Nightmare over... Now what?

[RobotFood23]

Apologies in advance for the long winded post.

I purchased a SmokeFire EX6 back in May 2022. Put it together and the final step was installing the top grill grate....except there was no shelf riveted to the right side of the smokebox. I called Weber, they said they'd send me a new smokebox. They then emailed me saying it was on backorder with no ETA. I called and said that's not good enough and they agreed to send me a new grill. That grill worked fine for a few months.

Fast forward to summer, I went to turn the grill on and it wouldn't come on. Turns out it was a blown fuse. Weber agreed to send me a new fuse. I got it 5 weeks later (yes 5 weeks), but in the meantime used a fuse I already had. The grill worked fine again.

Fast forward again a couple of months later and I started to notice that it took around 30 minutes for my grill to heat to 425. I called weber and they started sending me individual parts. As I would receive parts, I would install them and low and behold my issue still persisted. The smokefire tech I dealt with throughout this whole ordeal seemed in denial that anything was wrong with the grill, but acknowledged that the grill shouldn't take that long to heat up. I told him that my father in law has the same exact grill and it heats up in 10-11 minutes (I personally tested this myself on two occasions). He denied that they could heat up that quickly, but I didn't argue. I replaced the auger/motor, smokebox, glow plug, and controller. Each time, these parts were sent to me individually, only after the previous part didn't resolve the issue. Why weren't these parts all sent to me at once like countless other people when they have issues??? It dragged this nightmare out months longer than it should have. Today I received the same call from the technician I've been in contact with and he told me that at this point Weber couldn't replace the grill since they already had replaced it once. What they would be willing to do is have someone come out and troubleshoot the grill in person at my house, or refund me my money.

At this point I'm cutting my losses and they are going to pick up the grill and refund me my money. I'm absolutely discouraged and disgusted with the customer service I've had to deal with.. I told him that I felt it was unfair that I had to keep wasting pellets troubleshooting this grill, and he responded "well at least the grill is feeding the pellets slowly so you're not wasting that much". Are you kidding me? There were other inappropriate things said throughout all of our communication as well.

I honestly really liked the grill when it worked, but am having a hard time putting my faith in buying a new one. What is everyone's advice and viewpoint on this whole ordeal?

 

[JpsBBQ]

No advice as I only know what you’ve told us.

Love mine and think it’s the best bang for the buck all around pellet grill on the market. Bar none.

 

[bbqking]

I feel for you in this ordeal. I bought a second hand EX6 in like Feb 2020. Gone through it’s Ins and outs. That being said, I’ve replaced auger/motor. Fuse at least 3 times, bridging, glow plugs…all of it. A display replace…Weber has been nothing but good to me. I did have to go up the chain a couple times…the initial phone tech didn’t know squat. I love my ex6.
I appreciate the clear and precise statement. I would ask if you removed the wiregaurd in the hopper?

 

[Goneincognito]

You have already made your decision so there isn't really any more to say.
I would like to know if you would have waited 5 weeks for the fuse if you didn't have one though.

 

[Barkley]

I feel for you. The Weber customer service I received was bipolar - horrid one moment, then wonderful the next. I had to wait seemingly forever to get my grill to start working, only to have 2 smokes then error messages on startup and an oven cook instead of a smoke. In the end my error was ash that didn't fall down as it should have, so an easy fix, but it's a bit like some of my employees - work really well when they want to work, but sadly that's not all the time. Too new here to offer advice, but initial impressions are that it's great but temperamental, so it's either worth the effort or it's not.

 

[RobotFood23]

I feel for you in this ordeal. I bought a second hand EX6 in like Feb 2020. Gone through it’s Ins and outs. That being said, I’ve replaced auger/motor. Fuse at least 3 times, bridging, glow plugs…all of it. A display replace…Weber has been nothing but good to me. I did have to go up the chain a couple times…the initial phone tech didn’t know squat. I love my ex6.
I appreciate the clear and precise statement. I would ask if you removed the wiregaurd in the hopper?

I removed the wire guard before I ever even used the grill, following the recommendation from other users.

 

[RobotFood23]

You have already made your decision so there isn't really any more to say.
I would like to know if you would have waited 5 weeks for the fuse if you didn't have one though.

I have made my decision, yes. The grill gets picked up tomorrow and I get a refund in 5-6 weeks. I was just curious what people thought of the service I received, if I should take my chances with another weber pellet grill, etc. Because I will replace this pellet grill with another, ASAP. I'm just not sure which one.

I absolutely would not have waited 5 weeks. I'm surprised and irritated that Weber didn't recommend I go to the local hardware store to by a fuse myself. One of the things I expected them to suggest being I had to wait so long.

 

[RobotFood23]

I feel for you. The Weber customer service I received was bipolar - horrid one moment, then wonderful the next. I had to wait seemingly forever to get my grill to start working, only to have 2 smokes then error messages on startup and an oven cook instead of a smoke. In the end my error was ash that didn't fall down as it should have, so an easy fix, but it's a bit like some of my employees - work really well when they want to work, but sadly that's not all the time. Too new here to offer advice, but initial impressions are that it's great but temperamental, so it's either worth the effort or it's not.

Yes, definitely frustrating. I somehow never received any error messages. With all the strange issues with temperature I had, I expected one. The one thing that will really bother me is that I'll never really know what was causing all these issues. Comparing with my father in law's, I feel like mine did not feed pellets fast enough, but nothing I did seemed to fix that. Oh well.

 

[Goneincognito]

You have already made your decision so there isn't really any more to day.

I have made my decision, yes. The grill gets picked up tomorrow and I get a refund in 5-6 weeks. I was just curious what people thought of the service I received, if I should take my chances with another weber pellet grill, etc. Because I will replace this pellet grill with another, ASAP. I'm just not sure which one.

I absolutely would not have waited 5 weeks. I'm surprised and irritated that Weber didn't recommend I go to the local hardware store to by a fuse myself. One of the things I expected them to suggest being I had to wait so long.

If you aren't willing to accept the possibility of issues and want something that works first time every time then that's not a pellet grill (regardless of brand).
The next one you get (Weber or something else) may be just fine but it may not.
If you are willing to accept that there may be issues then stick with the SF.
They are awesome!

As for customer service, you will always hear more about the bad than the good.
The difference between a good and bad experience comes down to what the end user is willing to tolerate.
Personally, I would have just gone to the hardware store for a fuse in the first place and not even bothered calling Weber about it.
As for them not telling you to go and buy them elsewhere, why would they? You called them about the issue and they replaced it.

 

[RobotFood23]

If you aren't willing to accept the possibility of issues and want something that works first time every time then that's not a pellet grill (regardless of brand).
The next one you get (Weber or something else) may be just fine but it may not.
If you are willing to accept that there may be issues then stick with the SF.
They are awesome!

As for customer service, you will always hear more about the bad than the good.
The difference between a good and bad experience comes down to what the end user is willing to tolerate.
Personally, I would have just gone to the hardware store for a fuse in the first place and not even bothered calling Weber about it.
As for them not telling you to go and buy them elsewhere, why would they? You called them about the issue and they replaced it.

I understand and accept that there may be issues in any product I buy. I thought my experience was worth sharing because I had heard significantly more good than bad regarding the Weber brand.

I called Weber regarding the fuse so there was a track record if any bigger issues came up, and they did. Why would they tell me to go to the store to buy a 75 cent fuse? Because it's good customer service. Weber knew that the fuse was on back order and it would have been good on them to offer a quicker solution.

 

[JpsBBQ]

I was wondering why one wouldn’t go just buy a fuse unless they were hoping for failure. That was one of the particular things that made red flags go up. Happy trails buddy! Unbelievable. I suppose if the 911 operator does specifically tell you to not sit still in the burning car you’d continue to sit still in the burning car. After all, I was wondering why they would tell me to open the door and walk away?

 

[Barkley]

I don't understand the acceptance that a new product might not work as intended. The fact that it's the whole industry and not just Weber doesn't really change anything - its called quality control, and if they collectively are in a race to the bottom re QC for pellet smokers then we all suffer as a result.

You expect a car to work when you drive it off a lot. When I sell chicken to grocery stores, if I put out inconsistent product I wouldn't expect to get future orders, thereby losing my boss millions. So as complex and expensive as a car and as cheap as an individual chicken breast, QC and good consistent product quality is a thing. Good customer service is good customer service, no matter the industry. I'm at a loss as to why this doesn't apply to pellet smokers as a whole.

 

[Goneincognito]

There aren't many moving and complex parts in a chicken breast.

 

[Kmdodge]

I have made my decision, yes. The grill gets picked up tomorrow and I get a refund in 5-6 weeks. I was just curious what people thought of the service I received, if I should take my chances with another weber pellet grill, etc. Because I will replace this pellet grill with another, ASAP. I'm just not sure which one.

I absolutely would not have waited 5 weeks. I'm surprised and irritated that Weber didn't recommend I go to the local hardware store to by a fuse myself. One of the things I expected them to suggest being I had to wait so long.

I understand and accept that there may be issues in any product I buy. I thought my experience was worth sharing because I had heard significantly more good than bad regarding the Weber brand.

I called Weber regarding the fuse so there was a track record if any bigger issues came up, and they did. Why would they tell me to go to the store to buy a 75 cent fuse? Because it's good customer service. Weber knew that the fuse was on back order and it would have been good on them to offer a quicker solution.

“I am absolutely DISGUSTED…can you believe Weber customer service told me to “go buy your own damn fuse!” Instead of offering to send me one?!?!”” Not much winning here. Especially when nearly all companies have at some point experienced shipping delays of parts and products at various times. Be happy you got to actually speak with a person…buying other brands from a big box store will net you an email-only situation that likely will never solve your issue. I speak from experience.

 

[Guest194]

The smoker has been a headache and Weber support, though friendly, not very helpful BUT the food from the Smokefire is excellent and it looks awesome next to my Weber Summit Charcoal Grill
This combo gives me a dedicated grill and smoker