I seem to recall a question about the Customer Service department a couple of months ago, but I was unable to find that thread. I stated in that thread that by and large I was happy with their service, but had noted a lack of candidness on the part of their employees when asked about preparation of machines prior to shipping.
A new problem has arisen which I think should be shared with the community since it seems to confirm what I have read about their customer service. To wit:
I bought a bottomless portafilter from them in June. I own a Expobar Lever and the portafilter I received appeared to be the same as the one that came with the machine with the exception being the removal of the bottom of the portafilter. When I attempted to use it I found that coffee ran down the handle and dripped on the counter. I tried various solutions to the problem including running the filter with no coffee in it. In each case the problem repeated itself.
I called WLL and discussed the problem with their tech department. They agreed that the cut was likely defective and sent me an RMA. I returned the part to them. That was around July 9. Since then every time I call I get a different story. One time I was told that no problem was found, but that nothing had been done about it. Then the next time I called a couple of weeks later they said that there was nothing in the notes to indicate that testing the PF got negative results. That person said she would pursue the problem. Again, nothing happened for more than a week. Last week I received a basket, no PF. I called and was told by the person I spoke to that she would check into the problem and email me with the prognosis. A week passed and no email. This morning I called again. Now I am being told that the PF is on back order. I was also told that WLL does the cuts themselves, so I have to assume that the Expobar PFs are on back order. The prediction was two weeks for the fulfillment of the order.
The person I talked to today is the same young lady who sold me the Expobar and my Mazza Mini back in January. She was and very likely still is "sales staff." In that is probably the origin of the problem I and others have experienced. When you are a salesperson you are focused on closing, making the sale. Customer service is often far less satisfying. It generally involves problems that you had nothing to do with and for which you receive no remuneration. If you are a salesperson forced to do double duty as a Customer Service Rep which area do you think will be given the greatest emphasis? That was a rhetorical question.
When you call WLL you are presented with several options the second being their "highly regarded customer service team." When they and their "knowledgeable sale team" are one in the same you have the nub of the problem. I have read several posts by people who have purchased very expensive Super Automatic machines which are malfunctioning. They are experiencing problems very similar to mine. That, to me, is tragic since my investment in the PF was around a twentieth of what theirs was.
I worked as a stock broker for Merrill Lynch for several years. They are the ultimate sales organization. Customer service was about the same as WLL. When problems evolved in clients accounts I was advised to drop the client rather than spend valuable time trying to resolve their issues. The justification was that there were loads of clients out there being screwed by other brokerage houses who would come over to us as our clients went to other brokers, recycling is not only an environmental issue.
I think to some extent all sales organizations operate on that principle. You will lose a certain number of clients due to some failure of the thing you sell. In the brokerage industry that principle works. When you are selling $1000+ coffee makers it doesn't. There are not unlimited numbers of clients out there buying that equipment, and eventually your behavior will come back and bite you on the A**. WLL needs to clean up their act or they will find that their competition is rapidly outdistancing them. I, for one, will buy my replacement or repair parts elsewhere when possible. My recommendation to others will reflect my experience with the company. WLL needs to take lessons from companies like Eddie Bauer and Nordstrom with superb customer service departments and return policies. That is how you survive retail.

gitano1 wrote:I seem to recall a question about the Customer Service department a couple of months ago, but I was unable to find that thread.

Your post is on CoffeeGeek, Whole Latte Love like them or hate them? starting with "More recently I bought a bottomless Portafilter from them..."

gitano1 wrote:I bought a bottomless portafilter from them in June. I own a Expobar Lever and the portafilter I received appeared to be the same as the one that came with the machine with the exception being the removal of the bottom of the portafilter. When I attempted to use it I found that coffee ran down the handle and dripped on the counter. I tried various solutions to the problem including running the filter with no coffee in it. In each case the problem repeated itself.

I agree with JR's reply to you on CoffeeGeek:

JR wrote:I can't see how the coffee could go down the handle unless something is horribly wrong with the distribution and/or tamping--unless the cut was so bad that the opening was smaller than the filter basket. The shot shouldn't even touch the PF, much less run down the handle.

I can see how a bad cut could compromise the portafilter's strength, but cause the espresso coming from the bottom of the basket to drip down the handle? That makes no sense. Perhap posting a video would help me understand the problem.

BTW, for those new to HB, "vendor bashing" per the site's Guidelines for productive discussion, is strongly discouraged. If you feel you must comment, I ask that you please read the guidelines and the above thread on CoffeeGeek first to avoid tedious repetition of the same points.

I appreciate you comments, and am not trying to bash WLL. I would love to see them make a serious improvement.
In reference to your diagnosis of the problem I can only say that I posted questions about the problem on several sites looking for possible solutions. The fact that in the absence of any coffee in the PF that the problem occurred seems to negate your belief that it had something to do with my tamping technique. The fact that it doesn't happen with the normal PF proves that it has nothing to do with the seals about the PF. The leaking coffee was running along the bottom of the handle of the PF.
All that said, WLL stated to me on one of my later calls that there was nothing in the records from their tech department to indicate that the problem could not be reproduced at WLL. I suggested to them the possibility that it had something to do with the basket. That was denied by several of the people I spoke to.
I have no problem with the part being defective. Obviously, cutting these PFs is more art than science. My objection is that a problem that should have been solved in a day has dragged on for more than a month.
As to having posted on CoffeeGeek, I apologize. I have found this site to be much more in line with my level of experience and interests, not being a professional, so I have not been on CG for sometime and forgot that that was where I had made my original post which was in response to someone elses. Ostensibly the content of that post was quite different from this one, and this did not constitute a cross post.
My intent, as I stated above, was not to flame or defame WLL. I am very happy with the machines I bought from them and the advice I received prior to purchase. I have found that they are an excellent source of information when questions have arisen. My problem is strictly with their follow-through on customer service issues. I have documented and detailed the events. If others are experiencing similar problems sharing information on a forum should not be any more onerous than posting positive experiences with a retailer.

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, but I'm still baffled how cutting the bottom off a portafilter would produce the problem you describe. Was the hole too small and an off center pour touched the perimeter, running down the handle? IIRC, the Gaggia bottomless portafilter is nearly a straight cut, i.e., the hole has no inset unlike the Cimbali or La Spaziale bottomless portafilters.

There was a thread on another forum that stated the same problem.
Here was the culprit....

If a gasket of that type was the problem it would be happening with the uncut PF, and it isn't. The gasket is removed and inspected at least once a week when I clean the dispersal screen. It is immaculate. I kept a Gaggia Classic alive and functioning for 23 years (it is still in use at a friend's house). I am meticulous about maintenance.
I suspect what is happening is that that PF is making contact with the basket near its bottom allowing the surface tension of the fluid (coffee or water when no coffee is in the basket) to carry the fluid around the PF onto the handle. Ultimately, the base of the basket should be completely free from contact with the PF. If it was not cut away sufficiently that could cause the problem. (GutterHelmet and a few other innovative designs to keep leaves out of rain gutters rely on that concept. Water clings to the metal surface and defies gravity.) The basket would not have to make solid contact. The distance the size of one molecule of water or greater would be sufficient to provide a bridge.
In any case, WLL has the "defective" PF so any discussion is purely academic, but rest assured that I tested dozens of ideas before calling WLL and returning it to them.

gitano1 wrote:I suspect what is happening is that that PF is making contact with the basket near its bottom allowing the surface tension of the fluid (coffee or water when no coffee is in the basket) to carry the fluid around the PF onto the handle. Ultimately, the base of the basket should be completely free from contact with the PF.

Below is a video of the bottomless Gaggia portafilter that Todd from WLL provided for the Achille review:

[gvideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4043661748505691855[/gvideo]

There's plenty of clearance between the basket and portafilter. Oh well, looks like the mystery of your drippy bottomless will go unsolved.

HB wrote:Below is a video of the bottomless Gaggia portafilter that Todd from WLL provided for the Achille review:
There's plenty of clearance between the basket and portafilter. Oh well, looks like the mystery of your drippy bottomless will go unsolved.

If that is representative of the one that gitano1 received there are a few guesses I can make:
1) sprites squirting onto the handle
2) a warped basket that sealed well enough with the full PF body but not with the bottomless
3) unconscious unwillingness to tighten the bottomless as much as the full PF. The lower mass of the bottomless makes it feel less sturdy.
4) warped bottomless portafilter or maybe bent my being vised too tightly when drilled or thrown across the room when it came out of the vise(?).
gitano1 would have been better served by asking here about the problem before returning it to WLL.. IMHO. That doesn't explain the problems getting his difficulties resolved though. But that is just one side of the story, so.....?

HB wrote:. . . I'm still baffled how cutting the bottom off a portafilter would produce the problem you describe.

I have seen precisely the described problem of dripping/running down the bottom of the handle caused by an improperly cut bottomless portafilter for a Cimbali. It was in one of our sponsor-vendor's shops, and they would not sell it to me specifically because it was, in their words, incorrectly cut. I personally tried it and then cleaned up the mess afterwards.

As I recall -- and this was about a year ago so I may not be remembering precise details of the cut -- the total radius of the cut was greater than the radius of the bottom of the portafilter itself, and some material had been removed from the bottom of the handle itself to taper the cut in a visually pleasing manner. The visual appearance was pleasing in that there was no ridge at the inner end of the handle, but it dripped all over creation.

So yes, the symptom described by the OP has been observed to be caused in at least one situation by an improperly chopped portafilter.

The Gaggia portafilter above is very different from the Expobar. To begin with the Expobar basket extended to the bottom of the cut. You could not see into the PF around the cut. That photo is, unfortunately, irrelevant.
I did post on CoffeeGeek as well as the WLL site. The thread on CG I posted on had to do with spritzing PFs. There is a person on WLL's forum who is quite experienced and conversant. Nothing I have seen suggested so far is different than what I had seen elsewhere prior to contacting WLL about the problem. Portafilters are very different from each other in terms of their profiles. I know that WLL's shop cuts ones that work for the Expobar, so I know it is possible to have one that functions faultlessly.
Just to add another factor to this discussion, the formation at the bottom of the basket, though not perfect, was certainly not characteristic of a poorly dosed and tamped puck. Had the leak not occurred I would have felt quite happy with the results.
If WLL's tech department had found no problem with the PF they would have simply returned it to me. I gave them that option. I think that we can assume that they found that the PF was improperly cut or, at least, there were problems with it.