Martha Stewart Lies On-Camera About Exploding Glass Tables
When Fox5 confronted Martha Stewart on the street about tempered glass patio tables branded under her name that have been exploding all over customers since 2000, in some cases causing cuts, bleeding, and scares, she offered only denials and deflections. She said the glass cracked like a windshield, as opposed to the imploding documented in case after case, and said she had never heard of any injuries, despite that Fox5 had a copy of an email sent by her asking her company internally what they were doing about the "shattering" tables. The problem seems to be that the tempered glass table has jagged, rather than smooth, edges, and these grind against the metal frame and weaken the tabletop. A class action suit is in the works.
Shame, Shame, Shame: Martha Stewart-Branded Glass Tables [Fox5]
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In a related story, Martha Stewart has announced a new aggreement with Irwin Mainway to introduce a complete line of "Bag O Glass" products
You expect a convicted felon to tell the truth?
I understand that she paid her debt to society, but I doubt she has changed. Even when presented with the truth, she lies.
Oh C'mon. Would anyone really expect her to be like "Oh my goodness, I had no idea, let me pay back everyone with a broken table!"
No... she's going to let her lawyers and insurance handle it, like any other sane person would do... Just because she's a celeb, people get all righteous about it...
Don't they sell Martha Stewart at K-Mart?
... Ehrm. You get what you pay for a lot of the time.
(Disclaimer: Nothing wrong with shopping at K-mart, but sometimes, cheaper isn't always better.)
@htrodblder: It would certainly save me the trouble of gathing broken glass from the beach, the street, garbage cans, parking lots... all over the big city.
If you glue all the little pieces back together, it creates a beautiful mosaic table top that the whole family can enjoy. It's a good thing.
But just think of the decorating miracles you can do with 21,617 tiny pieces of glass!
@weakdome: I know, right? Everyone here would have done the exact same thing. What is she supposed to SAY?
@jdhuck: Yet we let convicted felons run for and serve in Congress.
So Martha is not fit to run a home decorating empire, but she IS fit to govern our country.
We can make an amazingly beautiful glittering Christmas tree by piecing together these broken shards of glass into decorating bulbs! Just in time for the Christmas season too. Isn't this wonderful?
@little stripes: Frankly she could say it was a manufacturing defect, we have stopped shipping these tables and will provide replacement glass to all those affected.
That would be a LOT cheaper than lawyers and fighting a class action, and she would get bonus points for actually doing the right thing.
@SkokieGuy: If it's any consolation, at least Ted Stevens will be legally barred from voting for himself...
@SkokieGuy: I never commented on her ability to run a company or to serve in Congress.
Those are your words not mine.
I am just not surprised by her behavior. Based on her inability to tell the truth, she would make a good Congresswoman.
Well, she was technically correct. These do shatter like car glass. But only the side and rear window. The windshield is made of a sandwich of glass and a plastic sheet, which holds onto the glass. A vast majority of the public does not know the difference. But if you happen to carry a center punch to break out your glass in case of your car going into water(I'm paranoid), you know to use it on the side windows as they break into small square pieces.
Also, if you freeze frame the reports they whiz past the screen, you see that people were using the tables, and I wonder if these burst from temperature differences. Like if you put a hot pan on the table w/o a trivet, or if the table is in the sun, and you put a nice big jug of cold iced tea on it.
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
At least I know what present to buy to my arch-enemy. Martha's Stewart glass table.
This happened to me with my Martha Steward table, I took a ton of pictures of it along with the cuts that I received as well. My wife thought I was a dork for doing it and should just let it go - thinking it was my fault for it breaking.
Thank you Consumerist for the heads up and helping prove my wife wrong!
-Jon
She didn't design, engineer, or manufactured the table. What is she supposed to do?
She just needs to say sorry and have the product recalled. Period.
The problem seems to be that the tempered glass table has jagged, rather than smooth, edges, and these grind against the metal frame and weaken the tabletop.
Does this mean that the edges of the glass were literally jagged, or that they were ground edges instead of polished?
I can't stand glass tables! Apart from being ugly and scary, the wife's unsteady on her feet and would soon fall through one.
That's the tables that are ugly and scary, not the wife.
Just thought I'd better make that clear.
Before she gets home.
@Canadian Impostor: To expand: these tables probably shattered from internal stresses in the glass, meaning it was manufactured improperly. Tempered glass is pre-stressed.
@SkokieGuy: She probably had NO IDEA what the problem was -- that's not her job -- so she probably just told them what SHE was told.
@SkokieGuy: It amazes me that y'all think that Martha has anything to actually do with production and shipping of the products. WTF do you think she is able to do? I mean ... that's not her job.
I had this happen to my patio table when the wind got a hold of it. I'd no idea that it was tempered glass. As an engineer, I was thrilled and surprised, because it seemed at the time to be a perfect means to ensure customer safety. What's the alternative? Big, nasty, jagged glass can kill you.
Cleanup was a breeze with the shop vacuum, even considering the glass pieces were in my grass. It would have been a major safety hazard to clean up shards.
This is the same treatment that your automotive glass goes through (not the windshield, which is laminated). It ensures your safety versus the other stuff.
I actually had one of these tables, and it did shatter, just as the picture shows.
It's an outdoor patio table with an umbrella that comes up through the center. Ours shattered when a stiff breeze came through and caught the umbrella. The stress created from pole of the umbrella being pushed against the hole in the middle of the table for which it was intended caused the table to shatter.
@Skipweasel: I always play that scene from Lost Highway when I think about people and glass tables.
(I know... it didn't shatter...)
@little stripes: On the other hand if you're going to put your name on something its in your best interest to make sure that you do know about major issues like this.
It is pretty snarky of the reporter to be asking her personally about the problems but at the same time her name is all she has. It is her job so to speak. So if there are major defects plauging a line it is absolutely her job to be on top of it.
This reminds me of the English Beat song "Mirror in the Bathroom":
"I can take you to a restaurant that's got glass tables,
AAAAAHHHH! OH MY GOD ALL THE SHARDS OF GLASS!!!!"
Like above posters have mentioned, we have had 2 of these tables do just the same thing. The wind blows on the umbrella and the umbrella pushed on the side of the glass and then BOOM shatter.
Luckily, each time we just took it back to k-mart and they gave us a new one. We are on our 3rd and it has been fine for a while now.
I'm sure she has nothing to do with the design or making of the table - she just "sells" her name to products. Why would a news crew think she would have the answers?
Like many cases of people in high places caught not telling the truth, she's either ignorant or incompetent.
I had no idea this problem was so widespread. This happened to our table about three weeks ago. I was in the basement when I heard a noise on the front porch. Came out to see little shards of glass everywhere. It was a beautiful day, around 70 degrees, and the table sits on a porch that only gets a brief amount of evening sun.
I called my wife at work to tell her what happened and she was in disbelief. Now I can show her this!
@tc4b: No, but she IS lawyered-up and I'm sure that she's doing exactly what they've told her to do.
@Skipweasel: In one her many of "duh" moments, my ex-wife thought that she should stand on a 1/2" thick coffee glass table to put in a light bulb. That glass was not tempered and luckily she escaped harm when it cracked and broke.
Did I also mention that she was 5'11" tall, woman's size 11 shoe, and on the plus size of 200lbs (she would never tell me an actual weight). No, she should have known better...
A Glass Action Suit! (groan...)
@econobiker: I had a friend punch a glass coffee table in a drunken rage when the Eagles lost the Super Bowl. That wasn't tempered either. Needless to say, his hand did not escape injury.
@SkokieGuy: She did do the right thing, and fox5 has evidence of it. She sent an internal email demanding to know what the issue was with the "shattering tables." She's following her legal team's advice and keeping mum to the press. It's obvious she DOES care and wants to resolve this through proper channels.
@coan_net: Because she "sells" her name to products.
Yeah, obviously it makes a more sensational story to go corner Martha then it would product quality assurance tech #318 but at the same time if the problem is wide spread that the news is getting in on it in the first place she should be aware of it and have some kind of answer.
All she has to sell is her name. If that gets to the point where its a liability more then a benefit she's SOL.
you have got to love the fact that arnold diaz stalked martha, and that she wasn't even fazed
Those Shame, Shame, Shame segments really are ridiculous. The Geraldo Rivera wannabe with his trench coat gotta stop the stalking.
Like @GitEmSteveDave, I doubt that they just spontaneously exploded. It was probably from putting a hot pan on the table without a cork disc, or something similar.
@Moosehawk: I'm thinkin' we can Bedazzle the shards onto clothing and make some faaabulous fall fashion, and then give them to friends as gifts, boy howdy!
Martha's glass tables aren't exploding. They're an evolving product line.
For all the people here saying, "what do you expect her to do?", I must reply, "tell the truth, damn it". Acknowledge there seems to be a problem and promise to look into it. Don't stonewall and don't lie. Accept responsibility. I know these are lost arts in Bush America, but hopefully they will be relearned in Obama America...
I had one of these exploding glass tables. Read about the problem but I figured, Nah, won't happen to us, we've had the table several years.
One afternoon, it sounded like someone shot a gun in the backyard. All around the table frame were what looked like drifts of tiny hailstones. Just glad no one was out there at the time.
I hope there's some recourse for table owners. Not only is there the loss of the furniture, it's downright dangerous.
Martha's full of it if she thinks this was nothing more than a windshield crack.
My wife and I had a similar incident with a tempered glass table top, probably not a MS branded one though. We were sitting inside one afternoon and heard a huge crash outside. I walked out to find the table top had simply fallen on to the ground and exploded into about 70 pounds of sharp pebbles. It took HOURS to clean up the mess. First with shovels, then a broom and a dustpan, finally I had to vacuum the patio for about 45 minutes to make sure all the glass was up.
No umbrella was in the table, it was simply standing on its own and (presumably) expansion/contraction from the heat just made it shatter.
Well send her back to jail.
She had her chance. Look what she did with it.
Exploding tables, tsk, tsk...