Posted Fri Mar 14, 2008, 4:52pm Subject: @#$%^&*(O Magister!!!
So after five months, after calling the repair shop repeatedly, the owner calls me back from the coffee show in Milwaukee and tells me my rebuilt Magister MS-40 (the consolation prize for being unable to fix my Livia 90A) had been ready for awhile and that I could pick it up today. Went to the shop at the appointed time today to pick, phoned from the parking lot (to avoid having to bang on the back door), and the owner answered. When I said who I was and I was there to pick up my machine, he asked, "The Oscar?" Uh-oh. "No, the Magister you rebuilt for me." "Oh, yeah, that one. Wait a sec." I went out to the door and waited; after about a couple of minutes the door opened and the owner's son stood there holding the Magister. It was FILTHY, and had some sort of plastic grid atop the cup-holder (which I don't remember having been there when I first got the machine way back in October). He put it in the car, whereupon he apologized for the dirt and mentioned he had tested it and there was water in the tank. I mentioned the PF seems to be missing; he said that he's sure he left it with me. I brought it home, had my son carry it into the house, and plugged it in. Sounded like the autofill kicking in for a second and then it went silent. Took 15 minutes for the pressure gauge to go up into the green, and the orange ready light never went out, though I could hear the pressurestat clicking on and off. I also noticed that the PF didn't seem to fit unless I maneuvered the steam wand around it (something that would be inadvisable with the steam wand up to temp), but it fit my Silvia and the Silvia's fit it easily (go figure). Tested the steam wand once the pressure gauge went into the green, and it steamed the milk fairly coarsely (the wand has an integrated 3-hole tip I couldn't remove to replace with the ProGold I'd had on the Livia). However, once I turned the knob back to the "closed" position the knob hesitated and kept turning (stripped bushing?). Then came the test, after it had been on nearly 3/4 hr. Loaded the basket up with the same amount and grind of Greenline I'd used on the Silvia in the early afternoon, tamped, locked in the PF, and hit the brew switch. Sounded like a submachine gun--and the needle jittered within the lowest reaches of the green. At first I thought I'd choked it and then the espresso came out in thin, fast transparent streams with no crema. Awful. And the puck was soupy. Tried varying the dose and coarsening the grind, and this time nothing but water came out the spouts (with steam all around). Turned off the brew switch and unlocked--the puck was nearly dry. Then I tried running water out with no coffee--first, with an empty PF and then with no PF--by then nothing but steam was coming out the grouphead. Noticed there was water coming out the outlet, so the hoses are sucking the water out of the tank. Tried withdrawing and reinserting the hoses, to no avail. (Using Crystal Geyser). Called the shop, described the problem, and the owner said he'd come over Monday (I'm out of town again tomorrow, alas) and work on it (for free) so we don't have to keep transporting it up and back. He also said he'd bring flyers for new machines (uh-oh again, though perhaps he saw promising stuff at the show up in Milwaukee). I get the sneaky feeling that this may not be the same Magister I was originally given. And I was shocked by all the grime--dust, paint flakes--on the drip tray and cover; I'd venture to guess that the machine had been "ready" for a long time and my calls just went unanswered. (Considered doing a backflush, but the son said it had been cleaned and "tested." I suspect they never "test" it by pulling a shot and tasting it. At any rate, the grouphead and gasket were clean as a whistle). My guess is that the problem is some sort of obstruction to the water lines into the grouphead. Didn't see any leaks out the bottom this time, though, so have no idea why the ready light never went out and the needle barely made it into the green. Would have unplugged it and taken off the cover myself, but couldn't find the screws or screw access holes.
Meanwhile, plugged Silvia back in, took her PF (still loaded with the dry puck) out of the Magister, locked it into Silvia, and pulled a shot--crema galore. Ah, Silvie, you're a fine girl---why couldn't you have been born an HX????
Sandy www.sandyandina.com ------------------- Life's too short to drink lousy coffee, play crummy guitars and write with ballpoint pens.
Posted Fri Mar 14, 2008, 6:32pm Subject: Re: @#$%^&*(O Magister!!!
Seems odd that they would give you a machine that's filthy let alone one that doesn't work properly. Is he trying to give/sell you a different machine rather than fix the other one by bringing flyers? I'd be really mad if I brought one in and it came back filthy because it would make me wonder what it went through to get that way. Hope you resolve the problem.
frcn Senior Member Joined: 23 Dec 2001 Posts: 637 Location: Yankee Hill Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Vibiemme Domobar Super Grinder: Mazzer Kony, 2Baratzas Vac Pot: Hario, 2 Cory pots, 1 Cory... Drip: Bunn A10 mod for temperature... Roaster: 4Hottops, 1HWP, 1 Gourmet
Posted Fri Mar 14, 2008, 6:46pm Subject: Re: @#$%^&*(O Magister!!!
Sounds like some sort of scam (like maybe they gave the better machine to someone else and pawned this POS off on you- but I bet you already thought of that). They do not sound reputable and certainly less than dependable or trustworthy. The "test" of the machine before delivery was probably: 1) Plug it in. 2) No smoke? No Sparks? 3) Machine passes.
FIVE MONTHS of waiting? You could have been 56% of the way to making a baby! Or a lot happier after five months of trying!!!
Posted Fri Mar 14, 2008, 8:37pm Subject: Re: @#$%^&*(O Magister!!!
Jeff_K Said:
Seems odd that they would give you a machine that's filthy let alone one that doesn't work properly. Is he trying to give/sell you a different machine rather than fix the other one by bringing flyers? I'd be really mad if I brought one in and it came back filthy because it would make me wonder what it went through to get that way. Hope you resolve the problem.
July 15--my Livia 90A (out of warranty) has a progressive meltdown over 3 days, first beginning to leak, then autofilling perpetually, then pressure gauge needle first chattering and then slamming over to the high side of the gauge,then water running out the grouphead as soon as the power is switched on. Per Pasquini's suggestion, I take it to a local repair facility they use. Owner tells me for their standard $250 fee he will troubleshoot, repair, recalibrate, descale the HX, clean it and change all gaskets and shower screen. I call a competitor a bit further away and find they are even costlier. It will take a week; by then I will have been out of town for a gig, so I said 2 weeks is fine.
July 30--I call and am told that they are waiting on a 65-cent O ring but their parts supplier won't sell them just one.
Aug. 15--still waiting on the O ring. I am leaving on another road trip anyway so will check back at end of Aug.
Aug. 30--O ring is in, installed, machine reconditioned, come & get it. Send housekeeper in next day (shop is enroute from her house); she calls to report it started running water out the grouphead as soon as the power was turned on. Shop owner says he will troubleshoot and call me as soon as it's fixed.
Mid-Sept.--After innumerable phone calls and threats to go to Consumer Affairs, owner calls. Machine ready, come & get it. I go to pick it up, insist on testing it, and you guessed it......still running water out grouphead. Shop owner is stumped, says it worked fine before I got there--while I am there he swaps out cables, harnesses, p'stat, entire computer control box, to no avail. Offers to take it for parts and sell me a new Livia 90S, which has fewer electronics to go blooey, for $500, $300 less than his cost, to make up for the time and money spent. I agree, since I'd never used the automatic features of the 90A (orig. bought it bec. price was irresistible) and he says the new 90S will take a week for it to arrive.
Late Sept.--I drop in to buy the new Livia 90S. Shop owner informs me he has severed ties with Pasquini due to a Pasquini rep's admission that they have serious problems with chrome flaking off internals and shorting out boiler (as well as getting in the water). He offers instead to rebuild me a Magister MS-40 (same machine he uses at home), converting it to a pourover, for no charge. I look at the catalog and recognize it's the same model a favorite trattoria uses to make the best restaurant espresso in Chicago and agree. He says it'll take a couple of weeks. Have gigs and conferences, so I give him 3 weeks. I call and am told Halloween eve is the target date.
Halloween eve--Magister ready, come & get it. I go over to shop. Shiny new-looking and sturdy, deep drip tray, built like a Hummer. He plugs it in, runs water through it, shows me how to fill it and suggests manual preinfusion (his preferred technique). Apologizes that steam tip is integrated on wand. I bring it home, fill it up, plug it in.......after an hour, stone cold and ready light still on. Turn it off and try again. This time it heats up, but light still stays on. Run water through grouphead, needle chatters and goes into the red. Try to brew a shot and the machine goes nuts--vibrates like crazy, needle shoots all the way right and stays there. Turn off, then back on---and water immediately runs out grouphead just like the Livia and leaks out the bottom (not the overflow valve). I call and owner promises to come by and troubleshoot that weekend.
Mid-Nov--owner finally comes over with son. Confirms the machine is a mess but doesn't know why and he & son take it back to shop.
I call at least once a week (no reply) till last week, and am told by owner shop is closed and he and son are at trade show in Milwaukee, but my machine's been ready for awhile and I can come and get it this afternoon. You know the rest.
So it's not like I gave him a shiny new machine and he gave me back an old dusty one--he provided the machine in the first place.
Sandy www.sandyandina.com ------------------- Life's too short to drink lousy coffee, play crummy guitars and write with ballpoint pens.
Posted Fri Mar 14, 2008, 9:02pm Subject: Re: @#$%^&*(O Magister!!!
Well, I spoke too soon. Decided to give the machine a second chance--turned it on, let it warm up for an hour. Went back to the kitchen--ready light still on, needle just into the green, but machine nice and hot. Hit brew switch, water runs nicely out grouphead. So I dose, lock, load, hit brew switch again. This time nothing comes out the spouts. Turn off brew switch, wait a second, turn back on as preinfusion. Still no coffee coming out--but before anything else can happen, you guessed it--needle jerks all the way past red to the right side of the gauge dial and stays there, and.......yup, water runs out the valve on the bottom of the machine. Sigh. I've seen this movie before. Back to the drawing board. If the shop owner can't fix it to my satisfaction on the spot, I want a credit of at least the $250 fee I paid plus the value of the Livia as parts on a NEW machine. Brand new. In the box. Under warranty. And it had better be an HX with hot water tap. (Not an Oscar, which doesn't even squirt hot water out the steam wand).
I took the advice of some idiot Pollyanna acquaintances who tell me I'm too critical (they think I'm a pushy ex-New Yorker if I insist on getting what I ordered and paid for--they brag that they've never even returned a screwed-up food order in a restaurant). But enough is enough.
Sandy www.sandyandina.com ------------------- Life's too short to drink lousy coffee, play crummy guitars and write with ballpoint pens.
Posted Fri Mar 14, 2008, 9:21pm Subject: Re: @#$%^&*(O Magister!!!
The title of this thread should be "!@#$%ing <name of shop owner>", not "!@#$%ing Magister". Unless there's something you're not telling us, he certainly owes you a working espresso machine. But a far better plan would be to get your money back, get the !@#$% out of that shop, and order a machine from a reputable vendor instead. You want someone you can count on when the next machine goes kablooey.
Good luck. Sure sounds like you could use some. ____ John
Posted Fri Mar 14, 2008, 9:28pm Subject: Re: @#$%^&*(O Magister!!!
I just meant that they could have at least cleaned the machine up (or even wiped it down) before presenting it back to you. I don't think it's bad to be critical for something that will not function properly - it almost sounds like there is an OPV inside that's set too low and cannot pass water through the puck at a reasonable espresso grind setting. But the needle shooting to the right is strange as well. I'd guess the guys there don't exactly know what they're doing or they are giving you a lemon, but if they were recommended by Pasquini then they should have some sort of knowledge with these machines. It would also make me wonder if your Livias are in someone's kitchen right now while you're stuck with a bad machine. Sounds like a big hassle.
Posted Fri Mar 14, 2008, 10:56pm Subject: Re: @#$%^&*(O Magister!!!
Jeff_K Said:
I just meant that they could have at least cleaned the machine up (or even wiped it down) before presenting it back to you. I don't think it's bad to be critical for something that will not function properly - it almost sounds like there is an OPV inside that's set too low and cannot pass water through the puck at a reasonable espresso grind setting. But the needle shooting to the right is strange as well. I'd guess the guys there don't exactly know what they're doing or they are giving you a lemon, but if they were recommended by Pasquini then they should have some sort of knowledge with these machines. It would also make me wonder if your Livias are in someone's kitchen right now while you're stuck with a bad machine. Sounds like a big hassle.
Only one Livia, and it's sitting on the shop's table with its guts hanging out. (I saw it). The shop is piled to the ceiling with machines old and new, living and dead. There are only two repair shops in the entire Chicago area that will service consumer and prosumer machines, and because they have all the work they can handle from larger commercial accounts they've got us by the you-know-whats. As far as getting my money back, problem is that I suspect that ready cash is not their strong suit, which is why they're trying to give me a working machine (unsuccessfully so far) at no additional cost to me. Were they to give me back my Livia it'd be just as useless, since it was broken when I brought it in. I don't have the cash or available credit to buy something new from a "reputable vendor" (e.g. WLL, 1st-Line, Chris' Coffee, Sweet Maria's); if I did, do you think I would have even bothered to get the Livia repaired out-of-warranty? Call me naive, but one would expect that when a $1400 machine (even if I paid only $1100) breaks after only 2-1/2 years it would be repairable locally at a reasonable cost, not disposable. To have had it crated up and shipped up and back plus the repair charges would have been nearly as much as a new machine. I am between a rock and a hard place.
Sandy www.sandyandina.com ------------------- Life's too short to drink lousy coffee, play crummy guitars and write with ballpoint pens.
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