Omega J8006 Slow Speed Masticating Juicer

HERE IS MY UPDATED REVIEW: I promised an updated review here once my official verdict was in on this juicer, so here it is. Please see my original review, still retained here below. I still will say that this juicer makes great carrot juice, no doubt about it. However I have found it to leave wheatgrass juice pulp more wet than I had expected it to based on other reviews. Omega did, without any complaints, send me my replacement parts to determine if my auger was defective. The only problem here was that it took them... now let me think... I believe it was four separate shipments to actually get the order correct. And then in addition to that they said they were going to send me a mail tag to send the incorrect parts they sent me back for free, however, they never did, so I have parts to their other juicers that I would not use in this new model as well. Overall if I were rating their customer service / support, I would give a few separate ratings: - Over the phone customer support in terms of speed at which they get you your replacement parts under warranty: 5 / 5 stars - The probability that your warranty replacement order will be correct when you receive the package: 1 / 5 stars - The probability that you will be taken care of if you email the company instead of calling them: 0 / 5 stars These ratings are REAL numbers based on my experience. Regarding the chipping auger, I have had better success now with the replacement auger. The erosion of the auger doesn't appear to be nearly as bad at all. However with that said, I believe that by the very nature of how this machine works, the plastic on metal action - and especially so when grinding foods using the blank plate - there will nearly always be some erosion of the auger, in particular for the first few times of use until I guess I could say the auger makes a "good fit" with your juicing or grinding plates. The replacement auger I was sent had a chip out of it brand new. Then they sent me another one and it also had a noticeable chip out of it but in an inconspicuous place that would not harm the juicing process, so I left it alone at that point. These are just defects, I think, from the molding/manufacturing process. Overall, yes this makes a great juice, and I've also used it to grind up almonds and dates and cashews and such things to make really great tasting nut bars. This machine does a pretty good job overall but as you can see you really play back and forth with what level of quality you are expecting from the machine itself in various tasks vs. the customer support as well. I have never tried the green star juicer because of the higher price but I suspect that would be the next step up from this one, with possibly a drier pulp - however i have never tried that juicer. I believe that overall if at all possible you should try to find a way to use a juicer for a little while before you buy it, if you can locally in your area from a friend, etc. It would really help in your buying decision as to whether you really want to juice in the first place, and then which juicer is right for you. For now I have decided to sell my juicer and just stick with my vita-mix blender which I really love. I know it is definitely not a juicer, but I feel like I would have just rather bought a grain mill or something with my money instead of this juicer. If you are really in to juicing and know the ins and outs of what you want out of it then maybe this machine or a better one is for you, because it does perform, but I just can't handle all of the extra things that I found issue with that "came along with the juicer" as described above and below. I hope this helps someone. I suspect there are higher quality juicers out there for critics like myself, but I am not prepared to spend more money now to find out, and I don't know anyone that has a green star. I think that for now at least, juicing is just not for me. HERE IS MY PRIOR REVIEW: I purchased this juicer and it arrived in the mail yesterday. I purchased because of the other great reviews out there for it being a great juicer all-around for pretty much everything, along with the great price. It seemed like the perfect package. Let there be no doubt, this really does produce a great quality juice. I am a little nervous, however, about one thing. I washed all the parts for the first time and then I proceeded to make carrot juice with some greens in it, and then also tried some frozen bananas and strawberries to make a sorbet. Both recipes were very successful, and, the cleanup was also very easy. Although I should mention I had to partially thaw the strawberries as they were just too hard for the juicer to initially accept them. My concern is that after cleaning and drying the auger, I noticed that even after only the very first use of the machine the auger has scratch marks on it - some of them noticeably deep. The scratch marks are from places where the auger comes in to contact with metal that is on the inside of the juicing screen. Also when I hold just the auger and the juicing screen in my hand and turn the auger inside of it, you can hear and feel how the auger seems to catch on something during the rotation. I am currently giving this juicer a rating of three stars because although I have found it to produce an excellent quality juice for carrots and greens alike, the fact that plastic (or whatever the auger is made of) is slowly being added to my juice and the pulp makes me wonder if that is healthy! I would greatly appreciate anyone's comments on this as I should also note that I am new to juicing, however, I have thoroughly examined the machine and how to assemble it and don't believe I've done anything which would have contributed to such easy scratching of the auger. I have emailed Omega to ask about this concern but have not heard back so far (it's been 1 day since the email was sent so I'm giving them more time). I imagine they must be busy right now with the high demand for this new juicer. It is my hope that I will be able to eventually up the rating from 3 to 5 stars, however, how could I with plastic chipping in to my food? I leave the rating at three stars because it really does make excellent juice, but at what cost (plastic in the food)?