random truths – Day 1,075 (Saturday) – spring valve

A new coffeemaker was bought from Amazon and has been in service about a month. In the two weeks immediately after its arrival, the manufacturer messaged twice asking for a review. I ignored the requests, as it was too soon to comment.

The new coffee maker was replacing one that was in almost daily use for more than six years in Massachusetts and another six years before that in Tennessee, with a three-year period of R&R in between where it lived in a storage unit behind Big Lots in Fitchburg. After all those years, the old coffeemaker had finally called it quits. 

The pretty aqua color of the new coffee maker led to multiple changes in the kitchen to make the color look like it belongs there. New dish towels. A pink, purple and aqua whisk came out of the drawer and went into the utensil holder on the counter.  A new clock was bought to replace the somewhere between apple- and lime-green one that suddenly looked odd. The lime ceramic vase on a counter that held some of Winston’s things was swapped out for an aqua and white one that had been in the living room.  A small piece of artwork with touches of aqua was moved nearer the coffee maker. The valance from the bathroom, which featured circles in various shades of blues and greens was repurposed as a café curtain over the sink. 

Things have been gradually coming together, which means it's time for something to go sideways. Obviously.

Parts no longer whole.

Today, the valve and spring that regulate the flow of coffee through the funnel and into the coffee pot came off in my hand while rinsing it. They can't be put back into place. This does not bode well for upcoming mornings, including the one arriving some twelve hours after the mishap. 

A search on the vendor name led to a product page for my coffee maker. There was one review on the site. It was a one-star rating that said the reviewer’s valve broke off after 2.5 months. Lucky me the overachiever, mine broke after barely one month.

I logged into Amazon Customer Service chat to ask about a replacement funnel. I was referred directly to the coffee maker company with a promise from the Amazon rep that they would reach out to me on Monday to follow up on the vendor’s response. A link and instructions were provided in the chat. Then the rep logged off and the entire chat disappeared before I could click on the link. Not cool.

The product in my order history was revisited to open another chat. Luckily, the previous one reappeared so I could retrieve the link and step-by-step instructions provided.

The vendor link led to a chatbot, which provided another link to reach the vendor. That new link looped back to the same place as the link from Amazon – the product page where I accessed the second chatbot. This time it said it would forward my message to the vendor. Now I’m wondering if I should just go buy a another coffeemaker. Or at the very least, some instant coffee so I can survive the morning. It might cost me as much in coffee shop coffee waiting for some resolution.