Hear My Tale of Woe And Pain...

[mnavarre]

Or at least Frustration, an unnecessary trip to WalMart, and the fact that I now have to deal with... Customer Service.

So, with that Blackstone thread going on last week I ended up on Wally World's site last weekend, just kinda looking at prices on griddles and they've got the Cuisinart 360 griddle for $178. That's like $75 off MSRP and the form factor actually fits my available space better than a Blackstone would, so <click> Pick Up In Store: $125, there's three at the WalMart I hate, but for that I'll deal; so, Done and Done, just gotta shanghai a buddy with a truck.

Did they actually have any? No. They did not. Don't be silly. Wasted an hour, missed a big chunk of a pretty good football game, and just ended up in a bad state of gruntledness.

Next day I'm on Amazon for something else and just go "Hmmm, I wonder" and... $178. And I've got a $70 credit... Get home from work, talk to the Wife to make sure I still have permission. And now it's $199. But with that $70 credit it's what I was going to pay at Walmart, so done and done.

It got here yesterday evening after it's dark and it's raining a bit, but I'm just watching a hockey game. So, whatever. I'll put as much of it together as I can in the kitchen, wait out the rain and the game and finish it outside. Then I can get it over to the pit area, get a fire going in the fire pit and just hang out and season this thing.

Yeah, well. Some of that happened, but...

Despite being extensively inspected by the Quality Control Department (Box Division)



I got the whole thing put together, under barely adequate lighting in the backyard, just gotta put on the knobs and the griddle and... the left igniter doesn't work, well the wire probably just fell... Aw crap.







The pictures make it look more obvious than it really is give the way it's packaged and assembled. So now I get to deal with Cuisinart's customer service hotline, which is one of those phone systems designed by a psychotic misanthrope who hates Truth & Beauty & Puppies. So hopefully they make it right, or I can RMA it to Amazon, but somehow I suspect I'm gonna have to figure out how to shove this thing back in the damn box.

On the other hand, I've got three slabs of bacon and a rack of spare ribs to smoke this weekend. So how was your week?

[RonB]

I clearly see the problem. Ya just didn't drink enough adult beverages. That wouldn't fix the problem, but ya wouldn't care...

[Steve B]

Yup. Several more beverages and who gives a
S¥€T.
Seriously though. You shouda spent a little more coin and got yourself a BlackStone.

[ComfortablyNumb]

Sorry to hear your tale of woe. Hope things improve and you get a working griddle.

[surfdog]

Ugh! Hate when something simple, satisfying, and indeed enjoyable turns into a bit of a hassle.
Hopefully they'll make it right and get you onto some griddle happiness.

[tbob4]

I’m really sorry. That story sucks!

[dwlacroix]

Good luck getting the box back from the cat.

[smokin fool]

We can only go so far throwing blame at Cuisinart on this, don't forget they shipped by some courier whose peabrained employee's probably handled it with16oz boxing gloves and kicked the crap out of it from dock to depot to hub to depot to your door.
I know of this being a 24 year courier driver, albeit a linehaul driver, but from my time in the depots watching the idiots work I wonder how anything gets delivered in one piece.
You should see them unloading trailers of flat screen TV's, you would genuinely weep....

[surfdog]

smokin fool Many many years ago I worked graveyard unloading trucks for a large brick&mortar. The products were sorted as they came off the trucks...which meant the pallets had to be broken down inside the trailers. Ok fine.

Even though I’m about 6 feet tall, it was somewhat impossible at times to get some items off of the top of double stacked pallets. What to do? Why knock the darn thing over of course! O_o To say I was shocked the first time I saw that is an understatement. I got more or less used to it, even if it did make me cringe. (This is why everything you purchase has lots of styrofoam around it.)

The problem was the corporate management...they had calculated, down to the minute, how long it should take to unload a trailer. They would literally say things like, "This is a 57 minute trailer." Keep in mind that’s a 53’ trailer packed with crapola in no particular order...and usually unloaded by one person per trailer. Requiring help was viewed as a sign of weakness, and meant that you probably weren’t capable of doing the job.

The only way to complete the job within their time constraints was to pretty much fling things onto the roller tracks as fast as possible. Neatness does not count...it just needed to leave the trailer. They also figured that most of the items would survive, which they clearly do, and those that didn’t would cost less to replace than taking an extra hour a day across the system for the job to be done sanely.

Didn't mean to highjack the thread, and still hope that mnavarre gets everything worked out to his satisfaction.

[smokin fool]

You are quite correct.
My explanation was a shot at my employer not the rank and file boys.
Your explanation Is keenly aware of the situation at hand.
I was the guy who picked up cleanly stacked and shrink wrapped skids on a 53' and brought thru the gate to be "off-loaded".
Having stood in the unload and watching managers rant and rave about piece counts while the boys flung freight on the belts, it was dis-heartening.
You have my respect, yours was/is not an easy job.

[surfdog]

Thankfully it’s a ‘was’ job. I don’t envy anyone that needs to fling boxes.

[mnavarre]

Man, now that I've had a chance to have a better look I really, really hope they don't want me to box this thing up and send it back, since all it needs is two parts and 10 minutes of work. Heck, I could fix it ugly in 10 minutes without the parts (though I've been instructed in no uncertain terms to not do that). Gahhh! I WANNA MAKE PANCAKES, DAMNIT!

[mnavarre]

Well, you've gotta love good customer service. Finally got through their phone system and no questions asked aside from what parts are damaged and what's your address. Unfortunately the control panel is on backorder with no estimate on when it'll be available but they'll send it out when it's available. So, time to fix it ugly for the time being, get it seasoned up and start cooking.

[HouseHomey]

Ok. Is it just me? I’m gonna say it.

so what was wrong? Nice pics but...... they do nothing for me.

[HouseHomey]

JCGrill wait... there is no wire on the top igniter????

[mnavarre]

HouseHomey The left side of the control panel got bent in which jammed the venturi into the burner, pushing the burner more than an inch forward and yanking the wire off the igniter, which I couldn't tell wether it was broken or not (it wasn't). All good now, I bashed it back into workable shape while I wait for the new parts to show up. All seasoned up & good to go.

[HouseHomey]

That’s what I was just gonna say.