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Author Topic: My RecTec Bullseye Experience  (Read 10947 times)

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Th3Batman86

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My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« on: January 24, 2018, 11:38:49 AM »

This was the only site that really had any discussion on the Bullseye. So I have created this thread to tell you about my experience in trying to buy one. I have copied this from the post I made on Reddit /r/smoking. I apologize for any grammar problems. Original post follows below. **Note** I have now tried to leave two reviews on the bullseye webpage. Both 1 star for my experience. Neither review has shown up. When you try to leave a review you get a message that says "pending approval". Since I have left them I have seen 4 new reviews show up. All 4-5 stars. All reviews on all RecTec products on their website are glowing reviews. Nothing negative at all. This leads me to surmise that RecTec is practicing review censorship.

So.. Long story short. I ordered a Bullseye back in Nov when they were announced. I was planning on ordering an RT680 and a RT300 at the same time. Well when I went to order they had discontinued the mini and announced the bullseye. On a whim, I ordered the bullseye. The bullseye was shipped about two weeks after the promise date. Not great but whatever. It arrived and the packaging looked fine. However since I was in the process of moving I put off putting it together. On Dec 31 I decided to put it together. It did not go well. The included instruction and YouTube video on assembly are not well written or made and so it took about three hours by myself. Would have gone faster with someone else. During the build I noticed many manufacturing defects. But I wanted to put it together and some slight scuffs don't put me off. However, the problem that every hole was millimeters off and I had to do some bending and forcing to make it work probably should have clued me in. Once together I attached the lid. This is where everything went south. The lid would not close evenly. At all, even with force. It was completely askew. At this point I knew I would be sending it back. But I decided to fully assemble it just for the sake of it. So I picked up the deflector and the grill and put them in. They did not sit close to even. The bowl was not manufactured correctly. They both rocked terribly. So I went inside and emailed Rec Tec. On Tuesday I was called by Adam who listened to my complaint and agreed to just send out a new one. I was to put the bad one in the box and send it back. I was not terribly happy with this as it was a pain to assemble but I wanted one. And maybe they would throw in a "sorry" gift. My RT680 came with a free bag of pellets, so maybe. They did not. Would have been an easy and inexpensive way to score some points with me. But they did not. New one arrived and I didn't even bother assembling it. Now let me tell you, after the first one was complete garbage, and no "sorry" gift, my threshold for mistakes on the new one was zero. They did not meet this requirement. The lid and body lips were both covered in bare metal where the porcelain did not attach. I did not even finish removing things from the box. I put it all back and emailed Rec Tec asking for a refund. Which they agreed to after Adam (again) said he was "really sorry". So I have them both on a pallet and they will go back tomorrow. I am extremely unimpressed with RecTec at this point. While they stood by their product and agreed to take it back they made two costly errors in my book. 1) No "sorry" gift. I know this sounds like I am begging for something free, but I am not. After years of customer service and retail sales (my exp.) this is just the right move. It is cheaper to keep a customer than acquire a new one. When retail companies apologize they can only do it with the one thing that they and you share, your money. Give me a hat, a bag a pellets, a beer koozie, a 10% off coupon. Something to show me that you are sorry that I have to spend another 3 hours assembling it and disassembling and shipping back. Do something to admit fault beyond just replacement. and 2) and this one was perhaps bigger. Adam kept blaming shipping. He blamed shipping for everything. Every dent, ding, crooked piece, bent part, scratch, and even, somehow, for the porcelain not being attached to the metal and the paint not being attached to the metal, was all the shipping companies fault. I stuck up for them and told him that some of these have to be manufacturing problems and they should really look into them. But he stuck to what I assume the company line was and blamed it on UPS. This really rubbed me the wrong way.

What it boils down to is I would not recommend you buy a bullseye. At least not until they bring the price down to $199.99. Because that is what I feel I would pay for this product (if it weren't damaged). And based on the craftsmanship, I feel like I would pay that in a BigLots. It has absolutely no business sitting beside my RT680 and I would be ashamed to tell people the same company that made the RT680 (which I love) made the bullseye. The question at this point is would I still recommend RecTec because I love the RT680... I don't know. They did attempt to send me a new one, and they are paying for both of them to be shipped back and giving me a refund. But I really should not have had to go through all this in the first place. There should have been some quality control. A weber grill is $100 and they manage to get the porcelain right.

https://imgur.com/a/m2SQ2 (link to photos)


UPDATE:  See my reply below in the posts to see that RecTec's owner reached out to me.
« Last Edit: January 25, 2018, 05:12:14 PM by Th3Batman86 »
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triplebq

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2018, 11:48:07 AM »

Nice review of the Bullseye. Sorry to read about and see your issues.
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Th3Batman86

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2018, 11:51:36 AM »

Nice review of the Bullseye. Sorry to read about and see your issues.

Thanks, I was sorry too. The really bad part is that it took me three phone calls to them to get the pallet picked up. They blamed that on UPS too. And I have two emails into their customer service right now for a couple questions on my RT680 and I have not gotten any reply. One of the things I heard about RecTec before I bought it was how great their customer service was. I am afraid I have not had that experience. I have not called them yet but I was hoping to avoid that.
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Bentley

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2018, 01:33:02 PM »

I am going to say this just so we are clear.  We stated from day one this was not going to be a site where manufactures were bashed, or threads were allowed to devolve into a giant rant.

This is not a pleasant review for Rec Tec, but I believe it is an honest assessment of ONE PERSONS experience.  It will stay up and folks will be allowed to comment...AS LONG AS IT does not turn into a scab picking contest!

Thank you all so far for adhering to the sites policys...
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Th3Batman86

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2018, 01:49:22 PM »

I am going to say this just so we are clear.  We stated from day one this was not going to be a site where manufactures were bashed, or threads were allowed to devolve into a giant rant.

This is not a pleasant review for Rec Tec, but I believe it is an honest assessment of ONE PERSONS experience.  It will stay up and folks will be allowed to comment...AS LONG AS IT does not turn into a scab picking contest!

Thank you all so far for adhering to the sites policys...


Thank you for saying something. I did not intend it to be bashing and am glad I didn't break any rules with my first post. As you said it was my experience. I kept and love the RT680 I ordered at the same time. I just knew there is another bullseye thread on this site and quite frankly it was the only site I could find (among the other forums) where the bullseye was being discussed so I wanted to chime in and tell what happened to me. I always want to give them the benefit of the doubt. Launching a new product is difficult and this could just be a miss for them. We all remember "new coke".
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Ross77

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2018, 02:14:59 PM »

Thanks for being an early adopter and taking one for the team.  ;)  I would agree that their website has way too many positive reviews so I don’t bother reading them. They do sell some of their products on Amazon though. There are a few negative reviews of the RT-680.

Hopefully they figure out the Bullseye issues. Maybe it’s just too new and the manufacturing process has to be worked out. They should inspect them before they ship out.
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lyork

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2018, 07:39:30 PM »

As someone looking to buy a Pellet Grill in the next couple of months, I find this review honest and informative. Thanks for leaving it up, as I feel that honest reviews like this, will also lend credence to the positive reviews. No company is infallible
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Bobitis

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2018, 07:43:05 PM »

Thanks for being an early adopter and taking one for the team.  ;)  I would agree that their website has way too many positive reviews so I don’t bother reading them. They do sell some of their products on Amazon though. There are a few negative reviews of the RT-680.

Hopefully they figure out the Bullseye issues. Maybe it’s just too new and the manufacturing process has to be worked out. They should inspect them before they ship out.

QA and QC are job number 1. Neither of the op's units should have shipped.
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Ross77

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #8 on: January 24, 2018, 07:48:13 PM »

If I remember correctly, when I received my RT-680 there was a letter stating that it had been tested before shipment. Not sure if they are still doing this. Seems like the Bullseye is being shipped prepacked from China and RecTec is not opening them before shipping to the customers. Maybe that’s due to cost or perhaps they don’t have the manpower. Who knows.
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Th3Batman86

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #9 on: January 24, 2018, 11:48:00 PM »

If I remember correctly, when I received my RT-680 there was a letter stating that it had been tested before shipment. Not sure if they are still doing this. Seems like the Bullseye is being shipped prepacked from China and RecTec is not opening them before shipping to the customers. Maybe that’s due to cost or perhaps they don’t have the manpower. Who knows.

There was a green QC sticker with some initials on it under the hopper on both units. Now, whether these were stickers from RecTec or from China is unknown. Also, whether these are stickers for the whole grill, or just the department that makes the hopper is unknown. Either way, there was a sticker.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2018, 11:54:05 PM by Th3Batman86 »
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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2018, 04:15:38 PM »

I am going to say this just so we are clear.  We stated from day one this was not going to be a site where manufactures were bashed, or threads were allowed to devolve into a giant rant.

This is not a pleasant review for Rec Tec, but I believe it is an honest assessment of ONE PERSONS experience.  It will stay up and folks will be allowed to comment...AS LONG AS IT does not turn into a scab picking contest!

Thank you all so far for adhering to the sites policys...


Thanks - One of the biggest benefits for a forum like this is honest feedback, both good and bad.
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Ross77

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2018, 04:21:34 PM »

Does anyone here actually have a Bullseye and used it to cook?  I haven’t seen many reviews on them. The Rec Tec fan Facebook page has a lot of posts from people using them but no real reviews.
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Th3Batman86

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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #12 on: January 25, 2018, 05:06:54 PM »

UPDATE::  I received a call from Ray Carnes today. He was very apologetic and willing to do anything to make it right with me. He was very passionate and was actually upset and his feelings were genuinely hurt that I did not call him personally the minute there was a problem. Long story short he apologized. Told me they are better than that. Told me that he is convinced it is all shipping. That things to not leave their warehouse in bad condition. I argued back a little bit that I have trouble believing the freight did it all. He finally conceded that there is a small small chance that it wasn't perfect when it left. But he was very passionate that their stuff leaves perfect. He says besides shipping damage they have had a less than 1% incident problem on Bullseyes.  Even with that said he promised me that they would strive to do better. To apologize and make up for my situation he is sending me a free bullseye. He is going to take it out of the box and inspect it personally. And he is going to send me photos of it before it leaves. He made me promise to save his personal cell phone number in my phone and to call him anytime for anything. He said he understands why I didn't call him and that it is because we as consumers are trained to go to customer service first. But he said RecTec is not a normal company. That people are not used to dealing with a company like his. And he wants everyone to call him for any problems. That is why he gives his phone number with every order. I just want to repeat again how passionate he was about his company and his product. He apologized to me for being upset (at the beginning of that call tempers may have been high) but he had just read my review and was just mad about the whole thing. I told him he didn't need to apologize for being passionate about his company and his product. I am so impressed with this company and this response. I have pulled down the review from Reddit as perhaps I wrote it when I was angry. I am leaving this one up for now because I have more faith in the readers of this forum than I do in Reddit. I believe that you guys will read this update and not just get the pitchforks out. I will update this once I get the new bullseye. And I will cook on it and leave a review. I want to once again say that I am impressed with Ray Carnes and his company and will consider what happened a fluke. Do not let my situation deter you from buying a RecTec. This has completely restored my faith and I am looking forward to seeing what they come out with in February.
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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #13 on: January 25, 2018, 05:10:10 PM »

That is great news!  It really shows you the power of posting your bad experience with photos to back it up. Good call on Ray’s part to offer you a free Bullseye.
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Re: My RecTec Bullseye Experience
« Reply #14 on: January 25, 2018, 05:48:06 PM »

Proud to be a Rec Tec owner.
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