Spinoff: Reminder to all that Smartpak has been bought out.

[skipollo]

Hey COTHers, SmartPaker Sarah here :-)

First and foremost, I want to thank you all for the awesome conversation. Serving such a passionate group is one of the things we love the most about working in the horse world - you guys genuinely care. You care about good products, good service, and - most of all - your horses. And so do we. So I wanted to weigh in on a couple of the points that have been raised here.

The Brands We Carry
To the OP, I'm really sorry about the poor experience you recently had in our store. Seems like you might have caught us on an off day, as we definitely stock Excalibur, a variety of Absorbine products, and a whole bunch of supplement brands (not the full 246 we have online, of course, but there's a strong selection to shop from). Our Retail Store Manager sent me photos taken today to prove it, but sadly I can't post them here.

Regarding the comment about us phasing out all non-SmartPak-branded items, that's definitely not something we're planning to do. For one thing, employees would revolt! We love shopping Ariat, Horseware, Antares, Justin, Back on Track, EquiFit, Tailored Sportsman...this is starting to sound like my Wishlist! Point is, your favorite brands are ours, too. That said, we are proud of our SmartPak brand products, and we're excited to continue expanding our offering. Our position as a retailer and manufacturer allows us to cut out several layers in the sales process, meaning we can bring you exceptional quality at really great prices (and what rider doesn't love that?!).

Our Commitment to You
"This means that Smartpak's best interest is no longer you, the customer. It's the shareholder." This comment was the one that both broke my heart and inspired me to respond. This couldn't be further from the truth. I think my friend and fellow SmartPaker, Donnie Steele, said it best when concerns about our new ownership surfaced earlier this year: "At the end of the day, everyone involved with SmartPak recognizes that the only way we are successful is if we stay focused on our riders – you are our stakeholders… you are what keeps our us going each and every day!" This is still 100% true, and I think the best proof of that is all the positive comments about recent SmartPak experiences shared in this thread. vxf111, islgrl, Roxyllsk, joiedevie99, scruffy the cat, and roamingnome - thank you for your support!

Additional Topics Raised in this Thread
Minerva - Our Customer Care Team absolutely still monitors our Ask & Answer feature on our site. Our replies are occasionally held up if we need approval from a manufacturer, but if you ever have a question that goes unanswered, please contact CustomerCare@SmartPak.com so we can look into it and fix it right away!
kch7238 - I'm so sorry to hear about your ColiCare experience - that's definitely not acceptable and I'll be DMing you to get more details so that our Customer Care Manager can get that straightened out. I don't expect you to forgive the error, but I do want to make sure we set things right.
Lady Eboshi - I don't expect to change your mind on the efficacy of supplements, but for anyone else on the thread who is curious, there is a wealth of research available on active ingredients. If you'd like to do some light reading, we've listed out a number of studies that might be of interest: https://www.smartpakequine.com/conte...ed-by-Research

A Word of Thanks
I want to close by sincerely thanking each and every one of you who has commented on this thread. Positive, constructive, or critical, all forms of feedback are incredibly important to us at SmartPak, and we sincerely appreciate that you share your honest thoughts. If you have any feedback that you'd like to share with me directly, please don't hesitate to email me at SMann@SmartPak.com. We mean it when we say "our smarts are at your service!"

Thanks again, happy holidays, and have a great ride!
- Sarah (Paull) Mann

This is why I love SmartPak and always go to them first

[mswillie]

I was disappointed in a grazing muzzle I purchased this past summer. It was most definitely not the "Best Friends" muzzle pictured on the site. It was inferior in quality and far too small for my horse. The comments that I'm sure were for the Best Friends muzzle were also still on the site.

While they did refund my money promptly, I didn't buy the muzzle because I wanted to return it, I bought it because I needed it and I had already been on a three state search to find one.

I like Smartpak generally, but that experience really left me wondering if quality is going to start suffering in other areas as well. The things I tend to buy are available at a number of other retailers. I'm more likely to shop around before buying than I was before.

The muzzle wasn't a one-off either, a friend at the barn got the same poor quality, very small muzzle I got. It wasn't any less expensive either. Full price, lower quality.

[Hayburner]

Just this week I called to order a supplement for my aged Cushings horse. it would be something new for him, we discussed if this was the best choice for him. She asked additional questions on his feed, meds, other supps,etc. she then recommended two other products.
She thoroughly explained why she felt these would be better for him. When I had a question, she politely put me on hold to ask another CSR what they thought and came back to confirm that they both concurred on the choices.

I was very happy with my experience and felt lucky that I was talking to a very well informed employee. Someone who just wasn't taking a phone order and moving on to the next call!
She wanted to help me make the.best decision in my supps and caring for my old guy.

She did really, really push getting them in smartpaks, but I held my ground. With 3 boarded horses, it was over my budget and I don't mind making up my own "smartpaks" lol.

[DMK]

They were bought out by Henry Schein animal health, which, far from being an animal health business, is a large distributor of all sorts of stuff that's not at all related to animals, and also a very large, very old publicly traded company.

This means that Smartpak's best interest is no longer you, the customer. It's the shareholder. That's all.

First of all, publicly traded companies tend to not be traded for very long if they don't have the customer in mind. I mean seriously, that was just a ridiculous assertion.

Second, Henry Schein is a fairly well respected and successful distributor of dental, medical and veterinary supplies. They also like to think outside the box and do value added services for their clients. Shockingly enough, they do this while still being traded.

Third - yes, thing will change for smartpak. Some for better, no doubt some for worse. You can't please everyone all the time. But I'll just throw out there that there might have been some holes in the business model. If it is working well and making money most businesses don't put themselves on the sales block.

[mvp]

Only a few years ago, we all were surviving quite fine without SmartPak. Heck, even before Dover for that matter. We bought what we needed from local tack and feed stores, and we tended to "need" a whole lot less of it.

What? Dover has been around since the 1980s. Chick's existed, too, and perhaps Stateline Tack as well as Schneiders. It's been more than a few years that people have been moving to big, distant tack stores.

Not that there's anything not wrong with that.

It sucks to remember (only) the big, get-lost-in-'em tack stores one could go to in YesterCentury.

Of all the Big Fish (killing off little local fish) at least Smartpak has it's head screwed on straight about shipping. Dover is older and should have known better. BTW, I remember Dover's IPO.

[mvp]

This is why I love SmartPak and always go to them first

I know, but how are you going to get that New Bridle Smell that's all around you in a kind of Surround Sound for the nose that you used to get when you went into a tack store?

I can't buy a pile of new tack big enough to roll around in and get that Surround Smell of new leather.

[BeeHoney]

Thanks Sarah for coming on to post. I certainly have not noticed any decline in customer service. I spend quite a lot with smartpak due to their customer service and in general I am quite impressed with their brands.

My only beef with smartpak is that I really don't believe that most properly fed horses need supplements. It's marketing genius that so many horse owners are convinced that their healthy horses need all kinds of expensive powders and pellets added to their feed. Personally, I don't care what owners want to spend on supplements and I would much rather supplements are in smartpaks than baggies or giant tubs so for that reason I'm still overall a fan, it does make my life easier.

However, all that convenience goes down the drain if we have a horse that won't eat their feed because of a supplement that a naive owner is convinced their horse MUST have.

[sdlbredfan]

I know, but how are you going to get that New Bridle Smell that's all around you in a kind of Surround Sound for the nose that you used to get when you went into a tack store?

I can't buy a pile of new tack big enough to roll around in and get that Surround Smell of new leather.

LOL, so true! Thanks for the giggle. (Tack is my aromatherapy too, right up there with that yummy hay smell, and the only thing better being 'that horse smell'.)

To stay on topic, I was very happy with SmartPak when I needed their products. Having sent my dear mare over the Rainbow Bridge last year, and being temporarily horseless, I have not needed anything from them in awhile. I would not hesitate to buy stuff from them in the future.

[Tiffani B]

I once was a loyal Smartpak customer, but no more. I was going to enroll my two horses in the colicare program, since their advancing ages had made their insurance premium rise dramatically. This involved ordering supplements made by Smartpak. So I decided to give it a try, ordered, but supplements didn't come. The BO where I had boarded over 6 years ago called me laughing, and said "You'll never guess what I got delivered here today!" Yes, my supplements. Since this barn is over an hour's drive from where I live now, I called Smartpak to see if this could be resolved and why they had sent the products to a barn address I hadn't used in so long. Smartpak said they would send UPS to pick them up at the former barn and have them delivered to me. That was 2 months ago, I'm still waiting for supplements I paid for and the BO said UPS never showed. Meantime, Smartpak is sending me emails saying, "Pookie and Snuggles are going to loose their colicare benefits if you don't reorder!!!!" I'm done. Actually, it made me do the math and I realized what I would be spending on their supplements was about the same yearly amount as my insurance premium. In the past I have found their customer service to be excellent, but I have to say this experience soured me enough that I am ordering elsewhere.

So one bad experience and you're done? That seems a bit harsh.

They've never been anything but excellent, bent over backwards MANY times for me. I can't even remember all the times they've helped me with purchases, returns, the rare incorrect item was handled instantly...

I hope they don't change just because they have a new owner. What made them worth a lot of money was the great service they've offered over the years that brought them so much revenue in the first place.

[Skip's Rider]

What? Dover has been around since the 1980s. Chick's existed, too, and perhaps Stateline Tack as well as Schneiders. It's been more than a few years that people have been moving to big, distant tack stores.

Not that there's anything not wrong with that.

It sucks to remember (only) the big, get-lost-in-'em tack stores one could go to in YesterCentury.

Of all the Big Fish (killing off little local fish) at least Smartpak has it's head screwed on straight about shipping. Dover is older and should have known better. BTW, I remember Dover's IPO.

All good points. I did notice, however, that SmartPak charged me sales tax on my last order. It was about equivalent to Dover's shipping charge, and Dover didn't charge sales tax. So, I'd say it's a wash now as far as cost goes, at least for me.

[SmartPaker Sarah]

Very classy post. They are lucky to have you as an employee.

Thanks for the kind words! I consider myself lucky to serve such a fantastic audience, so it's a win all around :-)

[pezk]

So one bad experience and you're done? That seems a bit harsh.

They've never been anything but excellent, bent over backwards MANY times for me. I can't even remember all the times they've helped me with purchases, returns, the rare incorrect item was handled instantly...

I hope they don't change just because they have a new owner. What made them worth a lot of money was the great service they've offered over the years that brought them so much revenue in the first place.

Sometimes bad experiences add up. I use to get all supplements from SmartPak. Not anymore. I repeatly had problems with 1 supplement that was NOT on auto delivery being sent to me anyway. First time I said no big deal I'll just keep it since it was in a bucket. A couple months go by and ?I get a notice that this supplement is about to ship. I go online, double check it's not on auto delivery, nope not on, call customer service, she says she would cancel it. Fine, next day it's on my doorstep. I leave it there. Call customer service. She acts like it must be my fault. I say I didn't order this, pick it up. She finally agrees.
2 days go by, it's still sitting on my doorstep. I call customer service again and she says well we have to approve it before UPS will pick up. I say, Listen I didn't order this, you were notified before and said it would be taken care of. She says it will be picked up tomorrow but we can't credit you until it's returned.
Not my fault SmartPak and/or their computer system is screwing up. I still get a couple supplements thru SmartPak but have been going more and more to ValleyVet. I don't need the hassle with SmartPak. They aren't what they use to be.

[Tiffani B]

Sometimes bad experiences add up. I use to get all supplements from SmartPak. Not anymore. I repeatly had problems with 1 supplement that was NOT on auto delivery being sent to me anyway. First time I said no big deal I'll just keep it since it was in a bucket. A couple months go by and ?I get a notice that this supplement is about to ship. I go online, double check it's not on auto delivery, nope not on, call customer service, she says she would cancel it. Fine, next day it's on my doorstep. I leave it there. Call customer service. She acts like it must be my fault. I say I didn't order this, pick it up. She finally agrees.
2 days go by, it's still sitting on my doorstep. I call customer service again and she says well we have to approve it before UPS will pick up. I say, Listen I didn't order this, you were notified before and said it would be taken care of. She says it will be picked up tomorrow but we can't credit you until it's returned.
Not my fault SmartPak and/or their computer system is screwing up. I still get a couple supplements thru SmartPak but have been going more and more to ValleyVet. I don't need the hassle with SmartPak. They aren't what they use to be.

Of course - but the person I was replying to only had one bad experience. You have had multiple, and I can totally understand being frustrated with repeated attempts at straightening something out.

They've made a few mistakes with me over the years, but always took care of them promptly and at no cost to me. Even if they drop the ball once or twice in the coming months/years, they have built up so much goodwill with me that I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt longer than I normally would with any other company. I understand that a particular employee having a bad attitude or a bad day does not mean that every experience will be that way, or that that is how the company as a whole handles things.

[Gestalt]

As for 'if they don't think about their customers'...tell that to time warner/comcast/verizon/tmobil/walmart/target/the list goes on and on...

Hey now, verizon has given me impeccable customer service for years. And Smartpak has always been good to deal with.

[crimsonsky]

All good points. I did notice, however, that SmartPak charged me sales tax on my last order. It was about equivalent to Dover's shipping charge, and Dover didn't charge sales tax. So, I'd say it's a wash now as far as cost goes, at least for me.

Sales tax should be based upon the state the seller is in. So if there is a brick and mortar SmartPak store in your state, then yes you would be charged sales tax. However, that would also apply to Dover and, if your location is correct, I thought Dover had stores in PA so they should have charged you tax as well. :/

[Pennywell Bay]

I have had nothing but good experiences with SP, Dover and even Stateline (though I felt SP's customer service is beyond reproach IME and sways me to shop SP).

I love the convenience of online, not having to get dressed, put on socks, a bra- WOO HOO online!. BUT- taking my daughter when she was 5 to a big old tack store, she walked in, took a big, deep breath and said "This is the best smell in the world."

Yeah..... nothing like going in to a tack store and taking that deep breath.......(except I have to dress appropriately...)

[danceronice]

Only a few years ago, we all were surviving quite fine without SmartPak. Heck, even before Dover for that matter. We bought what we needed from local tack and feed stores, and we tended to "need" a whole lot less of it.

Perhaps SmartPak was sold by its creators and the profits taken now because someone saw the writing on the wall that just like "GNC" for humans, slick marketing alone does not make putting an array of foreign substances in your body for no real reason necessarily a great idea. There is much more education today about the interactions between other products and drugs.

Also I laugh at the notion that being "bought out" is somehow all the eeeeevil purchaser. You can't FORCE someone to sell you their company. Obviously SmartPak's old owners wanted a big lump of money more than they liked "helping."

I realize easy for me to say. My horse gets Bug-Off in the summer, and 365 in the winter (when the grazing is gone.) His Horseshoer's Secret is easier just to buy at TSC.

[vineyridge]

IIRC, they were sold at least a year or more ago. There was a thread about then.

[vxf111]

Sales tax should be based upon the state the seller is in. So if there is a brick and mortar SmartPak store in your state, then yes you would be charged sales tax. However, that would also apply to Dover and, if your location is correct, I thought Dover had stores in PA so they should have charged you tax as well. :/

They should, but IME Dover is extremely NOT ORGANIZED when it comes to sales tax. When they began their expansion outside of MA I don't think they ever got a computer system that could handle it-- they just started opening branches without addressing it.

If you buy something in a sales tax state (say, MA) and return it in a non-sales tax state (say DE) they don't give you the tax back on the return. I am not a tax expert but I worked retail for a BIG company and we were told you HAD to give back the original tax or else it was actually illegal. I run into this issue every time I order only (sale to NJ) and return something (my closest/easiest store to get to in in DE).

[furlong47]

All good points. I did notice, however, that SmartPak charged me sales tax on my last order. It was about equivalent to Dover's shipping charge, and Dover didn't charge sales tax. So, I'd say it's a wash now as far as cost goes, at least for me.

Sales tax should be based upon the state the seller is in. So if there is a brick and mortar SmartPak store in your state, then yes you would be charged sales tax. However, that would also apply to Dover and, if your location is correct, I thought Dover had stores in PA so they should have charged you tax as well. :/

They should, but IME Dover is extremely NOT ORGANIZED when it comes to sales tax. When they began their expansion outside of MA I don't think they ever got a computer system that could handle it-- they just started opening branches without addressing it.

If you buy something in a sales tax state (say, MA) and return it in a non-sales tax state (say DE) they don't give you the tax back on the return. I am not a tax expert but I worked retail for a BIG company and we were told you HAD to give back the original tax or else it was actually illegal. I run into this issue every time I order only (sale to NJ) and return something (my closest/easiest store to get to in in DE).

PA (and probably many other states) have a Use Tax anyway. This means if an online retailer doesn't charge you PA sales tax, or if you purchase an item in another state that doesn't charge sales tax and bring it back to PA to use, technically you are supposed to pay the tax yourself when you file your tax returns. Now, as to how many people actually do this....