[en] >Review< of the Lelit Mara X after 1 Year
My Lelit Mara X turns 1 Year now
A journey with ups and downs, thanks to coffeecircle
Let’s begin with where i bought the Lelit, because this part is crucial for the whole experience i had with this, in my oppinion, great espresso machine. I bought the machine in January 2022 from Coffeecircle, a german based online shop for Coffees and everything coffee related. In the past, i bought coffees and other stuff for the V60 Brewing-Method there as well and never had any issues, the Mara X was in sale, so i thought “why not”. Well guess what: i would better have bought it elsewhere.
The machine arrived after about a week or so. I quickly installed it and everything worked fine. The first impression was amazing: a pretty decent prized dual boiler espresso machine, with a nice brewgroup, design and technicals. The first shots were good, after i have set everything up.
After like 2 weeks or so, my mara x had one issue. The LED to signal low water level did not blink anymore when the watertank was already empty. I tried to fix this by myself but it did not work. So i reached out to coffeecircle. And this is, where the shit part starts.
Coffeecircle is a circlejerk of incompetence
First of all i thought the sensor might be dead, as a loose cable was clearly not the issue (i opened the machine and took a look, checked the cables). So i contacted coffeecircle and asked, if i could bring the machine to a local store that has officially stated to repair lelit devices and coffeecircle would pay their bill for it. Or instead coffeecircle could send me a sensor, which i would install by myself. But their response was like: “send the machine to our repairman at the other side of the world”. I, with no packaging from the lelit left, asked how i should secure the machine for the travel, because clearly no one keeps a packaging the size of a washing machine in their personal warehouse!? So they sent me the empty package, which i could then use! What a nice thing! It arrived after just a few days, i secured everything the way they described in a guide and sent it off.
Days passed, then weeks. I did not even receive a message from anyone, saying my machine arrived anywhere. After i asked them twice per mail, if anything about my machine was to be known, they reached out to me with my nightmare: the machine had an accident in travel and is broken, no more details were known at this point to the customer service.
This is exactly why i wanted to bring the machine to the store nearby. No one can secure an unboxed espresso machine with the tools you have at home for such a travel etc.
After just a few days they came back on me, telling me that the machine now is a total loss and everything is broken. It would need to be completely rebuild. Cost estimated (without working time): about 1.200,00 Euro. The Price i already payed for the machine. And they insisted on me paying that amount, because at their site “no mistake was maken”. I claimed to reach out for a lawyer and the german Verbaucherzentrale, because i was clearly not responsible for that, especially because i already offered to bring it to a store nearby or install the broken sensor by myself, which would have costed like 15 Euro with shipping in total. But coffeecircle was not on my site at all. I would need to pay it, or they would sent me the broken machine back.
What a shitshow.
They gave up
After i claimed another time that i will take legal actions against them, they agreed to pay by themself. The machine was quickly repaired and sent back to me.
Since then, everything on the Mara X works fine. It is the perfect espresso machine for home baristas with dual boiler, good steam pressure, and a decent enough quick pump.
But i am surely never ever again buying anything from coffeecircle, even not for free. The pure fact that they still even when they agreed to pay the price did claim, that it all was only my fault, is such anti-customer style, i cannot recommend to anyone.
If you are thinking about getting the Mara X: go get it (but not from coffeecircle). If you are not sure which Espresso machine you should get: research - i can recommend the Mara X to anyone at home, who needs a dual boiler due to many (Capuccinos, Lattes, foamed milk drinks…) but does not need to make more than 5 drinks in under 10 minutes.