We've always tried to run this business with as much leeway as possible, but transparency goes both ways. In September 2025, for the first time in our history, we had to decline a warranty claim.

The situation was a bit of a perfect storm: the customer had discarded their broken unit months prior and had already purchased and received the newest version before realizing the original was still under warranty. While I offered a discount on a future purchase as a courtesy, I couldn't "back-date" a warranty as an upgrade credit.

I wanted to share the "why" behind that decision because it's core to how we operate:

• Like-for-Like Replacement: Much like if you take a broken iPhone to the Apple Store, they replace it with the model you actually had—not the latest version. To make sure we can always honor this, we maintain a dedicated inventory of all our previous product generations specifically for warranty replacements. If needed, we can make more of our older versions. 

• The "Unit-in-Hand" Rule: To keep our program sustainable and fair, we have to be able to physically inspect the original unit or at least see photographs of the damaged unit. 

It honestly didn't sit right with us to say no—we're a small operation and we much prefer saying yes. However, when rules are already very lax, we have to be consistent about not making exceptions. Simply put, if we start treating warranties as an upgrade program without seeing the original product, we won't survive. These rules are the guardrails that allow us to keep our warranty flexible for everyone.