Balthazar_B, good points, I suppose I should have pointed out a few things:
1) I have tried repeatedly to get my retailer to fix this error to no avail (otherwise I would not have opened the machine and started poking around, thus voiding the warranty by unscrewing the back, which of course they told me voided the warranty after I opened it on their recommendation to take a look around and make sure nothing came undone... does that give you an idea of the kind-hearted people I purchased this from?) As an aside, yes I am upset at them now... I have spent thousands in the last year alone on coffee/cleaning supplies/etc from them, and now I get the shaft. I am through playing with them, and would much rather give my cash to someone else now.
2) I live out in the middle of no-where. I am not near a metro area, and I have spoken to a few coffee/espresso lovers around here that claim there is no repair place in the state. I had to order my machine from 1/2 way across the country.
3) We make a lot of coffee... I would say 5-15 shots/day M-F, and probably 2-3 times a week and on weekends, that number goes to anywhere from 10-30 depending on how many friends/relatives/neighbors come by for a visit. That may not be a lot to people on this forum, but Silvia could not take that kind of work out, it seems.
Note: we make espresso drinks only, no drip coffee... 90% of the time lattes and cappuccinos. The remaining 10% would be straight shots or americanos.
4) To make matters a little worse, we are of very modest means... it took a while to save/pay for the Expobar, and perhaps that is where a bit of my anger at it comes from for it failing so early, and then me getting little/no help from my retailer. I am typically one to keep a calm head about all of this, and on the scope of life, hey it does not matter, but having good espresso to drink in the house does matter.
I did take a peek at the rotary machine you mentioned at Chris's yesterday or the day before... interesting. It sort of scares me that a lot of those machines look just like the expobar I have, but I am assuming that is due to the fact that the groupheads are all the same and so this kindof forces the layout to be the same and therefore have the same looks. That does not really scare me as much as seeing the control box in the machine... the same make (and model? not sure) as mine. I called Chris's to ask about the control unit they use, and see if they have reliability issues or ask if they have a replacement I could purchase. I called twice, left voicemail twice (over the last week) they still have not called me back yet. That is very odd, everything I read says those guys are wonderful to work with... This is adding a little to my frustration. We need coffee..
