Given the price of the product versus what I would have paid a contractor, this a pretty good deal. The engineering of the product could have been a little better (eg, locking pins or push pins between the extension poles to prevent sliding). But I ended up recouping the cost of the pole saw within the first few hours of use. Used it to cut out mistletoe in our trees. Blade is fairly sharp.It's a workout and can be frustrating at times, but keep in mind that you're using this to cut things upwards of 20ft high. Also it's not a handsaw, so you're going to need to apply a little finesse.Despite its shortcomings, I still gave it a 5 stars (4.5 if they had the option) because it did what it was supposed to do and it paid for itself after the first use. I do recommend this product for someone who would use this a handful of times out of the year for light duty work. YMMV.
JC 
