Elstons Hay and Grain

Review: Purchased 50 lb bag of horse grain 10/8/13. Employee placed it in our car. 10/9/13 went to horse facility, picked up bag & found it was HEAVILY infested with weevils which were all over the seat & more coming out of the bag. I Immediately drove to Elstons, alerted the hay yard gentleman who tried to wipe them off of the seat. He removed the back passenger seat head rest & found a huge solid pile covering the top of the seat trailing down to bag & into the back of the SUV infested into the carpet. He realized he couldn't get them out, so he bagged the head rest. I informed the owner who asked "Are they weevils?" seemingly already aware of a problem, went outside into the feed barn, did not speak to us & disappeared. Stunned by his lack of care, we went to the nearest car wash & removed the medical equipment from the car, tried in vain to vacuum the weevils. I felt it should be fumigated safely, but didn't know where to go and thought an insurance company would help. I called Elstons & first contact was with a female employee who I asked if they had insurance or what they would normally do in this situation. She transferred me to owner who, as soon as I said who I was, was immediately defensive & very rudely informed me he was not responsible & that I should "spray them or set off a bug bomb in the car." He said that we "shouldn't transport feed in our car if we didn't want bugs in our car & we should expect there would be bugs in the feed as there is even bugs in flour we buy at the store". I stated that I would never feed my horse feed infested with bugs, and that if he expected that there are bugs in this bagged feed, why would he not alert the customers of this before his employees place it in our nice cars & feed it to beloved animals? He said he didn't know there were bugs in it, contradicting his previous statement. I told him I was disappointed in how rude he was being to a customer, he said he was "disappointed I was complaining of bugs and dumping guilt on him."Desired Settlement: Is this business responsible for such damage caused by their product? Is this type of behavior acceptable business practice? Is he responsible to alert his customers of the potential danger of bug infestation in their vehicles from his product as he mentioned that he himself "expects"? Is it acceptable business practice for him to expect customers to know, without being informed, that they are buying bug infested products to feed their beloved animals and that they would find this acceptable?

Business

Response:

I am responding to the complaint by [redacted] Against Elston Hay and Grain #[redacted]. Yes Ms [redacted] did purchase a bag of horse feed from us and yes it did end up having weevils in the product. This does happen sometimes as we are dealing with an agricultural product. We do not purposely try to sell the product containing the weevils, but they are pretty unnoticeable until disturbed and then start to move around. If the employees do not see them while loading then they will get in the vehicle. They do not hurt anything and being in a car without a food source(grain) they will die. The weevils would not hurt anything if digested, but the customers do not like to see them so we simply exchange the product for another bag. The beloved animals would be unaffected. Remember humans in other parts of the world find insects a delicacy. I have been in the agricultural industry all of my life and this is just something that happens once in a while. That is why after asking Ms [redacted] if the bugs were weevils (to verify it was not something unexpected) I was not concerned. I have never had anyone get so worked up over weevils. As far as Ms [redacted] accusation that I was rude to her, that is absolutely false. I was simply trying to give her the facts that this was not something to be worried about. I did get very frustrated with her as the conversation went on because she would not stop talking so I could clearly explain the situation. As I would try to explain she would talk over the top of me and would not listen. Then she would take bits and pieces of what I was saying and twist them to support her verbal attack on me. I did not contradict myself. She just would not hear what I was trying to tell her. In our rural lifestyle and dealing with animals and animal products, one must understand that they might encounter dust on the bags or bugs in or on the feed bags as they are an agricultural commodity and are stored in a where house not a secure indoor environment. We work very hard to avoid this but it does happen. That is why I suggested to her that if she was that concerned about the issue, she probably should not use a vehicle that was so sensitive for these products, or responsibly accept that it could happen. Ms [redacted] also attacked me personally saying I was talking to her like I was talking to my wife. I found it very offensive that she would attack me in that manner. It seemed as if she was having a very bad day and was taking it out on me personally. We try very hard to bend over backwards for our customers, but there are occasions as with Ms [redacted] that a customer goes over the line. This is one of those occasions. I have to say, I would not want her to come back to our place of business. I do not want any further contact with Ms [redacted]Elston Hay & Grain Inc

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted]. It is indicative of his foul treatment of me, and other customers as noted on other social networking sites. To think that any customer who was treated in such a disrespectful manner as I would ever choose to give him business in the future, and purchase products he admitted he knew may be infested with bugs, is indicative of his arrogance and disappointing business practices.