CEO of Silicon Valley's $400 Juicer Promises Refunds After Hand-Squeezing Demonstration (techcrunch.com)

Anthony Ha writes via TechCrunch: Jeff Dunn, the former Coca-Cola executive who became CEO of Juicero last year, has responded to a wave of coverage suggesting that the company's juice press isn't all that was promised -- and he's offering dissatisfied customers their money back. A Bloomberg report showed that Juicero's packs could be squeezed by hand, no expensive juicer required. Dunn's response? He doesn't deny that hand-squeezing is a very real possibility, but he does quibble about what you'll find inside, saying it's "nothing but fresh, raw, organic chopped produce" -- see, it's not juice yet because it hasn't been pressed. "What you will get with hand-squeezed hacks is a mediocre (and maybe very messy) experience that you won't want to repeat once, let alone every day," he argued. More importantly, he said, "The value of Juicero is more than a glass of cold-pressed juice. Much more." At the beginning of his post, Dunn said his goal was to "demonstrate the incredible value we know our connected system delivers." And if you're not convinced this is worth $400, well, there's another option for disillusioned Juicero buyers -- Dunn said the company's "Happiness Guarantee" (i.e. its return policy) has been extended to cover anyone who's ever purchased a Juicero Press. So for the next 30 days, anyone who's bought a Press should be able to return it for a full refund.

Comments

Re:Expensive bullshitmachine

[Aighearach]

I paid under $350 for a leading-brand horizontal masticating juicer and it cold-presses real raw vegetables that I buy from the store, no packs required.

It can even pure almond "milk" (juice) from raw almonds.

For convenience I use a potato slicer to prep most of the veggies. Quick, easy, fresh! No app or VC required.

Re:The packs made of very inorganic plastic

[Overzeetop]

Oh, but you can recycle the packs! They'll even send you a *Free* mailing label to send them back once you fill a box with discarded bags. Of course, you need to cut the pack open and use your hands to remove the pulp remnants before you do that - literally scoop out the goo with your hands and throw it away.

And you've totally missed that this is a zero-cleanup device - it's perfect for when you don't have time to go through the messy process of cleaning a traditional juicer. (but, apparently, have time to go through the messy process of cutting open and cleaning out the bag)

Personally, I still can't get over the $1/oz pricetag on the juice packs that have a shelf life of a week.

Re:Why would he care?

[squiggleslash]

Note that $400 is the price to consumers, of which I suspect there aren't many. The real value of the machine is in hotels and other hospitality businesses (they like it because it's easy to clean and maintain, and everything arrives ready chopped), and that's where they're selling. To businesses, the machine costs a cool $1200. The articles I've read suggests that there's no difference between the commercial and personal versions of the machine.

So yeah, I think they're making a huge profit out of the press.