Like Another customers report I just read, my husband presented me with a Starbucks Aroma Grande Coffeemaker, two Christmases ago. He paid a considerable amount of money for the machine, somewhere around $150-$160 for your everyday run of the mill coffeemaker. The only thing which set it apart from those you could buy at a store like Target, was that it has this incredible stainless steel thermal carafe.
This coffeemaker (just like the espresso maker someone said they paid $895 for, and I am thanking God we didn't buy, but had thought of it) also leaks water everywhere, in the form of half brewed coffee. We have returned one machine and the second ALSO leaks. The machine comes with a permanent mesh coffee filter, but paper filters seem to work better.
After we found out the 'leak' problem also happened with a different machine, we contacted customer service, and after several extremely lengthy phone conversations with customer service, they have sent us several replacement lids, which we have tried, but the machine still leaks, and leaks in a very odd fashion, as in you fill the water chamber (the coffeemaker is supposed to have a pause and serve feature) add the coffee to the filter, and put the carafe with the lid on it on the heating plate. It is supposed to have a contact point which pushes on a 'plunger' in the center of the lid. Just moments after the machine starts brewing, half brewed coffee starts running down the entire pot and goes everywhere. To make matters worse, the front of the coffeemaker is stainless steel, and after this has leaked you can't touch the machine to turn it off and stop the flow of water as, you will get shocked very very good by trying to do so.
Starbucks has been great as far as first replacing the machine once with no questions asked, and then their customer service center has also been wonderful with sending me multiple replacement lids for the machine at no cost. Starbucks customer service is not the problem in my case, the problem is the fact that the coffeemaker is GARBAGE and poorly designed. Seeing how I have a gut feeling that many of these things have been returned (as several of the Starbucks shops I have been to have these deeply discounted and without boxes), why do they continue to sell the product and why doesn't Starbucks issue a recall on a defective product?
We went and bought an 'expensive' coffee maker in hopes that we wouldn't have the problems we had before with other 'cheap' machines, where the heating element burns out in the matter of a few months. Whaever happened to quality? I ask that because sitting in my closet, I have my Grandmother's 40 year old white Corning Ware electric perculator. Other than the fact that you get a'boiled' taste to the coffee, and a few grounds at the bottom of the cup, it still works flawlessly each and every time. Starbucks customers overall, tend to be educated people who are savvy consumers, and I would have expected better from such a respected company.
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