Scam Type
Online Purchase Scam
Business Name Used
Cricut
Date Reported
August 02, 2023
Postal Code
None
Total Dollars Lost
$ 1000
Scam Description
A friend of mine bought a Cricut Maker 3 from a retail store a couple years ago. She rarely used it because the required software was too hard for her to figure out. I borrowed it from her for one week to work on a paper cutting project. After I returned it to her in working order the Cricut Maker 3 never functioned properly again. She waited too long to contact customer service so the product fell out of the 1 year warranty. When she did contact the company they tried to trouble shoot it but was told that it was probably a software issue and she needs a new machine but she would have to buy it because the warranty was expired. She gave it back to me to see if it would work with the software on my computer. I tried to use it but the Cricut brand material would not load into the machine properly and I received an error message on their cloud base software saying to contact them. I contacted them and they tried to trouble shoot it but I was told that the machine no longer worked and needed to be replaced but it was out of warranty so they offered me $50 off coupon with free shipping. These machines sell for $429 on their website and $399 at most retailers. I felt insulted by the offer of $50 when my friend had already purchased their product and all sort of their Cricut brand accessories and was into this company for well into $1000. The product was used no more than a handful of times and should not have failed to work. Also the fact that you can only use their cloud based software doesn’t seem ethical and I was getting a software error code which makes me think that their software could possibly be the reason it no longer works. They did not agree got very diffusive about their software and said it was the machine, which is still made by the same company. This is not the first time I have heard of these machines failing, they are poorly built and marketed to an older female customer with the hope that they can start their own crafting businesses. And let’s not forget when they were in the press trying to require customers to pay to use the required software and threatening to disable machines that were going to be resold. I believe this company hopes that their target customer rarely uses the machine and it is built to only handle a few projects then by the time it breaks it will be out of warranty. I believe the company is aware that the quality of their product is poor and the cloud based software that they require their customers to use with the machine does not work properly and causes the machines to fail. They sell you this dream of making all sort of elaborate crafts and that you can make anything you dream of but in order to do that you need to buy all the accessories to go with it but it is all marketing tactics and false advertising because the thing only works a handful of times before it breaks or the software stops working. A product at this price should last much longer than a year and a half. My friend wasn’t even aware of the requirement to use their cloud based software in order for the machine to work until after she opened the product, it is not indicated on the outside of the packaging and on the website it just says the software is free not required for the product to function entirely. It says it works with 300+ materials but you would never know because even cutting a simple thing like paper will break the machine. In fact the entire website is all designed to upsell and buy more product but most people never get to use the extra products sold to them because the machine breaks before they get a chance to. All they offer you is an apology and a coupon to buy more of their products that are no good to begin with. Sorry is not good enough, this company is profiting from their customers and failing to provide the quality of product that they are advertising. They need to be investigated for predatory practices to protect consumers.
