I’m sorry for the loss of your horse, I lost my OTTB to EPM a month ago.
Donate the blankets to a worthy rescue in honor of your horse, maybe that will bring you a little comfort. We have a horse sanctuary near us, that’s where my stuff goes that I no longer need. I don’t donate everything, I’ve kept many items from horses that have crossed over (from a life time of horse ownership), nothing wrong with that.
I don’t put much faith in return policies from any store. Smart Pak has been generous about their returns etc. and free shipping; in the end they need a profit to survive.
You’re being totally irrational. Every time I don’t order from Smartpak, I regret it. Just had a Schneider’s blanket fiasco that ended up ok after numerous calls and about a month, but ended up just going back to Smartpak because it’s sooo easy.
OP I’m sorry for your loss but I think you are being utterly ridiculous. If you want money for them, sell them. If you really can’t bring yourself to sell them after all these years, then it may be time for professional help for yourself.
I understand the pain, but I also think this is reaching a bit. When returning items, if a store just had a blanket “return anytime and get money” policy, their shrinkage would be through the roof. I do not understand why you did not return the items instead of exchanging when they failed initially. If the replacements were on back order, then why spend additional money to buy another brand and not get the money back from Smartpak? Basically, instead of paying say $300 in one season, you paid $600 and now you finally want that $300 back? What did you do with the second set of blankets? Are you attempting to return them also?
The exchange policy is there to honor the durability aspect but to prevent people from years later returning a moth-eaten blanket because they stored it badly and never had another use for it. When my Dover blankets failed the second time, I returned them for a full return (I bought a sheet and blanket and they both failed within a few weeks, exchanged them around Christmas, then the blanket failed so I never used the sheet and returned both in March) and currently have new blankets from Smartpak. So far so good, this is my first season with Smartpak.
If I have an item that failed and I let it sit for years with speaking with the company, then it is on me - emotions aside. If this were a horse you just sold and did not have the emotional baggage attached, would you feel the same way?
It seems like you used a particular supplement for years, until age got the better of your horse.
You had happened to order another shipment of this supplement shortly before your horse died, but it was the same supplement you had been successfully managing him with for years.
So when he died, you asked for a refund of the supplement on the grounds that it didn’t work?
Wasn’t it working the whole time you were ordering it?
Or was the recently ordered supplement a new and different supplement?
I’d be happy to elaborate, and thank you for your kind thoughts.
I got my pony at age 8 and he was already cresty, so I managed him pretty carefully the entire time I owned him. He’d been on the Smartpak IR supplement for about four or five years when he foundered out of the blue at about age 18… there wasn’t any precipitating change or event, my vet just chalked it up to metabolic changes with age. He didn’t die; he was pretty badly rotated but we got him corrected and he lived another four or five years.
Since I’d been a loyal Smarkpak customer for years, and their supplements are GUARANTEED to work, and this one clearly wasn’t able to regulate his blood sugar and stop him from foundering, I contacted SP customer service to see if I could get a refund or credit on the last order I placed, which was shortly before the founder. Not only did I get a curt and dismissive reply that they can’t be expected to prevent founder, but they treated me like an idiot who had no experience, when in fact I had over a decade of success managing my boy.
If that had not had such a nasty response, I would have written it off and gone with the flow. But like OP, I went back and reviewed their BS “guarantees” and like OP, I am pissed. If you look at the screenshot that I took off their website today, their are no asterisks next to their “100% Happiness Guarantee” or their “Guaranteed to Work” claim on their supplements. It’s all a selling device that they seem to feel free to honor or deny at their discretion.
I hope that clears my position up a bit, meupatdoes. I’m not saying I’m 100% in the right, I’m just saying that based on my experience, I think Smarkpak is a shady and deceptive company, and one I choose to boycott.
To other posters, I also think it’s poor form to chastise OP as you’re doing. SHE WAS DIRECTLY TOLD SHE COULD GET A REFUND. Maybe you guys are used to being lied to or misled, but she clearly is feeling hurt and betrayed by the experience, in addition to losing her horse. A little kindness goes a long way.
Of course there is no excuse for unkindness or rudeness by any business representative, and it is especially awful when you have just experienced a terrible loss.
On the other hand, I do wonder why anyone would believe that a supplement would keep a horse alive indefinitely
even if that has been the claim from the company.
Are you implying I thought the supplement was going to keep my pony alive indefinitely? How on earth did you infer that from what I wrote?
I did not even EXPECT to get a refund, I just thought I’d ask, seeing as I was a loyal customer of many years and they did after all GUARANTEE their products to work. In this case, it guaranteed it would “control blood sugar levels.” It was only after they were incredibly rude that I decided they and their guarantees were not worth doing business with.
I swear, this forum is like a game of telephone sometimes.
Reading this reminds me of when I had to put my cat to sleep. I had just received an (unopened) shipment of two large bags of dry food. I thought I might be able to return it - at least I needed to call and have the shipments stopped. Chewy not only was kind to me, as I cried, they refunded my money and told me to donate the unopened cat food to a shelter. Which I did. So - I will be a loyal Chewy customer forever (or at least until Petco makes Chewy unrecognizable), and I can understand why one would abandon Smartpak for giving attitude.
OP: can you pause for a moment to take a deep breath, and make a little space for yourself to feel angry and upset at the thing that’s ultimately bothering you…that you no longer have your horse. Most of us on this board have been where you are. It sucks. I did my first barn purge with the sound of the backhoe going in the background, tears streaming down my face as I uploaded stuff to Facebook sales groups. I feel you on the stab to the heart it is when someone is haggling over a material item that means so much to you and so little to them. Thankfully, the next two times, I had the presence of mind to allow myself a few weeks to get into a better spot.
Okay, now. The blankets. It’s been five years. Is this experience adding ANY value to your life or your healing? I suspect not. Call Smartpak up, tell them you’d like the replacements, and have them directly shipped to a rescue you’ve picked out. Consider it a little bit of good that your late gelding can spread into the world.
I’m sorry. I wasn’t clear. I was referring to the customer service that @downen was speaking of, not that the OP.:o
A dispute about a satisfaction-or-your-money-back about horse blankets seems different than a this-supplement-will-keep-your-horse’s-medical -condition-in-abeyance-forever dispute.
The complaints seemed very different. It is difficult for me to understand why the upset toward Smart Pack in either of these instances, except for the insensitive company reps.
I do hope that both of the posters that are upset will be able to cope with the loss of their horses. I understand how difficult it is.
For the record, the horse I lost recently was unrelated to the Smartpak incident. He was just shy of 40 years old. He looked amazing on the day we put him down, his back end was just too worn out to get him up and down any more.
The pony recovered from his founder and he lived a good number of years after, despite Cushings and IR. He’s been gone about three years now, and I still miss his beautiful little face over his stall door, along with all of the horses I’ve lost over the years.
I’m not angry at Smartpak over their unwillingness to offer a refund or credit, I’m angry that they are playing fast and loose with the truth when it come to their “guarantees.”
I used their IR supplement for years. Their lofty claim at the time was their supplements were GUARANTEED to work in two months or your money back (see screen shot below).
You had two months, when you first started using this IR supplement, to decide if you were happy with it or not. After years of use, isn’t it’s pretty clear you believed this product worked?
You’ve been using this supplement for your horse foryears, so we can only assume you’ve been satisfied with it for years.
For years, your horse haven’t showed any sign of metabolic problems. You believed it was helping.
Are you suggesting you’ve been feeding this supplement for years without believing in its property?
Are you suggesting this supplement you’ve been feeding for year caused the sudden death of your horse?
Are you suggesting you no longer believe, after years of use, that this supplement doesn’t work after all? Isn’t it a bit late for that?
As for the OP, get professional help. This is beyond some blankets.
