Buyer BEWARE!
Oct 12th, 2007 by justsimplyholly
You know, there is nothing more that I dislike in life than a product that is faulty. Or at least that’s what I thought, but now I think the thing I dislike less than a faulty product is a company that doesn’t even have the courtesy to return emails when you ask them were to buy the parts to fix their faulty products.
Enter the Sterilite company. I’m sure you’ve all heard of them, as a matter of fact I’m fairly sure that you have at least one plastic product in your household that is made by them. My problem is their touch top kitchen wastebaskets, specifically the model#1085, which is shown on this page. I currently own 2 of these, and let me tell you, they are the biggest piece of junk wastebaskets I have EVER owned! One is only a couple of months old, the other is more than a year old. The problem with them is that the springs that make the top “pop” open when you push the button do not stay on the wastebaskets. They are continuously coming off, sometimes falling on the floor, but many times falling into the wastebasket, meaning you have to dig through the trash if you didn’t happen to notice the second the spring came off.
I have contacted the company on more than one occasion asking where I can purchase replacement springs. Mind you, I’m offering to purchase them, I’m NOT asking to be given them for free. But have they returned any of my emails? Nope, not a single one. And I was totally blown away to find out that my sister has the same exact trash can and has the same exact problem with it. Her husband even got the wise idea of putting a knob from a kitchen cabinet on theirs for a handle to be able to open the lid. Because, without the springs, you have NO WAY of opening the lid of the wastebasket, rendering it totally useless!
So, this is my BUYER BEWARE, stay away from Sterilite products. Their company has no care or concern to the customers that keep them in business, if they did, they would readily offer replacement parts through their website, or via replies to emails sent to them by customers who purchase their crappy products! So the next time you’re in the market for wastebaskets, plastic storage bowls, ANYTHING plastic, look to make sure it is NOT made by Sterilite, because they DO NOT stand behind their products or the customers that purchase them!
August 3, 2008
I would like to add an update to this post since it seems to be generating some regular traffic lately. I was finally contacted by the Sterilite company shortly after writing this blog post and was ultimately mailed two sets of replacement springs for this product. The replacement springs are a much better spring, they are larger and stronger, and they rarely, if ever, fall off. So if you are having this same problem with this trash can, contact the company, continuously if you have to, and they will send you the springs that probably should have been put on this trash can in the first place!
