Complaint Review: Snap Heat

A few months back I purchased a set of snap heat packs at a 'special rate' of about $75-$80 dollars at a california home and garden show.  This consisted of 4 separate packs of varying sizes.  I have MS and when I'm away from home these heat packs could have been lifesavers.  These worked as advertised for a couple of months until one of the units stopped recharging and simply returned to a hardened, solid state after cooling.

I didn't think much of it and considered it a fluke until the rest of the units began returning to a semi solid state after recharging.  Rather than being in a liquid state, they were now much more the consistency of wet cement and couldn't comfortably be used on anything.  (Different sizes have different recharge times so they have to be done at separate times and I followed these instructions religiously).  

As it happened, I saw them again at a pet expo also in California and talked with the sales people.  They, of course, stood by their product and restated the lifetime guarantee.  They provided me with an email address and said just send an email and they will take care of you.  I took several cards at this time to pass out to friends who were interested in the product.

We emailed the company.  We sent pictures.

The first email we received indicated we would be taken care of.  The second email came from the owner/principal of the company, Michael.

Michael indicated that the hardening of the packs or the 'crystals' weren't a manufacturing defect and that they were not under warranty.  When purchasing these packs originally, we were told specifically - "Any problems, we will replace them."  

Any. Problems.

Apparently the fact that they don't recharge isn't a manufacturing defect.  What kind of defect is it? I'm not sure. Michael did say he was sorry we were experiencing this, told us to throw away the old units and feel free to buy new ones at special 'inconvenienced' prices.

In other words, too bad - so sad, however, buy more of these products that will quit working for you after a few months so we can get you to buy even more.

No thank you Michael.  Your 'people' at the home and garden shows where you push your product shouldn't be telling people that they'll replace them if there's any problem.  I had a problem, they weren't replaced.  They weren't gnawed on by dinosaurs.  They weren't flattened by semi trucks.  They were not ravaged by rabid wombats. They weren't spirited away in a wibbly wobbly timey wimey way and returned all scrambled.  

They. Stopped. Recharging.

For those of you out there thinking of purchasing?  They will be great for a short period of time.  Save your money.  All four of mine malfunctioned but, apparently, it's not a manufacturing problem.

At least thermacare pads never let me down.