Piece of junk Kitchen Aid Blender

[calv]

anyone have problems w/the blender breaking. I guess it's the coupling? Guess I should have known before buying the darn thing but KA wont admit it's a defective part. For a $80+ kitchen appliance & their name reputation, I disklike them greatly.

Curious to hear what if anything have others done about the problems. just purchase a new part?


yes I'm a little upset.

http://forum.kitchenaid.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2350&whichpage=1


http://www.amazon.com/New-Package-KitchenAid-Blender-Coupling/product-reviews/B000V6ZEZ4/ref=cm_cr_pr_link_next_2?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&pageNumber=2&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

[mom2one]

I am so sorry for you!!!! I feel your pain. We have the same blender and have/had the same problem. We read online how you can fix it yourself and what part you need. So we ordered two or the parts, read online how to fix it. We did fix, but the blender just does not work the same. It actually sounds like it is dying when we use it. I have actually been meaning to post if anyone has a blender that they LOVE so we can get a new one.

[calv]

sorry to hear you went through the same thing. My mother called it a piece of junk from the start. I hardly use the thing in roughly the 2 years we've owned it. According to mom, pieces of strawberries and banans should not be in a smoothie w/a top of the line brand/blender.

wondering if I should just invest in an oster.

was it a huge PITA to fix?

[DrSally]

I have a kitcheaid blender and haven't had problems. But, I must say I hardly ever use it. I use my cheaper Oster one for baby food. I have heard that when whoever it was purchased the "Kitcheaid" brand, quality went down and they were just selling on name recognition/reputation alone. Well, their reputation isn't going to last long if people continue to have problems!

[mom2one]

It was not that bad to fix. You have to work a long skinny screw driver through the bottom up to the top to twist the thing off. It takes some figuring out the right way to do this. NOt sure if we really messed up the blender doing this or not. No more Kitchenaid blenders for us!

[Melaine]

So glad it's not just me. Same exact thing happened to us. I was so frustrated. I know the part was like only $8 or something, but I shoved the whole thing to the back of the cabinet and found a $5 glass Oster blender at the thrift store that I like much better.
I was also very disappointed that KitchenAid refused to do anything about the problem. I expected better from them, and the blender certainly does not live up to the rep and fell far short of my love for the mixer....

[calv]

has anyone complained to the KA hotline? I'm pretty upset!

[C99]

I think KA makes a great stand mixer. Everything else? They are just banking on the strength of their brand.

[rachelh]

I feel like its a matter of who picks up the phone when you call customer service. I had a stand mixer from KA that broke and the warranty period expired. I called stating that it broke and I barely used it. The response was "sorry warranty expired. you can either ship it to us and we will let you know how much it will cost to fix it or you bring it to a certfied KA repair shop." I was furious - it was $300 and I maybe used it 10 times in 2 years. My mom called KA explaining she bought it for me as a present and was very disappointed with the service. Without batting an eyelash the customer service rep offerred to ship me a new one for free. I would try a few times until you get a person who will help.

[amandabea]

I think our previous blender was a Kitchen Aid. Anyway, DH didn't like it -- he uses the blender everyday. It started to leak and then I think the base was hard to screw on or something. We replaced it with a Breville and DH really likes it. I don't ever use the blender, but this one looks much nicer -- big glass blender part and black/stainless steel base. It was pricey, but we bought it on sale with coupons from Macy's.

[jerseygirl07067]

Caly - how crazy that you posted this today!! I had a "Calgon take me away" moment today because of my effin Kitchen Aid Blender. I've had mine for 4 years and use it to make smoothies. I've noticed there's always a black residue on the bottom of the blender when I clean it and never realized why.

Well today, the baby is sleeping, and I'm making smoothies with the girls and they were so looking forward to it. (They were happy to finally have some one on one time with mom since the baby has been home). Well we put all the stuff in the blender, turned it on, and nothing happened at all except a weird grinding noise. Turns out that stupid black rubber piece completely shredded, rendering the blender useless. The girls were really upset and then of course the baby woke up earlier than expected and was crying. So now everyone was crying!

I was really annoyed that this was going to be yet another thing to do on my endless to do list, but your post saved the day for me!

Looks like I will be ordering a few of those black rubber pieces, but I am going to call KitchenAid first, and see if they will do anything for me. I'll let you know what they tell me. If there's anything I cannot stand, it's poor customer service. I tend to be fairly aggressive and often ask for a supervisor if I'm not happy with the result. Especially because my blender was not cheap. It was $100 bucks minus the 20% off Bed Bath and Beyond coupon.

[boltfam]

I'm sorry you have had problems with your blender. How frustrating! I don't have, but have used, my friend's Cuisinart blender. It seemed to work awesome!

[craftysierra]

Well the first time I used the blender the black peice broke and Kitchen aid replaced it and now it is the same color as my mixer :) So in that way I love it but I just bought two replacement peices from ebay since it happened again after haing it replaced.

Sierra

[Melaine]

Mine broke within I think 2 years of VERY light use. It was pathetic.

[DebbieJ]

I have a Krups Blender that works well. If I had the $$$$ I'd get a VitaMix.

[Melaine]

[QUOTE=DebbieJ If I had the $$$$ I'd get a VitaMix.[/QUOTE]

:yeahthat:
Was coming back to mention this. My parents have one and it does truly amazing things. Also, I worked at Tropical Smoothie for a little while and that's what we had there. Those babies are POWERFUL and super easy to clean (because they are so dang powerful). Don't really use it enough to begin to justify a Vitamix, but they are amazing.

[calv]

Marcy, let m eknow how you make out. If I cool off and get in the mood to deal/call them again today, I will!

DH popped the piece of last night and it was easy. we'll be ordering two pieces since a new blender I'm sure is going to cost at least $30 for a piece of junk. then again, anything at this point is better than our kitchen aid

you can get the piece(s) here:

http://mendingshed.stores.yahoo.net/kacoupling.html (looks like if you buy up to 4 pieces, the shipping doesn't change so we're in for 2).


AND AMAZON! Check out all the complaints. SO SAD! I want KA to realize what a piece of crap this is


http://www.amazon.com/New-Package-KitchenAid-Blender-Coupling/dp/B000V6ZEZ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=miscellaneous&qid=1242241501&sr=8-1

[jerseygirl07067]

Caly - I called KA today and they didn't do diddly squat for me, except refer me to a customer service center in my area, and told me I could order the part from them. I asked if they could just send one out to me, and she said they don't carry them, but their customer service center should have them, but I will have to pay for it.

I told them that I am aware this is a common problem, and for $100 bucks this should not be the case. I said this was poor customer service since it's clear I am not the first person to call about this. She said the scripted, "I'm sorry, yada yada yada" stuff. I was going to ask for her supervisor, but wasn't in the mood to push the issue. I was saving my energy up for dealing with AT &T, who I had to call next. (that's another story!) Overall I told her I was upset about the quality of the product and I hope that for training purposes my call was being recorded!

I called the Customer care center, they said the part is $7.95. But where they're located in my town, I have to pay gas and tolls to get there, so I will probably just make my life easier and order the pieces online at the site you linked above.

If you call, let me know how you make out too.