Defective Product and Less-than-Positive resolution so far
This was our second purchase from AldKitchen. Although the delivery was slower than expected, the machine works fine. It was a refurb machine and it works well.
We ordered another refurb machine. When I saw the rips and dings in the shipping box, my heart sank a bit. When I opened the box and saw the styrofoam had melted on the electric cord, the hopes began to fade. I could deal with the dents on the machine, but the plates were scratched, but not on the wells where batter would go. Lifting it directly out of the box, I noticed hundreds of fingerprints on the botton. Again, it not being cleaned on the bottom was not an issues, but it looked used. There is a metal bridge that supports the cooking plates that was bent. Again, hope was it wouldn't impact the performance. When I plugged it in and turned it on, it tripped the circuit breakers. Move it to another plug. I watched it turn on and off - that's when I noticed the loose electric cord was shorting the unit, cutting the power. The power cord got extremeltey hot - too hot to hold. Now I understood how/why the styrofoam melted on the electric cord. The machine tripped our circuit breaker three more times. Ironically, I was writing an E-mail to the company when the internet router went off (it was on the same circuit as the machine).
So with the faulty wire, the tripping the circuits, the scratched cooking plates, I wrote to the company asking that we send in back because we considered it dangerous and we wanted a new one (not refurbished, but new new). After a couple of days of sending photos and explanations, we got an E-mail from the company notifying us we could send it back. There was no prepaid mailing label. It seems we are expected to pay for the return of this fautly equipment. The tone of the customer service changed. It's not our fault the machine is a safety hazard. We contacted the company as soon as we opened the box and plugged in the machine. We are a previous customer. We'd hoped to have a positive experience - and we had planned to buy more equipment from this company including crepe makers, warming units, etc. However, this latest experience has us wondering.. Since I paid through PayPal, I can always open a case - and I will get a full refund and Ald will need to pay for the return of this faulty equipment. I will wait another day with the expectation of a positive resolution.