Complaint Review: Wound wear - Cave Creek Arizona

December 12, 2017

I have an American Staffordshire Terrier aka a pitbull. He tore his right ACL on his back knee and the vet told me he would need a TPLO surgery costing $4500. In an effort to avoid such an invasive & expensive surgery, I sought out to find a medical device of some sort that could stabilize his leg enough to allow the ACL to heal. My partner found out about a company called “wound wear” that sold an “A-Trac brace”

On October 30, 2017 I purchased an A-trac brace from Woundwear. I ordered with Dr. Spatt, who’s based in Arizona. He told me that he would email me a form of “Special Care” Instructions to my email as well as a receipt. I never received either. While I was still on the phone with Dr. Spatt placing the order, I told him that I didn’t see the items in my email; he told me that I didn’t need a receipt because I knew how much I paid for it.

I paid for overnight shipping and received the A-trac brace on November 1, 2017. By November 27, 2017 it was already broken. The company has a no-refund policy, but will provide replacement braces for manufacturing defects. Considering that I paid $466.75 for the brace and shipping, I expected it to last longer than 3 ½ weeks .

When I called Dr. Spat t on November 29, 2017 to request a refund, he very rudely reminded me that they didn’t offer refunds and asked me what I wanted him to do about it. I told him that the least he could do was to provide me a replacement. He asked me to send him photos of the broken brace and that he would get back to me.

After hearing nothing back for days, I called Dr. Spatt back on December 4, 2017 to get an update on my replacement order. He told me that he never received the email. I double checked my email and confirmed that I sent the email with the photos to the correct email address. I told him how HIGHLY DISSAPOINTED I was WITH BOTH THE QUALITY OF THE BRACE AND THE LACK OF CUSTOMER SERVICE. If he didn’t receive the email, he should have called me back to let me know. Instead, he told me that I shouldn’t have expected a response because I spoke with him before a weekend. When I spoke with Dr. Spatt on November 29th IT WAS A WEDNESDAY!!!

After a painfully rude and long 25-30 minute conversation, full of condescending remarks and evidence that Dr. Spatt isn’t the most technologically literate individuals (it took him 5 attempts to send me an email), he finally agreed to send me a brace replacement.  After seeing how UNCOMFORTABLE MY DOG WAS WEARING THE BRACE and how the BRACE CONSISTENTLY SLIPS OFF ONCE ITS FASTENED I honestly didn’t even want a replacement I just wanted my money back.

I told him that:

1)   the brace didn’t stay on when fastened

2)   that the Velcro didn’t stick after 2 weeks AND

3)   that a couple straps had completely fallen off!

His response:

1)   that maybe I didn’t put the brace on properly

2)   that the Velcro wasn’t sticking because of the dog hair on it

3)   that in 15 years straps had never broken off in a straight line and that it was impossible and that I just have an “abnormal” dog

My rebuttal:

1)   maybe if he had actually sent me the “Special Care” instructions, this would have ensured that I put it on correctly

2)   that if a medical device is made for dogs, it should be made well enough to withstand dog hair and that my dog is short haired

3)   that it’s not impossible because it happened in multiple places on my dog’s brace and that if it was from the dog chewing on it, chew marks would have been evident

A week later on Monday December 11, 2017 I still hadn’t received the replacement brace. If I paid for overnight shipping for the brace, Wound Wear could have done the same thing but they didn’t! When I called Dr. Spatt back, he told me that he didn’t know where my replacement brace was and that he didn’t even have a tracking number for it. I was shocked because I thought he was the one who actually sent the braces out. He told me that the Wound Wear headquarters is in Pennsylvania and that they are the ones who ship the braces and that he couldn’t log on to their website to see when the replacement brace was shipped. He told me he would get back to me.

At this point, my frustration was beyond belief. THIS IS A COMPANY THAT DOESN’T CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS AND THE WELL BEING OF THEIR CUSTOMERS DOGS. Without a brace to wear, a week is more than enough time for a dog to re-injure and reverse and healing progress made on an ACL. Any dog professional, let alone a veterinarian knows this.

I began doing some more research on the company and found NUMEROUS COMPLAINTS AND NEGATIVE REVIEWS ABOUT THE WOUND WEAR A-TRAC BRACE (see below):

dogkneeinjury.com/conservative-management/experience-with-a-knee-brace/

ripoffreport.com/reports/woundwear-inc/kennett-square-pennsylvania-19348/woundwear-inc-a-trac-dynamic-brace-ripoff-kennett-square-pennsylvania-1132625

 ripoffreport.com/reports/woundwear/internet/woundwear-scam-internet-1345358

ripoffreport.com/reports/woundwear-inc/kennett-square-pennsylvania/woundwear-inc-joel-f-spatt-a-trac-dynamic-brace-aka-a-trac-from-woundwear-kennett-s-1225080

ripoffreport.com/reports/woundwear-inc/kennett-square-pennsylvania-19348/woundwear-inc-beware-of-this-company-for-the-sake-of-your-pets-and-your-wallet-kennett-s-1338224

At this point, I decided to call my credit card company and report fraud.  When my credit card company called Dr. Spatt to ask for the phone number for Wound wear’s headquarters, he refused to give it to them! My credit card company representative said that do to the “arrogant” nature of Dr. Spatt and the evidence that I provided regarding negative reviews of wound wear, that they would be happy to file a dispute for charge of the brace cost.

Hours later, Dr. Spatt finally called me back and told me that THE REPLACEMENT BRACE WAS NEVER SENT OUT! He said that he would overnight it and was very apologetic, only after hearing from my credit card company. By this time, it was too little to late for apologies. My dog is very uncomfortable and struggling to even get up and relieve himself and THANKS TO WOUND WEAR, MY DOG’S HEALING TIME HAS BEEN SET BACK 6 WEEKS.

WOUND WEAR A-TRAC BRACES DO NOT DO WHAT THEY CLAIM TO DO!!!

THEY CAUSE IRRITATION BY RUBBING ON YOUR DOG’S LEGS!

THEY FALL APART!

THEY FALL OFF!

THEY ARE COMPLETELY INNEFCTIVE IN STABILIZE A DOG KNEE!

THEY WILL NOT HELP HEAL YOUR DOG’S ACL!

In addition to this, Dr. Spatt is one of the most rude and miserable humans that I’ve every spoke in my life. He is very condescending. I tired to be patient and compassionate because he’s clearly an older gentleman. But at a certain point, customer service should prevail.

I hope the review saves someone from spending $500+ for the Wound Wear A-trac brace and hopefully causes the company to at least begin thinking about improving their product design and customer service.

Regards,

Fee