Thursday, June 21, 2012

The Saga of Three Crock Pots

Email I wrote to Crock Pot: 

Your crock pot started on fire. It filled the house with smoke and the foot started burning. It must've been a bad wire. My 17 year old whom I had left home alone with the crock pot put the fire out. I am not very happy about this. I thought it was supposed to be okay to leave a crock pot in the kitchen? It had been on low setting for about five hours.

crispy-crock-pot burned black scorch mark on leg

Crock Pot Customer service wrote back:

Dear Janel,
Thank you for contacting Crock-Pot, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. I apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with your slow cooker and I would like to help resolve this situation.
We take these issues very seriously here. In this situation there are two options that we would like to offer you. The first being a Customer Incident Report. This can be filed if there was any personal injury or property damage caused by this incident.
If you do not wish to file a Customer Incident Report we would be happy to replace the Crock Pot for you at no charge. Please respond to this email letting us know what option that you are liking to choose, so we can resolve this issue as soon as possible.
Again, I apologize for any inconvenience. We appreciate your business and are happy to help if you have any further questions.
Sincerely,

I wrote: 

Hi, thanks, nobody was hurt, my daughter put the fire out. We would like a new Crock Pot. Can we have one of the kind you can upload your own image?  :-)  
(Which I didn't know existed until I came to the website to complain)
Or the regular kind is fine, just make sure it's the large capacity.  Thanks, I appreciate it.

Crock Pot wrote: 

Thank you for contacting Crock-Pot, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. I apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced with your scr509 and I would like to help resolve this situation. I will send you a new slow cooker, this will ship in six to eight business days, and arrive by UPS. You will receive an order confirmation, shortly as well as a shipping confirmation when our item leaves our warehouse. Please note that the slow cooker will not carry a warranty. We appreciate your business Janel and are happy to help if you have any further questions.

At that point they mailed me the most basic, cheapo, entry level crock pot they have. 

crock-pot-new-1 Classic

I wrote: 

Hi, I just got the new one by UPS, only it's a 5 quart and the one I had was 6 quart! 
I don't want one that is smaller.  The old one was barely large enough.  I think you should replace the one that burned up with one the same size. 

Crock Pot wrote: 

Thank you for contacting Crock-Pot, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. I am happy to help you.  the model SCR509-A that you had was a 5 quart model.  This is a very comparable slow cooker. We appreciate your business Janel and are happy to help if you have any further questions.

I wrote: 

It wasn't five quarts, it was six quarts.  In case my eyes deceived me I filled it up with water, the new one emptied into the one I had plus an extra quart. 
Five quarts is too small.  I would like a six quart crock pot to replace the one that burned. 

Crock Pot wrote: 

Thank you for contacting Crock-Pot, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. The slow cooker SCR509 is older. We are now measuring in dry quarts, not in liquid quarts. I am sorry for the confusion. We appreciate your business Janel and are happy to help if you have any further questions.

I wrote: 

"Sorry for the confusion?"  And that's it?  Does that mean all of a sudden I'm supposed to shut up and be happy with a Crock Pot smaller than the other one??? 
I think when this unit CAUGHT ON FIRE in my kitchen the least you can do is replace it with one "at least as large" as the one I had! 
If you don't have the same size any more then make it the next size up! 
And you know what else, I want one LIKE the one I had, which was white with a pretty design on it.  I don't want a stainless steel one. 
I just looked at the website and found this: 

http://www.crock-pot.com/Product.aspx?cid=113&pid=1054

That one would be acceptable. 
Are you going to make this right with me or not? 

Crock Pot wrote: 

Thank you for contacting Crock-Pot, a brand of Jarden Consumer Solutions. I would like to apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused you and I would be more than happy to assist you. The original unit that you owned, SCR509, is a 5 quart unit, this is why you were sent another 5 quart unit as a replacement.
However, I do understand that you are not happy with the unit that you were sent. I have placed an order to have the 5070 Crock Pot that you requested sent out to you at no charge as a one time customer courtesy. You will receive your no charge replacement order within 6-8 business days and it will come by UPS.
We appreciate your business Janel and are happy to help if you have any further questions.

OooooKAY. 

In due time, the new one arrived, and it is the one I told them I wanted.  That's good, at least. 

I'm a bit less than happy with that "as a one time customer courtesy" which is code for "you're being uncooperative but we'll give it to you just this once to make you shut up". 

Less than happy that I had to basically yell just to get the one I had REPLACED, and not even "$50 coupon from kitchen store of your choice to make you feel better" which would have been more like it. 

Also, it can't really be replaced, because the one I had was made in USA, and this one's from China, and my kids have heard my opinion of painted glaze from China enough times that they don't want to eat anything cooked in it.  

crock-pot-new-2 5070

"Made in China"