I knew it was a possibility, but remained hopeful. Instead I just got fleeced for almost $500 for a faulty controller.
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Website is still up and running yet everything is "out of stock". What happened?-
Steve B on the 2nd or 3rd, I did file a dispute... but MAK got their money and seemingly waited 2 weeks until all orders had cleared their account and then shut down. It might not be that way, but it feels like it was.
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Sad. I considered updating my circa 2018 controller, but did not due to conflicting reliability reports.
We really do not know the back story. Retirement, divorce, death, capital...
I do not care about wi-fi or phone control. This unit works fine. Will continue using it util it does not.Comment
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I’m sorry to hear this, Greg. Losing that money is a bummer.Comment
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So sorry to hear this Greg!Comment
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That stinks.Comment
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I would dispute the charge. Worth a shot.Comment
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Yeah, not sure if it will work, but if they haven't declared bankruptcy, you might get the charge reversed if their account is still open. Good luck. They shouldn't have sold the controller.
Something similar happened when a telescope company closed. People had payed for scopes that were sitting in a warehouse with no way to get the scopes delivered.
I hope you can get your money back. -
We placed an order for a rug and couch from a company that filed bankruptcy a couple weeks later. Took the rug home with us but the couch was scheduled for a later delivery. Called the CC company to protest and they said we had to protest the whole charge or nothing, so I protested everything. Got our money back and a free rug.
There’s a good chance you’ll get your money back.
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Sorry to hear this.Comment
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Disappointing news. I just ordered the new Pellet Boss and it was bad. Matt Tucker was very responsive and sent me a replacement just a few days ago that seems to work as expected. That is just one cook though but I am hopeful. Is hope a strategy?
Lots of questions; will the Mobile App be supported? Am I out of luck if I need a replacement part? I have never had anything go bad but understand igniter's tend to fail occasionally after a number of years. If that is the case, I would sure like a way to have a couple on hand if there is a way to source them.
Best of luck to the owners and crew. The Two Star has been a great grill and up until now, the support first rate.Comment
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Very sad news. I love my MAK. I gave up on the app years ago and was avoiding the controller upgrade as I’ve been waiting to see what happens. I guess if the controller stops working I’ll try the fireboard controller. Hope I don’t have issues with other parts (knock on wood).Comment
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This is an unfortunate turn of events for you guys and the rest of the MAK community. Sadly I suspect there may be more such stories with other brands. Since the Covid boom in sales for backyard cookers many thought they'd jump on the bandwagon of expected growth. Turns out it was likely a bubble. I got an insider report that Pit Boss has laid off around half their staff. Weber/Blackstone are seeing declining sales volumn as are others with less visibility. Market shake outs are never fun...Comment
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COVID caused a different issue for MAK, they had a bout with some substandard employees and then I believe their source steel was compromised. Couple that with an unnecessary focus on getting an app up and running when their old website control was rock solid, if rudimentary. Larger grill companies have yet to produce a perfect app for their grills, and honestly even if it sounds counterproductive I think most people in the MAK price point don't actually care about wifi features.
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I really hate to hear news like this. It seems like there is just too many players in this space and afraid there may be more of these casualties. We may see it with some of the bigger players as well. Sorry you are going through this.Comment
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Awhile back I upgraded the ignitor, got the flame zone, and added a door. Hopefully good to go for awhile.Comment
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I'm working on a list of replacement parts, I think I found the most important one already... Recteq appears to use a chinesium (slightly modified for patent or purpose I guess) version of the MAK ignitor. I bought a knock off of the RT one on Amazon for 20 bucks and will test it out. That's the most important piece. The physical grill parts should last at least 17 years as we have proof of that already.
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Sorry to hear this, that isn't chump change.
This reminds me of all the little breweries that popped years ago and now it seems at least in my area, that one or two are closing a month. Also the younger generation is drinking much less, so the big boys are feeling it as well.Comment
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The thing I hate the most is when the business shuts down yet the website still takes orders and sometimes still processes payments.
( Carolyn I can remember two shutdowns that had active websites in the astronomy world that kept taking payments: Scope City and OPT. Meade and Orion had active websites, but I don't think they were processing payments.)Comment
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Oh it's worse than that, they ENCOURAGED the sales. Interestingly BigPoppaSmokers already had a complete web redesign ready to go and mostly eliminated MAK from their entire site, some pictures were just cropped to hide the branding... and now BPS has a couple other pellet manufacturers. Tried to use the wayback machine to find a date BPSs site changed as that would help prove intent of MAK if they notified him while pushing product on customers saying they were going to be fine. -
Yeah, as has already been pointed out that happens a lot. When Spirit airlines shut down, it was abrupt as most airline shutdowns are. However they were messaging their employees between 12-1am that the official shutdown would be at 3am. They didn’t shut down their website until after 3, and would have happily let me buy a $1500 round trip ticket to Vegas for Sept (I got all the way to the payment prompt). This -
amongst other reasons - is why I do almost everything on my credit cards.
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