Nespresso Essenza Manual by Krups XN2003 Coffee Machine, Just Black

I've had this coffee machine for the past few months, and as a coffee machine, it is brilliant. The coffee comes out perfectly every time, the build quality is excellent for a budget machine and it is simple and easy to use. However the service from Nespresso is awful.

The only place you can officially buy capsules for any Nespresso machine is through the Nespresso website, or at one of five "boutiques" in London, Manchester or Birmingham. If you live outside of this area, you have to order online and wait and pray for a delivery from a surly bloke from Yodel to pull up in his own car and fling your coffee anywhere he chooses. He might wait for you to give him the recycling bag, he might not. It's fine, just keep hold of those old coffee beans until next time. But be warned, he won't take two bags, so you might as well throw it into a landfill.

When the delivery does not turn up when it should, you are stuck trying to rearrange a delivery, but that won't turn up either. Three or four attempts are required every time you need to replenish your coffee supplies. Each time requiring a full day off in the hope that the coffee will turn up some time between 7AM and 9PM, so you better get comfortable. I'd say make yourself a coffee, but since this is delivery attempt number three, you probably ran out two weeks ago.

Contacting Nespresso customer service to see what on earth is going on is a waste of time too, but you've got nothing better to do for the next 14 hours, so why not spend 20 minutes on hold, to be told that the delivery has left the warehouse in the back of beyond, so you might as well "sit tight", it will get there eventually. Maybe email Nespresso? Nope, they're always "receiving a high volume of correspondence" (I wonder why?), so there is a 24 to 48 hour delay in getting back to emails. Oh, and they don't reply to emails at the weekend, so maybe Monday? Maybe not. Even when you do receive a reply, it will be your fault. Yodel said they made a delivery attempt, despite not receiving a "sorry you were out" card, you obviously missed it. If you don't like taking a day off work and waiting in for a delivery that may or may not turn up, you can always travel to the "boutique" 70 miles away!

I'm not really sure who Nespresso's demographic are here. From the advertising, price and product, I'd guess this is supposed to be a premium product aimed at professionals and coffee lovers. However you need to be able to spend all day at home waiting for the delivery, so perhaps the housebound or unemployed? Housebound, unemployed independently wealthy coffee lovers rejoice, you can have all the high quality you like, for the rest of us, the Nespresso machine will live in the cupboard, next to the Juice machine you swore you'd use last time you were on a diet and the Fondue set your strange Auntie got you last Christmas.

This machine is well made and makes a good cup of coffee using Nespresso capsules. The only problem, and it's minor, is the fact that you can't comfortably fit full height cups under the nozzle. I guess it's made for trendy looking espresso cups but sometimes you want a full height cup. I just tilt and hold underneath to get round this problem.

Nespresso Essenza Manual by Krups XN2003 Coffee Machine, Just Black

I love this machine - really easy to use. This is my second Krups machine. The last one lasted 5 years and was used every day.
The Nespresso system makes the best coffee I've tasted - even shop-bought stuff!
Would thouroughly recommend it.