Complaint Review: Simplicity Gourmet Pro-Health Ultra New Era

We appreciate the opportunity to offer a rebuttal to this claim.  I would first of all recommend to always contact customer service before filing a report or claim.  We can be reached at 1-866-897-7676.  If team members are busy on other calls and a voice mail picks up, please leave your contact information.  We do not want you to have to remain on hold while we finish helping other customers.    We return all calls within 24 business hours in the order in which they are received.  Our customer Service team is available between 9am-5pm CST Monday through Friday.  We work very hard to maintain happy customers.  We want to hear from you personally. 

We maintain an A+ rating with the BBB by responding to customers quickly and helping find a resolution.  If you go to the BBB website and search for Simplicity Gourmet, you will see our A+ rating listed in TN. 

We have ran promotions in the past, and may do so in the future for a free, healthy dinner.  We silently monitor calls in our call center and each caller must read from a script so we give everyone accurate information over the phone.  We tell anyone who has been selected for a free dinner, that "while we are there we will be showcasing our cookware and if you like it, you'll have an opportunity to get it."    We apologize if you did not understand that we would be showing and selling our cookware.  We assure you, that was not our intention at all. 

In fact, we try very hard to eliminate confusion.  Our goal overall is for you to like us and give us good word of mouth advertising weather you become a customer or not.  That is the only way that free dinner promotion is beneficial to us.  It would never be beneficial to hide that fact from couples that receive a dinner because people will always be upset with us and we would never earn new business. 

We respectfully ask that you provide any substantiated information that proves any claims we make are inaccurate.  We provide extensive sales training to prevent faulty information.  In addition, we would never tolerate a salesperson giving inaccurate information.  In regards to the salerep saying our cookware is SaladMaster, our assumption is that the sales rep said our cookware is the same type of cookware as SaladMaster.  We are a fellow waterless and greaseless cookware manufacturer and distributor. 

All of our waterless cookware is made in the United States and has the same lifetime warranty as SaladMaster.  We offer new handles and knobs if your break and offer a way to cook vegetables with a tablespoon of water and meat with no grease just like Salad Master and other well known waterless cookware companies.  In that sense, it is the same type of cookware.  We apologize for any confusion caused by saying that. 

Our cookware is clearly labeled Pro-Health Ultra and we would never claim to be Saladmaster.  We can help you get a contact number for SaladMaster, if you wish to purchase from them.  We certainly would only want your business if you knew you were purchasing Pro-Health Ultra cookware.  That is why we bring the cookware and showcase it so you can see, touch, and feel it and make an informed decision on weather or not it would be a good investment for you and your family.

We are the only company that offers a 7ply US made waterless cookware.  We are proud of that fact and I am sure we mentioned that to you.  There are waterless cookware lines made overseas.  Some may claim have 7 layers.  Our claim, which can be proven, is that we are the only waterless cookware that has 7 layers and is made 100 percent in the US. 
If a sales rep hurt a pan you own, that would not be acceptable. We would certainly ask for proof of that claim and an opportunity to help you repair or replace any pan damaged by a sales rep.

All BBB complaints have been rectified.  Our assumption is that your case has been resolved too, if you did file a claim there.  As far as you receiving your cookware after faxing a cancellation, there are a couple of ways this can happen.  One, if the fax did not transmit, we would not have received the notice.  Do you have a fax transmittal receipt that show the fax was successful?  Second, we make every attempt to ship our customers orders quickly and efficiently. 

If you received the cookware by UPS on 10/11/06, it would have been shipped on 10-9-06.  It was probably already on the way when the cancellation was received.  When customers cancel their order within the stated cancellation period in Bold, Black, letter on their contract, we always honor the cancellation.  My assumption is we simply waited to receive the cookware back to the factory and then finalized your cancellation for you. 

If your case has not been rectified, we ask that you contact us immediately.  If it has been rectified, we ask that you update this post and let everyone know that we were able to take care of you and resolve all of your issues. 
We look forward to hearing from you. 

In closing, we ask that you call our customer service line so that we can have an opportunity to work toward a positive resolution.  We would love to help you become one of the many happy recipients of our free dinner promotion.  We look forward to hearing from you.

I would like to point out that baking soda is an alkali. Guess what alkalis do?!? They damage aluminum! No wonder why your food tasted like aluminum.

This is just a trick they use to sell their product. Baking soda will also discolor aluminum. Try heating 1 tbs. of vinegar per quart of water or 2 tsp. of cream of tarter per quart of water in your pan until the discoloration goes away. 

Hope this helps. Sorry that they swindled you.

I think this story is soooooooooooooo SAD, that the company has offered a refund to this lady and she still has not REMOVED this tired letter from the internet in 3+ years . . . . This leads me to think she planned to try to bring some FAKE information against this company!!! I don't work for "NEW ERA" however I just purchased a set of the saladmaster cookware . . . and I LOVE THE COOKWARE!!! They give you a LIFETIME warranty and cooking classes to LEARN how to prepare these healthy meals for my family!!! I'm EXCITED about learning about SALADMASTER, because I'm 33 yr old African American and never heard about saladmaster until now and I NEVER had the same chance to LEARN how to prepare great meals like this with the saladmaster cookware!!! To see that this customer has TOTALLY MISSED the REAL POINT about HEALTHY COOKING and EATING!!! To MAKE UP LIES against this company is SO SAD!!!

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!

JJ -Warning against people who LIE and SLANDER for NO REASONS!!

JJ

I would like to reiterate that this company has a good product - my complaint resulted from miscommunication and a slow refund process because my credit card company wanted to confirm that the charge/refund was valid. Their cookware is good, but it is too pricey for us to upgrade all at once. We hope to have completely replaced all of our cookware with stainless steel within the next few years. It's just too bad that the exchange of words on this site has soured me from even looking at their product again. I wish this company success with their cookware line.

I would like to post this final rebuttal in hopes of closing this discussion. I was truly upset by the customer service for Simplicity Gourmet. Yes, I did receive my refund and yes, my Calphalon still has the "baking soda test" stain. I don't wish ill on the company. I have received hateful e-mails and posts as a result of my experience with Simplicity Gourmet. Please end this. After extensive reading - not on the internet - but actual research about cookware, I have come to realize that stainless steel is a much healthier option. I have purchased stainless steel cookware from another company and am quite pleased with it. The price I was offered was good that day and is still good - I was not pressured to buy immediately. No, it's not 7-ply, but the 5-ply has been very impressive. Simplicity Gourmet - please leave me alone. You've made your point so please stop attacking me personally.

Ms. Spurlock ordered her cookware on a Friday, October the 6th and Paid in Full on a credit card for the purchase. On Saturday, October the 7th, the contract was processed and sent to the factory for shipment. Her products were shipped out on Monday, October the 9th (which we consider extraordinary customer service for delivery of products just ordered). Is is only a one day shipment from our factory to where Ms. Spurlock lives. She faxed in a CXL notice on October 10th, the day before her last day to CXL but the cookware had already been ordered and shipped - she received them the day she CXLd. We DID honor Ms. Spurlocks CXL, but since the order had already been ran and shipped, it took 3-4 four days to reverse. We have never had any complaints about CXL our orders within the CXL period. We told Ms. Spurlock on numerous occasions, as well as her husband, that when we received the already shipped merchandise back into our warehouse, we would refund her credit card, which we did. HER bank did not release the funds immediately into her account and this left room for her to accuse us of not refunding when in fact we did. This is a bogus complaint on that issue.

As far as the other complaints, I would like to address them as well. The New Era factory has been in business since the mid 1800's. In an era when companies are moving thier factories overseas, we are still thriving and have recently moved into a brand new facility to compensate for the demand of our product. I doubt we would have such success if we had so many unhappy customers. We believe in our product, we all own the product and we market it so well b/c of out strong faith in it. While Ms. Spurlock may be a very intelligent woman, she is not a cookware expert, and we are. Anodized ALUMINUM cookware DOES leach into your food. The "test" she is referring to is simply baking soda and water. The baking soda soaks up the flavor of the water so that you can taste what "flavor" the cookware is actually putting into your food. I highly doubt baking soda and water left a permanent stain on her cookware. I have notebooks of thousands and thousands of handwritten testimonies from people who just got started with a brand new set all the way to people who have had the set upwards of 30, 40, & even 50 years. I am sad for Ms. Spurlock that she didn't get started with this cookware. We cooked an entire meal (that we paid for) for her and her family and she got to see the system live and in action and obviously she saw the value in it b/c she saw it and tasted the food it produced and purchased it. It is the best cookware in the market and we strive to provide the best customer service in the industry. You just can't believe everything you read on the internet b/c it's not all true.

We let our BBB standing speak for us and we have an exemplorary record there. Ms. Spurlock did post a complaint with them against us (one of 6 EVER) and it was found by the BBB to be unfounded b/c we did fulfill our contractual obligation to Ms. Spurlock in a timely fashion.

It took a few weeks and some calls from a very rude customer service representative of Simplicity Gourmet, but I did receive a full refund. I've learned my lesson abous signing up for 'free gourmet meal prepared in your home' offers at home shows.

Nothing comes for free and the meal was far from gourmet. If someone approaches you about this company or product, be careful. It is over-priced and it takes time and patience to learn how to use this so-called time-saving product.

Carol, In your last update you said that a refund was in the process. We were also ripped off by this company and I'm wondering if you ever did get your money back?

I thought I would add to my report just to let you know that it's almost impossible to get a response from this company. I sent one letter, two faxes, four e-mails, and left three voice mail messages but did not receive a response. My husband made two phone calls before he finally spoke to a live person. She stated that the contract was cancelled, but it was too late because the product had already been shipped and the credit card had been charged. They did claim that they would arrange for product pick-up and the refund had been issued. To date, my credit card has not been issued a refund. I did finally receive a phone call from Customer Service, but she just wanted to know why I called them unethical!


As if I had not already explained it in the letter and with the Better Business Bureau report that I sent. I simply told her that if I had received a phone call acknowledging that even though the order had already been processed, they did cancel the order and were in the process of refunding everything, then this would not have escalated. A simple courtesy call - is that too much to ask of a company these days, especially a small one such as this?