When A Good Woot Goes Bad
Woot.com is a whimsical deal-a-day website. Every day, they sell only one product. At midnight, they move on to the next item. The majority of the products are electronics, but they can be anything. I have seen pens, pistachios, vacuum cleaners, wine, 65 inch tvs. Whatever the item, it is always a great deal and shipping is a flat $5 no matter how big or small the product.
Most days I pass on whatever they are selling, but still go back every day to read the write up of today’s product. They are always hilarious. Their writers are brilliant.
I have bought a few items there and have been very satisfied with my purchases. Recently, Woot was offering a nice looking Breville 800ESXL espresso machine. Williams-Sonoma and Bed Bath & Beyond sell it for $400. It gets good reviews on Amazon.com where the best price is $380. Woot’s price was only $150 so I jumped on it.
The reason I bring this up here on ThreadOfTheDay.com is because each product does have it’s own forum thread. This is only the second time I have highlighted a forum I participate in. The first was “Isla Mujeres Dolphin Rescue“.
It turns out this great deal is turning out to be a bust. Many of the espresso machines are being reported as defective, including mine. Lots of them have a weird problem where the internal pump continuously directs water to the excess water tray that sits under your coffee cup on the machine, completely bypassing your coffee grounds. This has caused quite a few flooded kitchen counters as the pump can kick on even when the power is off.
Here is a link to the thread. Since it is a long one, I skipped ahead to when people’s machines begin arriving and they report the condition of their espresso makers. There is a very high percentage of members with defects. What a mess.
http://www.woot.com/Forums/ViewPost.aspx?PostID=2608562&PageIndex=7&ReplyCount=373#post2621223
Despite this hiccup, I will probably continue to use woot.com. I am sure they will get this straightened out somehow. Also Breville seems like a good company and have promised new machines to those who called them, including myself. I hope everything works out. Stay tuned.
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Update: Breville sent me a return label. I packed up the machine and gave it to my friendly neighborhood FedEx driver on October 8th. It’s on the way to California now. Hopefully I will be enjoying homemade cappuccinos by the end of the month.
Stay tuned…..
Cool, this post got a mention on woot’s blog.
Welcome fellow wooters. Please feel free to leave a comment about this Breville mess or any other woot related problems.
This is actually the second problem in a row I have had with woot. The last one was a micro sd card. It got lost somewhere between woot and smartpost. But I got a refund. I guess these inconveniences are the price you pay for low prices.
Final Update:
Today, October 15th, I received my brand new machine, not a refurbished like the original. Breville shipped it while the one I returned was still on the way. So I got it sooner than anticipated.
Good job Breville. You turned what could have been a negative experience into positive customer service. The new machine is working great.