This is my Cuisinart Sucks story::  For my our wedding registry, we went to The Bay and registered primarily for Cuisinart products: bread-maker, hand-mixer, sandwich maker, food processor, and the smart stick. We already owned a blender, which never works for me, but always works for my now-husband. Anyway, after receiving the gifts, I instantly attempted to make bread. Well, it started to grind and smoke. We returned it for another one, and the new one the paddle wouldn't turn. We ended up replacing it with a T-Fal [which is amazing by the way].
Next to go was our sandwich maker. I was attempting to close the lid on it and the handle snapped off, so now I use it with a wooden spoon [I still have to return it]. Next, about 10 minutes ago, the hand-held mixer just went, it stopped working [I was using it to mix liquid ingredients, nothing too impressively hard] and started to grind away inside. Guess I have something to return the sandwich maker with now. The smart stick, I have only used twice; I seemingly like it, so we will see how long it lasts for. My husband thinks it will last for about 4 more uses.

Oh yeah, we have had everything for less than a year too.