January 2012

The Doctor: I hate robots. Did I say?
Roman Groom: Yeah, and he's not too fond of you. What's wrong with robots?
The Doctor: It's not the robots, it's the people. Dressing them up and giving them silly voices. You're reducing them.
Roman Groom: Yeah. Friend of mine, she made her domestic robot look like a dog.
The Doctor: Ah, well, dogs. That's different.
                                                                          -Dr Who - The Water of Mars 2009

     When the Neato XV-11 works, it is amazing - exactly what I hoped it would be.  I programmed it to vacuum the downstairs at 5:30 am,  7 days am week.  And for a week it was great.  Then the bad things started. At first, it would occasionally stop, the LCD screen reporting it's - "left wheel was stuck in debris".  I would turn it over and nothing was ever stuck in the wheel.  I did notice that the left wheel turned harder than the right, but was not sure if that was normal.  If anyone has the same problem, it isn't normal.  Both wheels should have the same resistance.

     The next week the left wheel got stuck more often.  Eventually I had to walk behind it and whenever the Neato hesitated, nudge it on the side with my foot or it would stop.   I gave up when I had to do this 54 times in a 12 X 20 kitchen.  I called Neato Robotics Customer Service.  Now, some of the web pages I read call Neato Robotics Customer Service "horrible."  Not my experience.  I thought they were great.  They picked up right away.  I described my problem and the extremely nice woman, who seemed to know a lot about the product (if I find her name I will include it), said Neato Robotics would send out a new unit.  No hassle at all.   Four days later, the replacement Neato was delivered.  The new Neato had a prepaid Fed Ex sticker to return the old one.

     The deal is, you have 30 days to return the old unit and they hold a credit card number to use if you don't.  I put the old unit in the new box and dropped it off at Fed Ex.   Everything was free, this is available for the full year of the warranty.  When they give you a replacement, the 1 year warranty starts over.  A two year extension on the warranty is available for $99.  If I have trouble with the replacement unit, I am thinking of buying the extended warranty.  I hope this isn't the case, but Neato durability may be a notch below it's technology.  The replacement unit was new.   I was told if the broken unit had several months on it, the replacement Neatos are refurbished.

    Hope springs eternal and once again I set the Neato to clean the house every morning at 5:30am.  All I can say now, is that for the last three days of January, all is well.