Jennifer emailed in the following tip:
Recently, our one-year old KitchenAid mixer stopped working in the middle of making bread. My husband suggested I call the company… I began listing the reasons this probably wouldn’t help.
1) The mixer was over a year old and, therefore, not under the manufacturer’s warranty.
2) the store where we bought it has since gone out of business.
3) I paid much less than normal (about $100 less) for the mixer since the store was liquidating.
4) I didn’t have the receipt.In his usual way, my husband (the more optimistic of the two of us) said it wouldn’t hurt just to call. So I did, and I could not believe what happened.
The KitchenAid representative was so friendly and efficient. When I told her the story, she just suggested I send a bank statement showing the purchase. She said I would hear something in about 2 business days.
I gave it a shot, doubting much more than a coupon, would come from this. Much to my surprise, I received an email from KitchenAid stating that I would receive a brand-new mixer to replace mine in 7-10 days!
What? Who does that? I could not believe the awesome service I received. What a blessing this was!
Our family is currently paying down our debt and no matter how much we love homemade bread, we would not be buying another $300 mixer anytime soon.
I guess I learned two lessons from this…
1) Never hesitate to call or email a company. You have nothing to lose and potentially a lot to gain.
2) Stay positive or at least marry someone who is!
Beth says
LOVE your last tip! Stay positive or at least marry someone who is! Husband/wife teamwork! Love when companies stand behind their product; good for you!
Lachelle Bodine says
I feel like I have had the complete opposite experience with KitchenAid. So I inherited my mom’s KitchenAid Classic mixer after she died of breast cancer in 2004. I have lovingly used this to recreate recipes since then (she was only 48 when she passed away) but pieces of my mixer are falling off now. I called KitchenAid to see if they could help but they just told me to send it in for repairs. I can’t afford to do that currently so I’ve decided that I will likely just save up what I would have spent on repairs and eventually get a Bosch mixer. Hopefully they will provide me with better customer service and a better product.
Donna says
I am glad you had such a good experience. My Kitchen Aide story is not as good. I received a new mixer, and the motor wasn’t working right. But it ran, and my mother was in a health crisis, I didn’t deal with the mixer. I finally called about a week after the warranty expired, explained the situation, and they were not sympathetic. Finally they agreed to give me a reconditioned mixer, but I had to take a 6 quart because according to the representative, they were discontinuing 5 quarts. I reluctantly took the 6 quart. Over the past two years since, I see that she lied to me, as they clearly are still making 5 quarts. This one is too big for my useage, and I feel we got a bad deal over a defective new machine.
Heidi says
I had an experience like this with Keurig. I bought one for my hubby and within a year it quit working. I called and they replaced it for free!
Jessica @ The Abundant Wife says
“1) Never hesitate to call or email a company. You have nothing to lose and potentially a lot to gain.”
I say the same thing all the time! Although I often dread sitting down to make those phone calls or send those e-mails, sometimes it really works out in my favor! 🙂
Jessica says
I have had the same experience with Kitchen Aid. They have exceptional customer service.
Sharon Johnson says
This is fantastic. I wish I could say I had the luck you did. I bought 2 bags of chips and when I picked up one to open, it seemed heavy. I opened it and the bag was lined in black grease and there was a huge piece of glass in the bag.
I called the company, explained the situation (nicely) and was told I would get a call back on a specific day from a given person. I didn’t get that call and called again. He said he would research it and call me back.
He informed me there was no way that glass came from his plant (well, how did it get there sealed?) because there was no glass in the packing area. Funny, I went on a tour of that plant as a child and remember glass surrounding some of the equipment for safety. I had also researched their website and they were showing some of their “new equipment.” Yep, there was glass (very thick, I might add like mine) around some of the equipment. I threw them away. I should have contacted an attorney but that’s just not my style.
I was seeing coupons all the time listed in Sunday’s paper for Hershey’s candies. I never got any in mine. This occurred many times. I sent an email to them and their response was that coupons were regional but they also had coupons in many magazines I could buy. Yep, I quit buying their products. No apology, nothing.
Rant over…………..
Kelli says
Too bad they’re companies aren’t as helpful with those who pay cash for everything and have a tendency to lose receipts :/ I’ve had to throw major appliances out before the warranty was even up – no receipt= no help
Ellen says
I contacted Planters about the quality of our purchase and received coupons for two new purchases!
Katherine says
I had a similar experience with Fitbit recently. Mine was about 15 months old (past the year warranty), and started fritzing out and draining batteries, plus not accurately tracking. I contacted customer service to see if there was a fix I was missing, and they sent me a new one! Love when companies have good customer service!
Misti m says
Did u have to send them anything? The same thing has happened to my Fitbit and it’s only 6 months old.
Katherine says
Nope. I know sometimes they ask people to mail the broken fitbit back, but they didn’t ask for mine. My husband had a problem with the band on his recently, after only 3 months, so he contacted them and ended up getting a replacement too.
Debbie says
I had a similar experience 20 years ago with a blender and have had nothing but good things to say about Kitchen Aide ever since! It is worth a few extra bucks to purchase their product. I am very happy to see they still stand by their products.
As a side note, my mother received a Kitchen Aide mixer as a wedding gift 64 years ago, which is still working.
Gardenpat says
Kitchen aid (made right here in Ohio!) is one of the best companies as far as their customer service is concerned! My Kitchen aid 6 qt professional model mixer died about a week AFTER the warranty expired. I phoned them and told them how sad I was about it because it gets used almost every day. I was polite and not snotty on the phone when I told them.
They said they would replace it for free and even sent me the new one BEFORE I sent the old one back to them. Their instruction was to pack the old one into the box that the new one arrived in and they included a return mailing label which was for FREE shipping of my old one back to them!
Proud to call them a “Buckeye” business!!!
Diva says
I had a very similar experience with Kitchenaid. One day while my mixer was running, the round disc that covers the accessory attachment port wiggled itself loose and fell into the bowl, and when the beater struck it, the mixer stopped working. We’re in a small town with no fix-it shops, and I figured I’d either have to spend a small fortune to ship it and have it repaired or replace it. Finally, I called Kitchenaid, and after simply giving them the registration number on the mixer, they shipped me a new one at no charge – I just had to pack the old one in the box the new one came in, and ship it back, which they also paid for! I’d purchased it as a factory refurbished model from Amazon, and it was long out of warranty, so their service was surprising and way beyond anything they had to do, so I’m a very happy customer!
Kristine Hart says
When I was a little girl, a woman my mom worked with bought a bag of BBQ chips from the vending machine and when she opened them, no BBQ flavor on them. She called the company and they not only sent her a whole box of the snack size bags but lots of coupons too! Since then I’ve made a few calls and always a positive response. I’m optimistic too, they can only say “no”. Hello from Kristine 🙂 @ blueblanket21.com
Paula says
It doesn’t hurt to call, especially for more expensive items. That’s also one of the reasons I will spend more on fewer quality items with companies that stand by their products than buying a bunch of cheaper items.
I put out a decent amount of money for my daughter’s LL Bean backpack in first grade. Some people may think it’s outrageous to spend that much, but it could very well be the last money we spend on a backpack for her. They guarantee them for life. We just exchanged it for a new one after 5 years of serious use. They took it back and gave us a brand. We even came out ahead, since she didn’t want another rolling pack and the regular ones cost less. So I got a brand new backpack and store credit.
Cory says
JANSPORT backpacks also have a lifetime guarantee my boys have used theirs EVERYDAY during the school year for 3yrs & they look brand new! *I got them on clearance for $7.
Kate says
Our Calphalon pots and pans are backed with a warranty that whenever something goes wrong with them (one of our broke), they will replace it with the same product for free. Great deal!
Allison V. says
I wish I’d known this when the Teflon started peeling on one of mine! I’d already thrown it away when I realized they had the warranty!
Cory says
I used the warranty on my Calphalon pots & pans for 10yrs. I got 3 new sets in that time. Only downer at the time you had to mail back your pans..
Tara says
Wow, that’s amazing! I would love a Kitchen aid but they are so expensive in the UK but I might have to start saving up for one after hearing that. Really pleased for you. Tara x
amber says
I have done this many times with smaller things. Once I treated myself and bought a bag of potato chips for the first time in a year. When I opened it most of the chips were a dark brown color. I contacted the company and they mailed me several free coupons. I also did this when I bought some dishwasher gel tabs. When I opened the package a huge clump of them was stuck together. When I went to pull them apart they started to bust open. They also sent me a coupon for a free product.
Diana says
That’s awesome! It never hurts to try! 🙂
And, if they hadn’t sent one, the next step would be to learn how to knead the dough yourself, right?! 😉
patti says
This same type of thing has happened to me many times. There are many reputable companies that stand behind their products. It never hurts to at least call the company and see what they say, sometimes it is just something small that is needed to remedy the situation. Glad it worked out for you.
Kellie says
This happend twice to us. Once when our dog got ahold of the insert to our First Years baby bottle warmer, we just called to see if we could pay for a new insert and they just sent us one for free and another time with a Chicco Playyard peice went missing after storing it inbetween having children they send us the peice we needed for free. Both times I thought we were just out of luck but they were awesome!
Jessica says
This happened to me with my Keurig brewer. The company sent me a replacement at no charge. As proof of ownership, they asked me to mail back the little basket that holds the k-cup. They gave me a postage paid envelope to do that.
Cheryl Gustafson says
Wish I would have known that when mine died and I just tossed it not even thinking of calling the company