Le Creuset is definitely expensive. But the company stands behind their products. I’ve returned several pieces of Le Creuset enameled cookware over the last half decade and they replaced them for free without any static, attitude, demands for registration or proof of purchase, etc.
If the products were any good, why would you have to return them in the first place? It’s my understanding that the products they made used to be outstanding, but that some are now made in Thailand and the quality has gone way down, but that the prices haven’t.
Absolutely – I was going to buy the Lodge myself until I was gifted the Amazon one. They’re essentially the same thing. And I’m not really being snarky per the ‘decedents’ comment; my friends who have bought Le Creusets know that they can pass them down to their kids and they’ll keep their value and warranty… it’s a multi-decade investment. But I don’t want to put that much weight onto a dutch oven, myself, so I went cheap 
That’s… I mean… are you sure you were wearing pants?
Although another part of me isn’t surprised. The problem with America’s lack of an aristocratic caste system means that if you want to sell to aristocrats, you need to hit customers in the face with centuries’ worth of class gatekeeping before they can get to the cash register
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Cookware of high quality can be damaged through regular use. We’re not talking about titanium here. One time I heated it without enough liquid in it and the interior coating cracked. My fault, but they still replaced it without complaint.
I was clean shaven and wearing pants.
Word on the street was that they were trying to keep locals out unless those locals were very clearly wealthy. The store mostly seems to exist to cater to wealthy Asian and European tourists who fly in to shop for low tax luxary goods. Especially the Chinese. So they seemed to be in the habit of chasing anyone who appeared to live locally out of the store.
It’s still awfully douchey over there but the econocalypse tapered that kind of tourism
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Interesting. So did you ship the broken pots back to them?
I feel like this statement can be applied to almost any legacy brand these days… sigh
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So where exactly was this?
NY metro area.
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There’s a subreddit called r/BuyItForLife where this is a frequent lament. Old manufacturing companies that have spent decades building quality products and trust are bought out, the manufacturing is sent to third-world factories where labor costs are much lower, and there’s little attempt to maintain high quality standards. Meanwhile, consumers familiar with the brand names assume that the products are as good as their grandparents remember, but are in for a rude surprise.
Black & Decker is one example that leaps to mind.
Yep, I have seen the many Stanley thermoses (thermosi?) posted on that subreddit
I did. And that was on my dime. So I suppose the way to look at it is I paid $20 for a brand new pot.
I mean, there are limits. Once I incompetently balanced a Le Creuset pot in the dish drainer and it fell off the counter and cracked. I went ahead and chucked that one. And when my basic Lodge cast iron skillet cracked after years of use, I just ordered another one off Amazon and called it fair. But if you buy from a high end brand, they will usually try to work with you in my experience.
So now I really regret that I donated the le creuset pot to Goodwill. The inner enamel got all brown and discolored, and I had just scored a great deal on a Cuisinart enamel dutch oven, and didn’t have the cabinet space for two big heavy pots. That said, the cuisinart pot is as good as the le crueset pot, for a fraction of the price, though definitely more expensive than the cost of return postage. Oh well.
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I am waiting on a Belstaff jacket to return to me from their repairs group. We shall see how good a job gets done. No tailor locally would touch a waxed jacket but Belstaff asked for a few photos and then sent me a repair authorization form to use with their US shop of choice.
Heh, the Le Creuset outlet store in Destin FL (aka the Redneck Riviera) wasn’t that snooty, at least not when I was last there two years ago. While there were some well coifed browsers in expensive resort wear around, the majority of “folks” around were in flip flops or Crocs, tank tops, cargo shorts and ball caps. One case where it’s friendlier down South.
Baking soda cleans up my discolored enameled cookware pretty well.
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Oh, I tried everything to clean it. Baking soda, Bonami, heating vinegar, even a cleaning solution that was supposed to be specially formulated to clean discolored enamel pans. (You better believe that I gave that crap a one-star review.)
I have no idea what I did to discolor the pan in the first place, but it makes me wonder what my chili is doing to my insides.
A solution of 1/3 bleach and 2/3 water worked pretty well for me. I found the recipe on the internet somewhere and it was claimed to be okayed by the manufacturer.
Good luck with your jacket @jlw
The last Le Creuset store I was in was in Kittery, Maine, and they acted like any other outlet store. “Hey there, what can I get you? A dutch oven? Sure thing. We got plenty.”
