour as before. This led me to the conclusion that it must be returned under warranty.
Arizer were quick to reply, putting me through the usual series of troubleshooting steps that any manufacturer would (try another charger, reset the unit, stand on your head while drinking a glass of water) none of which helped. Upon deciding that my unit was a candidate for service under warranty, Arizer informed me that I not only must pay to ship the unit back to them, but that I could not even ship the unit to them until I sent them
payment to ship my unit back to me. This was extremely off-putting to me, as I deal with many companies that make vapourizers, and other technological devices, and I have never heard of
any company charging the customer to return a product under warranty. In fact, quite the opposite: most companies take the inverse approach, either e-mailing customers pre-paid shipping labels, or including accessories in the package as compensation, as explicitly mentioned in the case of my recent return to HerbalAire.
I was charged 22.60$ CAD, which I am
hoping is flat-rate, since it cost me exactly half of that to ship my Solo
to them, and this was via the same carrier, and same service, so they literally double-charged me for shipping. I also reside in the same province as Arizer headquarters (a five hour drive away) so if this is not flat rate shipping, they are certainly making a killing off of purported shipping costs. Oddly enough, I actually bought this unit
specifically after spending over 200 dollars sending my WISPR and ioLite back to the manufacturer, so had I known at the time that I would have to pay to ship it
both ways, I never would have purchased this product.
In spite of all of this, the return process was extremely straightforward and painless. They guarantee a 2 business day turn-around, but in reality, it was about 12 hours, since they received my unit on Friday, and e-mailed me on Sunday saying that a replacement would ship the following day. I received my new unit today, and I am very pleased. I know some people say that it makes little difference, but for what it's worth, my original Solo was an M1D2, and the new one is an M1F1. I am happy that they replaced it, instead of repairing it, as my unit had quite a bit of oxidation in the shape of my hand on the outside. I also now have the added benefit of being able to charge and use it simultaneously. I suspect that some reliability issues with the old Switching Power Supply they were using as a wall adapter had something to do with the redesign. My wall adapter was always a little wonky to begin with, and lasted for maybe a month before it started to do nothing but tick. I would also add that this unit does seem to run warmer than the one I returned, at least subjectively. My old Solo was only ever used on 7, so when I received this one, I naturally did the same. I found the 7th setting on this unit was borderline combusting my herb: it definitely had that bitter, smokey taste that I get from my Launch Box, or Da Buddha when I accidentally bump the knob without noticing it (which happens more often than you'd think). My second cycle was on 6, which seemed to provide about the same levels of vapour and flavour as the returned unit did at 7.
In summary, while I was pretty put off by being (double?) charged by a company to ship a replacement for their own defective equipment to me, the experience was a very positive one. In contrast, I'd like to mention that I returned my HerbalAire to the manufacturer
before the Solo, and after I was told that everything would be taken care of Monday, it sat in their fucking Post Office Box until late Tuesday afternoon, for a grand total of
six days. No one knows how much longer they will hold onto it, since it's apparently being repaired, not replaced.
I am left asking myself: was it worth paying 22.60$ to get my
medical device replaced in an almost instant fashion? The answer is that it is undeniably worth it, but I will hesitate to recommend it to anyone in the future without mentioning this particular caveat. Had I known about this practice at the time, having been burned as I was by Oglesby & Butler, I never would have purchased this unit. Arizer did include two straight glass stems with the return, which was a nice gesture, since I smashed my bent wand about a week after I purchased the Solo, and my straight wand had the bowl snapped off when I was using it in my HerbalAire through a water piece, leaving me
only my African Blackwood Stem
.
As much as I love my Desktops, and as little as I leave the house, I am looking forward to having a proper Portable again, for the odd time when I am out and about, or as happened just last night, my power goes out for four hours, so I wind up having to combust.
. I cant read this entire thread ( way to long ).
