Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Ok, so I just got this model Foodsaver for Christmas after asking my mother-in-law for one. I told her the brand, but she chose the model. I was excited after receiving it, until I hopped on Amazon and checked the reviews. After seeing all of the negative comments on how people couldn't get this to work correctly and it wasted bags, I was more than a little disappointed to her choice, and wished she would have bought me the older, flat model that seems to be more user friendly from what the reviews seem to state. Well, after actually opening the box and using this model, I'm telling you now, "Don't believe the whiners and the bad reviews!" This thing works great! It does exactly what it advertises and I've had absolutely no problems! If you actually READ the directions and follow them, the machine will work perfectly! I had no problems sealing, vacuuming, creating bags, etc. I have noticed you do have to hold the bag tight while pushing it into the machine to engage the automatic vacuuming process. Which, of course, is stated in the directions. I believe that the people who can't get it to work properly haven't read or followed them. Sure, you do have 3-4 inches of excess bag that needs to be used, but I doubt this will be much of a financial burden. By my calculations, it costs an extra 3 cents a bag this way (based on full suggested retail of the rolls). I guess it could be a big deal if you are freezing a cow a week and going through thousands of bags, but I doubt that it makes any difference for the standard user. Not to mention, the old models still needed some space, as well. Not as much, I grant you, but, taking that into consideration and the price extra per bag drops even further because you are probably actually only using an inch or so extra of bag versus the older machines. I do think that there can be some improvements made to this model, but it certainly is not the evil machine that some people have made it out to be on here. My recommendation is that if you are afraid of the reviews, make sure you purchase it from a retailer you can return it to if you aren't satisfied. But, if you have an IQ high enough to be left unsupervised in public, I think you'll be able to get this model to work properly! (In all fairness, I haven't used the canisters at all, so I can't comment on the reviews based on that feature. Also, I probably should have rated this as a 4 star, since there is some room for improvement on this product, but nothing that should inhibit someone from buying it. In reality, I don't think there are too many products in existence that can't be improved somehow, anyways! Bottom line is, this is a MUCH better product than some of the negative reviews on here have made it out to be!)