Ann Damien
1/5
Due to health reasons we've been trying to source clean meats and we've bought meat from here in small quantities for a while. But with an expanding family, we finally tried to order bulk meat packs.
The process of ordering and delivery we were told was inconsistent from one staff to another and the ordering process itself was confusing. For example, one staff mentioned the entire animal will be bagged up in a plastic bag and not vaccum sealed unless it was requested and we pay extra for it (remember this for later). Another staff mentioned all meats except pork is certified organic. We almost bulk ordered an entire goat but happen to randomly ask another staff at the time to confirm if their goat is organic and that's when he said it wasn't and that it was a 'recent change'. We gathered as much information as possible upfront to avoid any surprises so we got all the prices for per kilo order upfront. Having said that, when asked for delivery the staff mentioned for bulk orders, within Brisbane is free which is also on the website. But on placing an order we were first told it is easier to be picked up or we will be charged $20 for delivery because we are within 20km etc and then it was waived because they found something else to be delivered at the same time which we highly appreciated.
We ordered a whole ? and was told it was 22.2kg. When it arrived almost all of the meat was in vaccum sealed bags even though we were told for bulk buy they will not be in.. .and it would be extra charges if we needed it. It looked like we ended up with an assortment of meat packets put together from in store rather than from the one lamb. Not all the packets had certified organic stickers on them either. When we recieved it we were a little surprised at the quantity of meat which most of it was with bone and a minor portion without bone. Yet we still had nearly 4.6kilos of just bone and fat on top. We also found duplicates of just bone parts where we also had the same bone in meats for.
Just out of curiosity we weighed it all up to find it was all adding up close to 20kilos. We genuinely thought there was something missing and rang up the store three days in a row to find out and I kept being told the person in charge is away sick and will get back.
In the interim i got the list of all parts and found that we had multiples of the same parts (eg: 3 packets of the same).
And finally when I rang up and the person in charge happened to answer the phone and realised it was regarding this order and I was yet again told the butcher is away sick etc. I was asked to give a run down of the situation get again. Then the loss of 2.2kilos was justified by the fact it was shrinkage or loss of meat during mincing etc. I was offered a in store credit to spend in store only but I requested for a refund instead and kept persisting for it before I was given that. I was told it was going to be a loss for them which I feel bad about but I couldn't justify how ripped off we were either. I was also recommended that this product was not a good fit for us which I don't disagree on either.
The entire process was highly inconsistent and confusing to say the least. I would not recommend the bulk buy packages to anyone since it felt like a rip off and not all parts of the same animal seemed to be in the one buy. Plus being charged such a high price for 'certified organic' when not all packaging had the same certification and if losing 2 kilos in the process and 4.5 kilos of bone and fat which is a total of $160 (6.5kilos /24.50) seems to be a huge price to pay plus potentially $20 for delivery if they can't find some other delivery in the area. Hope this is helpful for future customers and or fpr the store to bring about more consistency and transparency to the bulk buy packages.
