Well, lets start off on a positive note. The coffee maker is very stylish, love the removable water reservoir, the fact that the coffee basket slides in on the side (as opposed to the ones that you access via a lid that lifts up at the top and your coffee grounds inevitably end up in the reservoir that is located in the same compartment) , and the taste of the coffee is fantastic! The stainless steel thermal carafe does keep the coffee hot for hours afterwards. Amazon shipping was above expectations fast. I do not have Amazon Prime, and this arrived literally the next day!! A++ Amazon! A few quirky things on this coffee pot. 1) You cannot set the time while the coffee is brewing, or at anytime while the 2 hour coffee freshness meter is running. I literally thought my coffee pot was malfunctioning again (we'll get to that in a moment), and was going to box it up for return. If you turn off the coffee pot, or wait till the freshness cycle completes (you'll hear three beeps), you can then set the time. 2) The carafe is pretty small. My wife and I have fairly large coffee cups, and we maybe get 3 cups out of a full 10 cup batch. 3) The water filter is held in place with a ring, and on the first pot I received, it was so tight, I literally thought I was going to snap the holder right off the coffee pot opening it up the first time. On the 2nd coffee pot I received, this was not a problem. Now, to what got me to a 2 star rating, Mr. Coffee (Sunbeam) customer service!! The first coffee pot I received did not beep when the coffee was done. Many people have complained about the beep, but I personally like it. It's like a beacon that summons me to get my first cup of morning joy. If I don't hear it, I often leave the coffee sitting for far longer than needed. I thought I could live without the beep, however, but then the clean light came on. This is an indicator that tells you its time to run the clean cycle on your pot. This is a brand new machine! The indicator detects when it takes longer than 9.5 minutes to brew the coffee (in two consecutive brews), or when you have hit 90 brewing cycles. Obviously neither of these should be triggering the clean cycle. Also, steam continued to stream out of the back vent for the whole two hour freshness cycle, and no beeps were ever heard. And there was a very strong plastic taste in the coffee when we did drink it. I know its normal to get some when an appliance is brand new, but this seemed excessive. So obviously there was a problem. In the instruction manual it states, if you have a problem, do not return it, but call the warranty support line. So I did this. It took 45 minutes of hold time waiting for a customer support representative. They then spent a good 30-40 minutes on the phone walking me through multiple tests. They finally determined my coffee pot was defective and needed replacing. I was given a case #, and told to snap pics of the coffee maker, and once they received that, they would ship me a new coffee maker. They did not want the old one back, so they told me I could discard it. Luckily I didn't!! Several days later, I get a voice mail from the warranty department asking me to call them back. I call back, and this time I am on hold for just over an hour!! They now inform me that I do in fact need to send the old coffee pot back, but they will send me a return label, and once they receive the old coffee pot, they will send me a new one. Days go buy and I hear nothing. I finally send them an email, for I am not phoning again. A few more days go by and they respond with an email asking if I know anyone in the United States (I live in Canada) that they can ship the new coffee pot to, for they do not ship to Canada!!!! WTF???? This is when I lost it. I demanded that they send the coffee pot, that customer service is about making it right, and if you sell a coffee pot in Canada, you should be able to replace the coffee pot in Canada. Further to that, I told them that if they do not really offer replacement in Canada, then don't sell them here, or on Amazon.ca. I heard absolutely nothing. Days went by ... nothing. I logged a complaint with Sunbeam customer service (they apparently own Mr. Coffee) and told them what happened, and still nothing. So I eventually contacted Amazon, and they immediately sent me a return label, immediately created another order for a coffee pot (no charge) and shipped it out to me, which again arrived in like 2 days. My old coffee pot hadn't even left my city yet!! So, the coffee pot gets two stars, for I am sorry, but it could be the best coffee maker ever, if there is no customer service, it's not worth its weight in gold. How could any company ask you if you have a friend in another country to ship the product too??? What a huge inconvenience!!! Even if I had someone, I would not put them in the situation of having to receive my package, re-label, and then ship it to another country. It probably would have cost me an extra $30-$40 with customs fees, international shipping etc! Ridiculous!! Amazon, however gets 5 stars for their amazing customer service!! They went above and beyond to rectify a problem, that the manufacturer seemed to care nothing about. Absolutely nothing. No apologies. No phone call. No email. Nothing. I don't think I have ever experienced such horrible customer service in my life. So if you live in Canada (because this may not be an issue if you live in the USA), beware. If you have any issues with this machine, I suggest you completely ignore the manufacturers instructions about not returning it to where you bought it, and immediately return it to Amazon. Because unlike Mr. Coffee (Sunbeam), Amazon truly does care about the customer experience. A happy customer is a repeat customer. Hopefully Sunbeam figures that out soon. Update: 2020/04/03 So it has been just over a year with this coffee pot, and it has started flooding the counter on occasion. The carafe is empty, before we hit the start button. The grind is the same as we always make it. But for some reason, it just decides every now and then to have coffee pouring out where the filter basket goes in, and around the carafe itself. It is so annoying. My wife distrusts it so much that she has placed the whole coffee pot inside a large pizza pan, and that has saved us a few times already, but looks kind of junky on the counter. After the initial problems, the poor customer service from Mr. Cofffee, and now this, I am reducing my review to one star, and would not recommend anyone buying this coffee pot at all!
