A couple of weeks ago, my fiance and I attended a wedding expo. She filled out the information card at the door, and a few days after the show, she got a call. They said that she won a trip for two, airfare and hotel to a warm place for 3 days and 2 nights. She asked if there was a catch, and they told her that she and I had to attend a 90 minute ‘cooking show’ the next week to claim the prize. They said only 10 couples won. After she told me, I immediately reacted that it was a scam–it’s pretty rare to get something for nothing these days. But I didn’t receive the call, she did, and she wanted to go. Since I like cooking, I figured it couldn’t be all that bad.
We arrive at the Seatac hotel where the meeting was being held, and there are 4 other couples there. A charismatic guy gets friendly with everyone by calling them by name, making smalltalk, and just being an all around ‘good guy’. I immediately realize what’s going on. He starts talking on and on about how important health is, how you can’t put a price on it, how few things last a lifetime. On and on. He pulls out some worn pots and pans and a piece of steel wool. After scrubbing the various materials, cast iron, aluminum, teflon, he performs a dramatic demonstration whereby he pours the gray metal flake liquid into a cup and asks, “Do you want to be eating this?” An so, he goes on the talk about the lawsuits against Dupont, the inefficient heat transfer properties of stainless steel, the instructions that come with non-stick cookware.
Eventually, he tosses some carrots and chicken breast into a pot and brags that the pot can cook the chicken perfectly without water, without oil, by using the perfect temperature and his cookware. Theres a science portion where the 9-ply patented construction and alloys are described (but not really), and on and on. Judy and I play along because we’d just seen the exact same demonstration the day before at the Puyallup Fair. After 2 and a half hours, finally he starts to wrap up and tells us the price. $1995 for the 9 piece set.
This cookware probably isn’t the worst– its heavy, and probably decent at conducting heat. But the whole premise is a scam; there was a bait and switch going on. It won’t stop you from eating fast food. It won’t stop you from cooking things that actually taste good and have oil and water. It won’t even stop you from going out. They are only selling the cookware, but they try to make you to believe you are buying a lifestyle. Their marketing guys are brilliant.
The ‘free trip’ we were promised is, as expected, also a scam. Airfare is NOT included, the offer is for 2 nights at select hotels, and they require a $50 “deposit” to even start the process. How is that free? Why would they need that?
In the end, I don’t think anyone actually bought the stuff. Honestly, I thought asking people to fork over $2-$3k for some pots in a hotel conference room was pretty ridiculous. I think high quality cookware and knives are valuable, but the hard-sell and dishonest marketing instantly turns me off. Great products sell themselves. I wish the FTC could just end these scams once and for all. Stay away from this stuff, and the company.
