Communication

I ordered 2 back in November. At that time I was told they would ship in May. I understand now from reading posts here that there have been delays and there is no ETA at this point.

What bothers me more than the delay is the fact that I had to learn this by reading other peoples posts here. Why did I not receive an email letting me know there is a problem. Certainly the company knows how to send out an email to all that have ordered. To me this is a sign of poor customer service and no way to get started. If I had a reasonable explanation I would wait it out but the fact that the company has had my money for 6 months now I think I deserve some kind of communication.

How about letting people know exactly what is going on and what we should expect. And do it with an email, not some post I have to search for on a daily basis.

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Comments

julian.lo

They did send an email from joule@chefsteps.com. I got it on April 21, 2016.

julian.lo

Here's the text of it:

Thank you so much for preordering Joule. You’ve been patiently waiting for your shipment, and we truly appreciate your support.

Unfortunately, we have some disappointing news: Joule isn’t quite ready to ship. What’s the holdup? There are a few things: First, during our initial manufacturing run, we found some engineering problems we need to fix. Our hardware team is working alongside our manufacturing partner to solve these issues. Also, because Joule uses both WiFi and Bluetooth, we need certification from the FCC in order to ship. During our final FCC certification test this month, Joule exceeded the maximum permissible power transmission. We need to resolve that before we can send Joule to you. What does all this mean? It means we won’t ship in May.

Getting Joule into your kitchen is our number one priority, and we are doing everything we can to ship as soon as possible. While we can’t promise an exact ship date at this time, we are fully dedicated to finalizing our FCC certification, making these adjustments, and getting Joule out in the wild.

As a gesture of our appreciation for your patience and understanding, we’ve entered you to win a multicourse dinner cooked in your home (with Joule!) by our cofounder Grant and our development chef Nick. Whether you live in New York City or Traverse City, Grant and Nick will come to your house and create an epic meal for you and your family and friends. So please stay tuned! We’ll announce a winner on May 10.

Questions? Check out our FAQ, or stay tuned for important updates here. If you would like to request a refund, email Ellen at ellenk@chefsteps.com, and we’ll take care of it right away, no questions asked.

Last, but certainly not least, we’re sorry. We really value your business and your support. We will come back with good news and a firm delivery date as soon as we can.

Team ChefSteps

Paul_240291

Well, that makes it worse for me since they did not send me this email and I ordered 2 of them. I get all the recipe emails.

brian_martin2001

While I understand your frustrations, the email was sent out. You were one of many who did not receive this email. With the amount of folks who didn't receive it, this wasn't an over site, it was a glitch. Also, when this did happen, as well as sending out an email (to some members, as a large portion of purchasers did not receive it) they posted this announcement here on the forum as well. In a situation like there, where there was an electronic error, what would you have them do? Send out another bulk email (which clearly didn't work so well the first time around) to verify if people got their original email or not? If they did this, what about the people who just don't reply to this?

While it's unfortunate, honestly, what would you have them do? They are still offering refunds.

fisher23

Let's tag @Ellen_212162 she can track it down. I get all the recipe email too but for some reason that email went to my junk folder. I was told that because it was a mass mailing done in groups that it went into a lot of people's junk email.

pgcath

I'd bet that the mail was sent, and ran afoul of some spam filter upstream or an overly aggressive filter. It's extremely hard to control for. I ran usability tests in a previous life, and you'd be amazed how many people lost mails with their gratuity because something upstream put it in another bucket. That probably doesn't make you feel any better, but it's very hard for someone on the sender's end to correct for.

nathans1

I believe that since Paul did not receive his Joule or an email, Chefsteps should buy him an Audi A7. Its only fair...

pgcath

An A7? That's like a slap in the face. Totally not a Citation X.

pgcath

@Max_Foster_18996 isn't helping!

AngelArs_240456

*sigh* just think of how many Teslas you could buy if you sold the Citation X...

Richard_Scearcy_301305

I'm as disappointed as everyone else on this board about the delay in shipping. I might even be more disappointed than most, because I've had a Sous Vide Supreme for a couple years or more and know how cool sous vide cooking is and how great the food tastes. But, before ordering my Joule, I checked out the competition and concluded that Joule is (or will be) a much better product, so I've also concluded that it will be worth the wait.

How do I plan to use my Joule when I finally get it? First, it'll be a lot easier to pull out of a kitchen drawer than get it out of a packed cabinet to take up a large space on my counter until I finally put it away. And, when we travel across the state to visit our kids, it'll fit nicely in a small space and I'll use their pots for cooking.

When I first read about the delays, my first thought was "Couldn't you just send me one of the working prototypes I see on the shelves of your kitchen?" Oh, well, like a pork butt on my smoker, when people ask me when it'll be done, I just tell them "It'll be done when it's done." I guess it'll be the same for the Joule.

Ellen_212162

Hi Paul,

First, my apologies for my delay in response here. I just returned from being out of the office and I'm so sorry that we weren't able to respond sooner! It is incredibly frustrating to me to hear that you did not receive the communication that was sent to all preorder customers in late April. I know @Julian_12912 posted the text below, but I wanted to provide a little follow up on why we're not able to provide a new date as well. We absolutely wanted to communicate shipping timing changes to everyone and be as open as possible, but I know that our email wound up in some spam and junk folders or otherwise just may not have made it into some people's inboxes and I'm so sorry about that!

Ah, I truly wish we were able to say more on timing with any kind of certainty. Here's a note that our cofounder posted in the forum discussion page recently:

"So what we don't want to do is have to disappoint anyone again.

Manufacturing problems tend to be open-ended because they require studying the problem, evaluating possible solutions, designing modifications, making the modifications, building new parts, and finally testing them. If all goes well, then we have to schedule the changes with all of the manufacturing partners involved. If there are cost changes involved, those changes have to be negotiated.

We've been working with our manufacturing partners for nearly a year, and all of the folks involved are very experienced at doing this kind of product. Unfortunately, even with all of this careful long-lead work by many talented individuals, problems still occur and take the time they take to be resolved. With all of this said, sometimes this goes really quickly, sometimes it's painfully slow.

As a result, we don't want to predict a new date that is nothing more than an informed guess that turns out to be wrong. This is not a very satisfying answer, but it is the answer to why was our update vague."

Please don't hesitate to let me know if I can answer anything further for you via ellenk@chefsteps.com and thank you so much for your preorder.

Vicki_245905

I ordered in November, too. Again, frequent status updates would be great.

Richard_Scearcy_301305

I'm starting to feel like Rodney Dangerfield. First, I pre-ordered a Joule early last spring, I guess, and waited patiently for the (I think it was May) shipping date to roll around. Then, I received the much-discussed (and cussed) email explaining that a snag in FCC approval (who knew FCC is involved in approving kitchen appliances?) and that shipping would be delayed for an unknown period. OK, I said to myself, I don't like it, but the Joule is going to be good enough to justify the delay. After all, I did still have my trusty, but big, Sous Vide Supreme available for use. Then, I was notified that FCC had finally overcome it's inertia and approved the Joule. Yaaaaay! Not long after that, I heard that they should ship sometime in September. So now I'm set; I'm stoked; and I'm ready for a new chapter in my amateur culinary master life.

So, then, I started reading about the new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 and I just had to upgrade from my two year old Note 3. My wife and I went down to the T-Mobile store (better network in our area, much lower cost) to check them out on their first day for sale. Well, my wife got the last one in stock and I had to pre-order again, this time for a smart phone. Of course, we all know what happened. They sometimes bear a slight resemblance to a grenade, so they were recalled and all unfilled sales were cancelled. Now, today I read that I might expect my phone sometime around the end of October.

I've read in this forum that a whole bunch of you have received "heads up" notices to make sure your mailing addresses are still good, but I haven't heard that anyone has actually received a Joule in the mail. I didn't get one of those "heads up" emails, so I don't know when my Joule is coming. But, I'll patiently wait, confident that it'll be the best danged sous vide alternative on the market, which is getting to be pretty crowded while we're all waiting.

I just hope I get my Joule before I get my Note 7. Now you know why I feel I don't get no respect?