I think a lot of the hate for Ellsworth is reasonable, but is also the result of old wounds that have yet to heal. I have heard very few valid complaints of Ellsworth since it instituted the 2 year warranty policy. By "valid" I mean reasonable complaints of the company by people who have actually owned an Ellsworth since it instituted its new warranty policy. You can also mitigate a lot of the CS concerns if you deal with Ellsworth through your dealer.
Nonetheless, it does seem that similar manufacturers handle their warranty claims better or, at least, seem to have better
PR about it. If you like other
comparable bikes as much as an Ellsworth, you should consider buying them for peace of mind. But I would not be too concerned about the CS issues if you actually like Ellsworth more than the other bikes.
Here is an interesting post by LowCel from the Bike Forums archives:
"The problems with the frames were primarily from 2000 (or 2001) to 2003. They were having a lot of them break on the seat tube. At the time Ellsworth was offering a "lifetime" warranty. The problem with the warranty was that constant changes were being made to the frames. This meant if it was 2002 and you broke a 2000 model frame that they may not have the part that you needed any longer (making up years here). This meant that they would give you a new front triangle (example) however you had to buy the new rear triangle, linkage, etc to make it work. A lot of people were not happy with this (who can blame them). There are other reports from a friend of a friend's first cousin's baby's momma that they would not honor the warranty at all. So take that for what it's worth, it could be true, I dunno.
Anyway, starting in 2004 they started making the frames stronger with more bracing. This did add a little weight but it made it much stronger. Since then there are very few reports of broken frames. Any that have been broken (primarily cracking on the chain stays) have been taken care of right away.
As far as their warranty they have changed that as well. In 2005 (or late 2004) they went from a "lifetime" warranty that they honored most of the time to a two year warranty that they do honor. Personally I would much rather have a warranty that I can rely on even if it is for a shorter period of time.
Take a little time to check out the Ellsworth (
http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4) forum over at MTBR. It's pretty interesting if you check out posts now verse posts a couple of years old. The posts have gone from pretty much negative to mostly positive. People now stand in line to defend Ellsworth where they used to just love to bash them. Now there are still plenty of bashers out there, most of which have probably never even ridden an Ellsworth.
Just keep in mind, bad news spreads much, much faster than good. I hope this helps out a little, I went through all of the same questions when making my decisions to purchase my Ellsworths."