Hello friends,
Today, I am saddened to be writing my first truly negative review. I hate complaining. I hate to make people or companies out to be of poor quality, I really do. When attending conferences and being asked to evaluate the workshops, I almost NEVER rate to the lowest or poorest level. But being a mama blogger, and a blogger targeting new or soon to be new mamas, I feel it my duty to share my poor experience that I have had while dealing with Baby Bullet.
I received my Baby Bullet as a shower gift. I was beyond thrilled! Being of the semi-crunchy mindset, I was absolutely ecstatic to begin making my baby's food from scratch. My husband and I anxiously awaited the day we could break out that beautiful shiny new "toy" and prepare our son's first meal.
We chose to start with a simple choice: avocado. We followed the directions listed in the "cookbook" included in the box to a T. Suddenly, however, we heard groaning and grinding noises. I started smelling smoke. At first we thought that maybe some water had leaked in to the motor. Upon further inspection, however... this is what we found:
The clear-ish plastic ring that is set around the base had come loose, getting caught up in the blade itself. As Baby Bullet provides replacements of this ring, I can only assume that it is not uncommon for them to break. Furthermore, a white plastic ring from UNDERNEATH the blade had come up and gotten wrapped around the blade as well.
So much for that! When I had a free moment last weekend, I tried calling the number listed in the manual. It did not work. I then called the number listed on their customer service section of the webpage and the call kept being disconnected. Finally, I sent an email to Baby Bullet's customer service page. In my email, I explained what happened, and noted that I had received it as a gift, and did not have a receipt.
I was pleased to find an emailing waiting in my inbox on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately, the email was of no help. In my response, I was told that they would be happy to help, but that for the warranty to be covered, I would need to provide barcode information from the motor (which I had) and a copy of my receipt (which I, as I had already informed them, did not possess, as it had been a gift). I wrote back explaining this and awaited a response.
Fast forward to Wednesday afternoon. I had no response back, so I chose to call again. I tried a dozen times and the call would not go through. Finally, I got through, but was told by a recording that I would receive a call back, as the lines were too busy. Finally, about an hour and a half later, I received a phone call back.
After explaining my situation, I was ultimately informed that, as I did not have a receipt, they would still honor the warranty "this once", as I was just outside the one year limited warranty for the product. I would have to pay shipping and processing for both the motor and the blade replacements, and any future issues would be at my own expense (even though I had only received the item 8 months ago).
When I questioned why I would be outside the warranty, as the product was given to me just this past spring, I was told that without a receipt, they use the manufacture date on the product found from the barcode information on the motor base. My immediate thought was: What about someone who purchases a model that was manufactured in 2011, but has sat on the shelves? Are they simply out the warranty entirely?
I was flabbergasted. I told the woman that I would wait and see if I can return it at the store, as I do not wish to be without a warranty should anything further happen, but commented to her that I think it is of very poor customer service to market a product directly to parents of babies, to have it sold and advertised in stores where people would set up baby registries, and then insist on having a purchase receipt in order to receive the warranty of the product. The woman was very polite, but simply told me that without that receipt there was no way of knowing when the purchase was made.
While I do see Baby Bullet's side in wanting to ensure that they are offering a warranty to recently acquired products, I feel that they are in effect punishing moms and dads who might receive this as a gift, by greatly reducing, or in some cases, eliminating their ability to receive a warranty on their product.
Ultimately, I have been incredibly disappointed with the product but more so with the company's customer service and will not be purchasing this item (or any others from their company) in the future.
***Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Baby Bullet, nor was I compensated by any other person or company to write this review. None of the information provided in this review is falsified or exaggerated. This review is solely that of my own, personal experience and should only be taken as such. ***
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