Spoilt kibble? (with a picture)

[Renne]

A while ago I ordered my cat's favorite kibble, and when it arrived it was strange. Small particles were all over it, and it was almost wet to the touch, due to the particles sticking all over it. The cat still liked it. The package was not damaged in any way, and the expiration date was year 2022.

I contacted the shop and filed a complaint, and they did offer to give me a new package of the same kibble in exchange. When I agreed and unpacked a new package right in front of them , I saw that it was exactly the same. They immediately said that this is completely normal, that their particular brand is seasonal and the fat in the meat varies: in summer it's much higher in fat than in winter (and the kibble's creation date was this summer). They opened up a few free samples of their brand, showed them to me, and they were all like that.

But if that's what they think, why did they take my complaint seriously before? All I sent them was the same picture that I'm posting in this thread, and they still offered to give me a new package after looking at it. What if they got a whole load of spoilt food, including the new samples, and didn't want to admit it and lose a customer \ lose their reputation?

So, should I trust them? Or did they let me have spoilt kibble to save face?

 

[Gem90]

A lot of customer services will take a complaint seriously even if there's nothing wrong with the product. It doesn't cost them much to do it and will help retain your loyalty and is good for PR. Our local pet shop will take an opened bag of perfectly fine food back if my cat doesn't like it. Satisfaction guarantee, or something like that.

 

[crystal dawn]

It's hard to say. If you have something else your cat enjoys and tolerates I would switch to that for the time being until things get sorted with this kibble company as that kibble does look odd.

 

[lisahe]

A lot of customer services will take a complaint seriously even if there's nothing wrong with the product. It doesn't cost them much to do it and will help retain your loyalty and is good for PR. Our local pet shop will take an opened bag of perfectly fine food back if my cat doesn't like it. Satisfaction guarantee, or something like that.

I agree with what Gem90 says: if the food is unspoiled, this is just good customer service/PR.

What this store says about fat sounds plausible (if a bit odd, in a very interesting way!) to me. And I like that they opened the sample packs. Although we don't feed much dry food now, I've noticed over the years that some (even a lot of?) dry food does have little particles similar to this. And a greasy feeling. I always wash my hands after touching the dry food we use now: it leaves a slight dusty, gunky feeling.

 

[klunick]

A lot of customer services will take a complaint seriously even if there's nothing wrong with the product. It doesn't cost them much to do it and will help retain your loyalty and is good for PR. Our local pet shop will take an opened bag of perfectly fine food back if my cat doesn't like it. Satisfaction guarantee, or something like that.

Chewy is like that. No matter why you are asking for a refund, they grant it.

 

[Babypaws]

If you don’t feel comfortable with the look/feel of the food don’t use it. If you still wanted the same brand, try another store and see if that batch might look better. I dont know if the packages show a lot # that you could compare with a different store before you buy?

 

[Renne]

If you don’t feel comfortable with the look/feel of the food don’t use it. If you still wanted the same brand, try another store and see if that batch might look better. I dont know if the packages show a lot # that you could compare with a different store before you buy?

This isn't a regular petstore, it's a local branch of the company (Farmina) that distributes their brand to regular petshops in the region I live in. Basically there's nowhere else I can buy, b\c every petshop in my city and other cities around it orders from them! All I can do is order online from Italy, but that includes a delivery fee, which makes it too expensive for me.

To be fair, I haven't seen this particular brand in a lot of petshops around, most of its products are expensive, so petshops avoid stocking it. Otherwise I could just go browse for a batch produced earlier than this summer, indeed.

 

[Babypaws]

I dont know where you live but do you have access to order from chewy?
Theyre pretty good and I get my orders within 2 days. If you spend over $49 there’s no shipping charge. I find when ordering cat food it doesn’t take much to add up to the $49. And if you have an issue with something, they are great..no questions asked and they will ship out replacement for no charge