Read the makerbot subforum here and you'll see why walking away was a smart decision.

I own a Printrbot Metal Plus and it has been extremely reliable. I really like it for the quality I get and its sturdyness. Whatever downtime there was was mostly my fault and the only exception is an early series defect that was corrected long ago (and they sent me a fix for free). Their support web portal is efficient and works well even given the time difference US/Europe.

I've posted some stuff here : http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...al-Plus-prints

People on the forum seem satisfied with Lulzbot and Flashforge as well.

If I had the money now I'd go for that one since they are closer to home. http://www.spiderbot.eu/en/