A couple years ago, I decided to untether myself from the K-Cup and return to making coffee the “old fashioned” way. Buy beans, grind beans, brew coffee. With that goal in mind, I picked up a DGB-700BC. It wasn’t cheap as it ran me about $151 on Amazon. Great coffee pot. Add beans to the hopper, add water, set strength, set number of cups, set timer, and every morning I was greeted with the aroma of fresh ground coffee.
1.5 years later, it died. Display was black, she was done. Now it came from Cuisinart with a 3 year factory warranty. After putting in my claim, Cuisinart said I would have a replacement in 7 – 12 business days. In 5 business days, I had a brand new DGB-800 on my counter. The experience with customer service was fantastic. I sent back the old coffee maker in the box for the new coffee maker, Cuisinart paid shipping both ways, and I was back in business.
Fast forward 1.5 years. My DGB-800 is still working fine, however the auto shutoff is no longer working. I do some basic troubleshooting, turn it off and back on, unplug it for a period of time and plug it back in, etc… Doesn’t work. I go back through the same website, put in a claim, explain the problem, explain what I’ve done to try and correct it… They reply and ask me to do what I’ve already done. After a brief exchange of information, they give me 3 options.
Option 1: Send me a different coffee maker and a separate grinder. I already have the grinder they’re offering, and I don’t need two of them.
Option 2: Send me a different coffee maker that grinds and also includes a K-Cup option. After repeated failures of the grind and brew pots after 1.5 years of use, and my general hatred of k-cups, no.
Option 3: I wait indefinitely for the discontinued DGB-800 to return to stock and be shipped. If it was immediately available, sure, but I’m not waiting indefinitely.
I proposed option 4. It’s the same style coffee maker as option 1, only it has a thermal carafe, no extra grinder (as I already have one), and is at the same price point as the other 3 options (around $200). On September 13th of 2021, they place the order for the replacement and tell me it will take 10 business days for the new unit to arrive.. However, I need to send them a photo of the current unit with the power cord cut.
Now despite the current coffee maker doing what I need it to, I cut the cord and send the photo. I follow up on September 21st, they reply on the 22nd that the order is processing with their shipping department. On October 1st, 15 business days after my original claim, I follow up with them for an update. They reply about 45 minutes later that it is still processing with the shipping department.
So here I am, 18 business days (24 days) past the order being placed. No replacement yet, nothing but a canned response from Cuisinart. I could literally order the replacement coffee maker off Amazon and have it in my hands tomorrow. How is it that I am nearly a month waiting for a replacement?
This is likely my final Cuisinart coffee maker. When the replacement dies a year and a half from now, I’ll move on. Had they said from the start that it would be 20-30 business days, it would be less than ideal, but it would not bother me as much as being told 10 days and now waiting indefinitely. Requiring that I disable a working coffee pot + waiting this long is also silly.
Perhaps they could require the photo of the cut cord within 10 days of receiving the replacement instead? Pandemic or not, this is sloppy customer service.
**UPDATE**
So I decided to actually call customer service, spoke with a very nice representative who informed me that the reason it was taking so long is because the coffee maker was backordered. Had that been said in the email chain – I’d likely have happily selected an alternate, which I did here. Hopefully get this rushed replacement soon and can put the matter to bed.
