(I posted this response in another group and then realized I should start my own thread. sorry...nubie here...)
I am regretting that I ever purchased a Harvest Right. Our has not worked properly from about 3 weeks after we bought it. Our experience with customer service has been dreadful and is turning into a nightmare! I don't want to elaborate the whole story here but since June of 2015 we have only been able to complete about 50 batches running the dryer every day.
After months of diagnosing by email and phone and trying new parts, it looks like we bought a lemon. I would be OK with that if the company would replace the freeze dryer. It looked like we had an agreement to get a new one but when the replacement arrived it was a very old, used, dirty unit. I have tried appealing to Harvest Right but they are very difficult to work with and fail to see my point of view.
Here is a simple question that expresses our point of view: If you bought a new car that started having problems a few weeks after you bought it, and for months the manufacturer tried many things to fix it but could not, then they agree to replace the car but send you a model that is a few years older, dirty, with lots of use and miles, would you accept that?
I wish I had something good to say about their customer service but it has been awful. They have tried several times to weasel out of their responsibility. It pains me that I need to warn others about Harvest Right but I now feel it's the right thing for me to do. Buyer Beware.
Otherwise, it's a great day!
Larry
Hi Larry,
I agree with you on Buyer Beware of Harvest Right. I also highly regret purchasing a Harvest Right freeze drier. Our first one arrived more than 4 weeks after the order had been placed. What a shock we had when we opened the undamaged box to find a damaged machine inside. The whole top right corner had been crushed. Harvest Right claims it was damaged in shipping, but they could not explain how that happened when the shipping container (box) was not damaged. They tried to get us to use the damaged machine anyway - by offering a $500 credit on our card, not advising us at all that in even trying to use the machine we would have voided the warrantee and would have been stuck with a damaged machine. The next customer rep we spoke to said that putting a credit on a card is not possible and anyway he had no idea who would have made us that offer. He then offered some free oxygen absorbers. We feared using it because we did not know what might be wrong on the inside and if it might quit working or might present a hazard. I also felt strongly that for the price I had paid, that a fully functional undamaged machine was simply to be expected.
So after much arguing, they sent along a replacement quickly enough. They did send an inspector to determine the extent of the damage, but this only so they could fight with th shipper over who would be responsible for the damage. We asked for copies of the inspector's report but were denied (e, multiple requests were ignored).
After hours (20) of trouble shooting the replacement machine, it never could achieve a vacuum. The pump also sprayed and dripped hot oil. Once when the machine was cooling (and therefore quiet enough to actually hear anything - we had given up trying to keep it in the kitchen - although I wonder about all the nice videos that show it being used in a kitchen) - we heard the hose hissing and realised it did not fit properly. The failed cycles lasted 10-15 hours so it took ages to find out, as we finally did, that the hose sent with the machine - to connect the pump to the machine, was actually the wrong hose. By that time, the pump had run really hot for hours and we feared it had suffered internal damage. Harvest Right customer service did not take our concerns seriously and diagnosed the pump from their offices as being "fine", although they did offer to extend the warrantee, we never received the confirmation on that. Once the correct pump host had been connected, it was able to achieve a vacuum and ran for another 12 hours before coming up with another error. This time, tech service decided that there must be a cable inside the machine that had been installed incorrectly. This really got us to wondering what else could be wrong with the machine. I mean, paying almost $4000, one would expect it to show up at the very least properly assembled. Interactions with customer service had been so disappointing at this point that we began to wonder if we'd ever get a functioning machine - I mean, if they could not remember to answer an email, or would forgot in between email exchanges what had been said or promised, it really eroded our confidence in the whole company.
At this point our customer service rep asked us again what was wrong with the machine (having been told already several times, he apparently could not remember) and we asked to speak with management. It took days for management to respond and their response was astounding "our rep tells me your machine is working perfectly and we can't figure out what your problem is because we have thousands of happy customers". This was quite a contradiction, since the rep had told us 2 days before that they had 73 happy customers.
We completely lost confidence in the company and asked simply to send the machine back for a refund. A few more days of discussing back and forth and we were granted the refund for this machine that never actually worked. Yet they insisted we pay the shipping. This we could not stomach, as we felt having been sent two non-functional machines and it now being almost 3 months since I'd paid in advance for what I had been told by the customer rep was an "easy to use and fun" machine. This discussion lasted for quite a while during which management then ignored us and left us to discuss with the rep. We finally filed a complaint at the BBB, and this is what got them moving. Although the intimidation grew - now they threatened to refuse us any refund at all until we removed the BBB complaint and they insisted that nothing was wrong with the machine at all (forgetting about the cable that they themselves claimed had to be repaired). The manager also told us that using these machines comes with a "learning curve", as described in their "documentation" and that we should have expected a bit of a bump along the way to getting it to work. What?! for $4000 I should expect bumps along the way? The advertising and videos do not mention any "learning curve" i.e. "debugging and reassembling the machine until it works".
And then promised to send us a "brand new" machine as a special consideration just for us.This came as a surprise - had we not already paid to have a brand new machine sent to us? Why now would we be offered a brand new one? What in fact had the others been?
When we declined removing our complaint, they finally gave in, and after another 2 weeks of discussing, they finally arranged to have the broken machine picked up. The refund check arrived late (promised shipment by fedex was delayed by what they said was "weather" although when we called fedex, fedex said they didn't even have any weather issues in any area along the delivery route. A few days later the check finally arrived. We were so glad to see that machine leave our house. We wonder if they'll be sending the never-functioning machine to someone else.
It was interesting to see their response to the BBB claim in which they suddenly had "tens of thousands" of happy customers and that if this one unhappy customer (us) would simply have been willing to "cooperate" and "move forward and use the machine" all would have been fine. They did not acknowledge that the machine never did actually function properly. We had to submit a correction to that response.
