I grill dinner for our family in one way or another a couple times a week most of the time. Sometimes more and sometimes less. The last couple weeks the grill hasn’t been working as well as it had been. Not heating up nearly the same amount, and it didn’t look like one of the burners was turning on currently.
So, this last weekend I decided to tear it apart and see what was wrong and see about fixing it. Well, the issue was seen quickly. Two of the burners had dropped down into the unit on one end because where they attached to be level had rusted away. And I mean it was all gone, and upon further looking there was massive rust in other places as well. Needless to say this was not something that was going to get fixed easily (or really at all). I talked to my wife and she said it was ok if I got a new grill. I had already been thinking about it before this, but I took this as the “It is time” sign.
That evening I spent a couple hours investigating grills, and boy I was a bit surprised. I didn’t want a cheap grill, but I didn’t realize that a cheap grill was over $500. I didn’t want to go used since I was concerned about the same thing happening with it that has happened to this grill that I had. So the looking continued and I found that it looked like $1000-$1500 was going to be needed to get what I was looking for without spending WAY too much. I wanted something that was going to last at least 10+ years like the one I was replacing had.
On a whim I looked on offer up and there was a BBQ business nearby that said they had an open box Weber s435 grill for $1000. The regular price is $1749. I contacted them to find out what the issue with it was and they said it was opened and then the purchaser realized they bought the wrong fuel type grill and returned it. I thought, sounds good. So, I went down to look at it and others they had. While there they tried to convince me that the Weber was a lower end grill compared to the other grills they sold, and the Webers they had on display certainly seemed of lesser overall quality to the other, but it was also less expensive than the others. After much debating with myself (internally) and a quick call to my wife I decided to go with the Weber since it was such a good price.
Oh, I didn’t mentioned that I couldn’t see the grill since it was fully taped up and plastic wrapped.
So, I was able to load the box in my SUV and take it home. I had no time to open it that night and so the next day I worked really hard to get all my other work stuff done so I could put the grill together. I went outside, opened it up, and after taking a few boxes out and the instructions, I saw a Ziploc bag shoved in the box. When I pulled it out I found these 3 pieces, and I thought, “That doesn’t look good.” Sure enough the lid has a large hole in it. Clearly something hit it hard, and then they returned it. This was undisclosed to me at the time of purchase.
So, I called and the manager said, “Sorry about that. We can order you a replacement lid for it.” I figured sure if it can get here quickly that is fine, but what if there are other issues? He told me that I could go ahead and put the thing together and see what happens, and if there are any other issues that I can contact them and return it if needed. I told them once it is together I can’t return it since I can’t transport it, but they said they would come and get it.
So, as of right now I am grilless. I am not sure what to do about it. Part of me wants to put it together and see if it works and part of me wants to return it and get something else. But everything else was more expensive (and a little smaller but that isn’t an issue).
I realize they probably wouldn’t have made a sale if they had disclosed that the lid had a hole in it, but at the same time I think that if they knew there was a hole in it they would have ordered a replacement lid before trying to sell it.
I don’t know. Once my wife gets home, I am going to talk to her some more about it as well. Maybe she will want it returned and I will take her advice. I will provide updates once things change.
I am blessed to be able to get a replacement grill when needed, and therefore I should be happy, but boy am I frustrated…