Jennifer bought the Cuisinart coffeemaker at right about a month ago. It lists for $145.00, and you can get it from Amazon for, as of this writing, $75.45. Unfortunately for Jennifer, her appliance just plain stopped working, and nothing she did at home would fix it. Cuisinart agreed to send her a new one, and even waived the shipping fee, but they want her old coffeemaker back. This wouldn’t be a problem, but the cost to ship the large and heavy machine is $47.62. That amount would put Jennifer more than halfway to just buying a new machine.

I purchased this product on November 13th, 2011. On December 16th 2011, the unit would no longer brew. I followed the directions given by Cuisinart customer support to trouble shoot the unit, with no luck. They authorized a return, and waived the $10 shipping fee to send me a new one – but required I send in the old one. The shipping costs to send the defective unit in were $47.62.

I asked if there was any way that they could provide a shipping label or waive the return of the old unit as it was just barely a month old and the shipping costs were almost as much as a new unit, and was refused no matter how high up the management chain I went or who I spoke with (I did try calling in multiple times). Eventually I was given the address of the CEO’s office and told my only recourse was to send a letter to him.

I purchased this specifically because of the Cuisinart name – after some research, I’ve discovered that what that really means is that they don’t follow consumer protection laws in Maine, CA, or any other state with laws about costs related to warranty repairs. While I purchase a reasonable amount of appliances and had been considering purchasing a food processor, at this point I will never do business with this company again.

The good news is that Amazon took the return back and will be sending me out a new (non-Cuisinart) coffee maker ASAP, but this is terrible service for what is listed as a $145 coffee maker.

Yay, Amazon! Boo, Cuisinart! This story serves as a good lesson, though – when something goes wrong and a product’s manufacturer won’t help you, contact the retailer. Or sometimes it’s the other way around.

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