Let's take a second here and talk about customer service, corporate image and what impact they have on a company's overall health.  If you recall some time back I gave the folks at iRobot a raving review of their Roomba robotic vacuum system after I picked a few of them up and put them through their paces around the Abattoir -- since then, we've almost never used our upright and I stated my glee over the product; the rapid charger was an extra $90 and unfortunately blew itself out about 60 days after purchase.  The charger was returned to the vendor I purchased it from (...not iRobot directly...) who had it for about 4 months before telling me that the unit, according to iRobot, was out of warranty (30 days) -- I did not accept this answer; a letter was fired off, but also carbon copied to the folks at iRobot so they had a chance to respond directly too:

From: MeatMan Sent: Wed 5/26/2004 02:17 PM To: (replied to vendor, plus CC'ed several addresses at iRobot) Subject: Replacement Rapid Charger

Greetings, Dave... Thank-you for the return call from my email the other day... as per our conversation this morning, will you please forward me a direct contact name and number I can call at iRobot, perhaps an email address too; they WILL be replacing that Rapid Charger at no cost to me, there is no way I'll accept a $90.00+tax appliance blowing itself out in approx. 2 months and not being covered by the manufacturer, that in no uncertain terms is not acceptable - We've purchased three of these Roomba Vacs and a scad of extra batteries, chargers and all the fun stuff -- I've even given iRobot a direct, personal endorsement on Abattoir.Net !! How is this going to look when I tell the people I boasted to?! Not too well, I'd say. Also, what's with the three or four months time that this has taken? Was this delay on your end or theirs? <--- (you'll want to be honest on this one) :) As I see it, iRobot owes me at least a whole Roomba for the advertising I've already given them -- of course, I have ways of taking that back I suppose. Miffed! Craig Milton Abattoir.Net

Response was professional...  iRobot did the proper thing, and they did it fast -- within no time an email was received from iRobot's Customer Support Manager, Joshua Preneta apologizing for any customer service issues I've had and asking for my address so he could send a rapid charger ASAP; how does this make iRobot look?  Pretty damned good, I'd say...  Companies that take care of their customers foster consumer confidence and repeat business, not to mention the single most important benefit, the accolades and respect from very satisfied consumers, like myself in this case -- stories like this get around, as well they should.  Thanks iRobot, let us all know when you start selling bottled water too.

We still have nothing nice to say about Cedar SPAM Springs Bottled Water, who continue to ignore us, another email and another fax sent, still no response at all; some companies just don't get it I suppose, I bet even a fleet of Roombas won't clean-up their act.  Regardless, the tee-shirts are ready and we think they look great, we have Cedar SPAM Springs "h2-no!" tee-shirts in white, black or grey -- show your distaste for Cedar SPAM Springs Bottled Water and get your tee-shirt today! (...Abattoir.Net tee-shirts are guaranteed 100% SPAM free...)  We'll soon be putting up a 6'x4' rear projection billboard at the Abattoir with a nice detailed power point presentation telling everyone at the Abattoir's busy intersection what Cedar SPAM Springs have done.  I want my .10¢

Now for some actual game news!  BTM44 'Carpet Bomb' Edition is almost sold out, this may be your last chance to get a port in LAN Central, so don't delay and sign-up today!  Infinity's been hard at work on a little project which finished-up just the other night (...more like 2am actually..) -- We are very proud to introduce the official "Abattoir.Net BTM MapPack" for Unreal Tournament 2004!  This CD ROM is packed to the gills with hand picked and tested maps of all varieties, it's complete with an installer, has a removal system and will swallow just under 2 gigabytes of your hard drive space after installed; if you're looking for the definitive collection of Abattoir approved maps, this CD ROM is a must have (...it even includes the latest patch and MODs...)  You'll find the entire CD ROM ISO for download off the SuperFTP in the Unreal Tournament 2004 directory (...check the maps folder...).  Look for more Abattoir.Net BTM MapPacks coming soon!