My dear Mr. Coffee....

OK, this is something I NEVER do - promote a product - and I realize this isn't travel-related, but I just have to tell someone about my totally positive experience.

I adore espresso.  I adore coffee.  I started drinking coffee at the age of 15 when I was a candy-striper at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica, because it was free.  And I always like free things. 

I decided 4 years ago that I was going to graduate from a coffee maker to an espresso machine.  Did a lot of research and reading up on how to brew, the best way to froth, etc.  Then I went out and priced some espresso machines - subsequently blanched, nearly fainted, and scurried back home to rethink my great idea.  The ones I really liked were running about $3K.  Then I stumbled upon the Mr. Coffee ECMP50 Espresso Maker at Target one day, priced at $78. 

I took a pic of the model number with my cell phone and went home to read the reviews.  Actually, Mr. Coffee has never been a brand with which I've been impressed.  Maybe it was all those cheesy commercials with Joe DiMaggio a while back, but I have never put a whole lot of trust in their machines.  But I liked what I saw in the reviews, so I went back to Target and bought it.

Well. 

After getting that little beauty home, hooked up, and practicing with it for a week, I realized that my little machine could run circles around those $3,000 beasties. I told everyone I knew about my new toy and how they only had to spend 78 bucks for wonderful lattes.  I was thrilled with my purchase.  Then after 3+ years of caffeine bliss, my machine died. 

I went back to Target and spent another $80 (inflation you know) on a second machine, took it home, and used it for 4 weeks - then I woke up one morning and went to make my coffee.  To my chagrin, two lights on the machine slowly blinked on and off, on and off - and I knew that in electronic terms, that was bad news.

After unsuccessful troubleshooting, I was all ready to dig out my receipt and go back to Target when I got the urge to call Mr. Coffee to ask if they really thought the machine had given up the ghost.  I spoke to a wonderful lady who asked me what the problem was, looked it up on her cheat sheet, and said, "Well I hate to tell you this, but your machine died."  I asked her whether I could take it back to Target since I had thrown the box away and she responded with:  "WHY DON'T YOU GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS, I WILL SEND YOU A BRAND NEW ONE."

Not only was she willing to send me a new one, she told me it was ok when I couldn't get the serial number off the machine (I was at work).  So now I'm waiting 6 shipping days for new caffeine bliss to be delivered to my door.

Isn't that amazing?  Now is that customer service, or what??  I'm thrilled.  : )