Bodum Santos 3000 12-Cups Coffee Maker

I have never been so disappointed in a product in my life. If I spend $120 on something, I expect the darned thing to actually work. I'm rather surprised that Bodum is still making this, as one of their customer service reps eventually told me that many, many people have had problems with them. I never was able to get a decent cup of coffee out of this, even when I doubled the amount of coffee I would normally use. I have no problem following instructions; I used medium ground, very good quality coffee, only used cold water, used the machine with the silicon band on and off (incidentally, the company no longer recommends removing this, for whatever reason).... Still - weak, weak coffee. I can't imagine wanting a machine that requires you to use so much in the first place. If you like good coffee, the stuff is quite expensive enough, thank you very much. The problem with this machine is that the water just doesn't stay in contact with the grounds long enough. I am back to using my old $20 reliable French press. By the way, customer service was not very helpful. I could not get a refund because I threw away the original packaging. They seem to know that they are selling an expensive product that doesn't work very well, which irks me to no end.