I purchased Nickle's Arcade's Kona BBQ Grill Mat for $22.47 from amazon a few weeks ago and was excited to try this product. They claim that you can place these mats on the grill and cook on them while keeping your grill clean. I was a little sceptical about this product, but they offered a hassle free money back guarantee, so I figured I had nothing to loose.
When I received and opened the product it looked nothing like the pictured on amazon. The amazon pictured depict a gridded teflon like mat with Kona logo printed on them. What I received was a solid black paper-like sheet of some kind of material. This was not what I expected.
Despite everything above I figured I'd try this product out. That evening I put the mats on my grill and fired it up to medium-low heat to cook some steaks. After awhile of cooking the mats became frayed and burnt. The Kona grilling mats were in such bad shape that I was afraid to eat the food that was cooked on them.
After my family's dinner was ruined along with my newly purchased Kona barbecue mats, I was so disgusted that I ended up folding up my steak in what was left of the mats and tossed it into the trash.
The very next day I contacted Kona customer support via the email listed on their packaging to get a refund. After a few emails back and forth explaining that I had to throw away the mats because of the condition they refused to give me a refund and said I had to contact amazon.
After reminding Kona that their mats had a hassle free money back guarantee... they started ignoring my emails. It was pretty clear at this point that they were not going to honor their money back guarantee promise and keep my money.
I was forced into leaving a negative review on their bbq mat amazon listing in order to warn others about their shady business practices. Kona publicly responded and said that they would honor the refund so I email them again. Even after publicly saying they would refund my order they ended up refusing personally refunding the order and told me to "contact amazon for further assistance".
Finally, as my last resort I came here to ripoffreport. I'm hoping by posting this report that others will take warning before purchasing from Kona and know that their refund isn't what they promise.
Kona
Odessa,#2UPDATE Employee
Sat, December 12, 2015
Kona offers a hassle free replacement warranty for 7 years after date of purchase. Because this is a replacement warranty we require proof of purchase and that the damaged product be returned to our company. In many cases a picture is sufficient in lieu of returning the product. Please contact us right away if you have any issues so we can notify you of the best course of action. This warranty also covers accidental misuse. Which includes heating beyond the peak temperature. Just like water boils at 212 deg F at standard temperature and pressure every single time. These have a temperature above the peak recommended temperature where they will begin to breakdown every single time as well. No worries though. Simply contact us at [email protected] and we will help. Just don't throw it away! Amazon offers a 30 day money back guarantee. Of course the item has to be returned to them. Imagine trying to get a refund on a product at Target, for example, without actually returning the product. It would be impossible, just as in this case.