Why The Jamie Oliver Tefal Fry Pan Sucks
Okay, I must admit that Iím a massive fan of Jamie Oliver. Why, well put simply he gave a fresh way of looking at food in a time of stuck chefs put in front of camera and in a bland mono toned voice slowly put together a meal with from ingredients that were all prepared. Jamie Oliver burst on the scene with passion and excitement that made the viewer want to become a home chef in his own kitchen, I wanted to taste the flavours that he made from tearing basil and crushing garlic and squeezing lemons into concoctions that could only be imagined by "The Naked Chef".
Not only this but Jamie Oliver actually also seems to care about things like the environment, how and what we all eat, he wants us to be healthy, make conscious choices about where our chicken eggs come from. In short he cared about me and the rest of humanity. Which s why I believed so much that he's line of cookware would be the state of the art, bang for buck cookware that would last me well into my twilight years. Not only that but the cookware had a lifetime guarantee. Sure it was way more expensive than I had imagined, however it would be worth it Iíd start with a fry pan and move on from there. After forking out about $180 bucks for a frypan, we took it home and read the directions carefully as the last thing we wanted to do was wreck the damn thing.
Well after 2 weeks of using the fry pan the red dot had completely disappeared. We couldn't work out why, just that the dot seem to have gone away, not through any rough use but from wear and tear, in only 2 weeks. We had done our best to look after the frypan, we hand washed the pan despite instructions saying that we could put it in the dishwasher and we took care to not use anything that would scratch the service of the pan. Despite this looking at the pan it still seem to be very functional. So we persisted.
Within one month of purchasing this expensive frypan, the non-stick coating had completely gone from the bottom of the pan and it looked more like a cast iron pan rather than a non-stick pan. Cooking on it was impossible as everything now stuck to the bottom and let me tell you cooking eggs just didn't work anymore
(I should state that the Fry Pan had no noticeable marks or burns and definitely wasn't warped in any way)
So I went to the department store where they sold me the pan and was told that quite a few people have come across this problem and as the pan had a lifetime guarantee on the non stick pan it could be exchanged for a new one, no questions asked.
Imagine my surprise when I got a call from the department store rep saying that the Tefal Rep denied the exchange.
After a tense conversation, The department store rep explained that the woman was from a company called Grouped Sib and that they had the resale rights to the Tefal Jamie Oliver cookware and is therefore responsible for any exchanges or refunds. Apparently after taking a quick glance at the fry pan the woman from groupe seb rejected the exchange on the grounds that she believed the pan had been overheated above 190 degrees Celsius and that is why the pan had lost it's red dot and it's non-stick properties.
I had 2 major problems with this diagnosis of my frypan.
1: There was absolutely no directions that came with the fry pan either within the warranty/guarantee or on the packaging that suggested that one should not heat the pan above 190 degrees Celsius (there was an obscure mention about 190 degrees - yet it didn't out rightly say do not overheat fry pan above 190 degrees C or it will destroy the pan and void the guarantee.)
2: How can a person look at a fry pan (that had no burns or marks on it) and immediately say accurately that the pan had been heated above 190 degrees C. This is ludicrous idea that someone can with absolute accuracy say that a pan has been heated above 190 degrees C when a person who cooks with the said fry pan cannot even remotely determine at what temperature the heat is at when cooking without some sort of sophisticated Thermostat equipment. Yet a rep from a sales company can say with absolute accuracy that the pan was heated not at 189 degrees but 191 degrees.
Now we all know that 190 degrees is damn hot as hot as most stove tops will get, we will have to assume, yet there is no way of knowing as stove tops don't have dials that are measured in degrees. But somehow this girl can tell from just looking at a piece of cookware how hot it has been heated too previously on another occasion. This is really some talent that borders on a super power.
After some discussion with the department store rep, my next step was to call the Groupe Sib themselves and find out just what is going on with this fry pan.
After going through the many different options - it turns out the number I was given was for a call centre. It turns out that they can't give out any sort of information about their sales reps. However, I did get the skinny of how a sales rep is given very specific and highly intense training in order to identify whether a fry pan has been heated over 190 degrees C. When I asked what does the training involve - the rep simply said I couldnít go into that. (It must be very secretive training, just in case competitors learn the secret of identifying pans heated above 190 degrees Celsius). When I said that there was absolutely no documentation that suggests one should not heat the pan above 190 degrees C. The customer service rep insisted that it was on there and that she can send me a copy. So I said definitely send me a copy. (It turns out that the sales rep must have super powers too because unless it was written in invisible ink as I couldn't find any statement that suggested heating the frypan above 190 degrees Celsius would void the warranty/guarantee or indeed wreck the pan.) The customer service rep then suggested that I should cook with butter or cheese as that can sometimes burn and ruin the pan. I responded by saying, "are you kidding, you trying to say that I shouldn't cook with butter or cheese. It's a damn frypan what can you cook with." I ended the conversation by stating that I had a frypan that has outlasted the Jamie Oliver pan and still retains its non-stick properties. I added further that I had purchased the pan from Coles Supermarkets for $15. There was an odd silence on the phone and the she hesitatingly said, "oh I wouldn't eat off of something like that". I asked, "why was that?" "Oh it's nowhere near the same quality". I simply stated, "well so far it's looking like the $15 pan wins hands down." I left it at that as I was getting nowhere fast and needed to make a formal complaint. I sent the following email to Groupe Sib.
To whom it may concern.
I am writing this email formally to demand a refund or replacement for a Tefal Jamie Oliver Frypan, which was bought from Myer Chadstone at the beginning of the year.
The problem with the pan is that within 2 weeks the red dot had completely disappeared as well as a month later the pan itself was no longer non-stick.
We have followed the directions closely as to how to look after the pan and did so accordingly and despite saying that the pan can on the packaging did not put it in the dishwasher or the oven. We took great care of how we treated this pan, as it was quite expensive.
As we had problems with this pan ñ we originally contacted Myer Chadstone of who told us that we should bring it in for a refund or replacement.
We did this only to be left a message that our pan was not covered under warranty.
The reason for this is that the Sales Rep ìLindaî determining upon sight only that the pan had been overheated and was therefore not covered under warranty.
As I could not speak to the sales Rep herself I was directed to your call centre where I spoke to woman of whom echoed the response of the sales rep without fully hearing the complaint by myself.
There are a number of things wrong with this phone call and the response itself.
1: How can a sales Rep from your company determine whether a frypan has exceeded the 190 degrees heat that your company says the frypan cannot exceed upon just looking at it.
(The lady at the call centre told me that Linda was in fact a consultant who was trained in how to look at a frypans and determine whether it had been overheated yet refused to tell me how she was trained specifically for this unique ability)
2: It is a frypan ñ the average consumer does not have the ability to accurately measure how hot a stovetop will get. Your response to this was that once the red dot displays that it is hot enough you are meant to turn down the heat ñ There are no directions on the packaging or supplied material to suggest anything of the sort. Furthermore your packaging goes so far as to say that the frypan can be put in an oven as well as a dishwasher both of which can exceed the 190 degrees that your company suggest is the exceeded heat limit.
3: it is quite evident that this is a standard response that you give to all consumer complaints of your product, as I had not even told call centre person the reasons why your sales rep had rejected the warranty yet she immediately echoed the response that the pan had been overheated.
4: A standard frypan bought from Coles for about $15 has lasted longer than your pan and still to this day retains its non-stick properties.
Your companyís position in regard to this matter is quite ludicrous as has been pointed out and is totally unsatisfactory.
I would like to demand a refund or a replacement for this faulty product that we have purchased.
You have the standard 5 working days to respond to this email; otherwise the matter will be taken further.
There Response was the following:
(I should state that the Fry Pan had no noticeable marks or burns and definitely wasn't warped in any way)
Dear Brett,
Thank you for your email, I'm sorry to hear you are having a problem with your Tefal cookware and appreciate the chance to advise.
You have advised that you have looked after the pan and followed the instructions carefully.
Unfortunately after the trained consultant Groupe Sib has viewed your cookware do not believe this is the case -
I wish to answer the questions you have put forth.
1: the Customer Service Representative you had indeed had this pan on a high heat and used has advised us butter for cooking which was explained to you burns very easily.
The Customer Service Representative did explain to you how it was that the Consultant was able to identify that high heat had been used on this pan - one of these ways are easily identified by brown stains, also by the residue left at the bottom of the cookware which actually shows that the food was burnt to the bottom of the pan.
As the Customer Service Rep explained Groupe Sib have put there cookware through these tests themselves and the results are clear and if course visible.
All our consultants are trained in the same manner this is also why there are so many use and care instructions, which come with this cookware range.
And each Cookware Range has its own maintenance instructions.
For e.g.: pitting or a rainbow colour affect at the bottom of a S/Steel pot is due to salt being added to the water before it was at a boiling point this is also been tested.
There are quite a few methods with which we test and treat the cookware (all Ranges) another example: a buckled pan is a clear indication that the pan has been left on a hob heated for an excessive amount of time 5-15mins empty this will cause a pan to buckle.
These are just a few examples of tests, which are carried out on cookware to enable us to determine whether a product is faulty, or not.
The response was as expected, yet I refused to be outdone by getting stonewalled so I took the matter to consumer affairs. Consumer Affairs were as disgusted as I was and advised that in a situation such as this, a company cannot simply say that the fry pan has been overheated, they have to prove it. So in the case I had to leave it to them.
Many months went by and from time to time I would ring and check to see where consumer affairs were with the complaint. You see the main function of consumer affairs is to negotiate an amicable solution for both the consumer and the company involved. I had almost forgotten about the complaint itself when I received a letter stating that all negotiations with Groupe Seb had not worked and there position had remained the same. I was also informed that the next step would be to take the matter to court where I would definitely win the matter.
Well I wasn't going to go to court over this and spend a fortune just to get back at them. However, my mother who had been aware of this matter from the beginning had talked to a retail store specializing in kitchenware and was told to just bring in the item for a straight swap. Apparently my well-meaning mother had told them the whole story and the retail store also thought it was disgusting. They advised that I should bring it in (despite purchasing the item from somewhere else) and they would swap the item straight away. I added that the sales rep would probably reject it again. My mother went on to say that as the kitchenware retail store was so large, Groupe Seb will have to accept it or otherwise they will simply pull all their items from the shelves.
So that's exactly what I did. The sales assistant upon viewing the Pan agreed that there was no fault of mine in damaging the pan and simply gave me a brand new one.
In the end it was that simple and goes to show that money talks when it comes to getting a large company to take responsibility.