I have owned mine since 2002 and it has allways treated me fine......judging by the bad reviews, they may have had a glitch in manufacturing since mine.  I have cut fence posts off, landscape timbers, pipe, rough openings, and even hacked down a 10' bush that was in the way.  The recip action really works nice when cutting through 6x6, wet,pressure treated fir. I tried both ways and it really made things quick.  Thing makes quick work of ripping old pre-hung doors out also.  The only thing that I do not like is taking the cord off so the thing fits in the case.....and I guess I can live with that.