We all know the thrill and the joy of a great thrift store, so if your favorite brand says they’re hosting a huge factory sale with thrift store prices, you’d do anything to be there, right?
The Le Creuset Factory to Table Sale boasted exclusive discounts, limited edition colorways, rare shapes and styles, but fans who attended the event in Hartford, CT earlier this month said they were left disappointed by poor selection, weak discounts — and even broken goods.
Le Creuset, which celebrates 100 years of business this year, is a French cookware brand known for its expertly crafted cast iron products available in a multitude of colorways. Le Creuset is a legacy brand and very much considered a luxury among home chefs with some of their pans costing hundreds of dollars alone.
Some people define their personalities by the color of their Le Creusets, and the more dishes of that single color you have, the more impressive your collection.
The brand has been hosting “Factory to Table Sales” since 2016. Le Creuset typically hosts a few of these events throughout the year in different cities around the country, however, the brand doesn’t announce these sales too far in advance. They recommend following them on social media and signing up for emails to make sure you can secure a spot.
Because of the Le Creuset’s high price point and exclusivity, many fans wait all year for these sales to stock up. This most recent sale in Hartford took place September 4 through September 7; tickets went on sale about a month prior and sold out in minutes.
Immediately after it sold out, fans took to the internet to complain about scalpers, bots and virtual lines of more than 30,000 people. And the situation allegedly only got worse when time came for the real event.
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The Le Creuset mystery boxes are the most coveted item at the Factory to Table Sale. The boxes cost $50 for an assortment of pots, pans and other Le Creuset ware valued, in total, around $300. These boxes are only available to those who score VIP tickets. In the past, unboxing videos have shown fans receiving at least five items, including dutch ovens and casserole dishes, making the box a huge steal.
This year, however, the lucky mystery box purchasers didn’t feel so lucky when they unboxed their goods. Many posted about receiving broken items, mismatched materials and a random assortment of goods that definitely didn’t amount to the promised $300 value.
Besides just the mystery boxes, fans were displeased with the event as a whole, saying Le Creuset “did us dirty” through lack of inventory and no sign of the exclusive, limited edition items that were promised in the sale. Other Le Creuset fans are calling it a “bait and switch” after seeing the mystery boxes from a Factory to Table sale in June where people received “full sets” of matching Le Creuset pans and exclusive designs like pumpkin and petal braisers.
Thousands of fans and commenters on unboxing videos were tagging the brand, calling them out for poor communication and misrepresentation of the event. It wasn’t until September 8 that the brand finally released a statement — on their Instagram stories — which disappear after 24 hours.
They eventually later posted the statement on their TikTok, which notably has less than half the followers of their Instagram account, saying “we owe you an apology.”
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“We fell short when the ticketing platform and Mystery Boxes did not live up to expectations for all FTT guests,” read the statement, “We are truly sorry for the disappointment in not achieving the standards expected at our events.”
The brand cited increasing demand, as well as the growing scope of the event, as reasons for the let-down in Hartford and said they would be reviewing the ticketing system as well as their “processes and communication” to ensure “everything is clear, fair, and transparent moving forward.”
Le Creuset said they want to “make things right” for anyone who received a mystery box below the $300 value or a damaged product. Customers can email the company for assistance. But even this olive branch might not be enough to satisfy customers.
“I fear correcting boxes below the $300 threshold was already expected,” commented a fan, “It’s the fact that the box value itself was vastly different compared to other locations despite ticket prices increasing.”
Another said, “I saw a post on a [Facebook] group of somebody who got a pot and a lid that didn’t match and then was told by [Le Creuset] that they couldn’t fix it because it technically counted as 2 separate items. That’s wild.”
Despite not even posting the statement to their Instagram feed, the comment section on the Le Creuset account is still flooded with fans complaining about the mystery boxes and other Factory to Table sale issues.
“I was googling the Dutch oven I purchased at the event in Hartford (Friday session) to show a friend, and I noticed Williams Sonoma is charging the exact same amount for it that I paid at the event… How can you advertise “exclusive discounts” if the same price is available through Williams Sonoma for the same size and color?” wrote one Factory to Table attendee.
“You were getting free PR from people unboxing these,” wrote a commenter on TikTok, “And managed to undo all of that with Hartford.”
