j_ung wrote:
I don't know why I'm bothering with this, since I don't own any Aliens and I don't intend to ever buy any under any circumstances, but I called CCH and asked what's up. Understand, I'm not acting as a journalist in this case, like I was during the original recall episode. I'm just curious to hear what's going on.
CCH was indeed contacted by, I assume, pinsandbones, in regard to the failure of his Alien. Said contact included pictures of the failed unit, which, apparently showed a broken cable stem, not a failed braze. So this failure is not the same as the recall failures. That MIGHT actually be bad news, since it may -- MAY -- point to an entirely different problem. However, it's important to note that cable-stemmed cams are vulnerable to some extent to sharp edges, of which it appears Souder's Crack has plenty. Without any additional information, I'll allow this failure might be due to that. To me, it's beginning to appear that this is not the result of any shortcoming on CCH's part.
Dave Waggoner also told me that he requested additional contact from the pinsandbones several days ago, but has not gotten it. Not sure where pinsandbones is, but he's not here either. Hey, pinandbones! Post up your pics, mate!
Lastly, I suggested to Waggoner that he post up with an update on this. I told him that, even if he has no additional information, a lot of people would appreciate some kind of proof that they care about what people think. It kinda seemed like that hadn't occurred to him. Waggoner's exact words were, "Yeah, I should probably go ahead and do that today."
Though the limited information available appears to vindicate CCH, at least in this particular incident, I'm not seeing a whole lot to make me change my mind about them and Aliens. Quality assurance aside, they still seem to be unaware of or indifferent to the legitimate fears of their customers. Instead of responding to worst-case scenarios, as I believe they should, they still seem to act (or not act as the case may be) based on what they hope is true.
Aliens remain the only cam on the market today above which I refuse to climb.
