# Rocket Tamper, poor quality



## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

Having just bought and now enjoying a fabulous Rocket Giotto Evoluzione, I decided to lash out and buy a Rocket Tamper to go with it. The one that comes with the machine is a bit light and aesthetically challenged, I think. I have bought it from Alchemycoffee (£45) and if this is what they are all like, Rocket need a Rocket for producing a such badly turned and finished tamper. In the centre of the otherwise flat base is a nodule that is about 1/32" in height and very sharp. The chrome on the top of the handle is pitted, making it rough to the touch. I had understood these tampers were slightly convex but this one is flat, all except the unfinished nodule in the centre, that is.

It hardly complements the Rocket Giotto, which is strikingly, beautifully made and finished off.

Could this Rocket tamper be a bad copy? Does anyone else have one, the details and quality of which they could share with me?

Dave


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Send it back and get a Torr


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## glevum (Apr 4, 2013)

Motta do a lot of Rocket badged stuff. Not sure if they make that tamper for them. send it back


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## chimpsinties (Jun 13, 2011)

I have a Rocket tamper and it's absolutely spot on. It's perfectly smooth, perfectly formed and very nice and weighty in your hand. See my sig for pic. Is this what yours looks like? This could start to sound rude


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

I contacted the supplier, www.alchemycoffee.com, and was asked to send a photo of the faulty tamper and they would send me another one. I immediately sent a photo and they agreed that my photo showed the problem and having checked two others that they had in stock, those were the same too. ie three shoddily finished Rocket Tampers. Joe O'Hara at Alchemy Coffee/Ristretto.com suggested I return it to them for a refund, since they didn't have a good one in stock and he didn't offer an alternative other than a return for refund. Which is not what I was after, what I was after was a perfectly formed Rocket Tamper and at the price I think I should be able to expect that.

I run a company and this sort of problem should never be the customers' to sort out, no matter how trivial. I won't send it back, I may never see it or a refund again, who knows. What Joe O'Hara should have said was, "Until I can replace it, keep it and use it and when we receive a properly finished one from Rocket, we'll notify you by email. All you do then Dave, is send it back and I'll make sure a good one is sent out to you as soon as we receive yours back". *That would have been good customer service.*

I'll get the Tamper finished properly myself. If you can picture it, the fault is a very sharp spike in the centre, clearly the remains of a bad lathe turning that has left a centre spike. It's a schoolboy job to remove the spike at production stage but clearly Rocket are not finishing their products correctly and worse, sending them out un-checked. Can't believe Rocket doing that having created such machines as the Giotto with it's attention to detail.

So, people, be warned, AlchemyCoffee.com have two in stock that are faulty/unfinished and at anything from £45 to £65 apiece, my advice is only buy mail order if you don't mind some potential hassle.

I should have bought from BellaBarista, theirs are more expensive but probably the Real McCoy - you live and learn.

Dave

*Admin note: Please visit Page 4 to see the successful outcome of this transaction*


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## chimpsinties (Jun 13, 2011)

So is the one you got the same as mine?


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

Ok found it. Yes that's the one but mine looks like it was made by a YTS trainee


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## chimpsinties (Jun 13, 2011)

That's such a shame. Maybe it's worth sending a mail over to Rocket head office too? I'd be interested to see a photo of it here if you can be bothered.


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## glevum (Apr 4, 2013)

probably not made by rocket , just a re brand. Look at Rocket jugs on BB, identical to Motta but twice the price nearly.


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## glevum (Apr 4, 2013)

Thats a good idea to send Rocket a mail, they might send you one!


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

Can you see the nipple in the centre of the 58mm disk. The flat area is not polished and the handle is rough due to pitting of the chrome finish.


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

I have tried to upload a close up of the centre spike but it failed to upload for some reason, it said it failed. It's actually quite sharp too if you catch your finger on it. I'll try in a bit.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

I would contact Rocket, link to this thread and say you have checked with other users of their tampers and yours is clearly badly made with more at the place you bought them.

A premium company like Rocket may well sort it out themselves.

It is also worth noting that Rocket have a page about there being fake products out there on the market ( http://rocket-espresso.com/domestic/certified/ ) if there is any truth in that its possible it extends to their tampers.

Either way, well worth contacting them letting them know your situation.


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

You make some good points here chaps, thanks for that. I have emailed the details onto Rocket in Milan.

Meanwhile the Rocket Giotto Evoluzione V2 I bought from BellaBarista is a cracking piece of engineering and I can't fault it.

Dave


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## Machina Espresso (Aug 14, 2013)

Hi Dave, sorry to hear about your tamper issues. We have stock of genuine Rocket tampers, sent to us by Rocket directly and have none of the issues you've pointed out - yours is clearly an oversight from a poor batch.

Hope you manage to get it sorted but if you want to replace it then check them out at http://www.machina-espresso.co.uk/collections/barista-kit-tampers/products/rocket-branded-58mm-steel-tamper

Cheers

Michael

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

Hi Michael

Thanks for the heads up but in the blurb about the Rocket Tamper on your site, it says, "Rocket branded 58mm tamper, *made of a single piece of high grade polished stainless steel*. Extremely heavy, well crafted with an excellent feel. A perfect addition to your existing Rocket setup, or a gift for Rocket or coffee fan." Well mine is made from two pieces of metal, bolted together, I can unscrew and separate the two halves. I know the blurb says it is made up of a single piece of steel but is that because whoever wrote that, thinks it is one piece of steel because it does look that way, check it out.


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

Garydyke1 said send it back and get a Torr. But how would I know it was a real genuine Torr. Had the sharp spikey nodule not been left on my "Rocket" tamper, I wouldn't have known something was wrong with it, other than I would have been disappointed by the general poor quality.


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

If you want a genuine torr tamper then check out this thread, they are beautiful tamps and are very highly recommended on here.....

http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?10381-Torr-tampers/page14&highlight=Torr


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## Machina Espresso (Aug 14, 2013)

Interesting, will check it out tomorrow!

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

I have genuine torr tampers


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

Coffeechap, can you be so sure?


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Yes of course Jenns who owns torr sent them to me direct.....


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Billywiz1307 said:


> I contacted the supplier, http://www.alchemycoffee.com, and was asked to send a photo of the faulty tamper and they would send me another one. I immediately sent a photo and they agreed that my photo showed the problem and having checked two others that they had in stock, those were the same too. ie three shoddily finished Rocket Tampers. Joe O'Hara at Alchemy Coffee/Ristretto.com suggested I return it to them for a refund, since they didn't have a good one in stock and he didn't offer an alternative other than a return for refund. Which is not what I was after, what I was after was a perfectly formed Rocket Tamper and at the price I think I should be able to expect that.
> 
> I run a company and this sort of problem should never be the customers' to sort out, no matter how trivial. I won't send it back, I may never see it or a refund again, who knows. What Joe O'Hara should have said was, "Until I can replace it, *keep it and use it and when we receive a properly finished one *from Rocket, we'll notify you by email. All you do then Dave, is send it back and I'll make sure a good one is sent out to you as soon as we receive yours back". *That would have been good customer service.*
> 
> ...


Why would you use it? the shots will be terrible


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

Billywiz1307 said:


> Coffeechap, can you be so sure?


Is this guy for real?


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

garydyke1 said:


> Why would you use it? the shots will be terrible


I doubt a tiny imperfection would cause that much change in the shots. Obviously is is sub-par on something of this price, but it would still probably pull off an OK tamp.


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

garydyke1 said:


> Is this guy for real?


Not sure but how is your new beauty????


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## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

garydyke1 said:


> Is this guy for real?


I think that particular post was sarcastic.

However, I think the company have been fine here - offering a refund. You've said you've got a defective product, they don't have any other stock so they offered you your money back. If the product is bad as you describe it's a perfectly reasonable assumption you wouldn't want to continue using it.


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

garydyke1 said:


> Is this guy for real?


er.... that's why I added a smiley face


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Did you not know you have to add two smileys and a wink:act-up:


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

Oh sorry, protocol, protocol, I must do better.

I've had quite a pleasant email back from Rocket and they've quite rightly pointed me back in the direction of alchemycoffee, my 'contract' is essentially with them.

When I set out to buy some accessories, not all suppliers had stock so I had to spread the order. I placed orders with Amazon, alchemycoffee and Gio-espresso. Amazon order arrived as usual, promptly, I had to gently nudge alchemycoffee but the tamper and Rocket jug arrived presently. However, on 29th August I ordered a Rocket tamper station from GioEspresso and although they took the cc cash, they have not delivered and have not responded to emails or messages left on their answer machine and I subsequently have reason to believe they can be a little slow, that's another issue.

You guys are seasoned and probably savvy players in the coffee world but having dipped my toe in, I consider myself lucky that I purchased my relatively expensive Giotto through a respected supplier and the lower cost accessories have been procured with mixed results.

Let's leave it at that.

Dave


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

And I was being sarcastic! I really hope you sort this out it is a nightmare being messed about by suppliers, even us veterans get duped too though. Seriously though if you want a torr ( which are fab tampers) then get in touch as I secured a 15 percent discount from Jenns, just visit pasmarose.de for more info on his tampers


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## Billywiz1307 (Aug 21, 2013)

Thanks to those that participated in my little tamper issue and I'm pleased to report a good outcome.

I love good engineering, I have today received from alchemycoffee.com, a beautifully engineered replacement Rocket tamper. The difference is striking, whilst the badly made tamper, that I had originally received, did tamp, it wasn't good to handle, it scratched your hand, it pulled threads on cloths and therefore failed to do it's job.

I now have the Rocket tamper that I wanted, properly made, finished and polished and it compliments my new Rocket Giotto Evo. That is also an engineering marvel that looks and works great in my kitchen.

Many thanks to Joe O'Hara and his team at alchemycoffee.com for helping to sort this one out. As promised, I will ship the original tamper back to them tomorrow.

Dave


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

This is a good outcome, and the expected one too.

I know Joe and his team. They only buy genuine items, direct from Rocket and are one of a select number of Rocket accredited resellers.


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