Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

The unit was good for some things, but multiple times following pretty standard recipes from the Instant Pot manual itself the unit gave an overheating warning and before much could be done food was scorched on the bottom. One night it gave another warning the food was overheating, and sure enough it was burning the hell out of a baked bean recipe with plenty of liquid. I had to toss the food down the garbage disposal, and a while later there was a very bad electrical smell from the kitchen. The unit was smoking, popped, there was a spark, more smoke. Very noxious fumes. I contacted customer support. They requested pictures and I sent them. Here was their response: "Thank you for the pictures, we are sorry that your base got melted did you left the base on after you took the inner pot out or left on top of a heating element, our pot has 10 safety features to prevent any over heating, by the pictures that you send the melting is from the outside in is perfectly melted evenly and clear that was sent on a heating element, you can definitely purchase a new base for $60.00 Please advice." Asking if I left the base on after I took the inner pot out?! Is it against the warranty to do this, because that's a pretty normal practice when you're cooking complicated things that need drained or swapped out. Did I "left" it on top of a heating element? Ummm, left if on a heating element, as if it's okay to put the unit on an open flame, just don't leave it there? WTF? And wouldn't their be grill marks? hah Telling me the unit has 10 safety features so surely couldn't have had an issue.... again, google instant pot recalls. Units had to be recalled previously because they were transmitting electricity throughout the entire units posing a risk of electric shock! I very clearly explained to them it was having issues cooking things properly and kept burning stuff, and then this happened which smelled like an electrical problem, as there was smoke and a capacitor that popped and noxious fumes.... and the response: "That is correct, the overheating error will appear on the screen and the pot will turn it self off, this damaged was not cause by the heat inside the base, as per your picture the whole heating element is untouched. Please advice if you want to proceed in purchasing a new base." They're trying to say the overheating error on the screen has to do with electrical fires as well as your food getting too hot.... and that because the heating elements were fine inside the pot that it's obvious the unit didn't malfunction electrically, despite the electrics obviously not being inside the pot, but under, where it burned and melted. UPDATE: I first emailed them March 20th. After incoherent and very defensive/obstinate responses from customer support, including an email that said "please see the pictures attached from honest customers" with three straight emails sending me pictures I didn't request, I asked the customer support agent to stop and to forward our correspondence to a supervisor. The response "I did not spam your email, i did send you pictures of customers that had melted their pot, and proof that this kind of damaged is not cause by the product but from the user." Funny thing is the pictures attached looked nothing like the damage to my unit, but whatever, after requesting to speak with a supervisor the customer service agent said she'd send me a new base. I again requested to speak with a supervisor, for the third time, and got a response from someone else who again address no concerns, didn't respond to anything that had occurred, and simply emailed me saying the base was being sent by fedex. Please note that I didn't ask for a replacement, nor authorize it, and they simply sent one without asking or verifying my address, so sent it to my previous address since that was listed on the invoice I provided. So now somebody is going to get a random pressure cooker base in the mail and a supervisor has still not contacted me as I requested. I've never in my life seen such bad customer service. From denying your product could ever be faulty, to then determining with a few pictures that not only was it the customer's fault but that it would be a good idea to send three straight emails to the customer with pictures of OTHER people's damage claiming it's from 'honest' customers, and of course trying to SELL the customer a new product every step of the way. Then, to top it off, when I request a supervisor review the interaction and contact me I get ignored other than them apparently thinking it appropriate to send a new base out without any verification or request so it goes to someone else! Absolutely absurd. And, like I said, the unit was neat at first, but I kept getting overheating errors messages and burnt/wasted dinners. And if you ever do have a problem with the unit good luck trying to communicate with them.