Capital Culinarian Huge Problems - HORRIBLE customer service!
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8 years ago
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Trevor Lawson (Eurostoves Inc)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoTHE FRENCH BARN - Lacanche Canada
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Culinarian--Capital disappointment
Comments (8)Hi Hamster, Hope you have better luck. I have received a replacement stove. I was told it was coming on a lift truck but it came on a semi. Good thing we have a forklift--we had to unload it ourselves. New stove is in and I have been using it for awhile. I am NOT totally happy with it. There are the small things: the burner grates are a bit too low so that a 14" pan has to tilt when it extends over the griddle, the griddle's temperature fluctuates too much (it cools down too much before coming on again), the rolling racks get stuck on the lower levels (like the oven is not square and they get jammed. I had to kick one to get it dislodged). There are the larger things: I used the self cleaning for the oven after rotisserie turkey, now the oven cooling fan does not come on (just hums), convection cooking does not yield even results (a rack on a lower position browns much faster).....I have to try the broiler again to see if it is working. Sadly, I would not purchase another one. I contacted them in October that I had the old one boxed and ready to return and no one has responded. I am going to contact them after the holiday to let them know about these latest problems....See MoreCapital Range Customer Service
Comments (49)The one leg pad looks like it was damaged at some point. I have since placed a plastic bottle lid over it, and that should prevent future gouging. None of this could be pinned on Capital directly, but indirectly yes, because they contracted with a negligent firm. The irony of this is I just had a GE dishwasher installed an hour earlier by a GE contract firm. They went to great lengths to make sure there was no scratching on anything.... very professional. They do all of Home Depot local installations....go figure....See MoreCapital Culinarian problems
Comments (65)Thanks, vvl, for updating your problems-experience. I have had my 36" 6-burner range for maybe 1.5 years now? Time flies... I bought this range as a risk, basically sight-unseen and comparatively untested. I cannot say how it would have compared with a different range, bluestar for example. I have found the range to be not as fantabulagorous as I had anticipated, but then my experience is minimal. I continue to have simmer problems. I was sent one of the new simmer burners which is as described elsewhere above, with just the inner of three concentric rings of gas-jets remaining (that is, the regular burner has three concentric circles of little holes-worth of gas jets, the simmer burner has only the inner-most ring of these gas-jets). This results in a considerably more compact circle where heat hits the pan - it is small. This makes for less-than-ideal conditions in a large pot, IMO. I have almost all cast-iron but still this does result in an interior hot-spot ring which I do not like much. Far far more useful, IMO, would have been to have manufactured a grate which was covered with a metal plate, a sort of embedded "simmer plate". This would also take care of a secondary problem that the opening provided by the grate pattern in the very center is not teeny enough. I have a small turkish-coffee pot that I can just barely fit onto this small interior-spot, but it is tippy; not safe. This is not a terminal complaint, but one of many annoyances. Because of the insufficiently-small interior grating space I find I use my homemade simmer plate (a pad woven from copper wires by dh) often. It is not as good as a real one would be. The clicking remains mind-bogglingly annoying. As Trevor once said: this is the most annoying sound known to man. I know now how to fix it, with time, patience and a screw driver. I have been given a sufficiently small-enough screw driver by the company for this purpose. But in all honesty, I know this makes me an impatient consumer, but I don't really feel like doing this; I have almost never got the time to. I am always trying to throw together dinner at 8:30 before everyone falls asleep in their plate and there are so many crises floating about. I have teenagers and what would be a fine obsession for a retired person, is a real problem for me: I haven't the clearness of time to maintain these stupid burners. It's really annoying. For me, YMMV. The burners drift out of whack within a couple weeks of fixing them. Really, really annoying. In fairness, sort of, the company has offered to come fix them for me when this happens (I happen to live sort of close to the factory), however, I find this a sort of an embarrassing offer. I should be like billy_g and jscout and Ty-whoever and the other machine-involved folks in terms of just dealing with this stuff. But I am finding in my old age that my former interest in engines and machines and mechanics has fallen by the wayside. I would rather the burners just worked properly. And I would rather the simmer function worked better. I have found that I have modified my cooking habits around the machine's weakness. I almost never make sauces anymore which is OK because we are all too heavy anyway. But it is sad that what I hoped would be an amazing capability is quite the opposite. Making soup stock, which I do all the time, is something of an ordeal because the pot has a tendency to boil dry. I find setting my homemade simmer burner atop the full ring burner on its lowest setting, presuming I can find a burner that won't click at me, is the best for simmering soup. Rendering fat still needs the simmer pad atop the simmer burner in a very small pan; if the pan is too large it gets too cool too far away from the narrow center. I'm adjusting, and again, for all I know this is as good as it gets and another stove would have had its own set of irritations. As I recall there was a tradeoff with cost here and I cannot say how that figures in, now or then even. It seemed a relatively good deal at the time. I'm not sure in retrospect that decision was wrong, but again, I am not unconditionally happy with the machine. I liked the advertised ability to have all burners available, all equally blast-like potentially. I don't really like the solution of providing a smaller burner. I want all burners to go from simmer to blast in all positions equally; that's my preference burner-organization-wise. And given that the simmer burner isn't even working very well for me I will probably swap it back out with the old burner one of these years. As well, there is an issue with the oven that has annoyed the heck out of me since day 1. I have learned to work around it but it's also annoying. Oddly enough, my racks (manual oven) buzz -- it's not the fan as was first thought. And weirdly, it is worse when there is weight on the racks, the more the worse. Go figure. If I pull the racks away from the back wall this will stop the buzzing; I have to remember to do this and sometimes, when something delicate is in the oven it's irritating to have to open the door to correct my oversight. But I have learned to position the racks just so to fix this problem; trouble is just on me to remember, and when running about as I always am, this is another small annoyance. Again, doesn't make me rue the purchase, just not ecstatic with it. I find myself using the electric oven whenever possible to avoid the noisiness of the racks. This is probably not cost- or energy-efficient! The stove has also become not completely horizontal but that's unlikely the stove's fault. A big sheet cake came out visibly not-flat recently. I suppose it's necessary to fiddle the feet to bring it back to plumb. That would be as much of an annoyance with any stove, so is not specific to the CC. I'm trying to be fair.... ;) Lots of more experienced chefs still like the range. I would defer to their broader knowledge of the situation. But from my narrow awareness I am not besotted with the appliance. I am disturbed to hear of others' difficulties too, disturbed on behalf of the company. Perhaps this is not fair of me either. They have tried to be responsive to me. I'm just not happy that there appear to be issues about which nothing much *can* be done, and more maintenance work is required than I anticipated. For a recent poster, there are many, many threads on this forum comparing closed and open burners. I have no problems with the open-burner-ness. I find the stove extremely easy to clean, which is good considering the tendency of simmer to be so hot as to send bloops everywhere ;) Get a fan that covers a large area. ;)...See MoreWaterstone Faucets: Horrible Customer Service
Comments (85)I have a comment to make about the Waterstone warranty. First, many of their finishes are living finishes - not offered by many companies. These are delicate patinas and anyone offering Waterstone should fully explain the use and care and what to expect. I have done that for well over a decade with zero complaints from customers. Secondly, I would like to mention a great company that many of you might find very helpful. The company is New York Replacement Parts Corporation. They are located in Manhattan, NY. They manufacture faucet parts for well over a hundred brands of faucets, including many that have gone out of business. They were able to replace a Concinnity shower valve for me after the company had been out of business for 10 years. The owner told me they buy up the drawings of companies going out of business and they have the equipment to make just about anything. Here is the interesting part... I asked how they were able to make a profit (in Manhattan of all places) selling parts for faucets without lifetime warranties or for those companies that are no longer in business. Well, the answer was stunning. He simply said, "Try and get the part under warranty!". A month after he told me this, my California Faucets shower valve stopped working and it was under warranty. I used to be a dealer for California faucets. In fact, the owner visited my home and we played guitars together - however that was almost 15 years ago. So, I called California faucets and explained I needed a shower valve under warranty. They explained that since I was no longer a dealer I would have to go through a dealer. I said no problem! They gave me three companies and their phone numbers. I left messages for all three with no return calls. So, what did I do? I called New York Replacement Parts and paid $175 for a part that should have been free under warranty. I am going to provide a link to their website in case you might need a hard-to-find part. New York Replacement Parts Corporation The owner ordered a sink and Waterstone faucet from me and I looked through the huge list of brands and noticed the only brand not listed was Waterstone! I called and asked the owner why they were not listed. His answer was simple... somebody has to call, LOL. He also said that is why he ordered a Waterstone faucet with his Rachiele sink. There is much to be said about stated warranties, but the facts are the facts folks. There is a reason Waterstone is NOT listed with virtually all of the other brands. Waterstone stands behind their lifetime mechanical warranty and the rest of the group keeps New York Replacement Parts in business! One more time for the link...New York Replacement Parts I hope this helps many of you....See Morerococogurl
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