Len has been screwed too..!

[Len]

Hi, I am Len but don’t be confused, any Tom Dick and Harry could claim to be Len. As for now this is my profile. I need not reveal my real name yet as it will have a negative impact on the outcome of an ongoing battle to get some bits and pieces from our Johnson friend with whom most of us are well acquainted with.
I did in fact buy a K9 without too much hesitation initially, little did I know about anything negative about this product or about the manufacturer. The idea is that when you buy an item like this, you want to be able to use it in a good fashion for many years to come right? You look after it. Right? It will be your pride in the garden and you will take a shine to it and be real proud when you cook some great meals, right? I mean great meals, not talking French cuisine here, just pulled pork and roast lamb or similar. You prepare it and play with that thing and just have a bloody good time, agreed?
First all was all right, hunky dory so to speak even though I did notice that there was some hollow sound underneath a few tiles, apart from that all was working great.
Then,..cracks appeared and some more cracks appeared and bigger cracks appeared. Less that 9 months old grill. I contacted RJ. No problem, he would get me some of that M..stuff but I never got it and now when I ring him, the phone has gone dead, disappeared into thin air, very much like the invisible man. Ye all know the rest.
There is still a chance this will get replaced but my hopes are growing dim. I do however have plenty pictures that will show all the defects in detail, including chicken wire, you will get to see them eventually, just bear with me for a bit..
I will post again…
Len

[fishtail-99]

Len, thanks for posting. It's first hand accounts like yours that should do the most good towards discouraging people from doing business with RJ. We anxiously await your future posts!

[Unbelievable]

Thanks for sharing your story. I hope that you get your replacement and I look forward to seeing your pictures.

[The Spanker]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, Len. Even if RJ finally coughs up some magic M-6x goo for the cracks, it sounds like you're going to be replacing tiles for years to come.

Fish is right, each new victim that steps forward advances the cause: That the Johnsons' design, manufacturing, and ethical flaws are easily discoverable and blatantly obvious to anyone contemplating doing business with them.

If they don't look, or if they don't heed the warnings, there was no helping them anyway.

[Chirogyro]

Len:

Keep in mind the unofficial "extension" of the Kamado Fraud Forum: The Ripoff Report. A few of us have posted there, hoping that Dick Johnsucker gets his just reward.

-Michael in Houston

[duck833]

I feel your pain Len, my #9 died also, cracks, tiles falling off and vent frozen shut. I even went further and bought the matching K table, still alongside the swimming pool.

Len, you will never see anything from this POS. You should move on and dump the K. Get yourself a large BGE and be happy.

Kind of like getting stuck with a lemon car or bad stocks. We always don't do everything perfect, when we screwup it is best to move on. The first loss is the best loss.

At least you are only out the cost of a #9. I know it is lots of bucks but in the scope of lots of other things we buy and could get screwed on it is not really that big. We just hate getting ripped off.

Good luck to you Len, get out the sledge hammer!!!!

[Chirogyro]

Now let's not be too hasty about dumping the #9 and getting a BGE... My replacement for my #7 (when it finally and inevitably gives up the ghost) is going to be a KomodoKamado unit... Dennis makes some pretty good stuff from what I've been able to figure out.

-Michael in Seabrook

[Len]

Need some help with posting pictures, they are on the harddisk, not available on the net.Could i sent any pictures to one that knows how to post them?
Cheers.

[Firemonkey]

Your pics are on display in the hall of shame. Im sorry to say theinside of my POSK looks just like yours

[Len]

Join the club mate, we should team up at some point, go down the pub and find solace in the bottle and get legless

[Burnie]

I bought a #7 1/08.... after the now-well-known non-response, and after threatening legal action, my 7 finally shipped end of July, 08.... MINUS the gas burner which I paid for over a year ago! After more unreturned phone calls and e-mails, I have filed a mail fraud complaint with the USPS. I just hope they can find Bin Laden's invisibility advisor!

[The Spanker]

Good luck, Burnie. Keep us posted on the USPS claim. I'm not sure we've had any feedback from anyone that has pursued the mail fraud angle. Does anyone know otherwise?

[Len]

After my K developed some really nasty faults, I spoke to RJ. He wanted to know all about these faults and said that his girls would contact me and get me some of that magic M-stuff. Impressed with this service and being ever so fond of my K I considered retailing the K in Europe. Boy was he quick to respond and well that was fine to me. It would take me a couple of weeks to closely scrutinize the market and the after sales of this product. After the first enquiries I sort of stumbled upon the kamadofraudforum and well that told me just about everything I needed to know.

After sending some pictures and some more mails to RJ I didn’t get a peep out of him, absolutely nothing. In the mean time I contacted the Kamado Europe people. They told me that they would look into matters. It took them some time and me some phone calls but finally they actually sent me a new K, it arrived today!
IMHO these people are every bit as much a victim as we all are. Just like me they found this product, took a shine to it and didn’t do enough homework to establish the quality of both product and service department. Probably sold a container of these things and soon found the problems. At which stage they found themselves lumbered with a lousy product and no support from the manufacturer. Hard to tell what position they found themselves in at that point. However, unlike RJ they actually tried their best to solve my problems so they deserve some credit for that. Now you might think, what is the point of replacing a crumbling K with a new one that might in due time crumble too!?

Fact is that I have done quite a bit of experimenting with the crumbling K which has lost tiles, has numerous cracks throughout, a loose damper door and a loose spider in the top not to mention the cracked fire ring. With the new K I will take some precautions to make sure the same difficulties won’t happen again. For example the fire ring, when it cracks it will fall into two or more pieces. This can be overcome quite easy. I took the flange off a washing machine drum and fitted that with fire proof mortar onto the outside of the fire ring. It may crack but it will never fall into pieces. For the cracks, I applied some furnace cement from Allied minerals, about an inch thick on the hot face and up until now it hasn’t cracked. Last week one of the steel bands turned out to be broken, this was fixed today and is now twice as strong as the original patch work.

It is not all perfect and might not look great and it is time consuming but hey it is a hobby, not just to use it as a cooker but mending it and keeping it going has become a challenge. Once I spent my money purchasing this K I would to like to get maximum joy of it LOL In spite of all I still enjoy cooking in this POSK.

And once more a high five to the Kamado Europe people and though they have packed in their shop all together and will not sell the K anymore they have proven to keep their word and and deliver so in my opinion they should be forgiven for being involved in any way with the K product!

Keep on Smiling,
Len

[tcoliver]

I think everyone here had an idea that the Kamado Europe people also were victims. We are not angry at them as we all know the true criminal in all these types of strories. It would be interesting however to hear their story first hand. Do you think you could convince them to post here? We promise to be kind and not hold ANYTHING against them as we all know how they feel and we know how easy it is to fall into RJ's trap. Thanks for your story.