SMEG USA inc.

Review: I reported a warranty claim to SMEG USA on 9/**/13 regarding my Smeg Oven. The oven is not working and was purchased less than one year ago (under manufactures warranty). I was given this response by e-mail.

"Thank you [redacted]! I will have a local service company give you a call to schedule a service visit." - [redacted]

I recieved no communication from anyone and decided to follow up on 10/*/13 - here is the response I received.

"We emailed the service company on 10/**. I'm sure they will call you to schedule soon but if you would like to reach out to them you can. The companies name is Strawbridge Electric at ###-###-####. The authorization number is #[redacted]." - [redacted]

I again recieved no call from anyone and even tried to follow up with the "Strawbridge Electric" company.

I called again today 10/**/13 and asked [redacted] (Smeg USA) for a resolution to this problem. He stated that they called and left a message for "Strawbridge Electric" and would wait to hear back from them. I asked for a definate timeframe when I would hear back, and he said he didn't know.

I feel this is unacceptable. My wife and I have been without a oven for almost 2 weeks and we haven't even received a phone call on a possible date for repair. SMEG USA sells their stove with a 1 year Warranty and then does a terrible job of backing up this claim. I would like to return the oven for a full refund of the purchase price and shipping or have the oven repaired by 10/**/13.Desired Settlement: I would like to return the oven for a full refund of the purchase price and shipping or have the oven repaired by 10/**/13.

Business

Response:

Please see below:

[redacted],

Great. Here it is:

Dear Revdex.com of NY,

Thank you for forwarding us Case #[redacted]. We have arranged for an alternate local service provider to schedule the requested repair. The consumer has been contacted today via phone and is aware of this change.

Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Best Regards,

____________________

Business

Response:

Please see below:

[redacted],

Regarding the attached complaint…

Our service technician visited the home on October [redacted] and successfully repaired the appliance. We contacted the consumer directly today and confirmed everything is now working correctly.

Thank you.

Best Regards,

____________________

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

Sincerely,

Review: To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to complain about my SMEG oven purchased June 2012.

Right from the get go we had issues with the oven – we would smell gas on and off for months and would investigate all sources and finally it got so bad we called SMEG and they sent a technician out to look at the issue. He said there was bad gas leak in our unit and if we had called the gas company, they would have probably shut down our gas until they could locate the issue. It was THAT BAD and extremely dangerous to our household.

A couple of weeks later, the part came in and was replaced and all seemed good except shortly the oven part stopped working. We called SMEG USA again, they sent the technician again who ordered another part and it seemed to be fine.

A couple of months later, we had the same issue with the oven. We asked for another oven as we really only had maybe 6 months of full use on a brand new $2000 oven but they said they would fix and if they couldn’t they would consider replacing the model. So again, they sent out the technician who replaced the part and all was good for a number of months.

However, back in December of 2013 the oven once again stopped working. My husband called SMEG USA as I couldn’t deal with it any longer and at the beginning of January 2014 I received a call from someone at SMEG who said they would finally replace the entire unit for us and as a bonus we would get a slightly upgraded model for our patience and inconvenience. We agreed BUT were quickly informed the unit wasn’t going to be available until MAY [redacted] 2014 as it was shipping from Italy. We really has no options and decided to wait.

Finally mid JUNE 2014 (a month late) the new unit arrives. At this point we are so desperate for an oven so we can cook meals for our family, that my husband installs it. Only to find that it is smaller than the previous model so now we have a 4” gap behind the unit to the wall which we now have to pay to have some countertop installer come in an patch the gap – more cost to us. In addition, the unit was not at all “upgrade” in fact, it has less functions than the original one and one of the reasons we chose the original one was for the way it looked and for a number of the functions it had. It did not have the self-cleaning functionality as we were promised as part of our “upgrade”.

We have spent two years with a non-functioning oven – maybe only had a total of 6 months use out of 2 years. It has been a family tradition for me to bake birthday cakes for my husband and son and because of the issues I haven’t been able to do that for the last two years. We can’t entertain, we ate out A LOT and all in all it has been so inconvenient and frustrating for us. Not once have called SMEG to yell or be difficult or demanding in the hopes that with our patience we would get a decent replacement or even our money back so we could just buy an oven so that our family could cook meals, bake etc. But SMEG USA refused so we waited it out and ended up STILL being so disappointed.

I have NEVER dealt with anything like this before. Sure, I have had bad customer service but brush it off to bad days but I have never had a successful, global company who has been so desperate to hold on to $2000 at the expense of their customer’s inconvenience – 2 Years of inconvenience, family tradition, meals etc. The lack of empathy for the situation is outstanding and borderline insulting on SMEG USA’s part. No Goodwill gestures on their part is simply mind-blowing as is lie they told us when we were going to get a “better” replacement model.

The sadder thing for SMEG is that I work in an industry where I am able to specify products and install them in homes that we renovate and build (value of $800k to $4m) and I often use products that I am familiar with and happy with or have used or installed in my own homes. I have designed more than 70 houses in 1 ½ years and would have easily recommended SMEG products but with this whole debacle and lack of customer service, that’s potentially 70 less sales for SMEG. I would NEVER EVER recommend them again nor buy ANY of their products again. Ever.

Honestly, this is the worst situation I have ever encountered. As most people, we work hard for our things and not once have we received an apology from SMEG for the last 2 years for this oven drama or any gestures of good will or any understanding on their part of how hard it is to have no working oven when you are trying to feed a young family.

I hope this review/letter/complaint is something that will help anyone in the future when considering or researching a potential purchase from SMEG.

Sincerely,

[redacted]Desired Settlement: I really want my money back and an apology and some kind of acknowledgement as to how ridiculous on SMEG USA's part this has been.

Business

Response:

To whom it may concern.

This is to acknowledge the receipt of the complain. For any question in regards of such matter, please contact [redacted] and [redacted] at ADCO Service, the company in charge of servicing SMEG products in the US.

They can be reached at ###-###-####. I've also added them in cc in my reply.

Best,

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

I do not understand what I need to do next. Do I need to contact SMEG directly? Will they contact me? The response is unclear.

Please advise.

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# [redacted], and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

I wasn't able to respond because I was out of town and had no access to email. I waited for a response from SMEG who said they would be intouch with supporting documentation etc refuting my claim but I hadn't heard back from them.

Thanks

In order for the Revdex.com to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.

Sincerely,

Business

Response:

To whom it may concern.

SMEG service will contact the customer again.

Best,