I have had my new whiz bang Keurig for less than 24 hours – it replaced my previous one which lasted a good many years – so I decided to go with the K-Café unit so I could make lattes and cappuccinos. I set it up last night washed the reservoir and the frother cup let them dry. Then I filled the reservoir with water and placed in on the unit. Once I turned the unit on it drew water into the unit itself and I topped off the reservoir before running 12 oz through the unit without a K cup to run any impurities out of the machine. I made my first cup of coffee and the unit performed beautifully . . . So far so good . . . or so I thought. I then decided to make a latte, put in a new K-Cup, 2% milk in the frother and pushed the latte button on the frother . . . it was supposed to beep, the button illuminate and then take three minutes or so to heat the milk and froth it. Zip, Zero, Nada – I pushed the button again – no go. I turned the machine off and on again then tried again – still nothing. I called the number on the instruction supplied with the machine and spoke to Paula. She asked if I had an account and offered to set it up for me since I did not have one. (There is more to that story but I won’t bore you with it, there is enough ammunition ahead to accomplish that.) She had me try different things, asked me a bunch of questions and decided when all was said and done that she would have to send me “an entire new frothing unit” and that I would also get instructions on how to replace that part of the unit as well. She said I could call customer service if I had a problem. OK great I thought I was done. Not so fast – I then get an email telling me” good things are coming your way.” – I opened it and was informed I was getting a new frother cup and lid – WHAT ? – The frother cup and lid were not the problem. I was in the middle of something on my phone so decided to use the Keurig chat feature and got a virtual assistant, so I typed "please get me a live rep" – the virtual assistant replied with six people are ahead you and you will be connected in 3 minutes. After several voice announcements telling me to be patient, as there were now only five people ahead of me and that it would be another few minutes, an hour had passed. I finished my other call and redialed customer service. I spoke to a very polite young lady who said her name was “Sweet” she is based in the Philippines call center and was happy to help. She listened to my saga and went away to investigate. When she returned she said she saw the order for a new frother cup and lid and agreed that would not solve my problem. She also stated that the machine frother unit was not detachable and that the entire machine would be replaced. Here is all you have to do . . . 1. Take a picture of the serial number on the side of the unit. 2. Take a screen shot of the amazon invoice 3. Take a picture of the machine itself with a piece of paper showing my name, the date, the reference number, which she was going to send me by email, in the picture. 4. A picture of my birth certificate and my automobile pink slip. The last item I added – she didn’t really ask for it although I anticipated it. So, before I jumped through all those hoops, I called Amazon to request their help. The automated assistant informed me that I would have to reach out to the seller since although I bought it THROUGH Amazon, and not directly FROM Amazon, I would have to contact the seller. I repeated "representative" numerous times before I was connected to an Amazon representative. In the middle of explaining why I was calling, I was suddenly disconnected. SO NOW I’M PISSED – so I called customer no-service again and repeated “representative” again to the virtual attendant, (I was determined not to be made to go away a second time). I decided to keep my cool realizing the new rep, Norman was not at fault. Norman explained that since it was purchased through Amazon that the seller should be willing to replace the unit and that he would contact them and ask them to contact me to resolve the issue. I will keep Keurig corporate's solution in my back pocket just in case. So, what I have learned is sometimes you get a lemon. And when you do get a lemon, unless you bought it - FROM - Amazon and not - THROUGH - Amazon, you will have to contact the third-party seller. If you elect to contact the manufacturer be prepared for some rep to misidentify the problem and not fix the problem. When you reach someone who can fix your problem, you may need to jump through hoops to prove to them you aren’t some con artist trying to score a free machine. Fair enough . . . I am told I should hear from the seller in two business days. The silver lining is that I can make a regular cup of coffee while I wait to hear back. (I have a tendency to be a crankasauris without it.) I hope I can give the seller 5 points for customer service when all is said and done. I don’t know where I can go to get the last frustrating six hours of my life back though. I hope this helps you if you encounter problems with your new Keurig.
