PP
Peter P
Active since Aug 2009
11
Reviews
0
Industries
Reviews
11 reviews2 months ago
The review that SMEG and Yuppiechef do not want you to read
You know how companies check out their review before publishing them on their website? Yes they do. If something comes along that is slightly non-complimentary it is sent directly to the virtual ******* bin. This review was written a year ago. Although it involves a SMEG product I am drawing attention to the service levels of these two companies: I will be honest with you up-front: I am a complete SMEG fanboy. I have totally bought into the beauty of Italian design. Just the word SMEG has the “halo effect”. That means that you are blinded by sharp rays of sunshine that resound with elegance, beauty and a price to match. For quality you must expect to pay the appropriate price. SMEG does not need to have a show-room. They should check out my kitchen. Anything that does any heavy lifting is there. And more. I have invested heavily in the brand. Following the market demand, SMEG has now has also gotten into producing appliances on the peripherals. Think coffee grinders, kettles and toasters. When I needed a new hand blender it was a no-brainer. I snapped up the SMEG. This device looks great on the kitchen counter. The blender feels solid in the hand even though it resembles a device created for female pleasure. Once you see it you can never un-see it. Anyway, it works - well. Now I am not sure if this blender was built in Italy or China. Either way I uncovered a fault: the rotating joint in the blender resembles a Phillips ***** head and the matching joint on the blender attachment is a matching Phillips design. Have you ever stripped a Phillips *****? Of course you have. Now you get the point. The joints are made of plastic. Yes - plastic. Not tungsten, titanium, chromium or rhenium. Plastic. Now imagine a 700W motor driving against plastic joints. It will eventually strip. It has to. It’s just a matter of time. That’s what happened to me. So I check the warranty. YES! It’s still under warranty. So the blender makes it’s happy way back to Yuppiechef and on to SMEG. After I while I get the reply from SMEG that the fault is not covered by the warranty and I will need to pay for the repair. I have banged my head against this “not covered by warranty” reply many times. So have you. It’s no use - you can shout and scream and jump up and down as much as you want. It does not help. So I think about the repair. The price to repair the blender is more than half the price of a new blender! For 2 little pieces of plastic… That tells me that SMEG is into selling new blenders and not repairing them. But I do not want to waste money as the rest of the blender is in perfect condition. So I pay Yuppiechef for the repair. Time passes followed by more time. No word from Yuppiechef. I ping them with an email asking how my repair is going. They pong me back with an apology saying it is still with the supplier. More time passes. I ping Yuppiechef again and am ponged back with a beautiful note saying they will escalate the problem with SMEG. By now I am getting frustrated because I am beating egg whites by hand and it’s causing cramp in my hand. Next I try to blend a basil pesto by hand. Epic fail. Another ping. This time I am told that SMEG is waiting for the part to arrive. Maybe next week. Not sure. It feels like Yuppiechef has an Artificial Intelligence (AI) apology bot that they use to reply to my emails. The reply is apologetic and there is always a different excuse. I think about writing my own AI bot to ask about the progress. That would be cool - 2 AI machines talking to each other. But I do not have the time - I am busy blending a wasabi mayonnaise. By hand. The pressure and frustration to get this thing repaired now reaches a peak - my Spousal Unit needs to use a blender and she is over me like a rash. I have no answer for her. My final ping. I am ponged back saying the SMEG person is in Johannesburg for the week and can we wrap this up when he gets back next week? Maybe SMEG has also got an AI excuse bot? Dunno. By now 2 (two) months have passed and I have had enough of this game. Two months for a mega-company like SMEG to repair a simple little hand blender? Something is off in some smelly Italian kitchen. If the blender does ever get repaired will it work? If it does not I am back to the warranty dilemma. Enough. I tell Yuppiechef to refund me the money I paid for the repair and to pass the message on to SMEG that they can throw the blender in the ******* - where it belongs. I hope they dispose of it in a sustainable manner and not just throw it in the sea. Folks - learn from my pain and frustrations: this is a nice piece of kit, but if it breaks throw it away and find another blender. Thank me later. Now I am walking the long and treacherous path to finding a new blender. This time I am wearing shades so the halo does not blind me.
0 replies
2 months ago
The review that Yuppiechef and SMEG do not want you to read
You know how companies check out their review before publishing them on their website? Yes they do. If something comes along that is slightly non-complimentary it is sent directly to the virtual ******* bin. This review was written a year ago. Although it involves a SMEG product I am drawing attention to the service levels of these two companies. Here it is for your reading pleasure: I will be honest with you up-front: I am a complete SMEG fanboy. I have totally bought into the beauty of Italian design. Just the word SMEG has the “halo effect”. That means that you are blinded by sharp rays of sunshine that resound with elegance, beauty and a price to match. For quality you must expect to pay the appropriate price. SMEG does not need to have a show-room. They should check out my kitchen. Anything that does any heavy lifting is there. And more. I have invested heavily in the brand. Following the market demand, SMEG has now has also gotten into producing appliances on the peripherals. Think coffee grinders, kettles and toasters. When I needed a new hand blender it was a no-brainer. I snapped up the SMEG. This device looks great on the kitchen counter. The blender feels solid in the hand even though it resembles a device created for female pleasure. Once you see it you can never un-see it. Anyway, it works - well. Now I am not sure if this blender was built in Italy or China. Either way I uncovered a fault: the rotating joint in the blender resembles a Phillips ***** head and the matching joint on the blender attachment is a matching Phillips design. Have you ever stripped a Phillips *****? Of course you have. Now you get the point. The joints are made of plastic. Yes - plastic. Not tungsten, titanium, chromium or rhenium. Plastic. Now imagine a 700W motor driving against plastic joints. It will eventually strip. It has to. It’s just a matter of time. That’s what happened to me. So I check the warranty. YES! It’s still under warranty. So the blender makes it’s happy way back to Yuppiechef and on to SMEG. After I while I get the reply from SMEG that the fault is not covered by the warranty and I will need to pay for the repair. I have banged my head against this “not covered by warranty” reply many times. So have you. It’s no use - you can shout and scream and jump up and down as much as you want. It does not help. So I think about the repair. The price to repair the blender is more than half the price of a new blender! For 2 little pieces of plastic… That tells me that SMEG is into selling new blenders and not repairing them. But I do not want to waste money as the rest of the blender is in perfect condition. So I pay Yuppiechef for the repair. Time passes followed by more time. No word from Yuppiechef. I ping them with an email asking how my repair is going. They pong me back with an apology saying it is still with the supplier. More time passes. I ping Yuppiechef again and am ponged back with a beautiful note saying they will escalate the problem with SMEG. By now I am getting frustrated because I am beating egg whites by hand and it’s causing cramp in my hand. Next I try to blend a basil pesto by hand. Epic fail. Another ping. This time I am told that SMEG is waiting for the part to arrive. Maybe next week. Not sure. It feels like Yuppiechef has an Artificial Intelligence (AI) apology bot that they use to reply to my emails. The reply is apologetic and there is always a different excuse. I think about writing my own AI bot to ask about the progress. That would be cool - 2 AI machines talking to each other. But I do not have the time - I am busy blending a wasabi mayonnaise. By hand. The pressure and frustration to get this thing repaired now reaches a peak - my Spousal Unit needs to use a blender and she is over me like a rash. I have no answer for her. My final ping. I am ponged back saying the SMEG person is in Johannesburg for the week and can we wrap this up when he gets back next week? Maybe SMEG has also got an AI excuse bot? Dunno. By now 2 (two) months have passed and I have had enough of this game. Two months for a mega-company like SMEG to repair a simple little hand blender? Something is off in some smelly Italian kitchen. If the blender does ever get repaired will it work? If it does not I am back to the warranty dilemma. Enough. I tell Yuppiechef to refund me the money I paid for the repair and to pass the message on to SMEG that they can throw the blender in the ******* - where it belongs. I hope they dispose of it in a sustainable manner and not just throw it in the sea. Folks - learn from my pain and frustrations: this is a nice piece of kit, but if it breaks throw it away and find another blender. Thank me later. Now I am walking the long and treacherous path to finding a new blender. This time I am wearing shades so the halo does not blind me.
0 replies
4 months ago
Let's charge this customer for bad maintenance on our trailer!
I don’t like writing bad reviews. Actually, I hate it. But when a company goes the extra mile to deserve one - I need to warn other people. Consider me a good citizen if you will. I rented a single bike trailer for a day from Kwik-trailer hire in Pinetown. When I returned the trailer a dust cap was missing from one of the wheels. Now to remove a dust cap I would need a heavy rubber mallet and chisel. Dust caps do not just fall off trailers. In short, what we have here is bad maintenance and I was charged for the new dust cap. It gets better - I took the remaining cash from my deposit and placed it in the manager’s hand. “You are welcome to keep this money if you can explain how a dust cap can fall off a trailer!” “Eish - that would be difficult to explain” I took what was left of my deposit and left in disgust.
0 replies
20 months ago
Yuppiechef selling vapourware
On 13 August I placed an order with Yuppiechef for a Moulinex Deep Fryer. The website said that “Stock available from supplier. Dispatches from us in 3 to 5 working days”. That’s fine with me - I can wait for a few days. On 19 August I get an email from Yuppiechef - “We'll try to confirm this item with our suppliers and update you when we know” HUH? 5 working days is already a distant view in our rear view mirror. I queried this and got the reply - “The suppliers let us know that they themselves, have sadly run out of stock” I was offered a refund but this is not the point of this review. The point I want to make is that Yuppiechef is selling vapourware. They happily accept your money for items that are not in the country. This seems to be a common thread for on-line sites in South Africa: take the order and the money and then scramble to recover. If this scenario ever happened with Amazon the supplier would be banished into oblivion. Folks - this is my recommendation: Before purchasing anything online first email the business to make sure they have the item in stock. My deep fryer did eventually arrive - 16 days after placing the order.
53 replies
20 months ago
Middelvlei Wine Estate
Wine creates memories. Memories of fine food, friendship, love and celebrations. Some memories fade with time, like a long African road that disappears over the horizon. Wine memories seem to remain longer - like a long lingering aftertaste of a fine Syrah. Possibly also because no great memory ever starts with a salad. My wife and I have fond memories of Middelvlei estate. We visited the estate years ago and made friends with their great danes - Tinta and Barocca. We had a wonderful time. Ever since then we have ordered a bottle of Middlevlei wine when celebrating a special occasion. We seem to have built this intangible affiliation with Middelvlei. At a wine show we met Ben Momberg and of course we started chatting. We were sorry to hear that Tinta and Barocca had sadly passed away. After tasting their superb range of wine Ben asked me if I wanted to make an investment in wine. This is how the deal works: I pay an inflated price for a 5L bottle of wine and he will refill it. “How often will you refill it?” “Every year - just send me the empty bottle and I will refill it with any wine that you choose.” “Every year?” “Yes - for the rest of your life. This is a good investment.” For sentimentality more that anything else, we exchanged money, shook hands and left with a big bottle of wine. What followed was certainly memorable. We had an annual “Momberg challenge”. I would invite family and friends for a meal and attempt to empty the bottle. We ate. We drank good wine. We laughed. We celebrated life. We created good memories. All built around wine. And things started to slow down. I always needed to call the farm to enquire when the bottle will be filled. Delays were followed by silence. And then more silence. Now I do have a vague understanding of logistics but I was relying on the integrity of a hand shake with Ben to be true to his word. I called Ben Momberg and he passed the buck faster than Naas Botha, as a salesperson would do. I called Tinnie Momberg and his blunt response was: “We don’t do that anymore”. This review is not about the wine produced at Middelvlei - their wine is excellent. It’s about disappointment and lack of integrity. Crushed memories. A call for businesses to raise their game and meet their promises. If you ever do a deal with Middelvlei make sure you get it down on paper.
0 replies
42 months ago
Maybe there is dust on the lens?
Dust on camera sensors is a problem. I recently sent a Nikon D800 body to Nikon SA to have the sensor cleaned. It came back to me with scratches on the sensor - the camera is useless and can be trashed. So I am on the lookout for another camera body. I find one on the Camera World website - I have bought from them before and it was a good experience. I ask them if the sensor is clean and free of scratches. Immediately the answer comes back: “This unit is rated in good condition, sensor is clean”. Based on this I purchase the camera. When it arrives I check the sensor - it’s covered in dust. I fire off an email with a picture of the dust on the sensor to Camera World asking about the condition of the sensor and receive.. no reply. The next day I call and chat to Jacques. He’s super helpful and arranges for the camera to be returned. Nice. A few days later he calls me and asks how I managed to get the picture of the dust on the sensor. Alarm bells start ringing in my head. I explain this is the procedure: Take a picture of a white background at F22 Import the RAW file into Lightroom Go to the Develop module Go to the Spot removal tool and click on “Visualise Spots” at the bottom of the screen. Jacques calls me back and says he can’t see any dust on the sensor - there must be dust on the lens. Nope - dust on the lens will not render in the image like this. Frustrated, I count my losses and ask for the camera to be returned. Lesson learnt: the guys at Camera World are friendly, helpful and their sales process is efficient. But if you have problems with the gear you have purchased - you are on your own.
0 replies
42 months ago
So long Nikon - it's not your fault
Investing in a top-end camera is an expensive undertaking. But let’s be honest - Nikon is good kit. I’ve been a loyal supporter for 35 years. Because of the price of new cameras and lenses you can’t afford to replace them when things go wrong. You need to have it serviced. This is where you pick up problems. Premium Brands are the local distributers and “authorized” repair centre. I have heard many stories of Nikon Ambassadors leaving Nikon for other brands of cameras because of inferior service and support received from Premium Brands. But I took my chances and sent them my camera to have the sensor cleaned. What could possibly go wrong? They have cleaned the sensor before and did a good job. It arrived back with scratches on the sensor. I queried this and was told “When we received the camera we opened the Shutter on mirror lock up, inspected the sensor with a loupe noticed the marks and only did a blow with clean air. The camera was then returned in the same state.” Here’s what really happened: the technician did a hack job. It looks like he ate a bunny chow for lunch on my sensor . Instead of taking responsibility for damaging the sensor it was easier to say that he received the camera with scratches on the sensor. The camera is useless and can be written off. Am I ever going to invest in Nikon again? No. It makes no sense as sooner or later I will run the risk of someone at Premium Brands destroying my investment. Fellow photographers - if you own a Nikon and live in South Africa: you have been warned. So long Nikon. It’s time to part ways. Thank you for the memories and the great images we created together. Please understand that it’s not your fault - it’s the inferior service from Premium Brands.
133 replies
69 months ago
TFG makes me grumpy!
Coffee is important. I need a solid injection of caffein to start my day. Without my coffee I get very grumpy. My answer to this is a Breville Barista Express which I bought from @home. It’s a nice piece of kit. Expensive but it delivers a good kick of caffein. For the uninitiated there is a gasket which will need to be replaced at some stage. It’s a silicone ring that the portafilter seals against to sustain the pressure in the system. The part is called a Silicone steam ring and costs R79. I visit the @home website and see that it is available at the Gateway store. Awesomeness. I zoom down to the store and they tell me that they do not have the part. Undeterred and driven by my morning ritual I go back to the website and see that the gasket is available at the Ballito store. They tell me that it is not in stock either. Another wasted trip. How can the website be so wrong? After a bit of surfing around Hellopeter and Facebook I find a torrent of unpleasant reviews of @home. It’s all starting to make sense. So I visit my closest @home store at La Lucia and ask them to order the part for me. A week later I get a call: “Sorry we do not have the part but when it arrives we will let you know”. “When will it arrive” “I have no idea” I am not giving up on this one just yet. “So will it get here this week, this year of next year?” “No idea - but don’t worry we will let you know” My reality now is that I am stuck with a R10K expresso machine that does not work because TFG cannot supply me with a R79 spare. Folks - do not buy high-end appliances from @home. You could end up grumpy like me.
53 replies
69 months ago
I went for Bosch!!!
I bought a Ryobi orbital sander. After a month it stopped working. That was inconvenient but not to worry - it will be covered by warranty. I took the sander to the local Ryobi office in Durban - job 48569. After a few weeks I get a message that it will cost R686,32 to repair. What? I am being charged for a warranty repair! Surely not. I go to the office and the consultant tells me that I have been using the sander incorrectly and the motor has burnt out. Behind him is a sign proudly advertising: “Ryobi - power tools that won’t quit”. The irony does not escape me. I turn around and leave in disgust. I won’t make the same mistake and use Ryobi again. So I immediately go and invest in a Bosch!
159 replies
124 months ago
Help me help you
I still receive a statement via the post. On the envelope I read: \email statements it's free of charge? SMS 'Statements' to 32264". I send the SMS and get the reply:\""Thank you"
75 replies
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