Cricut Customer Support Review

Did you get a new Cricut for Christmas? I know a lot of people did! I treated myself to a Cricut Maker last month. And when I visited the local crafts store last week to check out materials for my new machine I ran into several other ladies there who also got new Cricut machines for Christmas. Considering I was only in that aisle about 20 minutes, my guess is that there are LOTS of people with new machines. Lucky people!

If you’re not familiar with the Cricut machines, they’re computerized machines that can cut, draw on or score many different types of materials. There’s a lot more to them than that. The official Cricut website defines them this way: “Cricut® makes smart cutting machines that work with an easy-to-use app to help you design and personalize almost anything — custom cards, unique apparel, everyday items, and so much more.”

A simple Google search for Cricut will yield lots and lots of results. They are definitely trending and with good cause. They are capable of being used in so many different ways that it boggles the mind. As I learn to use my Cricut I will share my experiences along the way. For now, I wanted to share my experience with the Cricut customer support team.

Although I am not a kid, I am pretty tech savvy. I was on social media before my teenage kids were. That was over 15 years ago. Big whoop for me right? LOL Just sharing that I can usually maneuver my way around new programs and platforms. The reason I mention this is that the Cricut works in conjunction with their design program Design Space. You create your designs/projects in Design Space and when ready, send it from the program to the machine, which magically makes your creation.

I prepared myself for the learning curve and reminded myself to be patient as I learned the software. I watched many tutorials and created a test project in Design Space to make sure the machine worked correctly out of the box. I then created a design in the program to make a gift for one of my daughters. This was project #2. It was a little bit more than entry level. I combined 2 different fonts plus an image that I created in Inkscape. I curved some of the lines of text as I was going to apply the cut piece to something that was not flat (a wine goblet).

It was not difficult to design by any means. I just had to teach myself the steps along the way so it took time. But when I sent the project to the machine, it misaligned the first line of text. Letters were cut superimposed on top of each other. Uh oh. I figured this was too specific of an error to take my chances with a random search engine query. I decided to pick up the phone and call Cricut support. I must have done something wrong in the design process. After all, you don’t just add shapes and images and hit the MAKE button. There are very specific steps that have to be followed, each of which tells the machine vital bits of info for that project, including the all important cutting process. I must have missed something and maybe the support team could take a look at my project and let me know what I did wrong.

Getting through to support was very easy. I was lucky that they were open when I needed them. That helped. LOL. Honestly, their hours of operation are generous. In the USA they are available Monday – Friday from 9am – 8pm. Eleven hours each weekday. Sweet. Their phone prompts were easy and it was only about 2 minutes when I had a customer service rep on the line. The wonderful and magical Molly! Boy, she truly was a wonder helping me out!

First, Molly was patient and kind in her assistance. She was also friendly and supportive. She never once rushed me nor made me feel like a dodo brain for messing anything up. Not that I messed anything up. It turns out it was not user error. It was actually the machine, but more on that in a bit. Molly listened to my problem and was never at a loss as to the next trouble shooting steps to take. We ended up in a Zoom meeting so I could share my screen with her and help her determine what was going on with my design.

Together, Molly and I tried many different fixes to my problem. But alas, a fix was not to be found. Each series of trouble shooting that we did brought us one step closer to the end realization: my specific machine was a lemon! I just physically turned around and looked back at my pretty machine just now to make sure she did not see me type that. 😛 After all, she is so sleek and pretty but underneath it all, something’s not working right.

All told, Molly and I were on the phone (and Zoom meeting) over 2 hours. The whole time Molly’s disposition did not waver. What a saint! Give that lady a well deserved raise Cricut managers! In the end, Molly put in a request for a replacement machine to be sent to me. I did not propose this. Cricut initiated the proposal. On my end I provided the different items Cricut needed in order to process that request and I called it a night.

In all honesty, I’m disappointed that such an expensive machine was not working correctly from the get-go. But I’m a realist and know that stuff happens. Every once in a while things go wrong. Who knows? Maybe the box was dropped somewhere along the way to my house? I ordered it online from a large and well known national craft store. In addition to all their people, there were the other people that picked it up and brought the box to my doorstep. Who knows? Maybe the problem was at the Cricut manufacturing plant? Why even waste time thinking about this? Instead, I choose to be grateful that Cricut, and Molly, were able to provide such fantastic customer service. Thank you Cricut and Molly!

Funny thing is that I ordered a lot of material and accessories on the Cricut website and I just received an email that most of it will be delivered today. Insert womp womp sound here! The material will have to wait until the new machine gets here. I’ll work on something else instead. Heaven knows my guest room holds a multitude of crafting items to choose from. I choose to see the glass half full. =)

Be kind to yourselves!