Hearth & Patio Shoppe

This mainly applies to the TEC grills they sell but it does include valuable information about this dealer as well.



My wife bought me a TEC grill from Hearth and Patio for my birthday and I was so excited. It worked even better than I thought it would and the food tasted great!



Now the bad stuff...



The grill grates which are stated to be stainless steel rusted after only 2 grilling sessions. I followed the manufactures instructions to the letter as far as burn off goes so I can only assume the grade of stainless is poor. I contacted Hearth and Patio who was surprised and asked that I bring the grates by for him to look at. I did and he was floored, he ordered replacement grates for me and had them delivered within a few days.



Round 2 - New grates and 2 more grilling sessions guess what? The grates rusted again just the same as the first set! I contacted the dealer and he gave the customer service number at TEC this time. I called TEC and the first think they said was it was my fault as I must have cleaned the grates with a steel brush instead of a brass one. I informed (Sandra I think) that I bought the brass bruss from my dealer and that is the only brush I own. TEC does not want to believe the grates are rusted and askes for pictures. I e-mail them pictures of the rust (I'm an engineer, I know what rust is) and they still deny it to be rust. TEC says just clean them with Easy Off oven cleaner. I try the Easy Off and it doesn't work. TEC then reluctantly agrees to send another set of grates.



Round 3 - After 2 more grilling sessions...well you get the picture by now RUST!!!!! - Called TEC, they are down right nasty now and say the owner is a genius and he has looked at the other grates I returned and that orange flaking metal is not rust. They then say that they are done replacing the grates and talk to me a like a piece of garbage. I then decide to go talk to Hearth and Patio again and show him the grates and he agrees that it is rust and says he will call the company to try and sort it out. I never hear from the dealer again and he doesn't return my messages.



At this point I decide my fun happy birthday present has turned into a 2 month nightmare and I decide to cut my loses. My wife paid $4000 for the complete setup. I was only able to sell it for $1300. I lost $2700!!!! Happy Birthday to me!



The way I was treated by the company and in the end the dealer just left such a bad taste that I had to sell it. In retrospect I wish I had kept the grill and just fabricated my own stainless grill grates but then what if something else broke...they probably wouldn't fix it. Nice lifetime warranty.