update # 32 ```IMHO ~ SmartPak is slipping ... not in a good way ! PSA

[Zu_Zu]

[B]* update see post #32 … Merial company says “NO ! We do not recommend using any of our products after the expiration date.”
This includes UlcerGard … She asked where I purchased the product …

I said " SMARTPAK" received it Friday / expiration date 05/2014

there you go canter !

IMHO ~ Smartpak is slipping :eek::yes:

I spend $$$$$$ there almost weekly !
Purchase items in All areas ~

Yes, I used to think Smartpak was perfect.

I have ‘threaded’ my love and devotion for Smartpak
An while most of the time the products arrive early and in fine shape

weeelllll

two of my recent orders have been completely :mad::eek: unacceptable !

1. Who packs three 6.6# salt licks in the same box as six ulcerguards :eek::lol: ??? Boxes were crushed … thank god the product was not damaged and could be used …
   Yes, I called and they were apologetic “new packer” was the ‘excuse’

• note to self never order salt licks at the same time as ulcerguard …

2. Yesterday my $ 187.82 Ulcerguard arrived …
   no need to tell me I’m lucky to have gotten the sale price please !
   the only product in the box … six nice and neatly packed boxes with bubble wrap …

[U]Expiraton date on ALL six boxes :eek::mad: 05/2014

COME ON !

[/U]Yes, I plan ahead so I have product for next week this was for the following week but really !!!

EXPIRED 6 months ago !

yes, a call

yes `` they will check on the use after expiration date

not returnable as it is considered from the pharmacy

yes, as per my request *** they will send out product on Monday … I’ll be waiting !:lol:

So they are “handling this” for which I am appreciative
but

really !!!

I’m just disappointed and actually disgusted …

Valley Vet will get my next order `` time to try a different vendor :yes:

** This is MHO and I 'threaded this because if someone does not disclose such issues no one will know !~

Smartpak knows and now so does Coth ~

Enjoy the FALL Day !!![/B]

[SLW]

Damn, they sold an outdated product and won’t take it back on a return?? Something is big wrong there. Did I read it correctly that they are sending you 6 new tubes of Ulcergard at no charge? If so, that corrects their error.

You will be pleased with Valley Vet. I’ve used them for years and their specials are excellent.

[3rottenponies]

No bueno!!!

[besttwtbever]

I 100% agree they’re slipping. I have actually felt that way for a while now and I haven’t ordered anything from them in at least a year. They began losing me when they stopped price matching. A few less than acceptable interactions after that and I have taken my business elsewhere.

Another vote that you’ll love valley vet. I order from them quite often myself.

[Chief2]

Thanks for the heads up on the Rx problem. My vet may charge more, but he will take back something that was accidentally sold past its expiration date. They should do the same. Shame on them for not checking before they sold and shipped it to you.

[merrygoround]

Umm! Henry Schein Animal Health now owns 60%.of Smart Pak.

http://www.bovinevetonline.com/news/Henry-Schein-Animal-Health-acquires-majority-of-SmartPak-265474951.html

So who’s minding the store?

[Abbie.S]

That’s a bummer. I adored Smartpark in the beginning, and while I haven’t had any issues with them myself, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard of some pretty egregious errors on their part…

Haven’t they been partially bought out by some other big company?

EDIT: merry, you posted at the same time as me and answered my question…I remember hearing about that and thinking it was bad news for Smartpak…

[CrowneDragon]

Bummer for the inconvenience, but it sounds like you got several tubes of expensive medication for free (I would totally use recently expired UlcerGard!), so you have to be happy about that! (AO!) :lol:

[SharonA]

You were blissfully happy with them for however long, and at whatever high volume you were using their products, and they made two mistakes and suddenly you’re offended? Why do you care if your ulcerguard box is crushed? That’s what the box is for – to absorb impact so the tubes are protected. The box worked. Terrific. No problem. Move on.

May we all be so perfect that we don’t make two mistakes out of however many hundreds/thousands of transactions we do in a week.

How come you plan ahead and had extra ulcerguard on hand, if you require perfection? Doesn’t the fact that you had extra mean that you are willing to accept that the [rest of the] world is inherently imperfect? Does the ability to have your supplements shipped to you regularly not outweigh the apparent horror of an occasional mistake?

Also, you state that the ulcerguard could still be used, and I’m assuming your salt licks were okay. So, I am confused about how this order was “completely unacceptable” when it appears to me that it was perfectly acceptable and useful — other than the box not being pretty, OMG.

I love both Valley Vet and Smartpak. Both have occasionally done things that did not go my way. The positives far outweigh the negatives, nonetheless. It’s not life or death, folks. Sometimes we are inconvenienced for a few days. We can handle it.

[MojitoMare]

SharonA, did you miss the part about the Ulcerguard being expired?

[Shine]

[QUOTE=MojitoMare;7813008]
SharonA, did you miss the part about the Ulcerguard being expired?[/QUOTE]

This times 10 - who is doing quality control? I would have a problem if I needed to use a RX med (any med) for an emergency and it was outdated 6 months before I had to use it.:eek:

Good catch Zu Zu.:yes:

[SharonA]

I don’t believe so, MojitoMare.

Perhaps I am slipping in a not good way, but as far as I can tell, Smartpak is already replacing the expired ulcerguard. A delay of, I believe, three days, which is hardly a risk to OP’s horse(s) since OP already has enough to last through next week. The first time they sent the ulcerguard the ulcerguard was useable per the OP. The box containing the ulcerguard was damaged.

It is correct to call Smartpak and ask for replacement of expired meds. It is correct to alert Smartpak to expired meds. It just seems like a lot of energy to go from thinking a company was perfect to getting all outraged thinking a company is disgusting because they made two mistakes out of however many times they have gotten it right for a given client.

However, no doubt many folks do have very high horses.

[soloudinhere]

FWIW, I’m done with Smartpak as well.

1. Two orders ago, they packed a very heavy jar of liquid in such a way that cracking the jar was unavoidable, leaving my whole package covered in blue goo;

2. They’ve changed their shipping method. I live in MA about 80 miles from the store. Things USED to ship from them and arrive next day. Now it takes 2-3 days to go 80 miles. I’m aware it’s free, but they’re not the only retailer with free shipping and their free shipping sucks now.

3. Orders used to ship same day if placed before a certain time. This week I ordered on tuesday, selected the free barn saver shipping, which always used to ship on thursday and arrive on friday. This week, it created a tracking number last night, which still isn’t live in UPS system, so it hasn’t actually shipped yet and won’t until MONDAY. If you can’t ship on thursday, then why do you have a free barn saver shipping day?

The cancellation of embroidery with free barn saver was the beginning of the end for me. As stupid as Dover’s shipping is, I’m going back to them.

[french_fry]

Not to negate the OP’s story at all, but since I was thinking of posting a new Smartpak appreciation thread due to my recent experiences I feel I have to mention them here.

Smartpak has gone above and beyond for me numerous times in the last few weeks. From offering to take back a customized item if the size wasn’t perfect to upgrading my shipping on a personalized item for free since I needed it for a show to taking my word that a product was faulty and giving me a full refund even though the item was completely destroyed, they have earned my complete loyalty!

[Pennylane]

SmartPak is amazing for some things. You can’t beat their exchange policy! And even though free shipping takes longer than it used to, it’s still free. I appreciate their knowledgable customer service staff also.

That being said, I have had a couple of issues also. The first was with packing, just like OP only with a gallon of fly spray and dewormer, the boxes were crushed which wasn’t a big deal, but the fly spray also leaked, losing about 1/3 of the gallon, the box was saturated where it leaked and honestly it was a pain to wash all the dewormer before I administered it because I didn’t want it in the horses’ mouths. SmartPak did send an additional quart of fly spray with my next order which I did appreciate. My other issue was with an RX (Regumate), it wasn’t expired, but the directions were completely different than what my vet had ordered. Luckily, I had left the vet’s instructions at the barn, or who knows what would have been given and when! I realize people make mistakes and honestly the fly spray was just an annoyance, but when it comes to the health of my horse, I do expect a bit more oversight. I’m fairly certain, that the instructions that were given to us were for another horse on another med. . . Lesson learned. Luckily after that, my vet said he would match SmartPak’s price as best he could. I end up paying about $10 more per bottle, but it’s left at the barn for me whenever I need it.

[mvp]

[QUOTE=besttwtbever;7812740]
I 100% agree they’re slipping. I have actually felt that way for a while now and I haven’t ordered anything from them in at least a year. They began losing me when they stopped price matching. A few less than acceptable interactions after that and I have taken my business elsewhere.

Another vote that you’ll love valley vet. I order from them quite often myself.[/QUOTE]

Didn’t they recently sell the company to a drug manufacturer or distributor? How does that coincide with the declining customer service?

[chancellor2]

A month ago, I put my horse to sleep. I emailed them and told them that he was being euthanized and to please stop my smartpaks.
A week after he was euthanized, I got an offer from them to restart his smartpaks for some percentage off. Nice. Really nice

[EventingJ]

I’m not sure you can “blame” SmartPak for not taking back pharmaceuticals - I believe its illegal to ship unless you are a registered drug seller or somesuch. They did replace it, which is what I would expect- but I’m surprised they didn’t do something else (partial refund, or store credit off your next order) for your inconvenience.

[msj]

I could never find a product that I used that Smart Pak sold that I couldn’t get it more reasonably elsewhere so never saw the need to use them. Granted, since they originated, I’ve had my own farm with no more than 4 horses so it wasn’t like I was boarding at a large stable and had multiple medications etc that I was asking the staff to give to my horses. I’ve found Valley Vet, KV Vet, Jeffers, Adam’s, much more reasonable and to fill a minimum order of $60 for free shipping is very easy to do with even just 1 horse.

Just the same Zu Zu, I’m sorry to hear this and that you had 2 bad experiences with them recently.

[saje]

OP said she got them on sale, and I’m guessing the expiration date is the reason they were on sale.

The stuff doesn’t turn into Kryptonite the minute the expiration date passes, the date means that at that time the drug is still stable and effective.

Expiration dates explained:

Do expiration dates on drugs mean anything?
The Expiration date on the packaging of a drug is based on the stability of the medicine in its original sealed container. The date does not mean that the drug becomes unstable after the indicated date; it means that the drug in its sealed container will still be stable at that point in time. The average expiration date for a drug product in its labeled shelf life is between 1 and 5 years. When the container is opened and used, the expiration date on the container does not apply. The expiration date doesn’t necessarily indicate a time in which the medication is ineffective or unsafe. Medical authorities claim that expired drugs are generally safe to take, with the exception of Tetracycline.

Do drugs still work after their expiry date?
The stability of drug products after their expiration dates have been researched. Information from the Department of Defense/FDA Shelf Life Extension Program has shown that 88% of 3005 lots of 122 drug products stored in their unopened containers remained stable for an average of 66 months after their labeled expiration date. Of these, 18% eventually failed in terms of presence of impurities, pH levels, water content, potency, dissolution or appearance. None failed before one year or expiration, and 312 passed tests for more than 4 years past the expiration date. The original effectiveness of medicine may decrease over time; however a lot of its original potency will still remain after the date of expiration. Excluding nitroglycerin, and liquid antibiotics, many medications are safe to use due to their long-lasting abilities