Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Well, fellow Amazoners, I must humbly admit that I broke my own personal cardinal rule of NEVER buying anything on Amazon unless I had first read several reviews about it. I absolutely count on the reviews of fellow Amazoners to help guide me in my choices -- but since I had bought a couple sets of this Fiesta Meregenue flatware several years ago (from another seller) and absolutely LOVED it, I totally jumped at the opportunity to buy another set here on Amazon for such a reasonable price. And now how very disappointed I truly am. Before I explain further, it's important that I tell you that after my first 2 original sets, over the next couple of years I bought 2 more because I loved them so much. I began to notice as time went by, however, that on some of the pieces the plastic was lifting away from the metal--and indeed on a few of them a big chunk of it had cracked and fallen off. I could think of nothing I was doing that would cause this unless it was the fact that I always washed them in the dishwasher. So, as inconvenient as it was, I began to always wash them by hand. Always. I didn't like it, but I did it. Recently, when I saw this set available here on Amazon at such a great price, I couldn't resist buying another set. Did I bother to read reviews? No, I did not. I already knew how much I liked them, so what was the point? They came in the mail and I started using them. They did seem just a little "off" to me but I couldn't quite place my finger on it. Was the color not quite right? No, it seemed okay. Was the weight different? I couldn't tell a difference. But something just didn't seem right. So just for the heck of it, I thought I'd check out some reviews to see if anyone else was experiencing this issue. I had every intention of writing a 5 star review for this flatware while I was at it until -- hold the phone -- I started noticing how many reviews mentioned "made in China" and NOT made by Fiestaware. WHAT!?? I immediately went to my kitchen drawer, hauled out ALL of my Fiesta flatware and started looking at the engraved wording on each piece. Sure enough, about half of them read "Fiesta" and the other half read "China." My next move was to look at each and every BROKEN piece and - surprise, surprise - every one of these was stamped "China". Not ONE of the broken ones had the "Fiesta" stamp. So I don't know if these are Chinese knock-offs (in which case I would wonder why Fiesta hasn't been all over that one legally) or if Fiesta is actually allowing this substandard manufacturing of their formerly quality product to go on WITH their knowledge and, in fact, allowing them to blatantly use the "Fiesta" name. Whichever way it is, all I know is that I feel like I've been duped here. Now I know WHY so many pieces have been falling apart. This leads me to believe that in all likelihood, as long as you have the REAL Fiestaware flatware, you can probably wash them in the dishwasher until the cows come home without any issue of them falling apart. However, if anyone out there has been having problems with rust (that's never been an issue with my flatware) or breakage and you DO have the original FIESTA flatware, I would love to know about it. There are so many people who love this flatware - and it really is just too cute, isn't it? I can't even count the number of comments I've gotten on it over the years. And frankly, I'm one of those people who changes dishes like underwear - often! :) But ever since I found these, I have NEVER changed my flatware, I just love it that much. And I really do want to keep purchasing it - I just want to make sure it's the real deal. And according to the reviews I'm reading here, I'm not alone in that desire. So a HUGE thank you to those of you who took the time to bring the "China" thing to the attention of the rest of us. Thanks to you, I will never be duped again - at least not with Fiesta flatware! :)