Kitchen Aid - warning and request for your advice!

[NewNameBridget]

We bought a Kitchen Aid stand mixer as a treat for our anniversary.

It arrived both damaged and also not as ordered (different specs).

We've called and called on the helpline, and sent three emails - and NOTHING, no response.

Only today did I notice the terrible Trust Pilot reviews... I'd foolishly presumed that a premium priced product would have at least reasonable quality control and customer care.

Annoyingly we bought it on a debit card, not credit card.

AIBU to ask for your help...

What would you do?

Have you ever got a response from Kitchen Aid, and if so, what's the trick?

Send it back! It’s faulty and not what you ordered. Why would you consider not returning it?

How?

They won't answer the phone or our emails, we don't have a returns slip, and if we just sent it back, there'd be no way to confirm that they received it. We could lose the money AND the machine.

Of course, we plan to return it - we just need to get the details to do so!

Did you order it from Kitchen Aid directly or another seller?
There should be some kind of details about how to return either in the delivery notes, the confirmation email or on the website.

Send it back and then order again from Harts of Stur. They are brilliant. www.hartsofstur.com/kitchen-electricals/mixers/stand-mixers.html

We brought their kettle and toaster. Not worth the money and absolutely no difference from cheaper brands we had before

We bought it directly from them, annoyingly!

The only returns information in the confirmation email(s) is to email them if there is a problem, but they haven't responded to any emails.

It's so annoying!

Where did you buy it? If you bought it online the returns process should be set out online. For example here

We've got several kitchen aid items. All have been good except the ice cream maker that broke on the first use.
We returned it immediately but had to wait a month for a replacement as they had none in stock.

The Kitchen Aid kettle and toaster aren’t made by them, they just carry the brand. The only thing they actually make are the mixer, the food processor and the blender.

Sounds easy, but when we go to My Account we get an error, and when we email they don't respond, so we get stuck at the first hurdle:

When did you start emailing them? A timeline would be useful as your bank would expect you to give them a few days to resolve it.

Is your debit card backed by Visa or Mastercard? If you've given the company a chance to resolve this then contact your bank for a chargeback and send the evidence.

Stage 1 here 😩

do they respond to poor trust pilot reviews, or twitter?

Not to the Trust Pilot reviews, I also tweeted them (had to reopen my twitter account) - no response yet, but that was only earlier today. They have responded to some other tweets in the distant past (2019).

I just realised that Kitchenaid is owned by Whirlpool Corporation, so I might try to contact them!

Ah good questions:

We first emailed on April 15th, then again on 19th, and finally today on 23rd (I'm aware the Easter weekend may have delayed response).

We have called them on the same days.

I paid on a MasterCard Debit. I didn't know that chargeback was possible with a Debit card (usually we put larger purchases on Credit Card for this reason).

@NewNameBridget are you sure their email replies haven’t ended up in spam/junk?

Try whirlpool, then is just go to your bank to get the chargeback. Good luck.

I have a kitchen aid and one of the attachments didn’t fit. I emailed [email protected] and had a resolution (part replaced). This was a few years back so unsure if the email is still valid but they were responsive from this email account. Good luck.

See if you can find the CEO's email.

There’s only been 5 working days since you emailed not great but I wouldn’t be panicking

Had a KA kettle that started leaking after about 2 years, contacted them assuming I’d get a “tough shit” response back but we were emailed a returns label - sent it back, and within a week they’d sent us a replacement.
Id persist with customer services; like PP said there’s not been many working days so wouldn’t fret yet.
Also add my vote to buying via Harts of Stur in future, they are fantastic to deal with.

I am having similar problems with KitchenAid now. Did this story ever got resolved? (It's beyond belief a top of the market brand acts like this.) I'd be really grateful to hear what came out of this and if you ever got a KitchenAid mixer that worked? thanks...