Don't yell at us, its NOT our fault!

[Slave to the Phone]

The cent store makes many of the kitchen electronics sold there. They don't make Keurig coffee makers. Even if they did, us retail peons don't work in the factory, that's why we are standing in the store.

I had been lusting after a Keurig for a couple of years (they do make a great cup of coffee), but 200 bucks was more than I was willing to spend on a coffee maker. However, with the Christmas sales and coupons and my employee discount, I was able to get one for 50 bucks. SCORE!

Being smarter than the average customer, I went online and did some research before I bought one. I learned that the k-cup maker would use any k-cup or even refillable cups. I learned that the new and improved, latest model would not. It would only use Keurig products.

It does say so on the box, but in small black letters.

So, when the new and improved one started flying out the doors, I warned management that they would start coming back. I warned my co-workers. I even talked some of the customers out of buying one because I KNEW they would start coming back when people got tired of buying the rather expensive Keurig pods and went for something cheaper.

I just KNEW this was going to happen. I hate being right about this kind of stuff. People got their wonderful coffee maker for Christmas as well as a couple of boxes of pods. They registered with Keurig and got more free boxes of pods. They started running out the expensive ones and bought off-brand pods and suddenly their very expensive coffee maker isn't working.

IT'S A PIECE OF CRAP AND ITS ALL OUR FAULT AND WHY ARE WE EVEN SELLING THEM!!! Not to mention that they are past the 30 day return policy and we can only give them store credit, not a refund. UNACCEPTABLE!!! THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE OUR JOBS OVER THIS!!!

I had 6 of the goddamned things come back today and I would ask if they had changed pods recently, every time I was told that yes, they did order cheaper ones online, BUT IT WASN'T THE PODS, IT WAS THE PIECE OF CRAP I SOLD THEM.

I tried to compare them to HP printers to a couple of people, but then I just gave up and called a manager every time I saw someone come in the door with one.

[EvilEmpryss]

Just a heads-up: there are cheap and even free work-arounds for the proprietary gimmick on the new Kuerigs. You can find them online. One k-cup seller is even giving away free gadgets that will fool the new machines into thinking old-style k-cups are the new ones.

Hopefully that might help you deal with a few irate customers. Probably not, but maybe....

[Slave to the Phone]

Thank you. It probably won't help with the idiots who are screaming at us, but once in a while someone will actually listen instead of ranting. Goes to dogpile to find the work-arounds.

[gremcint]

they use barcode readers right? couldn't you just take the label of one of the official kcups and put it on the fake?

[notalwaysright]

I learned that the new and improved, latest model would not. It would only use Keurig products.

Interesting. I bought one back when there was pretty much only one model of Keurig, and loved it for years. I used the refillable filters for a long time, until I got lazy (and made a little more money) and would buy the Costco brand k-cups since they were a decent amount cheaper. Since then I have started to like my coffee very strong, and gave the Keurig to my parents, who love it. I would expect a lot of fall out from this. I mean, you don't see Mr Coffee brand coffee makers forcing you to use only their brand coffee grounds, or even filters...

And see my utter shock of blaming you for something you have no control over.

[wolfie]

Can't recall exactly where I saw this (think it was Dilbert), but "I didn't say it was your fault - I said I was going to blame you".

[Slave to the Phone]

they use barcode readers right? couldn't you just take the label of one of the official kcups and put it on the fake?

That was the first hack I found in a 2 second search.

Interesting. I bought one back when there was pretty much only one model of Keurig, and loved it for years. I used the refillable filters for a long time, until I got lazy (and made a little more money) and would buy the Costco brand k-cups since they were a decent amount cheaper. Since then I have started to like my coffee very strong, and gave the Keurig to my parents, who love it. I would expect a lot of fall out from this. I mean, you don't see Mr Coffee brand coffee makers forcing you to use only their brand coffee grounds, or even filters...

And see my utter shock of blaming you for something you have no control over.

I deliberately bought the 2013 model because I didn't want all of the bells and whistles. I didn't need a carafe, I just wanted a 1 cup coffee maker. (Not to mention that the bells, whistles and carafe one would have cost $25 more.)

I'm glad to hear that you got so many happy years of use out of yours. So far, I'm loving mine.

As a matter of fact, the reason I'm so much calmer is because I used it after I posted. Decaf and bailey's anyone?

Can't recall exactly where I saw this (think it was Dilbert), but "I didn't say it was your fault - I said I was going to blame you".

This is why I'm so glad our counters are both high and wide. It stops me from jumping over them and strangling people when they say something like "I know this isn't your fault, but..."

So anyhow, after following EvilEmpryss's suggestion to look the hacks up online, I have 4 choices.

1. Print out links/instructions to hand to people as to how to hack their coffee maker.
2. Pick up the phone, dial Keurig's customer service line and hand the phone to the screaming idiot. (This one is my favorite.)
3. Calmly explain to them that they just need to tape the outside edge from the top from one of the "real" cups to the reader so they can use their knock-offs.
4. Page a manager because my give-a-fuck is not only broken, its been stomped into little pieces and washed down the gutter.

I think I'm going to take door number 4. I told them and they poo-pooed me. One of them overheard me telling a customer to buy the 2013 model and had a "talk" with me. Whatever. Not my problem, I make the same money per hour no matter how many people return their 2.0 coffee makers.

[MoonCat]

The next time a customer screams about how the machine is a piece of crap, someone (a manager) should take one of the boxes the new ones come in and point out the small type on it that explains you MUST use their cups.

And then tell them that they have two choices: Shut up, take their store credit, and leave; or take a printed copy of the hacks, shut up and leave. Both choices involve shutting up. No shut-up, no store credit or hacks. Just a ban. Because screaming at customer service people is NOT acceptable.

[gremcint]

giving advice on how to hack your products is probably a great way to piss off your vendors.

[Slave to the Phone]

The next time a customer screams about how the machine is a piece of crap, someone (a manager) should take one of the boxes the new ones come in and point out the small type on it that explains you MUST use their cups.

And then tell them that they have two choices: Shut up, take their store credit, and leave; or take a printed copy of the hacks, shut up and leave. Both choices involve shutting up. No shut-up, no store credit or hacks. Just a ban. Because screaming at customer service people is NOT acceptable.

You are suggesting that screaming customers can be reasonable. Did you have too much bailey's tonight?

giving advice on how to hack your products is probably a great way to piss off your vendors.

Actually, at the cent store, this isn't really a problem. The "crappy" coffee machines (which are really wonderful coffee machines) get delivered to a central warehouse and then trucked to us. No in-store venders involved.

Also, there is the fact that I just DO NOT CARE. Every time I see one of those machines come in the door, I grab the phone and page a manager. They are the ones who are paid to bend over and ask if they can please have a little lube to go with their fucking, not me.

I warned them. They didn't listen. I just don't care. Maybe I need some more bailey's because that came out sounding just a tad hostile.



However, the main office and the venders might be happy if we stopped boxing the "defective" ones, and sending them back so that they have to deal with them. This costs money and pisses off the customers.

[AccountingDrone]

I have one of the old Melitta 1:1 that uses little filter pods, not cups and I bought a heat seal thingy that you can use to make your own pods with for the melitta. I lie, actually I have 2, one here and one up at Mom's house =) I make the pods with our own coffee to the strength I prefer, and I make tea pods as well [I have the additional nozzle for doing ice tea, fill cup with lots of ice, add the normal sized cup of tea over the ice, ice tea =)]

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

giving advice on how to hack your products is probably a great way to piss off your vendors.

If Keurig didn't want people hacking their machines, they shouldn't have built DRM technology into the new ones just Because They Can. It isn't like the OP is telling people anything they can't find with a five-second Google search.

And the new machines have no advantages over the older ones except for the ability to brew a 4-cup pot using a slightly bigger K-cup, and I don't use a Keurig to brew a full pot. If I wanted that I'd go back to the old drip coffeemaker I have stashed away someplace.

We do still sell one of the older machines that will brew anything, plus some other brands of single-serve coffeemakers that will also brew anything. I see far more of those going out the door than the new machines.

[KuariKaydrith]

The ability to use any cups I want is why I chose Keurig over Tassimo. I am babying my current Keurig because I do not want to have to fight with a damn machine to get it to work. Besides, I like being able to use a refillable pod with it. I used to have a regular coffee pot but we would waste so much coffee by making full pots and then not drinking more than a cup or two out of it, and we even tried a four cup brewer with about the same success rate. In the end we actually waste a lot less coffee. In the end, if I have to replace my beloved Keurig I may have to suck it up and get one of the new ones and then hack the shit out of it -_-

[wolfie]

From what I've read of the hacks, the DRM consists of a sensor looking for a particular reflectance of infrared light from the white band at the edge of the lid. Also, pictures show multiple colours of refillable pods. Wouldn't it be a laugh if someone had marketed refillable pods which reflected the right amount of light BEFORE the 2.0 units came out? The timing would be necessary because that would make the pods not be a workaround (and in shit from DMCA), merely something that happened to foil a system that hadn't been released yet.

[Dave1982]

Ugh...just...ugh. I HATE this. Just because you SELL something doesn't mean you SUPPORT it! I just don't understand why people don't get this.