thepolyparrot, your post made me laugh. I have my mother's 301A. She complained constantly about the machine. I have it now and use it a lot and it rarely gives me any problems. I've decided the problems she had were mostly "user error" and not related to the machine at all!
I also have a user error story about my mom. After she had her stroke she lived with me for a while. Every day, she'd complain that the microwave didn't work. I'd go out in the kitchen, push the buttons and it would work. I finally watched her and she would come out in the morning without her glasses on and just blindly push buttons. The cancel button on my microwave was apparently where the start button was on hers. So instead of starting it, she was cancelling the whole operation. After that, when she'd complain it didn't work, I'd say "Mom, put your glasses on" The microwave magically worked when she put her glasses on!