09/21/2026
Thankfully, it’s very rare, but every once in a while we get an inquiry that goes completely sideways no matter how hard we try.
And I don’t mean it doesn’t turn into a sale.
That’s retail. In fact, inquiries that don’t become sales are probably far more common than most businesses would like to admit, and that’s perfectly okay. I’ve had countless conversations with people who never bought a single thing from us, yet the interaction was enjoyable, worthwhile and pleasantly memorable.
But every once in a while, along comes a Dott.
Dott isn’t their real name, obviously. We’re not interested in publicly calling out any particular person. Dott is simply our name for a small but frustrating problem almost every online business eventually encounters.
A few years ago, Dott contacted us looking for a very specific, unusual and nutritionally difficult custom feed.
Future me would probably just say, “Thanks very much for the inquiry, but unfortunately we can’t make that.”
Past me, however, did what Guldberg Farms tends to do:
“We’ll look into it.”
So we did.
Free of charge, of course.
There was research. There were nutritional consultations. There were calculations. There was a considerable amount of head scratching. Eventually, we came up with something we felt we could stand behind.
We explained that there would be some compromises, but we could get reasonably close to what Dott wanted.
There was just one problem.
It wasn’t cheap!
And I freely admitted that then and now.
Dott replied that Company XYZ could do it for substantially less.
Fair enough.
I explained that what XYZ was offering wasn’t actually the same product, but if it met Dott’s needs and the price worked better, it was probably a good option.
And that was that.
Pleasant conversation. No hard feelings. No sale.
Or so we thought.
Because in the years since, Dott has repeatedly appeared across the vast expanses of the internet telling people that Guldberg Farms “charged double.”
There is one tiny flaw in that story:
Dott never bought anything from us.
No feed.
No invoice.
No payment.
Not one dollar ever changed hands.
Dott received a quote.
That’s it.
Of course, Dott apparently wasn’t looking for a conversation about it either, because we were conveniently blocked from seeing the comments.
Which brings me to a little reality of running a business in the internet age.
Our online reputation is one of our most valuable assets, and we protect it. We do monitor what is publicly being said about our business from the perspective of someone looking in from the outside.
There’s nothing sinister about that. There’s nothing unethical about it.
In fact, because of the occasional Dott, it’s simply good business.
So here’s the message:
Don’t be Dott.
If you buy something from us and you’re unhappy, tell us.
We’ll work with you. We’ll replace it. We’ll fix the problem. And if we can’t make it right, we’ll give you your money back. No interrogation. No courtroom. No 14-page claims form requiring three witnesses and a blood sample.
Short of a cheap hotdog after standing in an insanely long lineup, we think our return policy is about as good as it gets.
If you get a quote and your unhappy we will explain it to you and work with you. If your simply looking for a bargain we may not be able to help you out but we will still enjoy the conversation.
We genuinely try to approach problems from the perspective that the customer is right.
Sometimes that costs us money.
Sometimes we probably take responsibility for things that weren’t actually ours to fix.
That’s okay.
Customer relationships are worth investing in.
But there is a difference between an unhappy customer and someone who repeatedly tells an inaccurate story about a transaction that never actually happened.
So to all of our customers, and even the thousands of people who have contacted us over the years and never became customers, thank you.
We genuinely appreciate the conversations, the questions, the feedback and even the times you decided someone else was a better fit.
And to the very small handful of Dotts wandering around out there...
We see you. Your head is in the sand but your ass is still showing.
Quality-Nutrition-Results
www.guldbergfarms.ca
