When service is reassuringly extensive

The other night, Amanda was baking her signature dish, Potato Bake with Cream & Red Onion, in her signature dish, a stoneware roasting pan with orange glazing, from Le Creuset.

This legendary French company, founded in a foundry in the little village of Fresnoy-le-Grand in 1925, is famous for its colourful and seemingly indestructible range of cookware, including pots, pans, cups, kettles, and mini cocottes — sweet little dishes for individual servings of sweet little dishes.

The quality of Le Creuset is matched by its pricing, which, to quote the tagline of the Belgian beer, Stella Artois, is reassuringly expensive.

And so it was a bit of a surprise, as the tantalising aroma of Potato Bake with Cream & Red Onion wafted through the house, to hear a scream and a shout of “Oh, no!” coming from the kitchen.

I thought at first that Finlay, our tail-waggingly energetic Labrador-cross pup, had knocked over yet another ceramic artwork (thanks, Finlay) but it turned out to be something even more calamitous.

I rushed in to see the oven door wide open, with wild flames licking the base of the Le Creuset, which had somehow cracked neatly in two, its contents slipping to the bottom in a gloop of volcanic froth.

We managed, after some frantic searching for the oven gloves (found) and the fire extinguisher (nowhere to be found) to huff and puff away the flames, but even through the fragrant swirl of smoke, it was clear that the dish itself was beyond salvation.

“Don’t worry,” I said, in a bid to be helpful, having initially suggested surgery with Super Glue, “I’m sure Le Creuset will be happy to replace it.”

Amanda sighed and rolled her eyes.

“I’m sure they won’t!” she said. “I’ve had this for years, and I don’t even have the receipt.”

But the very next morning, she presented the hefty fragments of the pan to a sales assistant at the Le Creuset store in Cresta Mall, and, well, I, for once, turned out to be right.

Following some discreet forensic enquiry — “Can I just ask how hot the oven was at the time?” — the assistant turned to the shelf and produced a brand-new stoneware roasting pan, with a gracious apology for the fact that it was only available in blue.

The broken pan will be sent to the Le Creuset factory for further investigation, she added, but there was no need for a receipt or any other proof of its age or provenance.

Such service is rare, and goes well beyond the dictates of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA), which allows you to claim a repair, replacement, or refund on a defective item up to six months after purchase.

It is always a pleasure to discover a company that has sufficient confidence in the quality of its products to repair, replace, or refund without quibble, even many months or years later.

Other such brands that spring to mind are K-Way from Cape Union Mart, Leatherman multi-tools, Zippo lighters, and perhaps most famously, Tupperware, which will replace defective products under their lifetime guarantee, even if, sadly, a mysteriously disappearing lid is not counted as a manufacturing defect.

In any case, whatever you buy from wherever you buy it, stand your ground if it proves to be of poor quality.

The CPA is on your side, and most stores, especially in the age of social media, will give the consumer the benefit of the doubt, rather than engage in a fight over whichever Ts & Cs may apply.

In the meantime, eventually, I am pleased to report, the Potato Bake with Cream & Red Onion was delicious. DM

Veteran South African journalist Gus Silber first wrote this as a Facebook post. We so enjoyed it that we asked him if we could run it here.