A Blender Shopping Nightmare

I have never been what I would call a ?smart? shopper. I need something, I find it in a store or online, and I buy it. I'm not a coupon clipper or a Black Friday beast, but after my last big purchase I've decided I need to at least read product reviews online before I buy.

I simply have never had such a horrible experience! I have shopped online for a long time and this is my first time being burned. Live and learn, I suppose.

Now, I am no chef. I like making my own hummus and smoothies; a blender makes both tasks simple. When I placed the order for my new blender, I decided to pay more to have it arrive as soon as possible. My old blender had stopped working and had been out of service for a week. I was so excited to get my new one!

The problems first began with the delivery time. My order confirmation said it would arrive on Thursday at the latest but Monday afternoon is when it finally made it to my house. Four days late and I had paid extra! It ended up showing up the same time it would have had I chosen regular shipping and handling.

I shrugged off my frustration and opened up the box. Just like the ad said, the blender was new in the box. It looked great on my counter and I already had big plans to start cooking dinner. I read the instructions so I didn't put too many ingredients in at once and overload the engine.

I put all the ingredients for a tasty squash soup into my new blender and excited pushed the blend button. Immediately, a saw a puff of gray smoke. An acrid odor rose to my nostrils and my heart sank. I could see a bit of plastic cord melted right where the power cord connects to the blender.

This unnerved me before it angered me. That electrical short could have shocked or burned me! I quickly unplugged the blender from the wall socket so no further accidents would happen. Without a blender once again, I made something else for dinner, glaring at the smoking blender as I cooked.

I was, eventually, able to send the blender back to the seller (at their cost, not mine) and get fully reimbursed for the purchase. I made a point to get the money back for expedited shipping, too, since the broken item has showed up days after it was supposed to.

At some point during the return process, I went back to the seller's post and did a little research. Sure enough, product reviews were decent for the item itself but everyone who had purchased from the seller I chose had a bad experience. Since I'm not a picky person, I didn't think reading the comments would do me any good, but I can tell you when I once again started shopping for a blender the seller and product reviews were the first thing I turned to!

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