CHEFS Catalog

Full review
A few months ago a friend in another town got me a $100 gift card for CHEFS Catalog. .

Despite his calling and verifying my address, it took FOUR attempts to get me the gift card in the first place. They even sent it to the wrong address the last time, but the postman recognized the name and, since the address was for a non-existent house on my street was able to put 2 and 2 together.

When it finally showed up, the box contained the catalog and two gift cards, one for $100 and one for $25, which I figure they included as a make good for all the inconvenience.

I went online 11/29 and ordered a Le Creuset stock pot, a set of 4 Henckels steak knives and a digital timer, which totaled $139.97 and put the difference on my debit card. The response message listed all the items as being in stock and said I would get an email when things shipped.

When no email arrived, I sent them three different email requests checking on my order status and heard nothing back. So I called them on 12/13. The woman I spoke with seemed nice enough and was able to quickly pull up the order for me. She said the $100 gift card had had the funds frozen and that I’d have to call their gift card provider to find out what was up.

She fumbled for a minute when I asked for the number but was able to look it up eventually. When I called the gift card company, their system is entirely interactive voice response based (Press 1 for English, 2 for information, etc.). I tried to zero out to an operator, no dice. I tried all the shortcuts I’ve learned in more than 10 years working for telecom companies, still no dice.

I navigated the menus to check on my card. It was fine. It had been authorized 12/6 (7 days after I’d placed the order) and still showed a $100 balance. So I then input the 19 digit code for the other, $25, card. It had been authorized on 12/9 and had a remaining balance of $4.

I called Chef’s Catalog back and they’re “looking into it.” I’m going to push to get this resolved, then they can be certain they will never, ever, get another dollar from me or anyone else I can talk out of doing business with them.

They are awful at fulfillment and their prices aren’t enough cheaper than Sur la Table to warrant the hassle.

Need something higher end for your kitchen? Use http://www.surlatable.com/or another provider before doing any business with Chef's Catalog.

My friend feels awful for subjecting me to this incompetent company. I’m livid because they can’t or won’t give me a straight answer and have screwed up every single aspect of what should have been a simple, straightforward transaction.