- Report: #974280
Complaint Review: The Natural Feeder - story city Iowa
Reported By:
Skye -
Scituate, Rhode Island, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Confirmed
Why?
The Natural Feeder
3921 Christytown Road story city, Iowa, United States of America
Phone:
515.290.1136
Web:
thenaturalfeeder.com , powertothehoof.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
(0)
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good?
The Natural Feeder Mark Olson Known defective product, false promises and verbal abuse story city, Iowa
I bought 2 Natural Feeders from a local distributor this past summer. They seem to be a safe and effective solution overall... I needed large capacity as the 2 horses using it should eat about 3/4 bale each per day per a nutritionist(my vet agrees). The horses caught on very quickly and like the
feeders(although even with the small grates, they need to be filled 2-3 times daily each
which is disappointing... they are eating about 2 bales daily, total). They are a great
combination of hay protection and restriction, while keeping hay available to the horses
24/7, although I did not expect to have to fill them this often(not what I was told).
BUT,
they have undergone redesigns lately, and worse, a change in ownership, and the
new owner is extremely unethical. There was a divorce so of course there is animosity
that shouldn't affect me. My particular feeders came with thinner, weaker, brittle grates
which started breaking almost immediately. The previous owner promised they would be
replaced just before the change and the new owner gave me false promises and strung me
along for MONTHS. It was suggested that I use a table saw(that I don't have)to cut the dimensions down so it would work better. He does not answer my contacts now; I warned him that if there was no
resolution that I would spread this warning far and wide. He was verbally abusive to
someone who advocated for me and some distributors are no longer dealing with him. Plus,
instead of 3 grates, you get only 2 now for the same price. The older style of grates
were much different(I saw them in person)and the really bad ones were only sold for a
short time-he acknowledges that there were failures in the redesign, and these issues
were fixed.
Feel free to contact me for more-after spending almost $900 I expected
better. I have 6 grates that aren't long for the world, and the small ones(the ones I
really need at the moment)are unusable with breaks almost every place possible(I can show
photos). The horses are very gentle with the feeders, never frustrated. It's a shame that
this person did not care about customer service. An ethical company
would have recalled these grates. Visa offered a partial chargeback but I did not want to hurt the distributor who did the transaction.
feeders(although even with the small grates, they need to be filled 2-3 times daily each
which is disappointing... they are eating about 2 bales daily, total). They are a great
combination of hay protection and restriction, while keeping hay available to the horses
24/7, although I did not expect to have to fill them this often(not what I was told).
BUT,
they have undergone redesigns lately, and worse, a change in ownership, and the
new owner is extremely unethical. There was a divorce so of course there is animosity
that shouldn't affect me. My particular feeders came with thinner, weaker, brittle grates
which started breaking almost immediately. The previous owner promised they would be
replaced just before the change and the new owner gave me false promises and strung me
along for MONTHS. It was suggested that I use a table saw(that I don't have)to cut the dimensions down so it would work better. He does not answer my contacts now; I warned him that if there was no
resolution that I would spread this warning far and wide. He was verbally abusive to
someone who advocated for me and some distributors are no longer dealing with him. Plus,
instead of 3 grates, you get only 2 now for the same price. The older style of grates
were much different(I saw them in person)and the really bad ones were only sold for a
short time-he acknowledges that there were failures in the redesign, and these issues
were fixed.
Feel free to contact me for more-after spending almost $900 I expected
better. I have 6 grates that aren't long for the world, and the small ones(the ones I
really need at the moment)are unusable with breaks almost every place possible(I can show
photos). The horses are very gentle with the feeders, never frustrated. It's a shame that
this person did not care about customer service. An ethical company
would have recalled these grates. Visa offered a partial chargeback but I did not want to hurt the distributor who did the transaction.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Friesian Trainer
Largo,Florida,
USA
Correct Link to the research
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, August 20, 2015
http://www.extension.umn.edu/agriculture/horse/nutrition/effect-of-small-square-bale-feeder-design/
I hope you're right!
#3Author of original report
Thu, August 20, 2015
It would be wonderful if the company has changed its management and practices. Even better if they would make it right by sending me two measly grates that are not shoddy. The old versions of these apparently were fine, so maybe they went back to that style?
I totally agree that this feeder type is the best option I've found to feed a lot of hay slowly. It was only the "new"(temporary?) design of the grates not holding up for more than a week, then the terrible "service" and lack of standing behind their product, that was my issue. Unfortunately after hundreds of dollars spent, my feeders are not useful due to all of the gratea breaking after they were put into service, and my horses do not abuse or even play with anything.
The link you provided to the UMN result doesn't work, there is a 404.
Friesian Trainer
Largo,Florida,
USA
As of August 2015, this company is great!
#4Consumer Comment
Wed, August 19, 2015
Reading the horrible reports from a while ago I felt it only decent to report that I am a customer who has recently (13AUG2015) purchased two feeders and two sets of grates. Never once has any man ever answered the phone, just Brenda and Lacey - two individuals that run the company and give great fast responses and quick turn around on orders.
As for the feeder, it is stout, well built and withstands the hoof of my thoroghbred, Friesian/ Draft and the Arabians; rarely has it been turned over.
I did my research, and found this to be the best feeder on the market for ROI. I replaced 4 large nibble nets with two of these and moved the nibble nets to the stalls. For the paddock, this is by far the best feeder, I recommend the nibble net for stall use since hay tends to fall to the ground through the square holes in the nibble net. The natural feeder does not have that problem, as it has a thick sliding bottom panel, keeping hay pieces inside the feeder and off the ground.
If you are interested in the product look at the University of Minnesota's testing of the product.
Don't let the google result "rip off report" scare you off from buying this awesome feeder, and the company's staff are professional, courteous and prompt.
Report Attachments
recipefordisaster
scituate,Rhode Island,
More lies added to a page on their website!
#5Author of original report
Sun, October 06, 2013
This report must really bother them, because they have deleted all of the complaints they could by ALL of their unhappy customers. This report stands for all to see whethether they like it or not.
This page is completely made up; of course I started with the large grates for much longer than I needed to per the distributor and even the previous owner of the company. My complaint was about the defective construction and subsequent quick breakage of the feeders, not how often they need to be loaded!! This person seems to be a habitual liar, trying to improve the appearance of his company based on complete fabrication. I don't appreciate the allusion that I am too stupid to feed my horses properly... my horses aren't and have never been frustrated one bit, and they are in excellent shape. Also, more absurd lies about me and the phone-funny they don't want any communication that can be documented. Once the verbal abuse showed up in writing and to my distributor, can you blame me for not being interested in the phone conversation? Not to mention I don't have long distance service or convenient phone call hours. Silly!
http://thenaturalfeeder.com/?page_id=304#respond
