I've never had a single problem with my Frabill products - that said I would never pay full price for them either but that goes for any brand of shack out there lol My Recon was an end of season close out buy for almost 50% off and I beat the hell out of it for 6 seasons on the ice. I sold it to a local ice fisherman and it will be on the ice again this year. The tent looked brand new, sled was in great shape, etc. My hyfax got moved to my new Recruit - never had a problem, the recruit was perfect out of the box, no missing hardware, all the poles/tubes and connectors were there and in good shape, tent is excellent, etc. and everything went together fine. I've also never had any issues calling Plano's technical support. It seems like quality control sucks from all of the shack companies lately so having no issues seems to be more an exception, not the rule. It is definitely buyer beware