Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I ordered the Passport X50 from Amazon to save the $18 shipping Escort Radar was charging. I was told by someone at Escort Radar that Amazon was an authorized reseller. After having my detector on for ten minutes (right out of the box), it did three "SELF CAL"s, then said "SERVICE REQUIRED". I called Escort Radar and was told "If you let the car power up the unit when you start the car, the voltage can be all over the place and the unit gets confused. You must first start the car, and then use the thumbwheel to turn on the detector." It makes some sense, but if this is really the case, why don't they put those instructions in their manual? After trying this many times, the unit was "still confused", so I returned it for a replacement. My second detector worked for maybe thirty minutes before the same thing happened. This time Escort Radar told me "if you leave it plugged into the cigarette lighter over night, this has been found to cause problems." Well my lighter power goes off when I turn off the ignition, so this doesn't apply. Escort Radar also told me that "excessive heat" has been causing them problems. Now we have had a few days of 100° heat, and I'm sure the car gets hotter parked in the sun, but the design engineers should have accounted for these conditions plus some margin when you design something that is supposed to work in a car. It gets a lot hotter in other parts of the country. There are no warnings in the manual about not using it above 90° or leaving it off in a hot car. You wouldn't design a ski that doesn't work below 35°, would you??? The most troubling part of my conversation with Escort Radar service department was they told me Amazon is not an authorized reseller, and they have no idea where they are getting the units from. Furthermore, they will not honor any warranty nor will they ever repair the unit, not even for money.