Open Letter to Masterbuilt re: MES 30

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ostrichsak

Meat Mopper
Original poster
Oct 4, 2013
255
48
To whom it may concern

I recently bought a Masterbuilt 30" Electric Smoker from Amazon and am having some issues.  The first was that upon opening the box there was a rather sizable dent in the top of the unit near the rear that was readily visible.  The packaging itself was fine so this lead me to believe that this unit had this defect prior to being boxed up and shipped off.  I've attached a photo I took so you can see what I'm talking about.  The entire top rear is dented downward and makes it so that the control unit doesn't even line up very well.  This brings me to my next point, the control unit appears to have multiple issues.  For starters it's not very accurate when I measure it compared to calibrated thermometers and in addition it's inconsistent.  It would be one thing it were 3-4deg off high or low but stayed consistent because I could simple adjust the set temp accordingly and it would hold the desired temperature.  Instead it's over 40deg off in some cases & varies from high to low which is unacceptable from an electric smoker.  

As you can imagine, this has made for some more difficult use than it should be and I blame a faulty controller unit.  I've done some searching online and it seems as though this is now a widely known issue and lots of people are developing a poor opinion of Masterbuilt which I'm sure isn't the desired outcome.  Since it doesn't seem as though I've got a random defective unit and this is more of a model specific problem I saw no reason to contact Amazon for customer service.  It seems to me that Masterbuilt has a rather large QC issue on their hands with this model and while issues are bound to arise it's how these issues are handled the defines customer service.  I'm hoping that this email will find someone who can address my issues and remedy them quickly and permanently.  
Thanks for your time.
--
Regards
Ostrichak (obviously used my real name) ;-)

I'll keep y'all posted with the outcome.
 
Hi O,

It would probably server you better to contact Masterbuilt directly.  Many of us have contacted MasterBuilt with customer service issues and their response has been good.

I agree that they have a QC issue, but my larger concern is that even though they respond well with customer service the message doesn't seem to be getting back to production!

Good luck,

Bill
 
 
Hi O,

It would probably server you better to contact Masterbuilt directly.  Many of us have contacted MasterBuilt with customer service issues and their response has been good.

I agree that they have a QC issue, but my larger concern is that even though they respond well with customer service the message doesn't seem to be getting back to production!

Good luck,

Bill
I did contact them directly.  That's the email I sent to them and I just pasted it here so that others can see it and will follow up when I receive a response.
 
I called them yesterday regarding issues I've been having with the temp control and off meat probe readings with my MES 40 Gen 2. After going through some troubleshooting, the CS agreed to send out a new micro-controller. Unfortunately, they are out of stock and don't expect any in until mid-December.

I would encourage you to call their 800 number. Many people have had good luck getting issues resolved the phone route.

Ron
 
 
I called them yesterday regarding issues I've been having with the temp control and off meat probe readings with my MES 40 Gen 2. After going through some troubleshooting, the CS agreed to send out a new micro-controller. Unfortunately, they are out of stock and don't expect any in until mid-December.

I would encourage you to call their 800 number. Many people have had good luck getting issues resolved the phone route.

Ron
From what I've read they know they're broken but don't yet have a solution so that timeframe is until they get working controllers to replace them with.
 
Here is what bugs me the most about these units.....I am a former MES 30 owner and my unit took a major dump after just one year.  It seems that some have better luck than others but reading the threads here there are a ton opf issues with Masterbuilt units. Ranging from Temp issues to tripping circuits to just plain dying!   Now what bugs me is this......I don't want to buy a smoker....have to call Customer Service and have them send me replacement parts that I myself have to install!! If I wanted to build a smoker I would have done just that. I want to unpack,,,,assemble and smoke some darn Meat!

Now it's nice that some have had good luck with their units but having gone thru about 45 pages of Electric Smoker threads here I would say that there is a serious lack of QC at MB.  There are much better units out there and if you spend just a fraction more than I am sure you will find them.

Sorry for the rant....but as someone that was sadly disappointed in their MES I just had to have my .02! Ostrichsak I hope you get resolution but if it were me I'd jump ship and get a different unit.

PadronMan
 
 
Here is what bugs me the most about these units.....I am a former MES 30 owner and my unit took a major dump after just one year.  It seems that some have better luck than others but reading the threads here there are a ton opf issues with Masterbuilt units. Ranging from Temp issues to tripping circuits to just plain dying!   Now what bugs me is this......I don't want to buy a smoker....have to call Customer Service and have them send me replacement parts that I myself have to install!! If I wanted to build a smoker I would have done just that. I want to unpack,,,,assemble and smoke some darn Meat!

Now it's nice that some have had good luck with their units but having gone thru about 45 pages of Electric Smoker threads here I would say that there is a serious lack of QC at MB.  There are much better units out there and if you spend just a fraction more than I am sure you will find them.

Sorry for the rant....but as someone that was sadly disappointed in their MES I just had to have my .02! Ostrichsak I hope you get resolution but if it were me I'd jump ship and get a different unit.

PadronMan
Thanks for the post.  I still haven't heard back.  Hopefully they get back to me soon.
 
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