Anyway, though I have some things in the pipeline, I will start with what happened today.
Actually it starts in August when I bought this 7-cup capacity Cuisinart. I have started making soups and it takes hours to chop all the vegetables. The Cuisinart was a complete god-send. It cut prep time in half. For a non-cook, this discovery was like a miracle from heaven. So anyway, since August, just about every other week, I pull out the Cuisinart and chop, chop, chop, blend, blend, blend, shred, shred, shred. My new best friend. This goes on regularly until December - when the girls come home for the holidays and Christine decides she wants to bake cookies. I tell her to pull out the Cuisinart because it is going to make the task so much easier.
Christine, measured and poured into the bowl. I told her to lock the bowl into place for it to work. She did. It didn't work. I got up and checked it. It was like the thing died. It was weird, she pressed the little button and the light went on but the blade wouldn't move. Silence.
I moved it to a different outlet. I tried a different blade. I gave it 30 minutes and tried it again. I turned it upside down to see if there was some sort of default switch. I juggled the cord at the base. It cost me $150 and I was very upset. I only had it for 4 months and now it was broken. I got a lemon and I had no receipt or anything. So we put it back in the cupboard and forgot about it.
But then, call it New Year resolve, last weekend while at Macy's (where I bought it), I stood in line in housewares until my turn, whereupon I told my whole sad (but true!) story. She said to bring it back for an exchange. I didn't need the receipt. Unbelievable!!
So the following day, I stood in line again, this time holding my un-boxed Cuisinart and all its attachments and exchanged it for another one. But this time, it was on sale so I had a $30 credit which allowed me to purchase - for only $16 - a little mini-Cuisinart that works for smaller jobs. (Actually it replaced one we can no longer find - oddly since the girls went back home after the holidays. Something tells me it has found a new home in the Bay Area.) Anyway - it was a two-for-one win/win - for me!! This never happens! Joyfully, I skipped back to the car with my new toys.
Monday night, Bob decided to bake a pie. All the ingredients went into the bowl. Bowl locked into position. Press the button. The red light goes on. The blade doesn't move. How is this possible?? Again we go through all the checks and this time I call Cuisinart who tells me to take it back to Macy's. So today, we did. Bob packed up all the blades and accessories and we stood in line again. The very nice lady behind the counter said she has never heard this before. She suggested that we may need an electrician. We told her no - the red light went on and other appliances worked in the same outlet, so she shrugged her shoulders and gave us a brand new Cuisinart.
We got it home and and unpacked it and put it together and plugged it in. The blade would not turn. Again. Okay, now this was really weird. We did everything short of take it apart. I wondered aloud if we had an electrical poltergeist. And then, Bob stuck a pen in this little hole in the front. Whiiiiiiirrrrrrrrr. The blade takes off. What the...???
We scratch our heads and try to figure out what is going on and suddenly Bob realizes that we have locked the bowl in backward. It worked. And so did the last one.
And so did the one I originally bought.
And both of those perfectly good machines are being sent back to the manufacturer as defective. Because I am an idiot. After 4 months of using it regularly, I failed to notice we had been putting it together incorrectly.
Stupid only barely scratches the surface of how I felt. But Bob did a little dance when he remembered that we got a free mini Cuisinart because of it. Alas, his dance was short lived once he realized that he returned the blade for the mini Cuisinart - the only blade, along with all the other blades we just handed back to Macy's. So now we really do have a Cuisinart that won't work.
Stupid. Mr. and Mrs.
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