SmokeFire and Weber Tech Support

[Bill T]

A week or so ago my SmokeFire wouldn't wake up. Double checked the power cable and the connection, and nothing. Folks on Reddit said it was a fuse. I contacted Weber Tech Support, and laid out my problem. Immediately got a bot response along the lines of "we're thinking about". Followed shortly by another. Followed shortly by a PHONE CALL FROM A LIVING PERSON (sorry for yelling, but I was amazed).

Valerie said it was likely a fuse, sent me some information on fuses to buy, where to find them on the SF, etc. Also wanted to look to see if there were any lights on the circuit board.

Ordered the fuses from Amazon. Extracted the old fuse, replaced it with a new - Bazinga!

I even got a follow-up call from John to make sure things were good.

Very happy Weber customer here! Doing a tri-tip tomorrow.

 

[Steve Hoch]

Would have been a better story if Weber had sent you what you needed. I think it's more than a little sad when we are happy that customer service actually helps us when we need it. I still expect good service for products that I buy.

 

[JKalchik]

Well, fuses are generally considered to be consumable items. Personally, I don't expect vendors to supply replacement fuses, even under warranty. And if I don't have replacements on the shelf here, they're close by.

The bigger question is just WHY did (or does) that fuse blow? Without addressing the cause, I'd generally expect that fuse to blow again in fairly short order, but I certainly would have spares.

 

[LMichaels]

I judge customer support based on how much something cost me. If I buy something relatively cheap (like what happened with my ThermoPro TP19) a few years ago. Where it broke and out of the blue I'd recalled I registered it. Honestly I was shocked at the excellent level of support.

 

[timothy]

When I bought my EX6 I ordered some extra fuses, drip pans.
Weber supplied an extra glow plug.
This is my third summer and haven't had to change a fuse or GP yet.