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Farberware Repairs

On 5/9/01, Jay of Montclair, NJ sent us a copy of a letter to the Attorney General of Pennsylvania. It echoes other complaints we've received. Excerpts appear below:

Dear PA Attorney General Mike Fisher,
Farberware is one of the nation's oldest and largest manufactures of pots and pans. If you need factory service on Farberware cookware manufactured before a certain date, there is only one place in the USA to go: the Farberware authorized factory service center in Berwick, PA, also known as All American Lighting, aka Berwick Lighting, 335 S Poplar St., Berwick PA 18603, and its principal, Mr. Frank Bedosky (570-759-1078). I have been defrauded by Farberware Home Products, but more importantly, there appears to be a pattern of ... consumer abuse ... occurring at this company, and I am just one of hundreds affected by it.

In my particular case: My wife and I own Farberware's top of the line Millenium cookware, which carries a lifetime guarantee. The cookware has failed (and from many accounts, this happens routinely), the nonstick coating has flaked off, gotten into our food, into our stomachs, making the pots unsafe to use. To repair the pots, whether you live in Alaska, Florida, California or Maine, you must send your pots prepaid to Berwick PA.

In my case, I sent on 1/23/01 a box of 4 pots for repair. The package was received on 1/25/01 at 2:56 p.m. and signed for by F. Knorr. Before I sent the pots, I was told repairs would 8 weeks, itself outrageously long. It has now been 15 weeks and I do not have my pots back. Each time I call to inquire about my pots, the story is a different one, but always with a common theme: your pots are not ready.

Why is this significant?

1. About 40,000 consumers a year must deal with this repair facility, according to Bedosky. (I do not know if all of these people have failed Farberware cookware, but if so, it suggests a proactive product recall might have been in order). While Farberware Home Products has your pans, you can't cook. Since January, my wife and I have been unable to fry an egg, make an omelet, make my daughter a grilled-cheese sandwich, heat soup, or boil water for pasta or oatmeal. We have missed Valentine's Day, Passover, and Easter and lost the opportunity to cook dinner on 105 consecutive nights.

2. Once a consumer (sends a product to Bedosky), he/she has no place else to turn. There is no Farberware parent company to appeal to. There is no Farberware President, or Vice President of Customer Service, or Consumer Relations Department. There is just an enormous ... void, left by the creation of series of shell corporations, such as Lifetime Hoan, of Westbury, NY, and Syratech Corporation, of East Boston, MA, each of which apparently has acquired the right to profit from the Farberware name, but not the obligation to honor the Farberware warranty, nor assume any responsibility for the thousands who are apparently eating poisonous, nonstick coating for dinner.

So, the consumer's fate rests with Mr. Frank A. Bedosky. When repairs are required, he doesn't make them. When refunds are due to consumers, he refuses to send them, and then, once he does, the checks bounce. (See attached).

In my last phone conversation with Bedosky, at 10:21 am on 4/24/01, Bedosky told me that I would absolutely positively have my pots and pans back in my hands by Tuesday, May 1. I told him at that time, on that phone call, that if I did not receive the pots back by May 1, I would take it as evidence of criminal fraud, and I would contact the Pennsylvania Attorney General. Naturally, the pans did not arrive on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and they did not arrive today the 7th. I gave Bedosky a full week of grace before writing this letter. Yes, I want my pots back - but that is now the least of it.

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