Good points Egmel - I never went back to Eheim, which in retrospect is exactly what I should have done.
I did go back to the shop who weren't surprised at all and promptly put in an order for the replacement spare parts, which never turned up. I tried at a few of my other LFS' (we have lots round here!) and none of them could source the parts either. I got used to hearing ' I don't understand it' and 'we don't normally have any problems getting eheim parts.'
I feel better now that is off my chest. lol. I may even buy Eheim again now that enough time has passed and I have heard lots of good things since then! Just not anything from the Ecco range!
I would also like to think that I am a more savvy consumer these days. As an example I had some Triplus tubes that went pop after only 6 months, so I emailed Interpet to let them know - they offered a free swap if I sent them the old tubes. Not bad at all. Just goes to show if you don't ask you don't get. They also said that it was likely the fault was caused by my hood being too hot, not their tubes per se, which it was
