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My wife would choose Bob over me any day, but I have somewhat of a mixed feeling about him. And no! Jealousy is Not one of them!

My wife got Bob 3 years ago, when the company was still relatively new and barely present outside of Canada. We used her sister’s Canadian address as they didn’t ship/sell to the US at the time—not the best idea but we wouldn’t find out until later.

Bob amazed everyone with his cleaning capacity and became the hottest topic of conversation as robot vacuums weren’t as widespread at the time. But the honeymoon was interrupted 3 months in, when the brush broke. Now, the customer service was helpful and sent us a new brush but coming from Canada, it took close to three weeks for it to arrive. There goes the first mixed feeling incident: the brush breaking in 3 months left no good impression but seeing how much dirtier our place looked when Bob was not working, made us realize how much simpler our lives had become. The manufacturer sending us a replacement brush free of charge was sure nice, but having to keep Bob in the closet for 3 weeks until it arrives, not so much.

Bob was back and started catching up with the piled up work, he worked again for a few months and then one of the wheels stopped turning and guess what? We had to ship it to Toronto for repair! Bob’s trip back and forth took over a month! This was probably the most frustrated I had been with the purchase. It was only 7-8 months into the purchase and it was out for 5 weeks getting repaired. Thankfully, the warranty still covered the return but I was getting anxiety about what would happen if this happens every few months and after the 1-yr warranty runs out. My fears were not all valid, but our Bob incidents didn’t end there ..

We had gotten a hang of Bob’s behaviors and maintenance so everything went well for another 7-8 months when the battery started holding less and less charge. Not quite as disappointing as other issues, cause Bob was by then over 1.5 yrs old and had worked hard most days of the week. Also, the manufacturer had their US entity and sent us a battery from Seattle. They also gave us a 30% discount on the battery which was not too expensive to begin with (we ended up paying 30 something dollars on it—not too bad). To cut the story short, we did have instances where Bob needed serious help about 6-7 times so far, which is like twice a year. Again , another reason for my mixed feeling: having to repair him twice a year isn’t that pleasant but seeing that it is still working fine after all this time, I don’t know whether I should call it shaky or sturdy… Just gotta love him, I guess.