Another Junk Product-Stop & Shop Hickory Smoked Bacon

Stop & Shop Hickory Smoked Bacon
We’ve had this bacon before and it is usually fairly good, definitely good when you consider the price. This morning, not so much. The cut on this bacon was horrible! And it was so fatty, the end result was barely edible. Now I know S&S has a great return policy and we probably would have had no problem returning it. But that doesn’t put bacon on our breakfast plate today does it? Their quality control should be a little more stringent and not let subpar products like this go out in the first place. Hopefully we have better luck with this bacon like we used to.

This is the product label.

Something went seriously wrong when this package was sliced. Normal width pieces on one end and then twirly tails on the other. Also most of the pieces were not continuous from one end to the other. Some pieces were thick and some so thin it was difficult to separate them from each other. And where is the meat?

One tray of what we salvaged.

The other tray.

The finished product. Not very appetizing looking. And not very tasty either. Too much fat and not enough meat.

Sick of Junk Products – Hormel Black Label Bacon – Follow up

We cashed in the coupons Hormel sent to us in response to our email. We gave the Black Label Bacon a try again and it was GOOD! This time the bacon was much meatier and it cooked up great. It had to be a bad batch or package that we got. Good to see Hormel stands behind their products.

Sick of Junk Products – Xia-Xia (toy) – Partially acceptable response

Santa brought Emilyann a Xia-Xia that she asked him for. It was broken before it even made it out of the package-I cry foul.

This is the email I sent:

Hello,

My 7 year old daughter asked every Santa Claus she ran into for a
Xia-Xia pet so imagine her surprise when she found one in her stocking
on Christmas morning. Unfortunately, the packaging was too tough and
the Xia-Xia pet too flimsy to last even coming out of the package. One
of the claws snapped right off leaving a little girl with a broken heart
and tears on Christmas morning. Your product should be a little more
robust, they are toys after all. And the packaging should not be Fort
Knox. I am very disappointed with your product, I haven’t been
successful with the super glue yet either but she still plays with the
one clawed Xia-Xia.

Scott Schluter

This is what I got back on the same day:

Dear Scott,

I am sorry that you are having trouble with your Xia Xia Pets. Our policy is to ask you to return to the store of purchase for an exchange when there is a problem with a product. We have a return allowance in place with our authorized retailers that allows them to make that exchange easily for our customers. If you are unable to do this, I will need to ask you to send the crabs to us and we will make a replacement for you.

Please wrap the crabs carefully to avoid damage, placing it in a padded envelope and mail it to us at:

Cepia LLC
121 Hunter Ave
Suite 103
St Louis, MO 63124
Attn: Lynn

Be sure to include your return address inside the envelope as well so we have a good address for mailing the replacements!

Kindly,

Lynn Kelly
Director of Consumer Relations
Cepia LLC

So they are willing to replace the unit if I can’t get Santa to exchange it. A bit hard to explain this to a 7 year old with Santa involved, no? We may send it off to Cepia for a return, but we’ll first check the cost to send it off because, frankly, the toy itself it 100% junk so only worth it for my little girl’s heart. We won’t purchase any Xia-Xias; they are crabs with little friends that sit inside shells that mount to their back. The crab moves on wheels until it bumps into a wall then reverses and turns and moves forward again…only in theory. Ours bumps into things and continues to spin wheels half the time, does back up, turn and move forward again the other half. Sometimes it won’t even get started moving. The legs are extremely fragile. Very poor design, they could be made sturdier and be made to actually do what they advertise they do.

Sick of Junk Products – Hormel Black Label Bacon – Positive Response

This is the first in a series of posts regarding substandard products we fell we have wasted our money on. There are far too many products out there that are just not worth the money spent and we are tired of wasting our money on them. When we purchase a product and the quality does not match the cost, we will complain to company and post the response. Important! We are not making up false complaints in an effort to get free stuff, we only complain when we feel we are justified when a product does not live up to the reputation it should. Please don’t take this idea and make up false claims to get free stuff yourself.

First Up: Hormel Black Label Bacon

We purchased two packages of Hormel Black Label Bacon to make appetizers for our church potluck. The recipe was basically flattened bread with a filling and wrapped up in bacon. The bacon was mostly fat with little meat. SNEAKY PACKAGING! The way they packaged the bacon, you could not tell it was so fatty until you opened it up. I wish we took pictures of the bacon but it had to be 5-10% meat, the rest fat. We’ve had Hormel plenty of times and it is usually ok so it was probably a batch thing. I will say I am very disappointed in bacon in general lately as most brands are mostly fat. In my opinion, bacon quality has gone downhill fast in recent years. Once we get a smoker built, we hope to be making our own to avoid lousy bacon. So I wrote to Hormel. It was a form on their website and I didn’t keep a copy of what I wrote but this is their response:

Mr Schluter,
Thank you for contacting us with your comments regarding your recent purchase of HORMEL® BLACK LABEL® Bacon.
We regret this product did not meet your expectations. By taking the time to contact us, you have allowed us the opportunity to investigate this situation. Your report has already been sent to our production and quality control personnel for their review.
Please look for a complimentary certificate to be sent via mail.
We value you as a consumer and hope you will continue to purchase our products with confidence.

Danielle
Consumer Response
Ref # 2133033

We later received a copy or $5.00 off any product. Good job Hormel, we hope our next purchase of Black Label Bacon is better.