Bullseye Disgusted new owner

[CandTmakes8]

Bought a bullseye last month on advice from a friend. Less than satisfied so far with quality control.

1st one came after lengthy shipping delays. Box was destroyed. Had to replace lower grate, hinge and chamber probe. Took another week to get all the parts as the first order only came with 2/3 parts I needed. Took my time to rebuild the product only to find out there is an issue with the igniter. I told customer service I was done repairing it and wanted a replacement. 5 weeks so far and I finally got my replacement. Guess what? Replacement has the meat probe hanging by the cords and the bottom grill is damaged AGAIN! I have now missed labor day cookouts and tomorrow is my wife's birthday. Guess I won't be smoking for that either. Customer service was helpful and friendly. After the customer service rep spoke with his supervisor, here's my options.

1) return both for full refund. I only have 1 box so I'm not sure how that will work.

2) more new parts sent to me and I get to rebuild yet another bullseye for a $100 credit. Gee thanks recteq!

Signed,
Absolutely disgusted

 

[C. Keeper]

Bought a bullseye last month on advice from a friend. Less than satisfied so far with quality control.

1st one came after lengthy shipping delays. Box was destroyed. Had to replace lower grate, hinge and chamber probe. Took another week to get all the parts as the first order only came with 2/3 parts I needed. Took my time to rebuild the product only to find out there is an issue with the igniter. I told customer service I was done repairing it and wanted a replacement. 5 weeks so far and I finally got my replacement. Guess what? Replacement has the meat probe hanging by the cords and the bottom grill is damaged AGAIN! I have now missed labor day cookouts and tomorrow is my wife's birthday. Guess I won't be smoking for that either. Customer service was helpful and friendly. After the customer service rep spoke with his supervisor, here's my options.

1) return both for full refund. I only have 1 box so I'm not sure how that will work.

2) more new parts sent to me and I get to rebuild yet another bullseye for a $100 credit. Gee thanks recteq!

Signed,
Absolutely disgusted

You need to find better friends.

 

[okie]

I've had 3 590's and one 1070, and one 380 received in our family and only the 380 was damaged (bottom cover grate on hopper) and the part was easily replaced. Have seen several c/o 380 damage in transit. Conclusion: poor packaging, cheaper construction. In each case RT did the right thing. However, they might do better to correct the weakness that allowed the damage. IMO the hopper portion could be made of stouter material which is easy to see when you lift up with the handle. Also, the shipping box could be improved to protect the hopper assembly. Sorry for your trouble.

 

[Mozekian]

Ironically RecTeq just went on social media showing their scratch and dent inventory for the festival this month...hundreds and hundreds of grills in there. If I were a business, and I had a few hundred scratch and dents on hand, I would seriously be looking at why these grills are getting these scratches and dents in the first place.

 

[SmokeOCD]

Search enough and you'll find 3 seems to be the magic number.
Although making it an IKEA Bullseye kinda sucks - should be new bullseye traded for old bullseye.
I can never recommend a RECTEQ to a friend because of this ongoing shipping B.S. - I'm very happy with what I have but I would feel almost as bad as you do if I was the one to recommend it to you.
Good Luck!

PS - $100 off is 25% that is a pretty hefty discount.

 

[Thor8594]

That sucks! It doesn't seem like the unit left RecTeq damaged but more so on the shipping company. Way too many complaints on the poor shipping and handling or should I say lack of handling. Hope you get it all sorted out, after all, they aren't bad units.

 

[RipJones]

I OWN a Bulls-Eye, and thankfully, did not have to deal with any shipping issues. That being said, I DID have a problem at first, with a hardened clump of grease on the fan. Customer Service said to raise the hopper end of the grill, and let it drop to the ground -- problem solved. Kinda harsh resolution, but hey, it worked. When I was at RT-HQ for the April Academy, they took us through the warehouse. I was amazed at probably 50 or so 590s on shelves -- scratch and dents off the ship, I'm guessing. I'm assuming also that some of those that we saw, are some of the supposed 500 grills that will be for sale on 10/22. They have the back corner of the warehouse FULL of scratch and dents. I would believe 500 units. Interesting to note that they now ask you if you want to use Estes or someone else to ship your grill, if you call RT-HQ and order. LASTLY, Culpepper Ace Hardware is now a RETAIL source for Rec-Teq. You can pick up grills, pellets, and rubs. Do not know if this means that Ace has kicked Traegar to the curb, or it is just Culpepper Ace. Pellet prices are the same -- $20 for 40 pounds.

 

[Greg Jones]

Just a thought on the numbers here, if RT has ‘hundreds’ of seconds on sale on their annual S&D sale and some think that is excessive-how hundreds of thousands of grills do you think are now selling annually? This is little consolation to anyone that receives a damaged grill, but RT is no longer a small grill manufacturer. Be thankful that they will replace or compensate those who receive damaged product.

 

[Greg Jones]

Also note that all the grills that recteq uses at Academy and other events are offered at a discount to participants of those events at a discount. Any unsold grills go in to the S&D inventory, even though they are otherwise perfectly pristine. So imagine if this is what you have after multiple Academy events a year.

 

[Waterboy]

@CandTmakes8 I too had issues getting a Bullseye shipped in acceptable condition. I had no problem with my RT700 but the Bullseye took three shipments before I got one I was OK with. While I agree $100 is a fairly generous discount it sucks that you have to repair a brand new grill. I will say that after all the frustration passed and I got cooking on it, I’m glad I stuck with it.

 

[SmokeZilla]

I am sorry this was your first RT experience. Stories like yours are becoming way to familiar on too many forums and posts. Unfortunately, RT seems reluctant to understand customer satisfaction shouldn’t rely on your ability to negotiate and become a repairperson after the fact. They (RT) could solve their shipping issues the same way Samsonite Luggage (sorry for dating myself) did in their commercials. Samsonite put their luggage in with a gorilla whose sole purpose was to destroy it. Not saying the carriers are gorillas (primarily because they can apply intelligence quicker and on a more repetitive basis) but you get the concept. Take a packaged grill that has been probed with sensors and give it the old 4 axis drop test. Theoretically their are only 3 axis but if they really wanted closed loop corrective action, they could add the 4th as a negative G / negative atmospheric test to really get some good results. The irony is that RT seems complacent that the cost of replacement and reshipment is not as important as the cost of higher first pass yield, initial customer satisfaction and predictable use. That could obviously be treacherous ground to stumble upon because most people probably spend more than $100 in personal time and labor trying to fix problems they should be aware of.

Now, if I put my RT “fanboy” hat on, perhaps the business case is to make it so problematic that you drive people away from the base models (no disrespect intended) to their higher end models where there may be better margins. If true, ask Toyota and Honda how that worked out for the US auto industry.

 

[RipJones]

Also note that all the grills that recteq uses at Academy and other events are offered at a discount to participants of those events at a discount. Any unsold grills go in to the S&D inventory, even though they are otherwise perfectly pristine. So imagine if this is what you have after multiple Academy events a year.

View attachment 17664

At the April 2022 Academy, there was never any mention about us buying the grills that they used for the Academy. That WAS the case for the Academies that were held at Evans Town Center Park. They were even GIVING away grills during raffles for participants. A friend of mine, won a 340, and he was one of the media folks that covered the first Academy. During the April 2022 Academy, they did give us 15% off anything we wanted to buy, including scratch and dent stuff on the loading dock.

 

[Greg Jones]

At the April 2022 Academy, there was never any mention about us buying the grills that they used for the Academy…

Interesting, wonder why the change. We went to Academy at Evans in December 2020. They had tags on each of the Bullseye and 700 grills used, and we were invited to take the tags to the retail store to purchase. We were offered a discount on NIB grills as well.

 

[SmokeZilla]

Maybe they found out the Academy used are collectors editions like baseball trading cards. haha. A buck is a buck.

 

[Beach Bum]

We will be at the academy next month. Can't wait, no matter what deals they offer. My dream is to find a Wyldside hidden in the warehouse.

 

[Greg Jones]

We will be at the academy next month. Can't wait, no matter what deals they offer. My dream is to find a Wyldside hidden in the warehouse.

I wouldn’t be surprised if you did. If you do find one and it’s missing some parts, don’t let that automatically scare you off. If takes the same grates as the 590 and there are plenty of options for a rotisserie. I haven’t even used the OEM rotisserie yet, as I bought an aftermarket unit from OneGrill.

 

[Beach Bum]

I wouldn’t be surprised if you did. If you do find one and it’s missing some parts, don’t let that automatically scare you off. If takes the same grates as the 590 and there are plenty of options for a rotisserie. I haven’t even used the OEM rotisserie yet, as I bought an aftermarket unit from OneGrill.

Good to know. Thanks! The bigger challenge may be convincing my wife that we need one. Hopefully the RT crew can help with that.

 

[Greg Jones]

You don’t need one, but there’s nothing more fun than cooking on a Santa Maria style grill. I don’t use mine often because there is more work involved, but nothing beats the fun factor. Especially if you like to cook with family/friends gathered around a grill. Everyone will love it.

 

[Beach Bum]

You don’t need one, but there’s nothing more fun than cooking on a Santa Maria style grill. I don’t use mine often because there is more work involved, but nothing beats the fun factor. Especially if you like to cook with family/friends gathered around a grill. Everyone will love it.

Yes, need is a funny word. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[RipJones]

We will be at the academy next month. Can't wait, no matter what deals they offer. My dream is to find a Wyldside hidden in the warehouse.

You will have a blast ! You will eat and drink to excess. Take pictures of everything they display, and then you can go back and document. Since your Academy will be after RecTeqFest, the scratch and dent offerings might be a little scarce. There is special RT Swag that is only available to Academy. They have an awesome cutting board and knives. Chef Greg will probably offer to sharpen your newly purchased knives. When he is done, you can shave the fuzz off of a peach. Have Fun !! You will consume some of the most expensive meats you may ever see again. They spare no expense.