Rude and dishonest
I bought a bag of organic yellow onions at my local store, whose brand name was Desert Ridge Produce. Well, it turned out that the package was underweight. Unfortunately, there was no contact information on the product label, so I had to do some searching on the Web. Apparently Desert Ridge Produce is a division of Columbia Basin Organics. Anyway, here's what happened: 1) I went to the Web site for Columbia Basin Organics and sent them a message through their "Contact Us" page. I described the issue about the onions being underweight in detail. I soon got this acknowledgment: "Hello. Thank you for contacting us. We have received your message and will respond shortly." 2) Well, after eight days, I still hadn't heard anything! So, I called up Columbia Basin Organics (on my dime) and ended up talking to a guy named Will. I asked why I had never been contacted as promised. He never even gave me an answer. 3) Will was a total jerk. Not only did he not apologize, all he did was make excuses: "Well, we package hundreds of items a day, and it's RARE that we mess up the weight. So, your problem was definitely unusual!" And he said nothing about trying to make things right. 4) Will had ZERO customer-service skills. When I suggested that if they wanted to keep me as a customer, a coupon would go a long way toward helping, he became super-defensive. He said, "Well, WE are not responsible for a package being underweight. If you have a problem there, take it up with your local store!" I told him that my local store had nothing to do with it—they were merely selling the items provided to them by Columbia Basin Organics. 5) I also told him that for a normal company, the information about how to contact customer service (or at least the name of their Web site) is on the product label, and then when you call, they listen to your concerns and try to make things right. Will's response was: "Well, you're lucky I'm giving you any of my time at all!" 6) I finally told him that I wasn't going to give him any more of MY time, and that I would never be buying any of their products again. Then I ended the call. In a nutshell, please stay away from this outrageously rude, dishonest company. You'll be doing yourself a favor.
By Don R.