Customer Reviews

Good Times Xpress Redi Set Go Cooker

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(19)
1 star:		(112)

 

 

I watched the infomercial for months. It seemed simple and Cathy Mitchell seemed believable. By the time the commercial ended...I was anxious to own one. My little George Foreman finally gave way and as a Christmas present to myself I purchased one. The first meal I tried was pork chops and potatoes. Cathy always made it simple. Popped in the food, set the timer for 7 to 12 minutes and out comes a delicious meal. The potatoes never cooked well at all. After 15 minutes, the edges were fine but the middle still hard so I popped in the microwave and finished. Pork chops were my next attempt. Never seared as there was too much juice. I kept pouring it off and finally browned a bit but I could have cooked faster on the stove. So okay, not good for meats and potatoes. Eggs should work. For breakfast, I tried an omelet and bacon. Bacon steamed and did not crispin. Omelet cooked for 12 minutes and still the center was not cooked well. So I tried a flat bread pizza with pesto and cheese. The bread did crispin but the cheese hardly melted in the center. Took longer than the 7 minutes on the commercial. Tried a grilled pastrami and cheese sandwich. The bread browned, nearly burnt in the 7 minutes, only the edges of the cheese melted. The center was still cold, but if I cooked longer, then the bread would have burnt. My little George Foreman cooked so much better. I felt I gave the Express RediSetGo a good try. I e-mailed and told customer service I wanted to return it. They said I could return it for a replacement as mine might be defective or I could get a full-refund. However, I lose the shipping charges no matter what and that was $16.95. After reading the review by another consumer, I will not use their express return tag included in the package. Instead, I will mail with my own label and pay for signed delivery confirmation. I am saddened it did not work as seen on television. I was really looking forward to fast and easy meals when I'm on the go.

I don't even think this deserves a 1 star! It barely lasted me a month... I got about 5-7 uses and tada...... PEELING!
Purchased this item and was very excited to make the pizza! The taste was great...added a few toppings of my own and turned out very tasty!
After 2 weeks or so, I noticed a little bubble starting on the inside. I always sprayed with pam. Used the plastic spatula it came with but it got worst.
By almost 4 weeks.... the whole bottom is peeling! It's some sort of cheap non stick coating!!! Horrible!
For the money I could have purchased a really nice toaster oven!!!!

Customer Service is horrible, shipping is ridiculous. They could use priority mail and it would be way cheaper!

WHAT A JOKE! Don't waste your money.... I wish I hadn't!! I wish I had read all the reviews before I purchased it!

Complete waste of money!!!!!!!

I bought this for my Mom and it's the biggest piece of junk. She's had it less than 3 weeks and is returning it today. The red exterior paint is bubbling and flaking off, the unit has loud popping noises when heating and cooling and the non-stick coating scratches even when using the plastic utensils. They conned me into the extra $9.95 recipe club and that made the shipping jump from $16.95 to $21.90!

I ordered, I returned because it did not do any of the cooking as it claimed it would. The shipping was outrageous & when I returned it they said they never received it. My credit card Co was back & forth with them & then they finally after 2 mo found it & only gave me credit for $70.00 out of #117.00.

I ordered the Xpress Redi-Set-Go on September 13, 2009 and when it arrived I had been charged $71.90 for an item which was advertised for $39.90. I did not opt to be a member of Cathy's Club, but was charged $9.95 to be one, plus shipping and handling was a whopping $21.90.

On November 11, 2009 I received notification that $14.90 had been deducted (against my credit card used to purchase the Redi-Set-Go) for three recipe booklets ($9.95) and $4.95 (shipping and handling).

To get the credit card company to refuse these "automatic" charges, I would have to cancel my credit card and have a new one issued. My bank gave me the telephone number used for the deduction, so I called and talked to "Victoria".

I was refused a credit and the only thing that I was able to resolve was that they agreed to cancel my "membership", that I didn't want in the first place. I asked that they e-mail me confirmation of the cancellation, however, that did not happen.

BEWARE! A lot of people are experiencing the same kind of "memberships" which they did not opt for, but don't know how to get out of it. I will report this company to the Federal Trade Commission.

I saw this item on a TV 'paid program' late one evening, and that should have warned me. However, I thought that if it worked half as good for me as it did for "Cathy", I would give it a try to help me solve the "never ending appetite" of my teenage son. In my effort to teach him how to prepare a few simple meals (mom does not live here), and to relieve "what's to eat Dad", I though the concept of top and bottom heat might work--Wrong! Everything we tried turned out burned or soggy. A chicken breast was a disaster, burned on the outside and raw on the inside. Pork chop curled, and the bottom heats hotter than the top requiring you to turn over (they didn't flip on TV). In short, I cannot remember one meal we tried that we were happy with, and could have been done better on the stove top or toaster oven. When the "non stick" bottom began to peel off, the grill went into the basement along with some other useless appliances.
Don't waste your money.

I was SO excited when my Redi-Set-Go finally arrived! Well, I was in for somewhat of a disappointment! First, I was smart enough not to get conned into the recipe club (and I am SO glad that I didn't cause it's totally NOT worth it), but I was DUMB enough to fall for ANOTHER infomercial item! I had owned the George Foreman Grill years ago, and I loved it! So, I kind of had high hopes for this one!
First off, I learned my lesson the hard way by "trying" to cook burgers on it! Not only did it make a HUGE, greasy mess, but even though I sprayed both surfaces with cooking spray, everything still stuck! They didn't cook right, either. Plus, my house looked like a fog machine went off and it stunk like a restaurant kitchen till the next day!! On the commercial, that lady cooks a slab of steak, so I thought these would be OK! But, maybe burgers weren't MEANT to be cooked on the Redi-Set-Go, so I blamed myself for this one!
Next, I was dying to try the mini pizza recipe and those came out pretty good! I used the Boboli crust (which I had to trim down cause even their "mini" was too big), Boboli pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese and pepperoni. Probably a better idea for lunch rather than dinner!
After that, I tried the mini-cakes using both the insertable pans and those were a hit with my family!! (Super easy, too!) Only thing though, you have to cook it WAY longer than the recipe says!!
The next time I tried a chicken strip recipe that was actually MEANT for the grill, and I had the SAME problem as I did with the burgers!!! I stopped after I made one and made the rest in my oven.
I've been reading some of the other reviews, on here and other web sites, and I am having the same problem with the paint bubbling and peeling! Not only that, but the timer stopped working after the first time I used it! I clean the inside surface after every item I cook the exact way the booklet says to do it, and the non-stick surface is also chipping away!
I don't know if I would rate this thing as high as some other people, but I have to say that it's not something you would want to cook any "dinner" item on. It's more of a breakfast/lunch/dessert thing! Definitely "cheaply" made! (I was really surprised the first time I saw it!) I honestly didn't feel like going through the aggravation of calling their customer center and trying to get a new one, or to get my money back.

What a disappointment! What a ripoff! What a joke!
Amazon says I should tell what I would have wanted to know before I bought this thing. Well, I woiuld have wanted to know not to waste my money on it.
This thing is a cheaply made piece of junk. But, like so many others, I got taken in by sweet little old Kathy and that toady who, apparently, will eat anything and pronounce it fabulous. So I bought one.
I was looking for something small, that would fit a chicken breast or salmon steak. So far I've only tried chicken. Unfortunately, the chicken breasts I got apparently were too fat; this appliance burned the tops to a crisp and, yet, the interior still was pink. (I used cooking spray on both the bottom and the lid.) Since then I've had to slice the chicken breasts sideways to keep them from getting incinerated on top. I have to watch the thing like a hawk; when the timer reaches "0" the timer stops, but no bell or signal goes off and the heat STAYS ON !!! Found that out the hard way.
Cleanup is awful. The plates are fixed, so you have to wash the whole thing in the sink. It's very awkward to clean and you have to hold it in peculiar ways to keep it from slamming shut on your fingers. In spite of continued scrubbing with a plastic scour pad there still is residue on both "nonstick" surfaces from the first time I used it. I always feel antsy about washing this electrical appliance in the sink and won't plug it in again until the next day to make sure it is perfectly dry.
I haven't tried anythiong but chicken, because I don't want to waste expensive steak or salmon in this crematorium. Most of the things Kathy whips up in the infomercial I wouldn't eat on a bet, so the "recipes" and pan inserts that come with it are useless to me.
I could have used a round insert that fits snugly in the bottom so, at least, all I'd have to put in the sink would be the insert. Thay have one, too -- the only way to get one, though, is to join their "pan of the month club" thingy @ $19.99 + exorbitant shipping every two months for 2 pans, and they send you the basic round pan with your first order that includes two other useless (to me) pans. But the website doesn't tell you if you can cancel your "membership" in this exclusive club, so you may be sending them $20+ every other month for the rest of your life. Of course, you'll accumulate a vast assortment of ridiculously useless pans (do I really want to cook a heart-shaped omelet?).
I haven't had it long enough for the nonstick coating to peel, but I'll look out for that. Meantime, I'm ordering the Cuisinart Griddler Jr GR-3 and when it comes, Miss Kathy's cute little red paperweight goes into the trash.

I am so sorry that this item did not perform as I was hoping and expecting it to. The first time I used it, it smelled as though something was burning but I thought it was the newness of it. Now, I think that something connected to the timer may have burned loose, because the timer stopped working right after the first use. I made cherry turnovers and they stuck to the top and bottom (even after spraying both with PAM). I used the plastic spatula to get them out and it scratched the bottom pretty badly (the turnovers were good though,thus the 1 star). I noticed that the top paint had a bubble in it as well (just a matter of time before it would start peeling). I tried to cook pork chops, but they were very dry and a pizza pocket (which was okay, but stuck again). Needless to say, I had to return this product. I was so looking forward to using my Xpress cooker. I hope that the manufacturers will go back to the drawing board and come up with an improved product.

Ordering:
I bought the RSG almost a year ago, shortly after it came out. I was only charged for the appliance itself plus shipping because I carefully read each and every page as I clicked through them. Those who were charged for recipe club memberships, etc. were not scammed by the company, they were simply too impatient to read everything. Caveat Emptor...

The non-stick coating:
I had a problem with the teflon coating bubbling after only 3 weeks of use. I tried to be very careful with it, but the problem developed anyway. Prior to buying the appliance I joined Cathy Mitchell's Xpress101 Yahoo group. To join, just do a search at Yahoo groups for Xpress101.

I carefully read the comments and after having the problem with the coating bubbling, I posted a message which was promptly replied to by Cathy. She gave me a manufacturer's toll-free number to call. I called the number and was given very polite service. the manufacturer sent me a brand new RSG, with free shipping and told me I did not have to return the original product. So, now I have two of them, and on occasion use them both. Although I would have preferred that the appliance was perfect on first try, I can't complain about a company who is willing to replace my merchandise totally free.

My suggestion to potential buyers? By all means, buy this excellent product, but before you cook anything directly on the unit's surface, line the bottom with a small piece of non-stick aluminum foil. This is how I cook in it now, and it does a great job. Unfortunately, Teflon has been problematic ever since it first came out (this includes the Teflon clones).

Also, be sure to join Cathy's Yahoo group. Lots of help there, and the members share RSG recipes too. :D

How well does it cook?

This little appliance does a terrific job on:
Fried eggs
Heating rolls and other bread (freshens it too)
Wraps...it makes fabulous wraps
Paninis...no, you don't get the grill marks, but they do come out yummy
Meatballs...the mini pan is perfect for these
Cupcakes...mini pan again
Personal pizzas (I especially love that I can bake a pizza using Pita bread as the base.)
It's perfect for reheating foods that don't do well in the microwave.

I've cooked other things in it, but can't remember what they were at the moment...LOL.

I've not had great success cooking raw meat in the RSG, but it's so convenient for other things, I don't care. It now has a permanent place on my countertop. For those who are interested, the company now sells many of the extra pans individually, so you no longer have to sign up for a "club".