An upsetting experience with a retailer

As most of you probably already know we have an orphan foal. He has ruled our lives since his entry into this world a month ago. He's basically our sole focus at the moment and will be until he is healthy and strong - he's getting there and it is wonderful and we have had the most astounding help from people all over this country. Help that we are enormously humbled by and grateful for.

Last week we were offered some product to help him. We gratefully accepted this product and it arrived on Friday. We started him on it on Saturday. On Monday morning the retailer emailed to ask if we had received it as they had not heard. The tone of the email implied that she was not happy so I immediately replied and again thanked her very much and said that I fully intended to write up the product on my blog.

I then got a phone call and she was just so aggressive and condescending - you could hear she was angry as her voice was shaking. I was speechless. I offered to pay for the product and asked for an invoice at which point she said she would send the invoice. I then got an email to say that we would not be invoiced as it was a donation. I was beginning to think I should just send it back.

I was just not prepared to give it the full credit for Silas' recovery as he is on so many things and besides, if I give her product full credit, what about the people who have so kindy donated other products, how would that make them feel? And, it had only been 2 days, 2 days! We are so busy and had quite a stressful weekend and all I was really capable of writing about was his progress, not waxing lyrical about some product. That sort of post takes time and thought to come up with! Surely it would be better to take time and give a good testimonial that is worth reading? She really expected me to give her product the credit for his improvement, it was not even a case of reading between the lines, it is blatantly stated in her emails to me.

Suffice to say, I then blogged the product and gave a truthful account of our experience with it over the last two days. This it seems was not good enough as I received an email asking me to remove the reference as it was not to her liking. I thought I had been pretty damned diplomatic, especially under the circumstances. Against my better judgement, I did remove it (let her censorship win) but have been left with a really awful taste in my mouth.

I don't want to seem ungrateful - I am so grateful to everyone but I really didn't need to be made to feel so bl**dy awful over this :confused:

Right, vent over - just needed to say something.

Flippin' 'eck! What does she want? Sounds a bit OTT. Poor you. Send it back, with thanks of course but with regrets etc

Sounds like there is something else going on that you don't know about. It seems very over the top behaviour.

If she voluntarily send you a donation, why does she expect something back for it? It seems bizzare. How can you say what a great product it is, if you haven't even used it long enough to tell if there is any difference?

You don't need that, I would not send it back, but don't reply to any of here emails or phone her - just ignore and don't get upset about it.

Ick. Does sound rather nasty.

And IMO how dare she attempt to use you for free advertising in that sort of underhand manner (fair enough if it had been stated from the outset and you accepted on those terms) - she is taking advantage of your problems and the fact that so many people are following Silas's progress.

If you get time drop me a line with the product name so I make sure I never use it!

Sorry to hear that you have had an unsatisfactory experience with this retailer, this is the last thing that you need at the moment. If you feel able to it would be appreciated if you could share the company name so those in stressful situations like yours are warned of your experience and can choose for themselves whether to take the risk.

On the bright side I have just read the complete tale of Silas and was so happy to read that he appears to have turned a corner to recovery. Well done for all the hard work you have put into him, he sure is a very lucky boy.

I do think it should go back to her, then hopefully that will be the end of the matter. While Lou is still using it then this woman may well just keep on about it. It's also very hard to ignore e-mails etc.
I'd be inclined to give it back to her personally! ans say something like, Whilst I greatly appreciate your donation I feel I should return it. I do not understand your reactions which is upsetting me greatly. If it is your wish that I should endorse your product, I'm afraid I can't, because of (what you said above etc) If you feel that I ignored your generous donation I apologise but as you can imagine we are very focused on Silas and he is our main priority as present. We are also struggling to reply to all the other wonderful people who had also donated....

Thank you and shut yer big gob yer silly cow!!

Or summat like that! :

The censorship issue is a problem, and i also agree you should send the remaining product back, rather than be beholden to anyone if you cannot comment as you see fit on your own website on the product's merits or results..

LOL - well written MM - particularly like the last line...

Good innit! I'm good at that kind of thing!

Another one that might help beedee's Godsellers would be 'Go Forth and Multiply!!'

MM's response to the retailer would be what I'd choose to do (after I've dreamt up all the other nasty things that I would say if I could say). A very diplomatic and tactful neighbour of ours said recently of another neighbour - "when someone behaves so out of the range of normal like that, what they are saying and doing is more to do with what is going on in their lives than the situation at hand". You most certainly do not need any more aggro and stress in your lives than you already have. Good luck with wee Silas, he does seem to be on the up, fingers still crossed.

maggies mum;214992 wrote: Flippin' 'eck! What does she want? Sounds a bit OTT. Poor you. Send it back, with thanks of course but with regrets etc

Agree with MM.

Well, at least you know one retailer you won't be recommending to people, Lou! While I agree that returning the product would probably make her go away, I'm also pig-headed enough to say stuff her, she sent it to you without you asking for it, so why should you have to return it?????

Diane

Well I wouldn't return it either! That's a lot of wasted time, effort & postage/packaging If the product is working for you, then keep right on using it. If it's not working for you, then you could pass it on to the next someone to try. If anyone was bothering me by email, I would just put all their emails on auto delete. You can also return emails (multiplied however many times you want) to the sender automatically. If you are in a sticky situation, you might as well have fun with it!

Make sure she pays at the other end, don't you be going and paying for it. Ask her for a pre-paid courier sticker............

I've contacted the parent company in the US with a full run down of my experience. If she is going to treat me like that, she will be the same with others. At the end of the day her attitude and behaviour has lost her a customer and an endorsement. I will keep the product. I do understand the reasoning behind sending it back but, I am a bit stubborn and if it is doing the boy good, I would be silly to stop feeding it to him. It's her I have the problem with, not the product.

MM, I said all those things you suggest over the phone and in my emails to her. I was also incredibly grateful to her and sent a big thank you email when she contacted me and offered the product. I am still pretty blown away by her attitude and treatment of me. She keeps saying how generous she has been and how ungrateful I am but she's missing the point. I am not at all ungrateful, I am just not prepared to give her product all the credit for what, essentially, has been a team effort.

Sheesh!