Krups: A 21st century story of corporate decline

by Thomas
(ny)

My family has three generations of business relationships with krups. i've purchsed krups products for 40 years. In 2009, i purchased three krups espresso makers -- three because the carafes are fragile and break at a whisper. for me, it was easier to replace than deal with referral to stock company to get a new carafe as i needed it then for a dinner paarty.

Long story short, i sent the last machine back to krups with a letter explaining my dissappoinment with the product + process. no response. i called krups, and learned the address on product info is out of date. a very snotty young man would not refer me to customer service or exec offices without a "Krups case number." i wrote two additional letters, indicating my dissappointment and not asking for anything: just to say how sad to see another great company begin to go down in a handbasket.

Finally i call customer service, get a krups case number. trade phone calls with customer service manager Trautman, who in the end couldn't have cared less about my call. it was a real inconvenience for her to bother to call, she didn't believe that i had purchased the additional machines, and began the conversations defensively with "our stock room has photos of your returned machine and it's damaged."

Well, three months and two shipments later, what can be said or prooved? I didn't say the machine was damaged: it worked and was returned as a point: no matter how good it works, it's useless if the carafe is more fragile than Steuben, and I was fed up. No good faith from Krups, a once great company which deserves to be completely reorganized in America.