Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Charged battery fully. Filled reservoir with bar & chain oil. Began to make first cut, saw ran for a few seconds, then died, Re-seated battery, checked chain brake. Saw is defective, does not run. I did not give it a one star rating because it seems to be pretty well constructed. I have ordered a replacement and will update this review once I have had a chance to evaluate the new saw. For now I will say this: Amazon is good about returns, however, simply paying for return shipping doesn't cut it. That should be a given when a product is DOA or fails within a short time. In this case, the saw was very poorly packed. It was placed in an oversized box with a bit of craft paper as padding. It was free to slide around and the box was in the process of being ripped open when we received it. That meant that in order to return it, I had to use my own packing materials, my tape, and most importantly -- my time. I estimate that unpacking the saw, battery, and charger; reading the instructions; charging the battery; adding bar & chain oil; trying it out; contacting Amazon after it failed; printing the insert; packing everything back up in the factory box; packing the factory box in the Amazon box; taping it up securely; placing it out for delivery, and then calling Amazon the next day to confirm that the UPS pickup was scheduled (we received no notice) took about 1-1/2 hours. That's 1-1/2 hours I'll never get back. IMO, Amazon and/or the mfr should do something to compensate customers in cases like this. We should not have to waste our time because a mfr wants to save a few bucks by having a product mfr'd overseas in a factory with little to no QA. It is inexcusable for a product like this to arrive DOA. Are these saws even tested before leaving the factory?. [UPDATE 7/21/17]: The following is from my reply to EGO in the comments. Since many potential buyers do not read the comments I am posting it here as well: The replacement saw arrived today and it appears to work. I added bar & chain oil to the saw, inserted the fully charged battery, and made 2 cuts -- approximately 10" diameter white pine trees that have been dead for a couple years. The saw did well, but dry pine is not a particularly challenging test. With no "remaining power" or state of charge indication (other than the green LED) I have no way of knowing how much of the battery capacity was used. I will have to update my review after I have a chance to use the saw until the battery is depleted. The Oregon bar and chain seem to be good quality. As expected with a new chain, it cut well. The chain tension was adjusted properly (as was the tension on the first saw). The weight is approximately the same as my 1985 vintage Stihl gas chain saw -- and that is with the smallest capacity 2A battery. Something I've noticed with both saws is that there is a short delay between when the trigger/switch is pulled and when the motor begins to run. I don't know if that is intentional. While these are _product_ reviews, not packing reviews, it should be noted that the EGO packaging was fine (as it was with the defective saw as well) but the Amazon packaging once again left a lot to be desired. The factory box was placed in an Amazon box that was way too large, and a small amount of craft paper was stuffed beside it. In both cases the factory boxes were free to slide around and slam into the interior of the Amazon box. In both cases, the Amazon boxes only had two (2) pieces of packing tape running lengthwise -- one on the bottom, one on top. A 5 year warranty is generous, and has value. Purchasing a 5 year extended warranty (something I NEVER do and recommend against -- don't bet against the house) for a tool like this would cost a significant amount. Of course, it's better to have a product that has a shorter warranty and never needs to be repaired, than one with a long/lifetime warranty that fails frequently. From what I read prior to making this purchase I expect the EGO saw to be trouble-free. Hopefully I'll never have to put the warranty to the test. I will update after I have a chance to cut some harder wood and have an idea about run time. ~~~~~ *UPDATE* 11/24/2017: We've had a chance to use the saw more. The supplied 2.0 Ah battery stores enough energy for a few cuts. For example, I made about 13 cuts through a 7" to 9" diameter ash tree before the battery was depleted. That's plenty of capacity for doing some tree trimming and clean-up in a suburban yard, but not enough for more serious use. We live on 15 mostly wooded acres and heat with a woodstove. I'm used to using a small Stihl chainsaw. Needless to say, the EGO cannot come close to matching it for runtime. I did not expect it to, but as a practical matter, in order to use the EGO saw almost continuously, the way you would a gas saw, you must have at least three (3) 2.0 or 2.5 Ah batteries and 2 basic chargers. The 2.0 Ah battery takes 35-40 min. to charge (25 min. in the quick charger) and the continuous cutting run time might be 10 minutes. So when battery #1 is placed in charger #1, battery #2 is being used.. When Battery #2 is discharged and placed in charger #2, battery #3 is being used. Hopefully, by the time #3 is depleted, #1 is recharged. That's our plan anyway. It turns out that it makes more sense to buy other EGO tools in 'kits', with the 2.0 or 2.5 Ah battery and the charger, rather than buying 2 batteries and an extra charger. The cheapest I've seen the basic charger listed for is $39, and the 2.0 Ah batteries are $129. That's almost $300. Compare that to the hedge trimmer w/ battery & charger for $149 and the leaf blower kit for $179 ($328 total for both, at a big box store). That's both tools and and extra charger for an additional $30.