As you know, I received an email on Friday regarding my post about my experience with Kitchen Resources and the L’Equip RPM Blender.
Please note that the following is my opinion and the basis of my opinion. (For increased clarity, my opinion is written in blue.)
1. Mr. Callom said : “We trust that these actions have resolved your concerns.”
In my initial letter (August 2, 2008) to Kitchen Resources owner and president Gary Leavett, I said: “This is a serious and dangerous issue. As one business owner to another, I strongly encourage you to recall all of these blenders before someone dies. At the very least, you need to discontinue carrying these items.”
The reasoning behind my expressed request and opinion: I was deeply concerned that someone, particularly a child, would gravely injure themselves on these blender blades.
Please note that I have not asked for damages, a refund or any other financial renumeration. I have only asked for something, that in my opinion, is more expensive – integrity.
2. The basis behind my opinion that Kitchen Resources “knew these blades were defective and sold them anyway (from August 15, 2008 email).”
a. I was told by the customer service person that she/he and a number of employees has attempted to speak to the owner about the blade problem with this particular blender. In fact, she/he gave me Gary Leavett’s email saying that Mr. Leavett would have to listen to me as I was the customer. I hesitate to mention this as I don’t want to cost this person her/his job.
b. I informed the company in early July when the blades broke the first time. At that time, I was informed that I would receive a new “stronger” blade. It’s the second set of that shattered into these shards when blending a frozen banana and frozen berries.
c. It’s my opinion that it takes about six months to have a product remanufactured in Asia. Remember, I purchased this blender on June 14, 2008 and received it on June 18, 2008. The blades broke in early July. We are talking about a month and a half since purchase and less than two weeks since replacement with the same blades.
From Mr. Callom’s August 5, 2008: “Just last week we received a quantity of new blade assemblies from our supplier in Asia and I want to be sure that you got the new one.”
Further he states: “We had not been happy with the previous blade, even though I?ve not seen the catastrophic failure that you experienced. This new blade assembly has performed better than the previous ones in the tests that we have done here.”
These two statements lead me to the opinion that Kitchen Resources was not “happy” with the blades on or before June 14, 2008 when I purchased the blender. Moreover, they were not “happy” with the blades when they replaced my original broken blades with the same faulty blades in mid-July.
d. Mr. Callom’s assertion in his August 15, 2008 email: “There is nothing in my email or any fact of this situation that supports any accusation that we knowingly sell defective products.”
This is our differing opinion.
To my knowledge, Kitchen Resources has not recalled this product nor provided what they believe is stronger blades for people who have purchased this blender thus far. In fact, I have no way of knowing if they have replaced the blender blades with each of their distributors. Thus it is my opinion that this product and these blades remain on the market even after my notification to the company in mid-July, at the end of July and in my email to Gary Leavett on August 2, 2008.
Should I learn that this untrue, I will be greatly relieved and happily remove any untruth.
3. Mr Callom: “We respectfully ask that you consider removing from your Internet blog the inflammatory attacks you have made against us and our products. What you experienced is extremely unusual and is not representative of our overall product quality.”
In my opinion, the facts are inflammatory. The very fact that these blender blades shattered – twice – in the normal use of this blender (again frozen berries, frozen banana, and soymilk) is inflammatory.
In addition, when I suggested that my experience was unusual, the Kitchen Resources customer service representative indicated that my experience was not abnormal for this product.
In my opinion, there is no attack here. My experience with Kitchen Resources, Mr. Callom and Mr. Leavett speaks for itself
4.? “This blender will kill someone.” I hold this opinion because:
a. There is no way to know the blender blades are broken.? I missed it the first time.? I only realized the blade was broken when I heard it clink against the plastic bottle.
b.? I tend to be really lucky in these type of matters.
c.? I know that infants and toddlers drink a lot of smoothies.? While I pray it’s not true, I don’t trust a harried, overwhelmed mother to notice the blender blade is broken.
d.? Again, there is no, none, nada, nunka way to know there’s a metal shard inside a thick, dark colored, opaque smoothie.
e. I was using the blender in an approved, in fact suggested, manner.? (There is a smoothie recipe inside the L’Equip brochure that came with the package.)
I am not a contentious person. I dislike conflict at every level. I did not expect conflict in this case. In fact, I assumed that a business owner, such as Gary Leavett, would be grateful to know of his risk.
Bloggers are under attack everywhere with nuisance lawsuits designed to shut down blogging. With every media outlet owned by corporate conservatives, bloggers are the last little guy capable of speaking to the world.
Personally, I wish Kitchen Resources would put it’s money into replacing the blender blades rather than threaten me. My opinion is that the threatened suit would cost a lot more than simply having the integrity to make certain that every single person who purchased the L’Equip RPM Blender had safe blades. Imagine the public relations coop!
I’ll keep you posted. I assure you that if I receive evidence that my opinion is faulty, I will remove any and all posts as well as apologize for my mistake.
That’s my word, my integrity and my promise to you.
As always, thank you for reading.
Claudia
What i find very interesting is that the manufacturer claims to have known these blades were “disappointing”, yet says nothing happened like what you experienced. What was the disappointment then? What else happened to the blades to make them be replaced in the new shipment?
I think the reason they are threatening lawsuit is because they think in terms of money- that is why they were selling cheaply made products in the first place, to increase their profit margin. And of course these products were made in Asia, which leads me to believe it is made by underpaid workers also, in poor working conditions (which is why most companies outsource the making of their products to China.) This is also all about increasing porfit margins, which is not an evil concept in and of itself, but it is when you increase your profits at the expense of others (aka- workers and consumers).
Because of this “money at all costs” attitude they have, they assume we all think in these terms, and that threats of suing you for money will control you, just like it controls their business. This is where businesses sometimes get it wrong, when pitting a coorperation against and indiviual.
Another thing to note, is now selling a product with a new blade is not good enough, If the blade can break, then there needs to be a recall of the old blenders and announcment of why they are recalling. Sadly they are trying to silence your blog announcement, without the promise of publicly making a statement themselves.
And then to threaten to sue you over it ? It’s times like this I wish for Judge Judy to appear, and just be like “WTF? This is BS, your product broke etc… guilty, pay up, the end.”
One other thing i want to note, is that in the approx. 50 lawsuits against bloggers a year, only one has ever lost a case and it was clear she was showing malice PLUS she never showed up to court or got any representation (not even “pro se”), and didn’t do anything with her case- basically defaulting her rights to defend herself.
(I tried to email you but it bounced back- darn.)
Ah, corporations. Do they think we don’t know that they’ll weigh the costs of lawsuits vs the profit margins and costs for remanufacturing? At the very least, give us the credit for having seen Michael Clayton and Erin Brockovich. Jeez!
This really seems an attempt to intimidate you.. If it ain’t broke, you don’t fix it so it seems that they knew something was not right with the blades. Otherwise, why fix them?
Are we all going to have to include disclaimers on our comments as well?
I’m glad you are continuing to pursue this. In my opinion, their time and money would be much better spent issuing a recall on the blender and at the very least offering replacement blades to their customers.
Imagine the lawsuit they will have on their hands if and when someone actually does get hurt as a result of blade malfunction.
Keep up the good work!
I would have interpreted his words exactly as you did.
I have little faith that manufacturers can be persuaded on the basis of integrity and normal human concern for the lives of others to halt production of a dangerous item.
!2 years ago, I bought a paring knife from K-Mart which was packaged oddly and in the course of attempting to remove the knife from the package, it suddenly dislodged and severed all the tendons of my right middle finger which eventually underwent surgery because it looked like a permanent installation for obscene gestures. The surgery was only partially successful which was most unfortunate as I am right-handed.
I notified the company and they stalled me for exactly one year, stating repeatedly that there was no flaw in the knife or packaging designs while they continued to sell the defective product. I happened to be in K-Mart the day after the statute of limitations on a law suit I could have brought had expired and the knife suddenly had new packaging. The older ones were pushed to the back of the rack, behind the new, more safely-packaged knives.
I was also especially concerned that a child might incur even more serious damage than I did. The Sheffield Knife Company was concerned only that they not be sued.
YOU ROCK!!! FIGHT THE MAN!!
YOU ROCK!!! FIGHT THE MAN!!