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Equipment & Gear: Soda-Club (SodaStream)
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 9:08 pm    Post subject: Re: Website Evaluation Reply with quote

Wow, talk about thin skin. Anyone who thought your site was unprofessional now has ample evidence that the guy behind sodarefill.com is equally unprofessional based on this overblown reaction.

sodaclubrefill.com wrote:

"Our monetary resources are best spen on delivering a quality product FIRST."


Yes, clearly you didn't bother to pay for a spell-checker either.

Either way, Michael made an off-hand comment that you foolishly decided to take issue with in a very public fashion. Now, per the prior commenter, your anger-laden posts are nicely indexed by Google and its peers for posterity.

The compelling reason for developing a nice looking website isn't solely to create "eye candy", it's so that you can establish trust and legitimacy in the eye of your audience (there are other reasons too, but I won't delve into them here). If I go to a site that is shabbily designed it might give me pause when I decide whether or not I want to transact with it. It doesn't take a Californian to recognize that.

sodaclubrefill.com wrote:

Truly, we invite all constructive criticism. Yours is duly noted, at least the constructive parts which is still up for debate. As for the professionalism aspect, perhaps a better choice of words would have gone much further in making your points.


You clearly don't invite any constructive criticism, but it's fun watching you pay lip-service to it.



sodaclubrefill.com wrote:
Thank You for your opinion Mr. Chu, it is refreshing to see that such a "Professional" as yourself can evaluate the "professionalism" of an organization by the look of a website.

I suppose that in "Chu's World" a website put slapped together (as you put it) by disabled children selling pencils would be equally labled as unprofessional and merit the same crass assessment.

Sir, my opinion is that you are a very frustrated professional that has spent way too much time on the geekdom high-horse. Is there an axe you're grinding here or just feel the need to satisfy your ego by offering your jabs and criticism?

Our monetary resources are best spen on delivering a quality product FIRST. No amount of website candy can benefit a customer if the product is substandard. Frankly, customer's could care less about pretty sites, they want value for their hard earned Dollar. As a Californian, of all people YOU should be uniquely astute in that area.

Truly, we invite all constructive criticism. Yours is duly noted, at least the constructive parts which is still up for debate. As for the professionalism aspect, perhaps a better choice of words would have gone much further in making your points.
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lucrece
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 6:51 am    Post subject: sodaclubrefill.com management stabs itself in the foot Reply with quote

I am happy to see that sodaclubrefill.com posted up on here with the characteristic defensive and inflammatory tone that caused me to write a negative review of their product in the first place. The above posts speak for themselves and I am sure that anyone who reads them will understand what they are dealing with should their judgment fail them and they actually order from sodaclubrefill.com.
As an update, I ordered an adapter from sodaco2.com and for half the price sodaclubrefill.com tried to charge me, I was able to do exactly what I needed to do - adapt Soda Club bottles to be refilled at standard refilling stations.
I also looked into a home carbonation set-up and there are a number of very easy options out there for anyone who has not already invested in the Soda Stream set-up.
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Michael Chu



Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)

PostPosted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:55 am    Post subject: Re: sodaclubrefill.com management stabs itself in the foot Reply with quote

lucrece wrote:
As an update, I ordered an adapter from sodaco2.com and for half the price sodaclubrefill.com tried to charge me, I was able to do exactly what I needed to do - adapt Soda Club bottles to be refilled at standard refilling stations.

Where are these standard refilling stations? I don't know where I can go to refill CO2 tanks - that would be cool to know.
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JTWLO
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PostPosted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 7:33 pm    Post subject: an alternative Reply with quote

Not as handy an appliance, but I love it since you can use any old 1, 2, or 3 liter bottles you have and there's nothing proprietary. This one uses a paintball canister, I use a 40lb tank. It's $4 to refill a 40lb tank and I need to do it once every year at most with moderate use.

http://stores.kegconnection.com/Detail.bok?no=246
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Guest





PostPosted: Thu Sep 10, 2009 3:03 pm    Post subject: Wow Reply with quote

I was looking at buying from sodaclubrefill.com and was surprised at the negative conversation that I have found on this site. If left alone, it could have seemed like a "bad apple", not everybody can be happy with everything. The response from sodaclubrefill is painfully unprofessional. Never, should a business resort to name calling (punk, immature liar and idiot) no matter what they were thinking in their head. They should also not get into a pissing contest online. An apology perhaps, along with a refund would have gone a long way early in the discussion (in fact it should have been the first thing he said here). Sodaclubrefill has done more to earn their bad name than anybody on this thread could have ever done to them. When you are in business that has such a narrow audience it would be wise to remember that anybody looking for information on Sodastream will see this and choose to NEVER do business with them. Sodaco2.com is the only one that is truly going to benefit from sodaclubrefill's behavior.
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NYCseltzerdrinker
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:01 pm    Post subject: Sodastream carbonator exchange Reply with quote

My Sodastream carbonator has worked well, but my first exchange of empty carbonator cartridges for full ones is proving to be a problem that would-be Sodastream users should know about in advance. I placed an order for two new carbonators, expecting to return the empty carbonators and then receive new ones. After I submitted the order, I was informed that I had to give the empty carbonators to the delivery person delivering the new carbonators, or I would be fined $15. This arrangement might work for most of customers, but I live in a large New York co-op complex with a mailroom. Deliveries are normally made to the mailroom. We are not permitted to leave items with the mailroom staff to give to delivery people, and delivery people are not permitted to have access to the rest of the complex unless the resident is at home. When I realized the problem, I immediately sent a query through the Sodastream website and called Customer Service, but the customer service representative was unable to do anything to resolve the situation, and I did not receive a reply to my query. I would like to ship the empty carbonators back to Sodastream and then be sent my new carbonators after you have received the empty ones. Sodastream does not make the exchange/delivery method clear before the customer has submitted the order; the customer service representative seemed to think that it would be impossible for Sodastream to do this because "they deliver to all fifty states," but of course many online businesses manage to do it with ease by the simple expedient of a dialogue box in which the would-be buyer enters his or her zip code +4. Perhaps the company's website design team needs a little help. I don't mean to malign Sodastream; it's just that customers with unusual package delivery situations need to be aware that the company may not accommodate their needs.
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Dilbert



Joined: 19 Oct 2007
Posts: 1304
Location: central PA

PostPosted: Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

>> I was informed that I had to give the empty carbonators to the delivery person delivering the new carbonators, or I would be fined $15.

there is some very basically wrong with this story.

I serious doubt Sodastream has a private proprietary pick up and delivery service that covers all fifty states. they are using a commercial service, no?

no UPS, Fedex, or USPS delivery person is going to stand there and wait for your to package up and give them your empties.

Sodastream could provide "return" packaging and labeling in advance - did they offer that?

I rather suspect you need to contact somebody other than "customer non-service" with this issue.
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Michael Chu



Joined: 10 May 2005
Posts: 1654
Location: Austin, TX (USA)

PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 3:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

In my case, when I ordered my replacement(s), they sent me the filled carbonated bottles in boxes with instructions to repack my empties in the boxes and bring them to a UPS store for delivery. I told them they were empty CO2 bottles and since they are empty no special forms needed to be filled out.
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 7:02 am    Post subject: Re: Wow Reply with quote

Looks like a Guest vs Guest sodaclub refill website plug war. And here I thought this forum was legit! LOL!
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NYCSeltzerdrinker
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 30, 2009 9:12 pm    Post subject: Clarification about delivery and exchange Reply with quote

I've just been in communication with Sodastream and they explained why they can't simply use a standard return delivery system for the empty cylinders; the cylinders, which had contained dry CO2, take some special handling and can't just be dropped in the mail like a returned pair of shoes. So the person who thought there was something wrong with my story was right; I didn't have enough information about Sodastream's reasons for the exchange method. We're still trying to work out an exchange that will work for my quirky situation, but I really can't complain about their handling of the problem! So please accept my correction. And the seltzer is delicious.
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jtwlo
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PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2009 6:25 am    Post subject: better option Reply with quote

half the price, $3-5 refills anywhere, more CO2, non-proprietary.

http://stores.kegconnection.com/Detail.bok?no=246
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Potential refill customer
Guest





PostPosted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 1:17 am    Post subject: Sodaclubrefill.com - wow what an unprofessional jerk Reply with quote

Wow, I simply can not believe that the owner of that site posted such garbage here. I did a Google search for "sodaclub refills" and this came up in the top several items. Read the article by Mr. Chu and the posts below it. I was seriously looking at the sodaclubrefill.com site and was debating buying an adapter. Having seen how the owner there handles customers and treats people.....that will never happen now. I do not care how good a product may or may not be, if you treat your customers like garbage, I will not spend my money there.

Thank you Mr Chu for keeping this available as another interesting reference on the subject. Shock
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guest
Guest





PostPosted: Fri Dec 18, 2009 9:57 pm    Post subject: sodastreamjavascript:emoticon(':angry:') Reply with quote

They sell proprietary C02 cartridges, which means they can only be refilled by SodaStream.
Also be aware that the cartridges and refills a.) are not always in stock at retail outlets listed on the SodaStream site b.) cost $24 per cartridge refill (as compared to $3 for a ’standard’ CO2 cartridge) c.) the size of the cartridge when available at a retail store “may not” match yours
The customer service on getting exchange CO2 cartridges is *horrible* - every order that I have placed has had some problem. Beware especially if you live in an area where they use an independent courier, rather than UPS. (seriously… call them up and check before ordering) In this case, they don’t send shipping confirmations or tracking by e-mail, and several times I have waited for bottles only to find that they have not yet shipped (in one case, for weeks).
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MikeSpike



Joined: 25 Dec 2009
Posts: 4

PostPosted: Fri Dec 25, 2009 11:21 am    Post subject: Perhaps a more economical alternative might be ... Reply with quote

Has anyone using soda club / sodastream equipment ever tried Fizz Giz bottle caps? They let you carbonate straight into common soda bottles. Check out www.FizzGiz.com for an informative video. Soda bottles are pretty much free for the taking, therefore, readily available. U can really reduce production costs by using 20# co2 tanks and a filler hose. Well, Fizz Giz caps and something that looks like a small scuba tank may not have that kitchen appliance look or appeal. But they're darn cheap. And if you're an engineer, you sometimes that what it takes to get the job done. You can likely carbonate a thousand bottles with a single 20# tank which, near me, runs $3.50 to fill.

I had value engineering in mind during the conception and design of my carbonation system.
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Gues
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PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 9:36 am    Post subject: Home Soda machines Reply with quote

I cam across this page via a search and was intrigued.

I just recieved my soda maker (purchased from http://makeyoursoda.com as they offer a discount coupon of $10)

it is a marvelous machine- we are so happy with it
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