[thstone]

Here is a little bit of background on the Robotop:

After I bought the Robotop last summer from its founder, I spent about $7,500 to re-design the hardware and programming to improve the operation and reliability because there were a few reports of reliability issues with a couple of the original units.

I hired a top electrical designer to do that work and he has personally assembled, programmed, and electrically tested each unit. Furthermore, I have personally tested each and every unit in my own car. So we know first hand and without any doubt that every unit that we ship works before it goes out the door.

The circuit boards are manufactured by a reputable circuit board company in Orange County, CA who is experienced in medical and aerospace circuit board manufacturing. We use only verified authentic electronic components purchased through authorized component dealers – no grey market, eBay, or internet sourced components. Additionally, all of the units are assembled in Orange County, CA (not in Taiwan or China) by the design engineer to ensure the highest quality.

This approach is somewhat expensive but we wanted to ensure that the product was highly reliable and not have any in-service failures that could damage the products' reputation. Since re-launching the product, we have had two units fail out of approximately 250 that we've sold. Both failures were 2-3 months after installation in the customer's car and were replaced under warranty with no repeat failures. That is a failure rate of 0.08% which is extremely low.

We are also very flexible on the warranty - if a customer has problems or doesn't like the Robotop at any time up to a year after purchase, we'll refund your money. No questions asked. Its not worth arguing over $79. We've had zero returns in this regard.

I have taken a low key approach on purpose to allow the product to mature and allow the market for the Robotop to develop in 2012. We're working on several advertising efforts now and you should hear more about the Robotop in 2013.