Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me start by saying that I bought this product so this is not a review paid for by the seller. I ordered this because it was half the price of the Treager and I had read good things about it. When I received it I measured the wall thickness to compare to my friends Treager and found that the metal on mine was a bit thinner then the Treager, but fairly close. Assembly wasn't too tough but did require about an hour. Once assembled I began the initialization procedure which calls for priming the auger tube and then doing a brief (45 minutes I believe) high temperature burn in. I was able to complete the burn in, but when I tried to actually cook with it the next day it refused to work and displayed ER1 which according to the manual is a temperature probe error...... Oh boy, here we go!!! I contacted Z Grill customer service and left a voice mail message. A real person returned my call within 5 minutes. After a brief discussion about the problem they concluded (as had I) that the problem must be either the temperature probe itself or the control board. Since the temperature probe is cheaper and easier to replace they sent me a new temperature probe. Unfortunately, they sent it USPS and it was over the Thanksgiving day holiday so it took 2 weeks to reach me. I installed the temperature probe (which is a piece of cake) and the problem persisted. I again contacted customer service and they agreed to send me the control board. Since I had now owned this grill for better then 3 weeks and had yet to cook on it, they agreed to send the control board Fedex. Here is the only fault I have with their customer service..... they actually sent the control board USPS so it again took 2 weeks to reach me. On top of that, it had been poorly packaged so when it did finally arrive it was severely damaged. Let me just say here that I have been in manufacturing for better than 20 years and I understand that even the best manufacturers have defects. I wish I hadn't been the one to receive the defect, but someone has to get it and it was my turn apparently. Anyway, I contacted customer service one more time. They were very apologetic about the shipping mistake and the poor packaging. The representative (Adam) was very concerned about me having a good experience and so he sent me another entire grill. It was shipped UPS and even with the Christmas holiday reached me within a week. I took the entire side box assembly from the new one and installed it in mine. It now worked as expected and I've been enjoying it since then. The only problem I have now is disposing of the extra parts!! As far as operation goes, it is identical to the much more expensive Treager. The positions of the knob are identical and it hold heat just as well. I've cooked ribs, burgers, chicken, and even a ham and they have all been wonderful. I cannot yet comment on the longevity of the product as I haven't been using it very long, but the customer service was good overall and that is really important in today's world. I gave four stars because of the customer service and I'll update this review after a few months regarding more of my experience. That having been said, I would not hesitate to purchase this product again.