Top critical review
1.0 out of 5 starsPoor quality machine and HORRIBLE customer service
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2019
My original review of my silver Bonaverde Berlin coffee machine was posted on Amazon on Oct 18th, 2018 but it has disappeared. I was an original backer of Bonaverde's Kickstarter project in November 2013. Although Bonaverde promised delivery of the Berlin in December 2014, only a handful of people have received their coffee machines as of today's date, OVER 5 YEARS LATER! Most of the hundreds of backers and purchasers have never received a machine or a refund.
I was one of the lucky few people to receive a Bonaverde Berlin. It was shipped to me in December 2017 (over 3 years late... 4 years after I paid for it). At first, the machine worked reasonably well using the scanned RFID tags, though it never was able to connect to their Facebook Coffee Concierge system to allow variable roasting. For 6 months, the machine cranked out very light cinnamon-colored roasted coffee that most coffee drinkers would consider under-roasted. Nevertheless, the concept was interesting and I counted myself lucky to have received anything at all from Bonaverde when most backers/buyers had received nothing at all.
After a few months, I started noticing that the built-in grinder was struggling hard to grind the roasted beans and it eventually failed, as other reviewers have noted. I immediately tried to contact Bonaverde through their customer support system and opened Zendesk Ticket #220360 on May 29th 2018. I received an email confirmation from Zendesk that the support ticket was open but there was NEVER any response from Bonaverde. On June 5th, I sent another email to the support desk asking for an update on ticket #220360. Again, no response from Bonaverde. So I tried AGAIN on August 1st and contacted Bonaverde support regarding ticket #220360. NO RESPONSE.
After being ignored by Bonaverde for months, I finally started leaving messages on their Facebook page and then opened another fresh Trouble Ticket. I finally received a response from Bonaverde on October 29th, 2018 (exactly 5 months after I opened the trouble ticket) and they offered to send a replacement machine if I paid them a refundable $139.99 deposit to make sure I returned the broken machine. In fact, the exact text of their service email said:
"It is 139.99 to get you a new machine, but this is a sort of deposit. We will refund you the 139.99 in full as it is manufacture error. The reason for payment is since we are sending you aa new machine we need the 139.99 as a 'trust' deposit so you send back the broken machine. All the best from Berlin, Lucian & the Team at Bonaverde"
So, I paid the $139.99 refundable deposit on Oct 29th 2018 and shipped my broken machine back to Bonaverde using a FedEx label they sent to me. A month later, on November 26th 2018, I received the same machine back from FedEx and eagerly unwrapped it. The machine did not appear to be repaired and was still packed in the same wrappings I had shipped it with! The machine was completely untouched and still broken. I contacted Bonaverde Support again and they gave me another FedEx label to ship the machine back, but also promised to ship a new machine to me immediately without waiting for my broken machine to arrive.
The replacement machine from Bonaverde finally arrived on December 3, 2018, over 6 MONTHS after I reported the failure and requested the replacement. The new machine seems to work OK and the FedEx tracking info shows that Bonaverde received my broken machine back, so it was time to request that the $139.99 deposit that I paid be reimbursed, as Bonaverde had promised in writing at the beginning of this repair nightmare. However, the Bonaverde rep now tells me that the fee is non-refundable, despite the fact that I have their original email promising to refund the deposit after they receive my broken machine back. Subsequent emails to Bonaverde reminding them that they originally told me the deposit would be refunded went unanswered. Thankfully, I paid the deposit via American Express, so AmEx promptly did a chargeback after seeing my documented emails with Bonaverde.
CONCLUSION: My biggest disappointment isn't the poor design of the Bonaverde machine itself, but the horrible customer service, poor communications and extreme lack of professionalism by Bonaverde.
