Private Label Supplement

Review: We used Private Label Supplement to produce an amino acid supplement for our company. We made an order in 2013 for 500 bottles and sold them pretty fast for a new company. We had many impressed customers and retailers due to the formula (that we submitted) and flavor profile. We order another 500 bottles of the same formula in the fall of 2014. The turn around time was very delayed and I had to leave for the US Army Ranger School before the order was completed. My family had to work with Private Label Supplement to get the order delivered. It was late and we were out of inventory. Finally, the order arrived and we instantly began to receive complaints about a bitter tasting supplement and that it was not the same as the first batch. There was an obvious difference between the two batches. I contacted [redacted], the CEO of Private Label Supplement, and she asked that we send them a bottle from both batches (they should have kept the formulas on file which they obviously did not). We sent them a bottle from the first batch and the second batch. She assured me that they tested the same and that there was nothing they could do about it. We now have over 200 bottles that customers and retailers do not want to buy from us anymore. Our sales have decreased dramatically and customers have lost trust in our brand due to this unsatisfactory product that Private Label Supplement produced. I've tried to contact [redacted] and the Private Label Supplement sales team for the last 17 days and noone has returned any of my calls, voicemails or emails.Desired Settlement: We would like to be refunded for the entire order of $5,500. We will ship the remaining bottles back to them at their expense. We do not want the bottles to be replaced. We would only like our money back.

Business

Response:

[redacted] contacted our company stating he was not satisfied with the flavor of his second shipment of [redacted] Performance. Please note, [redacted] placed 4 total orders with our company and the 2 orders he refers to were placed:

10/22/12 in the amount of $5483.18

01/07/14 in the amount of $6674.37 (I believe Mr. [redacted] has made an error here)

In respect to Mr. [redacted] claiming there was a potential error in ordering the incorrect product: All products are set up in our QuickBooks system and assigned a product code and name associated with that code. When a Client reorders a product they sign an Echo Sign (legally binding document) at the time of placing their deposit to avoid any errors as all orders are custom made. The Sales Manager prepares the order worksheet and our Client Relations/AR department generates the invoices and then we do not move forward on an order until we have a signature in place by each Client confirming the formula to avoid room for error. In Mr. [redacted]’s case, this was a reorder so the formula would have been saved from his previous order in 2012. That is of course, unless he requested changes to his formula, which we are always more than happy to accommodate.

At that time Mr. [redacted] contacted me I asked him to send me a sample of each product as our supplier had not sent a sample and they did not have an extra one to send to our company beyond the retains they are required to hold for the FDA. This is not a requirement of our company as Mr. [redacted] has stated in his complaint. Mr. [redacted] sent only the sample in question; therefore, we did not have flavors to compare.

Once we received the sample we promptly had several people taste the sample and all found it to be very palatable in accordance to a lemonade flavor. We compared it to other lemonade flavored workout powders we have in our office and in our blind study Mr. [redacted]’s product was chosen 95% of the time. In addition, I spoke to our Contract Manufacturer and was told the two lots were made using the same flavor profile. Based off of these findings, we felt very good about the outcome to share with Mr. [redacted].

Flavor profiles are the only portion of the formula which are not disclosed on the supplement facts panel as it is proprietary information. I believe Mr. [redacted] may have also made a technical mistake in his recollection of this situation in regard to sending the flavor profile along with the actual formula of the product. This is a distinct differentiation and a very serious one. In these very small runs there can be a variance in flavor from run to run as flavoring is a very touchy and specialized process. Especially when dealing with amino acids which are not easy to mask in the flavoring process.

Let me clarify that our company does not produce or label any product. We act solely as a Contract Vendor Liaison between our Clients and the Contract Manufacturers.

After Mr. [redacted] sent us the product and we had the time to perform proper due diligence we reached out to Mr. [redacted]. At this point Mr. [redacted] and I had an opportunity to speak about this situation. He seemed to understand my explanation about variance in flavor. I can’t say he was 100% pleased; however, he was satisfied enough to pursue having additional products quoted with our company. With this in mind, it is confusing to me why this became and is becoming an issue again.

In reference to not answering Mr. [redacted]’s calls for 17 days; Mr. [redacted] did call our office again on a Saturday morning when we were not open stating he has complaints on blogs and is obtaining flavor testing for his products and pursuing legal action. Mr. [redacted] began calling our office incessantly; often multiple times in a row to the point of disrupting other business calls. He left hostile messages threatening legal action with several of our employees where they felt threatened and were afraid to pick up the phone. At this point, our company did not feel comfortable answering his phone calls as he had stated his intentions and we were not sure what we would be receiving on the other end of the line based on previous messages and threats.

The competition in the Sports Nutrition market has increased dramatically over the last 2 years since Mr. [redacted] came to our company. This is the top growth segment of dietary supplements industry which means there are literally thousands of more products out there on the shelves than when Mr. [redacted] started selling his product. Perhaps this is part of the down turn. Or perhaps the new flavor of Orange he has added to his [redacted] product is being favored by customers over the Lemonade.

It is unclear how many bottles of the product Mr. [redacted] has on hand. He started with 532 bottles in April and states he has over 200 currently, which would be an excellent sell through for a company his size. It would not be reasonable to consider a refund for bottles where he has already received a financial gain.

Mr. [redacted] has stated he has negative posts in blogs and online; however, only positive 5 star ratings are found on [redacted] and his website for his products, including the product in question. We truly feel if Mr. [redacted] was concerned about this product he would not continue selling it on his website or on [redacted] or promoting it on [redacted], [redacted] and [redacted]. Positive reviews appear as recent as the last few weeks.

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because: As stated earlier, the excellent reviews of [redacted] are from our first batch of the product. We admit that the first batch was very pleasing and the flavor was highly rated. We sold through the first batch rather quickly as a new company on the market. We were out of stock for a short period and once the new [redacted] batch came in we filled back orders with retailers, distributors and customers. After that first round of purchases of the new [redacted] we have not made any other because our customers, retailers and distributors have received multiple complaints about the flavor. We have not made our social media pages unavailable to anyone since we have signed up, so I am not too sure what Private Label Supplement is referring to, so I can not comment on that. We are a very professional company and all we are asking is that Private Label Supplement refunds us for the remaining inventory of [redacted] we have on hand. We will compromise and will no longer ask for a full refund, but we think that a partial refund for our remaining inventory should be awarded.

As the CEO of [redacted], I know that I would personally take care of any and all of my customers and address every complaint received. We have received many complaints about the second batch of [redacted] and it is not the same original flavor sample that we approved.

I look forward to hearing from Private Label Supplement and how we can work this out. If they would like to call me, they can contact me at [redacted]. I am always willing to talk about how we can professionally resolve this issue. Thanks

Business

Response:

Business states that they tried to contact consumer directly but were only able to leave message. Business would like consumer to please return call at [redacted] so both parties could bring closure to the matter.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to my concern, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. We have worked together to compromise on a resolution and I am happy that we were able to find an agreement.