Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Whatever the good point of the Magic Bullet (it makes smoothies and grinds coffee beans ALMOST as well as a Cuisinart Food Processor/Blender and costs the same amount of money), they are completely overshadowed by the facts that: 1.) The simplest replacement parts are a HUGE hassle to get. 2.) Homeland Housewares level of customer service is way lower than average. After less than a year's gentle, intermittent use, my Bullet chewed up both of 2 the gaskets it came with. Should be a simple and cheap replacement, right? Wrong! When I frirst contacted Homeland Housewares, the manufacturer, I was told flat out, that because my Bullet wasn't purchased directly from them (it had been a house warming present, purchased at Macy's), I could not buy replacement parts from the manufacturer. AND they could not recommend another source for them. My machine was effectively dead after only 7.5 months of use. Searching the web 5 months later, I saw that the manufacturer was now offering to sell parts to everyone stuck with a non-functional Magic Bullet. But not without a huge hassle. Homeland Housewares demands that its customers, who have already been inconvenienced by the premature break down of its product, now invest the time & effort to send them 4 different photos of the machine AND a photo of the free recipe booklet included with the machine--yes, you heard right--the recipe booklet, BEFORE they will be granted the privilege of spending MORE money with the company to buy replacement gaskets. I explained to Homeland Housewares' phone rep that photos taken with your average digital camera would not reproduce copy from the back of the machine which would be readable. The rep said, "Don't worry about it. Send them anyway." Two days later, I get an email reply from Homeland Housewares saying my photos are inadequate; before they'll allow me to purchase gaskets, they want me to submit a new set of photos. Photos showing WHAT, they neglected to say. My girlfriend spent $83 for this glorified coffee grinder! It worked adequately for 7.5 months, before it chewed its own gaskets to pulp and became a dead weight. Now, I will not be "permitted" to give the manufacturer money for 4 new gaskets, unless my photos meet approval standards I was not informed of before I submitted the first set. After 5.5 years, my Cuisinart Food Processor/Blender continues to make superior smoothies, among myriad other functions it performs beautifully, and Cuisinart has been beautifully responsive to my every question and need. Next time you consider a Magic Bullet as a house warming gift, I recommend the Cuisinart Food Processor/Blender, instead.