Not sure if you mean Sweet Maria’s or Docent when you wrote “they” not picking up the phone …
The one time I contacted Sweet Maria via email with a question about the bullet (post sales) they replied to me within 24 hrs. I’ve not had issues with delays when ordering beans from them either - I pay for the cheapest shipping option for the beans and get them within a week on the east coast.
I do recommend seasoning the bullet yourself because that is the good opportunity to learn the controls of the roaster and the roast time software (if you’re using it). I did 6 seasoning roasts with “dead beans” so I can figure out the roaster. There is a learning curve…
I’m a big fan of ‘I wanna do it myself!’. As @blacklabs mentions it’s part of the learning process. That said, a pre-seasoned Bullet does mean fewer hardware bugs to deal with- that’s a big plus for a person new to the Bullet.
Of course, you will (!) season it again as you start learning the h/w & s/w whether you want to or not. The Bullet is not a fully automated greens-in-roasted-coffee-out roaster. Takes some experience with the Bullet even having used other small roasters.
So find some cheap greens (is there such a thing these days?!) to learn on. And of course, YMMV.
I think both @bab and I read it incorrectly now that you clarified it. Having bought my Bullet from SM I know they don’t season it. But anyway, if you’re that anxious to get the roaster maybe you should just cancel with SM and get it from Docent. All I can say is that those of us in the US, many of us have bought our Bullet from SM. I also believe they have a long history with the Bullet and the founders of Aillio. I had the pleasure to meet Tom Owen (co-founder) at the SCAA in Boston in April at the Aillio booth (along with the founders of Aillio). Personally I’ve been happy with their responsiveness. They are also a very lean shop and have been inundated recently with the inbound shipment of green beans that they have to process. Take my input on this for what it is worth. Happy Roasting.
Yeah, I had to take a step back and cool off. Not everyone is Amazon.
They did get back to me, and essentially, they’re a small company, like you said, and they have a lot of orders to fill. I can respect that. I mean, they do have the 7-10 business day shipping in bold on their order form. If I would have done my due diligence, I would have found that there is now a second vendor. Just need to unbunch my panties and have some patience.
Come back and let us know about your journey once you receive it… as I am sure you can tell in these forums we help each other as a community to learn from one another and troubleshoot. There’s also a wealth of info in the posts in this forum so the search is your friend. Happy roasting!
