August 15, 2011
Attn: Nedra Schultz
RE: Customer Satisfaction Survey
Customer No. 1988044815
Dear Ms. Schultz:
I recently had an experience getting a warranty replacement for your KitchenAid Model KCM1110B coffee maker. You’ve included a questionnaire which asks for some information, but I think that it is inadequate and want to offer you a broader perspective on why I am unlikely to purchase KitchenAid products in the future.
Our coffee maker quit working last week. This was somewhat surprising, because it was less than a year old. I went to Bed, Bath
While there, I noticed that Model 1110B is still made and sold, and that your box proudly announces a “No Hassle 1 Year Warranty.” Because I needed a coffee maker to use in the interim, I bought a Mr. Coffee model which, with the coupon and $10.00 rebate offered, ended up costing just under $14.00.
A few days later I went online and found your customer service number for warranty issues. Once I got to a person, I encountered a customer service representative who was painfully polite. The written word can’t accurately convey the cynicism and sarcasm in her demeanor, but again, if your system records the calls for quality assurance as the recorded message indicates it shouldn’t be too difficult to track down through the customer number at the top of this letter and listen to the conversation.
The young lady on the phone asked what might be reasonable questions under most circumstances, starting with my name, address, telephone number. After getting these initial identifying factors, though, things took a different turn.
First, she asked when I bought the coffee pot. I explained that I thought it had been January, 2011. I admit I did not search through the box of tax records and receipts looking for it, as I’m usually pretty good about filling in warranty cards and recording the purchase. I thought I’d first check to see if your company had a record to save me this inconvenience. After I told her when I thought I’d purchased the product, Ms. Customer Service then got somewhat snippy and advised that I’d actually purchased it in September, 2010. Again, the information was factual, the words themselves were not offensive, but the tone with which they were delivered set my teeth on edge. If she knew that already, why go through the drill of asking when I bought it and if I had the receipt? Additionally, since either date was well within the one-year warranty period, what was the relevance? It would have been much more customer-friendly to simply offer this information up front rather than trying to play “gotcha”.
She then continued her line of questioning – Had I replaced the filter? In fact, I did not. I’m usually very good about replacing filters and doing recommended maintenance, but I’ve looked in the stores for your filters several times and no one seemed to carry them. When I told her this, she quickly pointed out that they’re not sold in stores – you can only buy them through your customer service site. In fact, when I asked if I could go online to buy them, she told me that I could not, but instead could only purchase them by talking to a live representative – specifically her. She gave the distinct impression that failure to change the filter would void the warranty, and that she was doing me a favor to honor the “No Hassle Warranty” by replacing a coffeemaker that had failed after a mere 11 months because I had not, in fact, complied with the manufacturer’s directions and changed the filter every 60 days.
Interestingly enough, in reviewing the directions and warranty materials included with the new coffeemaker, I note two things – first, there’s no mention of the fact that the filters are only available by talking to a customer service representative at a cost of 3 for $14.95, plus $6.95 shipping. There’s no mention at all of where to get replacement filters, and it would seem reasonable to me that going to the store that sells this type of goods, where the coffee maker was purchased, would be the most logical solution followed by a trip to the manufacturer’s website.
Secondly, and even more telling, is the fact that Page 9 of the instruction manual specifically says, “The filter reduces contaminants which impair the coffee flavor. Use of the filter is optional. The coffee maker will operate normally without it. Nothing in the directions says that it should be replaced every 60 days, or at all, in fact. Clearly, either your customer service representative made intentional misrepresentations or your organization is engaged in a practice which is deceptive and inexcusable. In retrospect, I wonder now if your customer service representative didn’t have a sales quota to make and thus push for the sale of these filters.
I have to admit that during my conversation with your customer service representative, I began to doubt her veracity. For example, she maintained that because the filter had not been changed, “the line” (presumably leading from the water reservoir to the heating element) had become blocked. I am neither an engineer nor technician, but having grown up on a farm and coming from a long line of individuals who are inveterate “tinkerers” who like to try to fix things rather than purchasing new, this seems counterintuitive to me. If a filter is blocked, liquids will not flow through it to the subsequent destination. The line AFTER the filter shouldn’t become blocked because the filter is dirty. The fact that the filter is an optional item confirms this.
Eventually, Ms. Customer Service offered to send me a replacement coffee maker as a “one-time goodwill gesture,” which I appreciate although by this point of the conversation I was not feeling a great deal of “goodwill” toward your company. You advertise a “one year no hassle replacement warranty”, and while it is accurate that the process of returning the original coffee maker by putting it in the box in which the replacement arrived and then attaching the prepaid label is about as no-hassle as one can envision, the fact that the product failed after such a relatively short period of time in use and that the company representative had such a poor demeanor shouldn’t warrant merely a replacement but some other gesture of apology as well. There are hassles involved in waiting for a replacement, bundling the old product up and taking it to the post office to mail. The deceptive actions of your Customer Service Representative further the lack of feelings of “goodwill” that I have toward your organization right now and simply add to the hassle of the return process.
The original coffee maker has been returned under separate cover contemporaneously with the mailing of this letter, and I am enclosing a copy of the shipping label that came with the filters, which were shipped separately. I appreciate the fact that you’ve honored the warranty and hope that consumer feedback is useful to you. I feel, however, that I was tricked into spending close to $40.00 for optional filters for this unit which are unnecessary, and I would like the amount of that purchase refunded to my account. I will be happy to return the filters at your expense if you would like.
I have a blog – http://cornerat8th.blogspot.com, where I will be posting a copy of this letter. I believe that it is important to share information regarding both the quality of products and the ethical standards of companies that manufacture them. I will follow this up in a few days with an update regarding your response, if any. You are welcome to post a response directly there if you would like.
If you have any questions or I can provide additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Larry W. Johnson
Cc: KitchenAid Corporate Headquarters
Here's the follow up -- in fairness to KitchenAid -- a very nice lady called yesterday and apologized profusely. She explained that a call center handles those customer service calls, and the information I was given was most incorrect. My letter has been forwarded to the Call Center to help with further "training" of their employees. She refunded the charges for the filters, told me to keep them and is sending me a couple of spares just to be nice.
In short, they handled a customer concern exactly the way it ought to be handled -- with a response, rather than just a "You're email is very important to us" canned reply followed by silence, a corporate action that I've never understood.
I could respect an answer that said, "We investigated, and you're full of horse-hockey" a lot more than just being ignored, which is what most companies do any more.
KitchenAid has redeemed themselves and done everything to make it right. Well, they would have, if the new coffee maker they sent didn't have a leak in the water reservoir, meaning you can't set it the night before without coming down to a 12 cup puddle and no coffee the next morning.
In short, they handled a customer concern exactly the way it ought to be handled -- with a response, rather than just a "You're email is very important to us" canned reply followed by silence, a corporate action that I've never understood.
I could respect an answer that said, "We investigated, and you're full of horse-hockey" a lot more than just being ignored, which is what most companies do any more.
KitchenAid has redeemed themselves and done everything to make it right. Well, they would have, if the new coffee maker they sent didn't have a leak in the water reservoir, meaning you can't set it the night before without coming down to a 12 cup puddle and no coffee the next morning.
