Dear Black Diamond,

I had one of your headlamps for a while.  In fact, I still have it.  After about five years, a little plastic piece broke off, the small tip of the piece that determines the angle of the light by holding on between one of the grooves.

I moved to Guatemala about 15 months ago and back in May I returned to the states for my sister's wedding and a visit with my people.  I took the opportunity while back home to get a new headlamp and I decided to be loyal to Black Diamond because I was happy with the first lamp. I like the modes, the dimmer, the waterproof and I considered that failure after five years understandable.  Also, the light still works and is fine for reading in bed.

Beans growing behind me.  Piloy(see below) and pigeon pea (gandula).

I ordered the new version of the same headlamp.  I ordered from Campmor online, order #752177, confirmation email attached to this letter.  It seemed to have some updates in the shell design and brighter lamps.  Right off the bat, it felt cheaper.  The light did not last a month.  The circuitry went wonky and unreliable.  It let me down in an early morning pig kill and it let me down soon after during an evening session of beekeeping where we tried to move into a box the ~5000 bees that formed a hive in my outhouse.  After the period of unreliability, the light stopped emitting light altogether, even with fresh batteries.

I am fairly angry about the headlamp breaking.  It was one important item that I took the chance to get while home.  Where I live here, in Tzununa, Solola, Guatemala on Lake Atitlan, I have a small cabin and no electricity.  It's a lot like camping, but with a comfortable bed.  I live on a mountainside and it's often too breezy for candles.  I rely on my headlamp and I wanted a fully functional one with my old one as a backup.  It did not last one month.  I really hope my copy was a fluke, and that Black Diamond hasn't taken to selling the people flimsy junk.  Please don’t make me fill out any paperwork, or worse, send the headlamp from Guatemala.  I do not deserve to do that.  Please make this right, Black Diamond and send me a new headlamp.

I'm writing because a friend of mine will be coming to visit January 5^th.  If you would like to make this right and replace the lamp, please a send it to my parents, who will put it with the other items slated to be brought down.

Peter Benjamin

°address withheld°

I keep a blog for some friends back home about things that happen here in Guatemala and photos of plants, scenery and animals.  I invite you to have a look.  I'll be posting this letter for my readers, and I'll let them know whether or not the new lamp showed up.

Jocotel.blogspot.com

Yours,

Max Benjamin

Piloy, or as theyre known in Tzununa, Jaibalito and Santa Cruz, phloy.  When fresh, like the fatter ones in this photo, they cook in a half hour.  Once dried, they boil for three weeks.