I had a terrible experience with Arduino--the kit ...

I had a terrible experience with Arduino--the kit was dead out of the box and even heated up to the point of burning me! Still, I followed their suggestion to work with their dedicated service team to troubleshoot and did this for over 3 weeks before confirming my initial assessment that there was far too much inconsistency between the hardware, the software, and the print material. So I went to Fry's and they made it all better, including offering to have a new kit shipped at my convenience. The young representative was genuinely interested in resolving my problem (he was not just trying to save face or get an easy smile) and his manager was very good at making sure that we completed the steps to get the new kit shipped.

UPDATE: Fry's remains great and the new ARDUINO kit worked! I still collaborated with the company which is only natural, but the difference now is that it led to functionality. I would just respectfully recommend that they reassess how much troubleshooting should happen before something gets escalated.