Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I've owned my lobster for 4 months and have used it 20 times. I've become increasingly disappointed with it and would like to share my reasons so others don't make the same mistakes. #1 I called Lobster right before buying their machine. I asked if there were any discounts or promotions, to which I was told 'no'. One week after receiving my ball machine, I began receiving pop-up ads stating that a remote control would come free with purchase. What the heck?!?! I would have made a different buying decision had I known a $200 add on would be free the very next week. I called and they wouldn't include one for me. Very disappointed with customer care. #2 The ENTIRE machine oscillates from left to right, rhythmically. When I first got my lobster, I felt the corner to corner feeds would be excellent exercise for me. But after a couple of outings, I realized it was easy to watch the entire machine rotate and to know exactly where the next ball was going to land. In fact, I could pre-predict where the next two balls would land. The 'random' balls were no longer random. If I set the timer to launch a ball every 2 seconds, and the machine does a complete rotation in 4, I'd know one would be at the corner and the next would be right down the middle. Even when I force myself to return to the center line after every shot, mentally knowing where the next ball will land makes me lean in that direction. I can no longer simply blank out and have a great workout. If I do that, I'll find myself drifting to where I know the next ball will be, and I won't even break a sweat. If you want 'random' shots anywhere on the court, the Elite Liberty won't do it for you. #3 Carrying in/out of car: Yes, the machine is light, but it's quite bulbous, and the grab points on the bottom are hard to get to around the big body without putting yourself in a dangerous, 'bent over' position. For someone who tries to always bend at the knees to avoid injury, it is impossible to get this up off the ground easily. #4 The lobster only works reliably with pressureless balls. When I first learned that the lobster used pressureless balls, I was happy. They last forever! But when I started hitting 500 ball sessions, I realized that they impact the racket differently. They feel heavier and the impact is sharper. There's more jolt to the hand. During a regular tennis hitting session, I can easily go 1.5 hours. With the lobster's pressureless balls, I begin to feel wrist fatigue after the 500. To avoid tennis elbow, I stop there...after about 35-40 minutes. I tried switching to regular pressured tennis balls. I thought mixing old and new balls would add a level of challenge....some would bounce higher, some would travel further....to break the monotony and add a level of challenge. Unfortunately, the lobster tends to jam with the older balls, making this a frustrating experience. #5 feel lags. As I near the end of each hopper, there is inevitably a feed lag. Sometimes 20 or 30 seconds will go by with no balls being fed. I'll start to pick up balls or kick them towards the lobster, when out of the blue, more balls will start shooting out. I've been hit in the groin on more than one occassion. I didn't know that immediately after selling me mine, lobster would upgrade their line to clear hoppers! A clear hopper would have helped me know that there were still more balls to come! #6 2-3 balls don't feed: At the end of every hopper of balls, there are always 2 or 3 remaining in the hopper that don't make it to the motor. This is just a pet peeve of mine. My ball grabber holds 80 balls. If I'm picking up after every 80....I want to hit 80! Not 78 or 77. Poor design. #8 Basic Battery Charger: I don't mind if this thing takes 8 or 16 hours to charge. I only use it once per day. But what bugs me is that if I forget the thing plugged in, I could ruin my battery. Who designs something like that? I get cold sweats every night after I've used the lobster, thinking I've forgotten to unplug it. It's one more thing in life to stress out about. If I were to do this again, I'd buy a machine that could vary the time in between feeds, or one that hid which way the ball was coming so I'd be more challenged on the court. I'd buy one that would feed all its balls, without pause, and one that could handle regular tennis balls instead of only pressureless. I tried to go cheap and save $500 or so. I thought I just wanted it for exercise, and now I've outgrown my ball machine after just a few weeks. Disappointed