The Cattery

The Cattery

No Panning Required

31 January 2006
Filed under Business, Text

Having gone on at length about some bad customer service experiences, it’s my very great pleasure to report an occurence of service the way it should be. A few years ago, I bought Sophie a Scanpan as an anniversary present - how romantic, I hear you think. For about 12 months it was awesome, and we cooked everything in it - but then the non-stick coating started to bubble up and flake off in the middle, so rather than suffer the horrors of teflon poisoning, we hid it down the back of the cupboard and forgot it existed.

Shuttle forward to last month, when Sophie re-discovers the pan and suggests that we throw it out, which spurs me to action. I ring the place I bought it from, and they tell me to call the Australian distributer, which I do. To my massive surprise, they say “send it to our reply-paid address and we’ll replace it.” No need for a receipt, and no nasty questions about whether we washed it in the dishwasher (which we did) or used metal utensils with it (which we also did). They even tell us to keep the excellent heavy-duty glass lid.

Today, the postie arrived with a brand-new pan, and I felt a warm glow of consumer contentment. Aaaah.

Views from the Floor

Peter says:

For a moment, as I hovered my mouse over the Scanpan link, I thought it went to homocouture.com.

Goodness me, I thought. They are keen.

trish says:

I have a Scanpan that has been pushed to the back of the cupboard for the same reasons. Who do I call for a new one??

Virginia says:

Sheldon and Hammond is the distro company; their details are 02 9482 6666 / scanpan@sheldonandhammond.com.au

Tom says:

I had many dealings with Sheldon and Hammond in my retail slaving days. Good (expensive) stuff, but always willing to back it up.

It's nice when you come across a company that's willing to just replace a bung thing with a new one. If only the Federal Government followed such excellent industry practice. *Sigh*

Khoi Vinh says:

My girlfriend and I kicked teflon last year and went to all cast iron all the time. It's pretty affordable, produces very tasty results, and unlike teflon cast iron actually gets better with age and use. Not to mention the fact that over time, it gets more beautiful, which I find to be endlessly fascinating... modern consumer goods have lost that quality entirely.

Joel says:

They have to replace it like that, lifetime warranty against bubbling and peeling...

My problem is I have a large range of the scanpan pans and most of them are going back for their 4th replacement (in 5 years) for bubbling surfaces (that they guarantee against)..

Its good they honour their warranty, but it starts to get old, I know many people who are rather anti-scanpan, thanks to their overpriced junk..

Sorry sounds nasty, but I have to call a spade a spade..

amy says:

good to hear you were happy - I recently started at S&H as a Marketing Assistant, working closely with the girl who looks after Scanpan, and she tries her hardest to keep people happy! good to see the first thing i looked up was a positive, i knew changing jobs was a good idea!

Richard says:

Frankly I think Scanpan is overrated. I had a bad experience with my frypan which had like a rust coating on it. The store sent it back to Scampan who said the heat was too high. I hardly cook and my stove doesn't have a high heat to my frustration. They would not do anything about it.
My friend had exactly the same problem but this time the store said she had not used oil (she uses extra virgin olive oil everytime she cooks) or it had been put in the dishwasher and would not do anything despite the fact that Scanpan says it is dishwasher proof and it can be used without fat.
So I now refer to it as Scampan. From now on I will be using something that really does work.

Trevor says:

I've worked in the retail industry for awhile now and deal with all of the top brands in the kitchen...

Scanpan are fantastic IF treated with respect.

High heat causes the bubbling and flaking you talk about. That means pre-heating your pan on a medium heat for 4-5 minutes, then adding your oil (only natural oils...NO aerosol spray oils! They put a grip on your non-stick). heat the oil for 3 mins then add your food.

ALL NON-STICKS in the world can only be used on medium to low heat. High heat for boiling only in SOME brands like CIRCULON with it's Titanium based non-stick.

Metal utensils are fine as marks are wear and tear... Knives remember are cutlery! Not utensils.

Finally wash your pan in hot soapy water with a microfibre cloth preferably as this is the most efficient , gentle and long lasting of cleaning clothes.

After your pan is dry, use a cloth to apply a small amount of pure vegetable oil to pan as this lubricates the surface and extends its life.

Yes i do realise Scanpan has gained a bad name but a hellova lot of it's bad reputation is from abuse on our part ! BTW not being rude, but scanpan doesn't contain TEFLON> TEFLON is a brand name made by DUPONT and TEFLON isn't poisonous even when ingested...that story from the media talked about no-name brands that were subjected to the highest heat possible and even then they contained no PFOA... The chemical in question.

Virginia says:

Some good hints in there from "Trevor", so despite the dubious Scanpan marketing vibe I'm going to leave the comment in... but that's enough from Scanpan reps. Thanks for visiting.

Trevor says:

If Scanpan doesn;'t suit you; a good department store should let you exchange the replacement pan for another brand. Duponts Autograph non-stick hasn't had any teething problems at all. Try that; no metal utensils or dishwashers though :)

As i'm in Australia i'm not sure what the department stores are like there.

All the best :)

Don says:

ScamPan is the word, I was sold this pan by a woman in a large store in Brisbane who assured me that the non stick surface was guaranteed for 10 years. So when food started sticking (i did not use aerosols) just a little oil i was quite annoyed. I followed their cleaning tips but food kept sticking. They womt replace it so my question is... If it is a non stick surface that's what it should be, non stick for 10 years if food sticks then it is not a non stick surface like when it was new, eggs fell off. This is misleading advertising and i'll never buy a $150 pan again, back to the old $14 job and throw them out every 12 months.

otzi says:

Just had a le Chasseur cast pot plastic lid knob where the threads had stripped. Not receipt, no problems, a replacement was in the mail Friday and received Monday.

Quite impressed

John says:

We have a Scampan also. Despite what Trevor thinks, if you buy a non-stick Scanpan you expect to be able to cook something in it without it sticking. Especially when I read this from a web site selling their goods:
http://www.thecuttingedge.co.nz/scanpan.htm

* Full lifetime Warranty
* Pan base thickness has been researched to produce and fast heat up time and to distribute the heat evenly.
* Non stick surface
* No warping, blistering or peeling
* Safe to use metal utensils
* No need to pre oil your surface as you can cook your food without oil

So Trevor, you have to admit that it is totally misleading of them to claim that it is non-stick if, as you say, it is only on low to medium heat. They DO NOT say this.

Joel says:

Trevor do you work for scanpan?

I now have even the newest 'A' range scanpan baking dish bubble like crazy. It has only been used in the oven never above 200C and never on the stove top, yet it has bubbled???

I have as I said had replaced X, Z and A range pots, from pots to large casarole to the Wok, yet my analon mini-wok nor swiss diamond has bubbled. I'm sorry in my opinion it is not mistreatment, it is simply poor quality products..

Joel says:

I meant to say neither my anaolon nor swiss diamond have bubbled...

P.S. if you aren't meant to use high heat, why do they make a Scanpan Wok? do they not know how a wok is meant to be used?

Speak, friend, and enter


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