Long time readers will surely remember all of my run-ins with the incredibly lame folks from Hotwire Enterprises in Florida. Hotwire is supposed to be the dealer that represents KISS Wind generators in the U.S., but these people are so far out in left field they can't even see home plate.

I have had occasion to do business with Hotwire four different times over the last six years and not once has the experience been good. In our dealings, I have experienced over billing, incomplete shipments, damaged shipments, late shipments, lost shipments and outright lying.

My personal favorite episode was when I called and ordered a replacement wind generator after mine got eaten by a concrete bridge. The Annapolis boat show was going on at the time and Libby (Hotwire co-owner) took my phone call at the show. When I explained that I needed a new wind gen, she said she had seven with her at the show. I paid for one in full over the phone and said my dad would be there in a couple of hours to pick it up. Libby said she could mail it to me instead after the show closed today(Thursday) and that I'd have it via UPS in a few days at our next port of call.

I agreed to this thinking it to be a good solution, but when we sailed in to St. Augustine I found no package. A quick phone call to Hotwire revealed that they sold my unit to someone else at the show after they ran out of stock. Excuse me!?! Keep in mind I had paid for this unit IN FULL and even arranged to have it picked up THAT DAY.

Added to this totally bogus and idiotic move, no one from Hotwire bothered to call and tell me that I would now be waiting THREE weeks for a new shipment of wind gens to come in from South America. Needless to say I went totally ape shit on Libby and subsequently her husband on the phone. We were less than a week away from crossing over to the Bahamas and now we had no wind generator.

Once they got me calmed down, they offered to swing by St. Augustine as they were on their way home from the show. The didn't have a new wind gen, but I could have the demo model they put on display. It's not like I had a choice so I agreed.

They stopped by the dinghy dock at the marina around midnight and dropped off the wind generator. Hey, great, guess what? There were no FREAKING BLADES! What the F@CK!?!

How much good is wind generator with no blades? What a bunch of idiots! Another round of cursing and threats and they said they could overnight me my blades in Vero Beach from their shop in Tampa. Fine, what ever, you guys suck ass. This can't get any worse right?

Wrong, two days later, I get to Vero and lo and behold the blades are their. Whew who!

Of course the stellar crew at Hotwire failed to send any of the mounting hardware, so now I have blades that I cannot attach to the hub. I gave up trying to deal with Hotwire and went to a local machine shop to score the proper nuts and bolts to afix the blades.

I cannot begin to tell you how ridiculously incompentent the folks at Hotwire are. Words do not describe the absolute lack of order, integrity or intelligence associated with this company.

The only good thing to come out of my experiences with Hotwire is that I know for a fact that at least 4 people have read my review of these guys and canceled their order. I suspect there are several more out there and all I can say is I guess I took one for the team.

Please do not take this review as a strike against the Kiss wind generator itself. The generators are manufactured in Trinidad by a completely different entity than Hotwire and my tirade above is directed soly at them. As of (07/07) it is now possible to contact Kiss directly and you do not have to deal with Hotwire to get your own wind generator.