Great coffee maker - don't hesitate to buy it. Both my parents & I have this model and they have been working fantastically for over 6 years! Our power company zapped mine & I had to get a new one; I bought the same model without hesitation! The gold filter is great and it really does make a great cup of coffee. Looks great too! I don't know why people had problems; we never did but maybe they got a refurbished one or the occasional lemon. Amazon always takes returns/exchanges though and like I said, we never had a single problem.