Thursday, June 21, 2012

Kiju Organic 100% Juice




I tried Kiju Organic fruit juice for the first time, over a year ago. It was not a good experience. The juice had a very strange taste. Suffice to say, the word GROSS comes to mind. I ended up throwing it down the drain. I realised afterwards, I should have returned it to the store where it was purchased for a refund.

I was thinking about this juice again a few months ago and decided to give the company an opportunity to respond to the bad experience I had previously with their products.

Here's where it gets interesting and a bit humorous I think, too!
                                                                     

I emailed Kiju On February 9th of this year and this is the response I received that same day:

Hi Geraldine - so sorry for your experience. That is NOT what our juice tastes like at all. You clearly have a product where the packaging has been compromised at some point, allowing the juice to be exposed to air.

Do you still have the package so that we can get the BB date coding information. Also - what size of product was it?

Please send that info along with your address so that we can either send you proper samples for review and/or coupons. We really do have great tasting juices that taste just like you'd expect - juice!
                                                
Ok, I was game. I'm all for giving anyone, including companies a second chance to "get it right". I sent along my mailing info. to receive the coupons mentioned in their response.

And I waited, and waited...and waited some more.
                                   
I even sent another email to let them know I hadn't received any coupons, in case they had been lost along the way. But that wasn't the case.

Well, lo and behold, 2 juice coupons arrived in the mail on June 8th!
                                       
Wowsa, 4 months after my initial contact with this company, they finally sent me 2 coupons (yes, 2 whole coupons LOL) to make up for this bad experience with their products and the very long delay in making any attempt to rectify the problem. And to give me the opportunity to find out what their juices should taste like.
                                           
So, I took one of my long-awaited coupons to our local food co-op and got a carton of the Kiju Grape Apple juice to try again. This time, the taste was ok, not awful like my first experience. Ok but nothing special.

And I did note something interesting about the name and the ingredient list in this product:
                          

Ingredients for Kiju Grape Apple Juice:

Filtered water, concentrated organic apple juice, concentrated organic grape juice, vitamin C


Ahh...that explains the rather ho-hum flavour of this juice: water and then (second) Apple and (third) Grape juice, in descending order of the ingredients listed in this product. It actually tastes like apple juice with a splash of grape added for color. I've certainly tasted better.

What really amazed me about this whole experience was the fact that my initial complaint was answered so quickly and it seemed so earnestly at the time.

But then it took the company  4 MONTHS to finally send me 2 coupons to make up for the bad experience I had with their products initially and the opportunity to give them another try. Ridiculous!

A big part of the quality and reputation of any company/product has to be about how they handle/respond to any issues that customers bring to their attention and in a TIMELY way. I wouldn't call 4 months in any way, timely.

Kiju:  I won't be back for more! ;<)


Overall rating for this product/company: Unsatisfactory. 1 out of 5.

10 comments:

  1. Atta girl, your perspective is inspiring, hmmm I'm thirsty ;)

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  2. I just went to look at my Ocean Spray cranberry juice. It also has grape and apple juice, but does at least, taste like cranberries.

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  3. I think that they should have gotten a 0 out of 5.
    But at least they did get back to you. What's with the dilution of the flavourful juice in these products, it's not like they don't charge enough to make a profit.

    Casbah, yes you know that famously wonderful company that makes so many grain products, hasn't even bothered to get back to my email. I had GRAVEL in my Quinoa, not quite what you expect, and it wasn't just one box either. My sister broke a part of her tooth off eating the quinoa from them but didn't contact them. They never bothered to get back to me....sigh. Customer service is a wonderful thing, but you actually have to contact the customer to give it.

    Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

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  4. Excellent review. This juice is ho-hum and yes, 4 months is ridiculous for supplying 2 coupons to make up for the initial bad experience with their products. Very poor customer service.

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  5. Hi Lorraine, You brought a smile to my day, thanks friend! I'm thirsty too LOL.

    Hi Sandy, Well this juice had a rather bland taste, definitely not grape the predominant flavour. I would say rather misleading labelling, considering the order of ingredients.

    Hi Jen, Wow, that's awful.Amazing and awful actually. This might be something you'd want to discuss with a lawyer especially since they didn't even bother to get back to you.

    Hi Joe, I agree. Four months is ridiculous. And 2 whole coupons after the loooooooooooooooooong wait. Not what I'd call even acceptable customer service, let alone good.

    Thanks for stopping by and for your comments, G

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  6. How crazy that the first ingredient is water, Geraldine. And I always laugh when I see 100 percent anything on a label. Sure, whatever it is they are claiming is always 100 percent, but it's so very rare that it's 100 percent of the entire product!

    So many companies just don't know how to provide quality customer service which is ironic in these days where it's so much easier to contact customers.

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  7. Hey I saw it on the shelves on my health food store an I nsaid you can't fool, G., told me all about you Ha!Love you my dearChecker of bad stuff

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  8. Hi Talon, Yes, and how much aqua are we actually getting in this product? It's the 2nd and 3rd I'm really puzzled by. If apple is second, why is it not apple-grape juice? The ingredients are supposedly listed in order of amounts. Yes, I totally agree about how easy it is for companies to provide good service with the internet etc...it's an opportunity for them to really interact and also learn from their customers. As I said to my contact at this company, I hope my review will be helpful for future interactions with other customers. They've lost me as one though.

    Hi Lorraine, You make me laugh my friend. I hope you told that juice box a thing or two. ;<)

    Happy Weekend, G :<)

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  9. I buy the kiju organic Mangue orange....and I really like it. I would think water is the first ingredient because it comes from concentrate. At least I know it organic and it is affordable.

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    Replies
    1. I'm sure a lot of people DO enjoy this juice Carol, as you do. For me, the whole experience with their customer service reps. and the initial GROSS taste of the first juice I tried, left a very bad taste in my mouth (pun intended!). Thanks for your comment though.

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