This ladies and gentlemen is my Oxo Good Grips garlic press.  I bought it a few months ago after hearing the folks on America’s Test Kitchen rave about it and it set me back about $15.  It does a fantastic job and can’t count how many times my wife and I have used this in the short time that we’ve owned it. 

However, last week when I was prepping my mise en place for risotto I placed a clove in the designated area and POP!  I looked down to find this:

The metal on the damn thing literally cracked. On both sides too.  I tried using it again, but it no longer functions properly.  No worries I thought.  Oxo has awesome customer service, they’ll get this straightened out.  I’ll have a replacement in no time.

After contacting Oxo I come to find out that they have since changed their 100% satisfaction guaranteed exchange policy.  Instead of replacing the item for you, you now have to send them the broken product before they will replace it.  So I have to spend $8 to ship them a $15 garlic press.  Not awesome.

While I’m sure that this is how most companies handle these types of things, I’m disappointed that Oxo has decided to change their policy.  Their previous method really differentiated them from the rest of the industry, because it showed trust in their customers.  I can only imagine that they were burned because of this trust and that is why they changed. 

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