I paid cash for a CaffeRosto at the Las Vegas CoffeeFest in February 2003. I came home, used the unit once, and thought it worked well and would be fun to experiment with. The next week I took the unit out to use again and it refused to heat up. A call to Brightway told me that the heating unit on my machine had burned out, and I'd need to send the unit in for repair. I was given an RMA# and spent $8 on UPS shipping to return it. Jump ahead to August, and I still don't have my roaster back! Two email inquiries about it have been ignored, and a phone message left at Brightway hasn't been answered. I finally phone again and I'm told heating units are finally back in stock, and that I should have my roaster back within the week.
A week later, my roaster finally comes back and I'm thrilled -- until I open the package. The roaster was poorly packaged, and arrived with a broken plastic case. Also, the roaster returned to me wasn't even my original one -- this one had obviously been used often and was quite dirty. I phoned Brightway to complain and was told to send it back again to have the broken case repaired, and was given a new RMA#. Again I spent $8 on UPS to ship it back.
Two weeks later (we're in September now), my roaster is delivered to me via UPS. I'm happy until I open the box, thinking that it all seems vaguely familiar. I'm shocked to discover that Brightway received my broken unit, slapped a mailing label on it, and shipped it back to me without fixing it! Again I phone in my complaint, and this time Steve assures me that if I send in my roaster one more time, he'll ship me a brand new one. I'm to ship the roaster asap, but in the interim, if I email Steve my name and address he'll send the new one out to me immediately. Keep in mind this return cost me another $8.
Well, that conversation was on September 3rd. Today is November 5th, and do I have my roaster? No. Did Brightway answer my October email inquiry about the roaster? No.
Total tally is $125 cash spent buying roaster directly from Brightway, and $24 spent shipping it back to them over and over again. I roasted approx. 12 oz. of beans in the time the roaster worked, and I haven't seen it since. That comes to $149 for 12 oz. of home roasted coffee beans.
Follow-up: It's now December 29th, and I've finally received a replacement roaster after I emailed Brightway and threatened to file a report with the BBB. Did I get the "brand new" roaster I was promised by Brightway? No, I got someone else's used/refurbished one, all greasy and grimy with fingerprints. Also, I returned my entire setup to Brightway (measuring scoop, cleaning brush, instruction booklet, etc.) in anticipation of a new machine, but was merely sent a replacement roaster. I'm now missing all the accessories as I returned them with my broken unit. I despise this company. I don't even want this grubby old used roaster -- I'm going to stick it on Ebay for $50 with a caveat emptor. |
