Williams-Sonoma — Local services in Troy

This is for Tramontina fry pans PLEASE read this review. I thought these pans were going to be amazing and for the first 18 months loved them. Then a peculiar thing happened to the coating. Please note- for the first 16 months of use I rubbed Olive Oil on the bottom of the pan with my fingers before cooking, which was generally eggs or chicken burgers. The past few weeks I switched to spray which didn't make a difference as the damage was already done. The coating was caking off where a dish sponge wasn't removing the grease. I had to wipe down very hard with a cloth to remove the gunk which led me to contact Tramontina CS. "I purchased a 10” and 8” on 12/12/23 from Amazon(#113-0712140-4526662). For the past several months I’ve noticed a sticky stain on the bottom of the pan which is impossible to remove with a dish sponge. So, today I took a white towel and with a fair amount of elbow grease rubbed and rubbed the already cleaned surface and you can see the pic below. Is the coating coming off? I almost don’t want to use the pan for fear I’m eating food(always eggs or chicken burgers)that is somewhat contaminated. I always use Olive Oil, Sunflower oil or lately Mazola Cooking Spray. The photos are not representative at all of what the bottom of the pan looked like before using the towel after cleaning."
Their response-Hi Andrew,

Thank you for reaching out and for providing detailed information along with the photo of your pan. From your description and the image, it appears that the nonstick coating on the bottom surface of your pan has started to deteriorate, likely due to a combination of factors including the use of certain cooking sprays. We also noticed there's a small chip in the coating, which further supports our concern.

While it’s common to see some staining or residue on cookware over time, the sticky film and the coating transfer onto your towel suggest the pan’s surface has broken down more than it should under normal use. Based on the image, the dark, greasy-looking stains on the towel are very consistent with burnt or polymerized oil residue—not just simple soot or dirt. This kind of transfer typically happens when: Oil or cooking spray has carbonized on the pan surface over time. Why This Happened: Cooking sprays, including Mazola and similar aerosol-based sprays, can build up over time and degrade nonstick coatings—especially when heated beyond moderate temperatures. These sprays often contain emulsifiers and additives that don't burn off cleanly and can create a stubborn layer that’s very hard to remove. Over time, this can damage the coating itself, causing it to peel or flake with friction (as in your towel test). Additionally, regular use of oils like olive or sunflower oil at high heat can contribute to polymerized residue on nonstick surfaces, especially if the pan isn't allowed to cool before washing. Their suggestion: Because of the visible chipping and compromised coating, we do not recommend continued use of this pan. Even small chips could potentially flake into food, especially when cooking at high temperatures.

We completely understand your concern about safety, and you're right to question whether the pan is still suitable for use. Based on our assessment, it’s best to safely discard the affected pan.

Please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have further questions—we’re here to help!

Best regards, XXXXXXX(not showing you their name) Customer Service Representative

My final response- "Thank you for this but I am a little confused. What cooking oil do you recommend or are you suggesting not to use cooking oils for sauté or even cooking a hamburger? And I will throw this pan away for sure but let me ask you this; are your products only good for 1 1/2 years of use??? That is your quality guarantee? If so, that is extremely unsatisfactory and I would never purchase your products again. I would have thought a replacement would be in order at the least.

I will provide this feedback on Amazon and Google reviews. "

These pans are terrible and there is zero...

I have never left a review (good or bad) anywhere. However, I knew I had to share my experience if it could save a couple the headache my husband and I went through doing our wedding registry here. We arrived for our registry appointment and were greeted by a woman who said the "registry expert" hadn't arrived yet so we waited for ~15-20 minutes. Not a big deal but after those 20 minutes, the same woman reemerged and said she'd be the one helping us register. Kind of a red flag but we rolled with it. This is where the trouble began. We weren't given instructions on how to register for sets vs. individual items (cookware, silverware, etc.) and weren't given a list of suggested registry items until we walked out of the store 2 hours later. Although we left a bit discouraged, we knew we'd be able to update our selections online and figured we'd make any changes or additions necessary when we got home.

When we logged onto our website to see our registry that same day, more than half of the items said they were no longer available or out of stock. For the next 3 months I had wedding guests constantly contacting our mothers because none of our items were available for purchase. This led to long calls with corporate trying to figure out why everything we selected was suddenly "out of stock." They never really offered an explanation other than each store had its own inventory and items moved quickly.

Then the gifts started arriving. We began receiving duplicates of multiple items. Two of the same paring knife, two instapots, more spatulas and cookie sheets than we registered for. We had one platter that arrived shattered four times before they offered us a gift card--each time it reshipped, it was packaged exactly the same virtually ensuring it would arrive broken. To add insult to injury, half of the gifts did not arrive with a message/note of who they were from so we had to call WS corporate and get information about who bought and shipped what.

Last but certainly not least, THE RETURN PROCESS. We chose to return some gifts in store for ease (or so we thought). We brought 9 gifts in for return. We were set up with an employee who voiced multiple times that he didn't know how to process these returns yet the manager who he called for help didn't offer to take over at any point. We stood at the counter for two hours to return 9 items. For every gift that was bought online, the store had to request a separate gift card to be shipped by USPS to our home address. So after our two hour wait, we waited another two-three weeks for a couple hundred of dollars in 9 separate gift cards. Five eventually arrived. A week later I had an aunt contact me letting me know she received 3 gift cards from WS and wasn't sure why so I had to explain to her that we had returned her gift and WS had messed up sending the gift cards to the incorrect person. Our 9th gift card was also mailed to a guest whose gift we had returned. Besides the fact that the return process makes zero sense, they also managed to completely mess it up embarrassing us and our guests.

All in all, I would never in a million years recommend someone register here. They definitely carry high quality products (love my GreenPan cookware!) but between the poor customer service and horrendous inventory/shipping/return experiences we had, no pot or pan in the world would've...

I was looking for a men’s apron for my brothers birthday and couldn’t find anything online anywhere that I liked. I called Williams-Sonoma and a lovely woman by the name of Vicky (maybe?) helped me. She asked me how far away I was since I was on my way, and when I told her about ten minutes she said that was just enough time for her to go through the inventory in the back to find what I was looking for. When I arrived she had an armful of awesome aprons that weren’t on the floor. She even gift wrapped everything so nicely for me! This place is really awesome and the customer service is fabulous. Thank you again for your help, my brother...