Paul's Story--just another disposable appliance? - Cuisinart® Sucks

This is my Cuisinart Sucks story::  
I bought a Grind & Brew Thermal DGB600BCW several (probably more than 3) years ago and have had good luck with it.

Last year I had a problem with the basket spontaneously releasing during brewing, which makes a big mess if I have it set to automatically make a pot at a set time.

I called customer service and reached a very helpful guy. After asking a few questions, he explained that I could avoid this problem by using slightly less water and less coffee.

I checked the instructions, and I was in fact overfilling the grinder, and pouring water past the 10-cup mark.

I was doing this because I noticed that when I filled it to capacity, I got a lot less than 10 cups of coffee. He explained that they don't use an 8 ounce standard for coffee, but 5 ounces instead, so I would get about 50 ounces max insted of 80 ounces of brew.

He told me to be sure the beans were only filled up to a line inside the grinder that is slightly below the grinder rim.

He also asked if I wanted a new basket. I wasn't sure I needed one, but he said he could send me one free, and I might as well take it. Shortly after that I received the new basket.

Following the filling instructions worked great, and I had no more problems until this week.

Now I am having problems releasing the basket. The button on the side of the coffeemaker sticks.

I called customer support, and asked about fixing this problem. She said if my machine was still in warranty, they would just send me a new one, but otherwise they had no solution. She said it was possible to "email Corporate", and they might send me a new part, but tech support couldn't advise me on which part to order, or provide any help with swapping the part out.

She didn't know what the "Corporate" email address was.

My guess is that this is either the assembly that screws in and pops out, holding the filter basket, or perhaps it is the latching spot on the base.

I told her about my first experience with their support staff, and asked if I had reached the right place. She said yes, she does the same kind of tech support that I reached earlier.

She told me that the only parts they can supply are the filter basket, the filter basket top, the grinder, and the grinder top. Otherwise, the units are not considered repairable.

I told her I was disappointed, because basically this is just another product with a 3-year life. I bought Cuisinart because I wanted to get something better than the throw-away consumer products that the market is now flooded with. I am not interested in owning the cheapest appliances.

She was apologetic. She was polite, and I am sure she is correct and this can't be easily repaired.

Anyone know of a better, competing automatic grind and brew coffee maker with 10 or 12 cup capacity that I can buy? I guess I am supposed to trash this one, then plan on buying a new one every 40-50 months.

Instead of owning a quality product, I feel like I am actually renting it at a rate of about $4.00 per month!

Otherwise, the product is great, or was, when it was new.