Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

UPDATE 8 YEARS LATER, December 2019 My original 2011 clock has been performing flawlessly 24/7 since I wrote this review. I just bought a second clock (same model) when I saw the price bottom out again. Was a slight operational change that I noticed out of the box that I thought was a defect -- when I pressed the Wave button, it appeared to have no effect -- my original clock instantly begins pumping the wave indicator. I called Marathon and asked customer service what was up, tech got right on it with great information - the Wave button still works -- it just may take a minute or two for the wave indicator to start pumping. This is the best atomic clock out there in my opinion, it has rarely failed to grab the time (the first try) in San Diego regardless of time of day. ORIGINAL 2011 REVIEW: First, I've bought about 12 smaller Atomic clocks over the years and usually end up giving them to friends. My biggest question about this clock was does it have a Wave button to force it to look for a signal, and the picture everyone uses to advertise this clock makes it appear to have a backlight. It does have a Wave button (see my pictures of the backside controls), and it is not backlighted (see my picture of the giant and normal clocks with a $10 bill for scale). I first bought a smaller clock from Amazon model "La Crosse Technology WS-811561-W atomic digital wall clock with solar-powered sensor" but it was missing Wave buttons for the time and temperature, and the solar-powered thermometer didn't take batteries and was poorly documented in the manual -- it just felt cheap compared to other clocks I've owned. The deal breaker was when I called La Crosse Technology for help minutes after taking it out of the box -- I was left on hold for 30 minutes and then disconnected. I then used Amazon to Return the item and was given a return tag, postage paid. Next I called Amazon's seller "American Science & Surplus" and got right through to a customer service specialist who answered my questions in less than a minute -- and then I ordered the giant clock from Amazon because I felt good spending the extra dollars for the big model, and after a week now, I highly recommend it -- it is a first rate product sold by a professional business who answers its phones. I took the time to post this (my first review) because I really use other reviewers' feedback and no one posted any reviews on this product.