the much ballyhooed BGE Warranty

Zippylip · October 2010

About a month ago I began my first ever attempt to make a warranty claim since buying my first egg. I need a fire grate, box & ring for my large, all completely hosed after so many years of high temp torture. After several emails to my dealer went unanswered, I called, spoke with the owner, & was told he “doesn’t handle these things, they must be submitted directly to BGE”. That didn’t sound right so I emailed Tucker & Bruce from BGE called me. He was very nice/helpful, advised me that pursuant to their dealership agreement, it was the dealer’s responsibility to service the warranty. He also advised that if my dealer wouldn’t assist me, I should call other local dealers as they are also required to handle warranty claims regardless of place of purchase. I followed his advice & called several local dealers & was told that since I didn’t buy my egg there, there’s nothing they could do (again contrary to my understanding of their responsibility). I Contacted BGE again & Bruce gave me two options, one, he offered to ship the parts to me at my expense, estimated to be $40.00. Two, he offered to contact the Pennsylvania distributor to see if they could help, which I asked him to do. The next day, I received an email from the PA distributor inviting me to pick up the stuff, however, it is at least an hour drive. I asked the distributor if they could get it to the dealer, or do this some other way so that I could avoid the drive. Crickets.

So my choices are to pay the $40.00 or take the (at least) 2 hour drive round trip to get the stuff without paying. I haven’t decided which way to go yet, & while in the end it’s clearly better than paying for the parts and shipping/driving, I do not count myself in the camp with folks that fall all over themselves singing the praises of the BGE warranty. There are 3 dealers within 10 minutes of my house, none of which will lift a finger to help me out and honor their agreement with BGE.

The replacement portion of the warranty is great, but the service portion of the warranty (which is only as strong as the dealer network that supports it) is not so great

fishlessman · October 2010

whats worked for me in the past is to take the bge email with name and telephone contact at bge straight to the dealer with the broken part and tell them to call if they have any questions.

might be worth a try, we have had some bad dealers up here

Zippylip · October 2010

might be worth a shot however I don't have a lot of faith in my dealer, this is the same dealer that tried to talk me out of buying a mini proclaiming "you can't cook anything on one of them..." :blink:

His store is not focused on the egg, it is largely a high-end stainless steel outdoor kitchen oasis store, with a little pile of eggs off to the side, I guess in that respect I was on notice

lowercasebill · October 2010

did you talk to walter.. ? if not let me know .
also walter will be at freds on the 6th if you are going you can pick it up there and also where did they say you had to drive to?

stevesails · October 2010

well, I would pay the $40 and be done with it. That is still a pretty good deal. My company figures it costs about $1.00 a miile to drive a car. (including your time).
The dealers are in it for the profit, unfortunately there is only so much in any product you sell, and the more you have to give away the less the margin.

Having said all that, take the email fro the mother ship to the local dealer, have him contact the factory whhile you are there and have them include your replacement parts on their next big shipment.

Bash · October 2010

Sorry to hear that the local dealers are so bad regarding warranties. As you point out, the service depends somewhat on the dealer network.

My dealer (Ace Hardware in an Atlanta suburb) was great. I told them my medium firebox had finally fallen apart after being cracked for months. Once I got to the employee that handles BGE for Ace, he submitted the request to BGE. That was a week before Eggtoberfest, and he said it normally takes a week, two at the longest. Two and half weeks later, he left a message saying the firebox was in. I'll go pick it up tonight on the way home.

The warranty is 100% of the reason I will never buy a used egg again (my XL was used, and the base is cracked, so I will probably have to buy a new XL at some point). It is sitting on a concrete slab (moved down from the deck for safety), so I will continue to use it until it falls apart. It is in the nest and has not gotten apparently worse in the past year since the crack appeared.

Got my medium from Ace, and almost bought a small from Ace a month ago when they quoted me a great price, but sanity (and the wife) prevailed and I am very happy with the XL / medium combo.

Zippylip · October 2010

I don't know who Walter is. The distributor is in Bensalem, here to there without every single road seemingly under construction is a nightmare :evil:

I'm not going to Fred's, same day as tikifest

stike · October 2010

dealers suck, in approximately a 9 to 1 ratio, i do not care what anyone says. for every decent dealer, the other 90 percent are simpletons.

what about fred's music and bbq? he gets a lot of grief from some folks here, but he sells probably sells/handles as much or more BGE product than anyone else.

frankly, when i needed warranty items, i got nothing but crickets and stupid stares from most dealers, and it was a call to the distributor that got things working. you think the look on their face is priceless when you ask if they have any platesetters, try asking about the warranty... (as you learned).

i would make one more visit back to the original dealer, and remind him that it is his responsibility, that you have talked to both the distributor and BGE, and that it's part of his deal and responsibility to handle the warranty items. if he doesn't, i would settle for simply getting the parts from the distributor or BGE (HQ, with shipping charges). but i'd want the distributor to do something about that dealer, otherwise the warranty is not worth the paper it is written on.

it's not about spite, it's about getting what you paid for, and people doing what they agree to do.

frankly, i think that if the dealer servicing the warranty resfuses to do it, that BGE ought to ship them at no charge. people shouldn't expect BGE to supply the items with no shipping charges for all warranty situations, but when the dealers AND the distributor are not responsive, BGE corporate is on the hook. it is THEIR system which has failed you. it's not like you called them first expecting free shipping.

they need to school their distributors and dealers. i doubt that they perform any checks on the dealers, by going in to ask questions, in the guise of a customer. but they ought to. they are allowing an unfortunate amount of pinheads to represent them at the point of sale

stike · October 2010

you don't need faith. have bge straighten him out, or ask why they allow this idiot to sell eggs for them in the first place.

stike · October 2010

warranty items cost the dealer nothing.

Zippylip · October 2010

steve, I agree that it is still a good deal & said so, however, I don't follow your logic regarding profit. As far as I know, they don't pay for the part, they just receive it from BGE with their next shipment & hand it over to the customer - how does that impact their profit? What exactly are they giving away?

Mainegg · October 2010

I think I am with Fishless on this.. a copy of the email, and my cell phone with BGE phone programed in for them to check THEIR obligations if they are not clear.
dealers are unreal about the egg.

lowercasebill · October 2010

i believe walter is the regional guy .. i will e mail him at lunch.

Mainegg · October 2010

my understanding is if it comes in on the next order it cost them nothing. if you want it NOW and they have to order it and have it shipped special then yes a charge, and I would pay that understanding that. and I agree anout 90 of the dealers have no clue.. shoot most do not even have lump :S

stevesails · October 2010

I was refering to the shipping costs, they can add up fast. especially if not with a skid of eggs coming in on a truck. UPS is expensive for heavy stuff. sorry for not being clear on that.

Zippylip · October 2010

I have, however, I do believe I have lost radio contact with the whole organization

fishlessman · October 2010

if you want to hear real bad, my first egg was an internet sale before bge had a policy against it, hearthside distributors wanted 120.00 for the shipping of a "free" firebox :laugh: i bought some other parts directly from bge and they tossed the replacement firebox in without a charge

vidalia1 · October 2010

Save yourself a lot of grief and just move to Atlanta...we get great dealer service here and we will let you in the N Ga Eggers....for a fee...

:woohoo:

:silly:

Sorry to hear about the problems but I would take the info from the Mothership to the nearest dealer and tell him to do the right thing... :S

stike · October 2010

that's interesting. gee, i hope 'they' read this thread and solve the problem. if a call from BGE to the distributor, and from then to the dealer(s) doesn't immediately rectify things, i'd say that there is a fundamental flaw in the warranty process that (until it gets fixed) undermines the brand value

god forbid you accidentally post the dealer's name here, because then an internet search for him/her/them would be forever tied to this thread, and taint their rep.

stike · October 2010

UPS is expensive for heavy stuff. not sure how it is less expensive for zippy

Zippylip · October 2010

I will take the email to my dealer & ask him to order the parts from BGE & see what happens. If that doesn't work, I'll pay the $40 to have the parts shipped.

In the end, as I said up front, I am a fan of the warranty itself - I know how expensive these parts are & it is great knowing they will be replaced at no cost if/when they fail. Truth is I've put this off for at least a year as the egg still works, and for economic and environmental reasons I have wanted to maximize the useage of all the material before it has to be replaced. The grate however is so damaged that large pieces of lump are falling through so I now have no choice.

BGE itself has been very helpful, it is the individual dealers that need imporvement.

stike · October 2010

sorry to keep weighing in...

the fact that BGE is very helpful, but the dealers aren't, is the very reason BGE should call that dealer directly and set them straight. awful lot of legwork for a loyal customer who has contributed an awful lot to this forum and helped sell their product.

i mean, your food might be horrible, and the pictures poor, but i'm sure someone bought an egg after reading one of your posts.

i'm not saying you should get any special treatment. i'm just relating that we all know how surprisingly few people who own eggs seem to know of this forum. which means that the dealer could be turning away a lot more customers who don't have any idea what recourse to take. if you can get BGE to straighten out this one guy, then all the better. that'd be one dealer fixed, 9999 to go.

vidalia1 · October 2010

So you are not moving to Georgia? Is that what I am hearing? LOL...good luck mang...

AZRP · October 2010

I had the same issue with my local dealer, told me the fire grate wasn't covered under the warranty but would sell me one for $40. I called the mothership and they sent me one. -RP

Buckethead · October 2010

So who is your dealer? I won't walk back in mine, near Mall of GA.
DMo

SmokeyPitt · October 2010

Zip- didn't I read that you were a lawyer? Just sayin- wouldn't hurt to mention that in passing during your next conversation with the dealer.

Also, to that end...I would say 2 hours of driving time is worth way more than $40.

Zippylip · October 2010

agreed, the drive is not an option, between distance, road-work everywhere, time spent there, it's probably a 3+ hour ordeal, just not happening. And yes I am a lawyer but I leave that gun in the holster in matters such as this, particularly when I am not a party to any agreement with the dealer itself

hornhonk · October 2010

I still insist I have the best dealer in the world. I accidently threw away a large fire grate and he reached down into a new egg on the showroom floor and said "Here, take this one". Another example..I was in the store the other day and a fire box was sitting next to his desk. It had a slight crack, maybe 4 inches long, in the side, something most of my eggs have. No big deal. I asked him about it. He said a lady brought it in and wanted a new one. He did the same thing! Handed her a new one! I asked him about his policy and he said he doesn't care where you buy the egg as long as you have the receipt. That's a good dealer! Alec Cartwright is his name.

Photo Egg · October 2010

What a bum deal.
Feel so lucky to have a good dealer in my area.
Now they are 45 minutes away so the hour for your drive to the dist does not seem bad. I would take the drive and make some new friends. Might play to your advantage in the future. I have stopped in to our Gulf Coast Dist a couple times but they are just under 300 miles from our house.
When your done you will almost have a brand new Egg on the inside.
Take care,

Mainegg · October 2010

That is a good dealer.

Shazbot · October 2010

Must be a PA dealer thing! I was told (by my dealer) that my cracked fire grate wasn't covered so I had to buy a new one. :huh:

the much ballyhooed BGE Warranty

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