Easy Come, Easy Go

Well, my time with the ER850 was short-lived; the speaker didn't work and had to be returned. I purchased the unit off eBay; it was brand new, and came from an authorized Ectaco reseller, so it's covered by the 1-year warranty. Getting it replaced is easy, I just have to return the unit to their New York office and they'll ship me out a new one. Of course that takes time; the unit has to be sent back to them (5-6 business days) and then they have to send me another unit (probably 5-6 business days), so it'll be awhile before I can play with it again. I had to pay for the shipping back to them ($26 from Canada to NYC), but they'll cover the shipping back to me.

Normally I'd be ticked that I got something that didn't work and had to ship it back, but it helps me write this review since I've now experienced dealing with their support people. I sent an initial email and received a response about 2 minutes later advising me to call their support line, and explaining that I'd likely have to return the unit to them for exchange. I called the number and immediately spoke to someone (it was early in the morning, so they weren't very busy). I called again later in the day to verify the return address and I was on hold for 15 mins before speaking to someone. My only frustration is that I have to wait until they receive the unit before they'll send another one. Many electronic companies will ship a new unit if they know the old one is being returned, but they take your credit card and will charge it the cost of a new unit if they don't receive the old unit back in 15-20 days (depends on the company). Ectaco doesn't offer a service like that - maybe it's something they should consider.

Damn, I just checked the Ectaco website and they dropped the price of the ER850 from $580 to $440, and you get a free accessory kit ($110 value) included. Looks like I ordered mine a week too soon (I paid $469 on eBay, including shipping to Canada). Well, that's a bummer. Interesting; I just checked the price again and it's gone back up to $580. It appears Ectaco drops and raises their prices every once and awhile, so it's probably worth signing up for their email service that notifies you when the price drops below your set amount.

Gord