Just a quick mention is in order for the great customer service provided by Pennington. I picked up 10 bags of Pennington Nature's Heat Pellets at Walmart to give them a try for myself. I liked that they were stored under a roof and all the pallets were tight and dry. At $5/bag, I thought them a bit high, compared to AWF at $3.94/bag at HD at the other end of the shopping center, but I took them.
To be honest I found them to give better heat than the AWF (at least in my stove) with very little fines. The bag seems to be dated as HP 9/15/11 and lists an address in Georgia for the company.
BUT . . . pellet length is all over the place with lots and lots in the 2" range and many as long as 2 1/2" and slightly above. Therein lies the tale.
I called the 800 number on the bag and was connected right away with a live person in customer service for their pellets - no voice mail menus or run around. I explained the situation and she immediately offered a full refund of the purchase price for however many bags I had, so long as I could produce the receipt and would send a copy along with an empty bag so they could look into the problem further. She asked for, but did not require, some sample pellets from the bag and indicated they would even refund the cost of mailing these items to them. I was a bit surprised that I was not just told to return the unopened bags to Walmart, but I was happy not to have to horse them back to the store.
Assuming they do as promised, that to me is first class customer service. I know there are wildly divergent opinions about these pellets on various threads here, but if my experience is typical, they can't be faulted in the customer service department.
Based on my conversation it seems obvious that they have their pellets manufactured in numerous plants (that is why she wanted the empty bag, so they could track down where it was made) and I guess that is why opinions vary so wildly. Having said that, Pennington obviously needs to do more to assure uniformly high quality pellets.
To be honest I found them to give better heat than the AWF (at least in my stove) with very little fines. The bag seems to be dated as HP 9/15/11 and lists an address in Georgia for the company.
BUT . . . pellet length is all over the place with lots and lots in the 2" range and many as long as 2 1/2" and slightly above. Therein lies the tale.
I called the 800 number on the bag and was connected right away with a live person in customer service for their pellets - no voice mail menus or run around. I explained the situation and she immediately offered a full refund of the purchase price for however many bags I had, so long as I could produce the receipt and would send a copy along with an empty bag so they could look into the problem further. She asked for, but did not require, some sample pellets from the bag and indicated they would even refund the cost of mailing these items to them. I was a bit surprised that I was not just told to return the unopened bags to Walmart, but I was happy not to have to horse them back to the store.
Assuming they do as promised, that to me is first class customer service. I know there are wildly divergent opinions about these pellets on various threads here, but if my experience is typical, they can't be faulted in the customer service department.
Based on my conversation it seems obvious that they have their pellets manufactured in numerous plants (that is why she wanted the empty bag, so they could track down where it was made) and I guess that is why opinions vary so wildly. Having said that, Pennington obviously needs to do more to assure uniformly high quality pellets.
