It's likely that most of us Americans have owned, at one time or another, the basic chrome Toastmaster toaster. Perhaps your parents passed it down to you when you moved out, or you found one at a garage sale. Those little toasters weren't fancy, but they sure did work well!
I gave mine to my son when he moved out. When I got up here to Alaska I bought a funky, non-Toastmaster that worked erratically until I decided, what the heck, I'll go get another reliable Toastmaster.
Little did I know that the original company who made the old ones had long since been taken over more than once. After several swaps, the Toastmaster brand now belongs to Salton. You may have heard of them, as I did, first when they came out with a yoghurt maker back in the 70s.
Living in Alaska means paying full retail for lots of things that are usually cheap in the Lower 48. Sometimes it means paying MORE than retail because the the high cost of shipping to this small island in the woods. Even at Wally World I paid at least retail for my new Toastmaster toaster.
It was new, it was roundy, chromey, and it had a button for bagel toasting. The big deal was that it didn't get hot on the outside, meaning that if the bread bag was too close to the toaster I wouldn't end up with melted plastic on the side of it. Neat, I thought. It looked it was the old, dependable Toastmaster toaster surrounded by a new "retro" shell to keep it cool. It had a huge countertop footprint. But all the toasters were like that. Bummer. So I bought the Toastmaster because I'd always found that brand to be reliable.
Right out of the box it never popped the bread all the way back up. I should have taken it back then. Now, only about two years after buying it, the elements are starting to fail. I have to turn the heat up to 6 now. When I first got it, 3 did the job and 4 burned the toast.
I found out that cleaning it was far more tricky than the old, trusty Toastmasters. Those old ones had a small latch, and the bottom swung open and you just held it over the trash and tapped it and all the crumbs fell out. All the crumbs.
The new model (T80BCWMT) has a teeny, tiny tray that slides out. You can dispose of about two tablespoons of crumbs that way. Then you just have to hold it over the trash or take it outside and keep whacking the side of it and shaking it for about fifteen minutes to get the other CUP of crumbs out. Can you say fire hazard?
Now I could have given a big sigh, and gone back to Wally World to try again, and buy another toaster. But it bothers me that a company that used to make a toaster that lasted decades, now makes one that won't work properly out of the box, and starts failing after only two years.
So I went to the Salton web site and sent them this email:
Hello,
I'm very dissatisfied with my Toastmaster toaster. It is model T80BCWMT.
I have had it for two years and it has never popped up all the way. I thought I could live with that but now it is starting to fail to toast consistently. The element must be failing already, because now I have to put it up on six when four used to be plenty hot.
I had an old Toastmaster toaster that I finally sold at a garage sale when I moved to Alaska. You know the one, the old, small compact chrome one that everyone and his brother had. It worked just FINE. I'm sorry I got rid of it!
I thought I'd stay with the brand when I got a new one. There were NO compact toasters available at the store where I bought this one, so I had to settle for this huge toaster ("cool touch"). That's life in the Far North, not much selection.
However the toaster shouldn't be failing after only two years, when the old one lasted 25!
I don't know what satisfaction you can give me, but I'm mighty disappointed with this toaster.
Sincerely,
Jean McDermott
This is their response:
Thank you for contacting us about your T80BCWMT. I apologize about the frustration that the product has caused you, however, since the product is out of the years warranty , we are unable to offer any warranty service for you. I am sincerely sorry if we did not meet your expectations for warranty service.
If you have any other questions feel free to let us know as we are always happy to assist you.
Thanks and have a great day.
Sincerely,
Kathy
REP
Consumer Relations
And my return email:
Hello Kathy,
While I appreciate your apology, I understand you must be repeating company policy.
So from what you say, I assume your company doesn't care if your products work past the one year warranty? Even though Toastmaster used to make toasters that lasted and worked perfectly for decades?
This is a policy that will shoot Salton in the foot. I'm certainly not going to buy another Toastmaster if it is only expected to work for one year or less.
It disturbs me to think that everyone must take their toasters to the landfill after two years.
I'm sure their sales strategy is to make them cheaply in China (of course!) so that they can have a "competitive" price. First of all, I didn't get to buy it at a "competitive" price, and second, the accomplishment isn't BUYING the toaster, it's toasting the bread! If the appliance doesn't WORK, what's the point in being able to get it CHEAP?
Notice that she doesn't appear to have a last name, while I use my full name in my correspondence. And what she says is that after one year, if it doesn't work, tough luck!
Wally World isn't going to see me shopping for a toaster any time soon. I'll be hitting the thrift shops to see if I can find a pre-Salton pre-corporate buyout Toastmaster toaster. The kind that lasted so long you passed it on to your kids.
As for the old one, it will sit on the recycle platform at the dump transfer station so that whoever wants a free toaster can take it and use it until it dies. But after that, it's toast.
