a drop of water

Early last month we mailed in our Calphalon 10″ Pan because the nonstick surface was wearing out. We originally purchased it in a set at Bed Bath and Beyond for about $40. The pan is covered by Calphalon’s Lifetime Warranty (Repair, but usually Replacement). We paid the shipping fee and included a letter explaining our request. We did not call Calphalon Consumer Relations ahead of time, but in retrospect maybe we should have–they might pay for return shipping? Anyways, yesterday we received a brand new pan in the mail! Although it took a few weeks and the result of our request was not known until we received the replacement, this kind of warranty service makes purchasing pans with lifetime warranties worth their extra cost.  Sometimes the individual Calphalon pieces can be quite expensive, so I would suggest buying sets off Amazon or BedBathandBeyond (with 20% coupons) and then dividing the set up amongst friends and family.

Jenn and I received a KitchenAid 9-Speed Professional Hand Mixer as a wedding gift last year.  We used it a few times for various recipes, but most of the time it sat happily on a shelf in its box.  We took it out this Christmas as we prepaired to bake cookies for friends and family and to our dissappointment, the mixer no longer worked (specifically, the blades no longer rotated).  We called KitchenAid the next morning and spoke with a polite CSR (customer service representative), who took down the unique serial number on the unit.  A few moments later, she informed me that our particular unit was manufactured in 2007 and was technically no longer under the 1-year warranty that KitchenAid offers on most of their products.

However, she mentioned that they realize that many of their products have a prolonged shelf life before they are sold and are given as gifts, and that if we could provide the original receipt or proof of date of purchase, then we could make good on the 1-year warranty.  As it was a wedding gift, we did not have the original receipt, but we were able to submit our Amazon.com registry instead, which showed the date of purchase of the hand mixer.  KitchenAid had a brand new mixer FedEx’ed to our house the next week (too late for our cookies, though) and included a prepaid packaging slip to ship back the defective unit.  Overall, it was a great experience dealing with KitchenAid.

I’ve owned both a Plantronics 510 Bluetooth headset and a Plantronics 520 Bluetooth headset.  The 510 was first critically damaged by the Peanut and then fatally wounded by the very same Peanut who also crushed my cell phone in an attempt to make a phone call.  The 510 was a great headset, comfortable, clear, good battery life.  I was hoping that the 520 would follow suit with the model line’s performance.  Unfortunately it is not as comfortable and not as clear, though lighter and has just as good battery life.

But this post is more about the Plantronics Headset One Year Warranty Service / Exchange / Replacement program.  It is excellent!  And no, Peanut did not touch the 520 :)  It’s been suffering from a worsening problem with clarity for a few months now.   Everything from information, to live help via chat, to forms are online and they had the replacement at my house 2 business days after submitting the online forms.  (They verify that the headset is within its 1 year warranty by a date code that is printed on the headset.)  The only matter of note is that the customer gets to pay the shipping to return the defective headset, which is fine, considering they send a brand new replacement. This level of customer service is rare these days.