HELP - bad hay - advice please

[pinkyjo]

I bought my usual hay from Equinecaninefeline last week. I ordered 2 x 1kg packets. Its the Mr. Johnson's hay feast which is barn dried, medicated and dust extracted. The boys love it and it has such a lovely sweet smell when you open the packet. Anyway when my order arrived, it had 1 x 1kg packet and 2 x 500g packets. I thought that was fine as it amounted to the same weight but I did notice that the smaller packets were more yellow. I was going to bed last night and I always go in and have a chat with the boys and top up their hay before I go to bed. I opened one of the small packets and the smell was disgusting. Like a going off mouldy smell, it was horrible. I opened the other small packet and it was exactly the same. I opened the large packet and it was lovely sweet smelling hay so I gave that to them. I wouldn't put the other hay near the boys. Now for the advice. I have tried to ring this morning but there is no answer perhaps they are not there till later. I know they will say that I will have to send it back. I really don't want to have to do that as it will be such a hassle. I don't have a car that is why I buy online. I would have to find something to wrap it in and get it to the post office which is over half an hour away on a bus. The hay is only £2.99. Surely they should send me another packet and I could just bin these ones. If they insist on me sending the hay back then I will just have to say that I will be putting the hay in the bin and choosing another supplier. If these two packets are like this then I am sure there are more like this. I am maybe jumping the gun as I haven't spoken to them. I have given them about 9 orders in the past for hay and accessories. What do you guys think. Surely it would be better for a company to send out a £2.99 packet of hay than lose a regular customer.

 

[Gems]

It's hard to say really, as they may want the product back so they can then send it back to their suppliers, but as you said it didn't cost much so it might not be worth it to them. You could insist that they pay the postage cost to post the faulty product back, which again will cost them more, so then it would work out cheaper for them to just send out new ones.

 

[pinkyjo]

Just rang Equinefelinecanine and they were really surprised about the smell in the hay. They are sending me out a new large packet and just told me to destroy the other packets. They never even asked me to send it back which was brilliant. I gave them the batch number as both packets were the same batch number. She said she would check but just apologised. It puts your faith back into a company. These days you get so much bad customer service that you get ready for a fight but in this case they couldn't have been more helpful. I just wanted to pass that on as everyone always hears about bad customer service and never about good customer service.

 

[aalur]

thats great, glad you had some good results, it is usually tough to get anywhere when you've got a problem, customer service wise. Especially when its from the net. will definitely be using equinecaninefeline now. x

 

[redfrock]

I live up the road from Grain Harvester who are the manufacturer of Mr Johnson's products. They supply farmyard feed as well. I used to go there for everything as we got wholesale prices for buying direct from them. I still buy their complete rabbit feed in big sacks but stopped buying the hay a while back as I opened up a bag thought it smelt odd and found it was full of thick blue mould It was the first time in over 3 years, and I have always bought 5 or 6 of the big bags at a time, but I have to say it did put me off buying it again and now use the Dust Free Hay Co.

They are a very good company though - a small, family run business and all the staff are very nice. I have been using them for years. Even had a tour around the factory once!

 

[Briony_S]

Just rang Equinefelinecanine and they were really surprised about the smell in the hay. They are sending me out a new large packet and just told me to destroy the other packets. They never even asked me to send it back which was brilliant. I gave them the batch number as both packets were the same batch number. She said she would check but just apologised. It puts your faith back into a company. These days you get so much bad customer service that you get ready for a fight but in this case they couldn't have been more helpful. I just wanted to pass that on as everyone always hears about bad customer service and never about good customer service.

thanks for this I am going to ring them tomorrow as I had problem with my hayracks being eaten overnight by the pigs I e-mailed them forever ago and they haven't replied so will give them a call as will **** get further that way