Gaggia coffee machine - Currys

redfragglebiker

Just wondering as we're all about the coffee on here... has anyone used or had experience of the Phillips Senso machines?

pulliptears

redfragglebiker wrote: »

Just wondering as we're all about the coffee on here... has anyone used or had experience of the Phillips Senso machines?

Yep, its in the caravan, I use it very rarely if we take the touring van away. I didn't like it, the coffee produced from it I found to be very average and at the time (this was 4 years ago) I thought that cup for cup it was expensive in comparison to beans and ground.

It lasted in my kitchen all of about 6 weeks before it was resigned to the porch, then to the caravan.

bazster wrote: »

Ohmigollygosh, I never thought of that! I bought new cups to do my morning cappuccino 'cos I couldn't fit a mug in!

:wall:

If its any consolation I was messing around with different sized mugs etc until OH walked in, calmly removed the drip tray and put his mug under. He just gave me 'that' look

bazster

pulliptears wrote: »

If its any consolation I was messing around with different sized mugs etc until OH walked in, calmly removed the drip tray and put his mug under. He just gave me 'that' look

In my household I'm usually the one who gives "that" look! That'll teach me! I hope my OH doesn't see this otherwise I will be mocked mercilessly since I am the coffee addict and hence the machine is my department!

dtmark

pulliptears wrote: »

Just added the Waitrose beans to my Ocado shop

Did you like them?

OK - an update:

We took the wretched Cukiba Plus thing back to Currys again.

After waiting for 15 minutes in a queue of just 3 people at the service desk staffed by one stressed girl trying to deal with everyone while all the other staff wandered past and off again (there were actually more staff than customers in the store) we walked out and went for some lunch.

We returned an hour later to apologies and the girl explained all they could do was repair it again.

About half an hour was spent while she repeatedly tried to get the automated call handling thing to recognise the word "Gaggia" (gajj-ey-ah, I think, but anyway) we let slip it was made by Philips, and about another 15 minutes later she'd been fobbed off by some more people.

Finally she rang Philips directly and arranged a repair. We left after about an hour and they came and collected it.

That was a week ago. Just looked online and the fault report says "No fault found", suggesting an air-lock.

So I presume it's on its way back now.

Checking the original receipt, we bought it in November and the first return was indeed just within the 6 months. Bit late now.

So my intention is to unpack it on return, set my phone recording, and leave it running to produce a cup of espresso. Then I'll write the 30 minute video to a DVD (that's how long it takes) and give Currys customer service a call.

I am not taking it back to the Basingstoke shop yet again, I want a refund now and to go and buy one somewhere else.

I would like to ask them if they really want it back or would prefer just to refund me remotely, or, if they want it couriered to the store along with an invoice for cost of same so the refund would also cover my carriage costs.

Is that reasonable?

Secondly, we've been looking online at a replacement machine.

Not interested in the ones you can only use "pods" in.

From what I can see, the price point we should be looking at is circa £200.

I'd rather not have another Gaggia one because the repairs service is so poor (this time it went off to the Philips Saeco repair centre) and it doesn't bode well for any faults.

Can anyone recommend a machine for about £200?

CoolHotCold

Send a email to letusknow@knowhow.com

Even if its not about the product itself, just a quick email about the level of service you received at the store.

I can't say for certain, but most likely the staff you saw walk by were just customer advisors and either were not trained or didn't know how to arrange repairs or deal with the KnowHow customers.

dtmark

CoolHotCold wrote: »

Send a email to [EMAIL="letusknow@knowhow.com"]letusknow@knowhow.com[/EMAIL]

Even if its not about the product itself, just a quick email about the level of service you received at the store.

I can't say for certain, but most likely the staff you saw walk by were just customer advisors and either were not trained or didn't know how to arrange repairs or deal with the KnowHow customers.

At one point a member of staff had been sent over to help. However they did not know how to process refunds and so wandered off again.

The girl at the counter was attempting to gain something called an "uplift number" which I assume indemnifies the store so they don't have to pay for the refund themselves, some sort of internal politics at work.

Having failed internally she then tried the manufacturer who then volunteered the repair.

At one point I pointed out that we'd reserved an expensive Panasonic TV and perhaps the Manager (assuming there was one, the "on the floor" evidence suggested otherwise) would like to sanction the replacement coffee machine since we'd be spending a lot more money. Apparently that was a no go.

So we left with the broken coffee machine, drove 500m to Comet and bought the TV there instead.

pulliptears

Wow Mark you've really had problems with that haven't you? Don't blame you one bit for losing faith in it. I've since had an airlock on mine as well, but I did a bit of reading and it details online how to clear it which worked a treat.

I did try the Waitrose beans yes, and they are quite lovely! Thanks for the recommendation and good luck finding a replacement machine.

Jakg

dtmark wrote: »

Is that reasonable?

You certainly may request it, but legally they would be well within their rights to offer you another repair...

dtmark

I'm pretty sure it's not an airlock. It's hard to describe what it does, but imagine the machine is sitting on a turntable which isn't quite round, it's egg-shaped and turning slowly.

The noise of the pump is the noise you'd hear as the machine comes towards you then away from you in that sort of rhythm "in and out".

It did co-incide with the leak and I don't actually know that has been fixed for certain. It is as if there is a tiny leak somewhere which means the pump can achieve pressure, but not in a constant stream if that makes any sense.

When it did have air locks, the pump barely worked at all, but opening the steamer and then closing it again always cleared that. I don't think that's the issue though. And I am still wondering if it was tested with coffee in it, as otherwise it would appear to perform OK.

My research so far indicates that all the top brands are out of our price range. But we did start with a deLonghi one which lasted a fair while and the DeLonghi Espresso EC820.B @ 199 (JohnLewis.com) looks a bit like our old one, so we might go for one of those.

memphis73

Just adding my 20c here. I've always been a biog fan of Gaggia as a legendary brand, but honestly I've had two machines from them, including the Gaggia Classic, and they've both ultimately failed.

The only good thing is you can get £50 back by selling them on ebay to people who recondition them.

I'm now looking for a replacement, and have to say I wanty to steer away from the Classic as it's got an aluminum tank, as well as a porr aftersales support, outlined here already.

Any recommendations for a comparable machine under £200 ?