I'm off to the UPS store to send back my third Vagabond II unit. The first arrived promptly in early August and initially worked well, but failed two weeks later (smoke and popping) in the middle of a shoot. Customer Service (Melody) sent out another unit (second day air) which failed immediately. Customer Service and Tech Support (Joe) were very apologetic and overnighted the third unit for a scheduled shoot, the evening of 9/4. The unit arrived the morning 9/3- I got Tech Support on the line as we opened the package. With Joe, on the line, we started up the unit (which he had personally checked out)- everything worked satisfactorily. The unit started up properly and functioned well in both slow and fast modes, on multiple monolights, at a wide range of power settings. Saturday afternoon, as checked/prepared the gear for the shoot (3 assistants, Talent including a horse, Client and AD) the unit failed completely, in a cloud of smoke. Fortunately, we had just enough power out of old Tronix and Vagabond I units to get the job done. In fairness I have to say that the CS and TS folks were very pleasant and responsive- they appear to be standing by their full refund policy. But today, as I head out to the uPS store, the Profoto BatPac is looking really attractive.
Jed
