Chris Lillibridge
1/5
We bought a load of winter supplement hay, alfalfa squares. We didn't put it out right away. We knew the storms were coming, so we held it in reserve. When we loaded it, the employee asked if we were feeding the hay to horses? I said, "No, cattle." He said, "Oh, OK, just wanted to make sure because this isn't the best quality." It looked OK, so we loaded anyway. We put the alfalfa out before the storms two weeks later. In so doing, we found half the load was full of stickerbush. I resolved to take it up with Lucky T when I went back in for my spring load to feed over the rains. (we feed squares when it's icy or to muddy to move rounds). When I went in for our spring load I informed the owner of what had transpired with the last load. I simply asked for a credit in the difference of the cost between standard cattle hay, at $14.78 per bale, and what I paid, $17.90, for the alfalfa full of stickerbush. I said, "I think the difference is fair. I've been a customer of yours for three years. The hay had already been put out in any event. I'm not asking for a refund, just the difference of the lesser quality hay, (half the load), to be applied to my current order." [This would have been about $40.00.]. She asked me why I didn't notify them right away? I responded, "I felt this wasn't the kind of thing you call somebody on the phone about. I figured you'd need get this in person, so you would know I was telling you the truth." She made a call to her husband. This is what she said, "Because you didn't notify us right away of the problem, we can't help you on this." To me, at 58 years of age, this either meant that she considered me a liar and/or they knew the order was full of weeds in the first place. Either way, in that moment I knew she did not value my business. In my humble opinion, when you pay for horse-quality feed, that is what you should get. The question is, what if this had been fed to horses? It seems to me, (and this is just my opinion), as a business owner, when a loyal customer brings you a problem and asks you for what would have been a fair and equitable resolution to the transaction, as an owner, you take every opportunity to protect your reputation and your business. Much to my amazement, a simple straight-forward complaint, with a fair and equitable request presented for resolution became a question of my ability to use a telephone--or worse, my own integrity. As I was leaving, I'd already paid for what I was getting loaded. The loader came in and said they loaded one short. Rather than cancel and change the charge, the clerk simply handed me the difference in cash. I thought this was odd. Earlier when we loaded the loader said "Two of these are real moldy, do you want them?" I said that was fine, the cattle can use it for bedding." Two hours later I got a phone call from the clerk at Lucky T. I honestly thought they were calling to apologize and resolve the issue with the previous load, but that was not the case. She told me that two additional moldy bales had been loaded on my trailer. I said, "Yes, I understand, he told me they were moldy. I told her that I had said to him "...that was OK, the cattle could use it as bedding" I said to the clerk, "You don't need to worry about it, the hay is not going out to horses." She was hesitant in her response, but then said, "OK, thank you." When I hung up the phone it occurred to me that she hadn't called because she was concerned about the previous order or the current one being fed to horses. She was concerned about the fact that I hadn't been charged for the two moldy bales of hay on the back of my trailer. Needless to say, I'm a man that contemplates things, and that may be to my own detriment, but I don't write this review with malice; I'm just telling you what happened to us at this place of business.
My wife and I do endeavor to support local businesses, because this is where we live, but in this case, next winter, we will find another source to buy our supplemental feed.
