Spicin Foods — Local services in Kansas City

Unfortunate and Avoidable.

Read my reviews, I find ways to give good reviews because I would like to see businesses succeed and if this review were about the products I purchased it would receive 5 stars.

The products are spectacular.

Every year I place a "For Christmas" order from among my favorite culinary retailers. Spicin Food is one of those, I visit their shop location in KC when I'm in town, and this year alone have spent close to $300 on their product. I have been a long time customer, making purchases from Original Juan's (now Spicin Foods) as early as 2006. That's nearly 20 years buying from this establishment.

In my opinion, Pain is Good is one of the best salsas / sauces on the planet and their blend of heat and flavor are second to none. I wish their customer service were that way too, unfortunately this has changed, radically, this past year.

I placed an order for $120 + $30 shipping, $150 on November 21, 2024. Enough time for Christmas gifts to be made up and shipped, right? I live 250 miles away, two days tops, shipping UPS, 3 days USPS.

Their website required the use of Shop App to place the order, not a service I prefer. I placed the order and received a notice that it should be shipping within the next few days. That was a Thursday, and so I expected the order might ship the following Monday. I heard nothing that Monday, the week of Thanksgiving. I called on December 2nd to inquire about the order and left a voice mail. I heard nothing back from them.

I called again on December 19th, thinking it had to have shipped and was lost in transit. I connected to a petulant service representative who informed me it had shipped the previous Friday (the 13th) and there was nothing he could/would do for me.

I'm not happy at this point, but don't have a tracking number to call the shipping service with, and at this point, was hoping it was UPS. On the 20th I received notice that the package had shipped, USPS, and that they had received notice of the shipment on the 17th. It sat in Kansas City until the 20th, then was processed in Omaha, then Des Moines on the 21st where it remains to this day. It is Christmas day 2024.

So I'm out the money, paid on the date of the order, I'm out the time, too late for Christmas this year, and I'm out the product. I may receive the product next week some time, who knows? It went USPS at the absolute worst time of the year.

Epic failure. I learned an unexpected lesson here, unfortunately. And it was completely avoidable.

I will be surprised if this business is still operating...

What an odd customer service experience.

I recently visited KCK and had earmarked this place as somewhere I wanted to grab some souvenirs for the chili-heads in my life. Come to find out, they were closed when we tried to go (believe it was a Saturday afternoon)? Anywho, no big deal, figured I'd just order online.

After we get home, I go to their website to place an order. First red flag was no order minimum for free shipping, that tells me they probably don't do too much in the way of online sales. No worries, I'll just eat the shipping, I tell myself. I ordered 3 bottles of sauce, which with $12 shipping and tax came out to right around $40 total. Great.

Fast forward about 7-10 days, my order hasn't shipped and I've heard no update. Then out of nowhere, they partially refund me for JUST the subtotal of 2 of the 3 sauces in my order. Important distinction that they only refunded the subtotal, because the shipping charge was not flat-rate (would've been $5 as opposed to the $12 they charged me for the order of 3 sauces). The outstanding balance paid was $17 for a SINGLE bottle of BBQ sauce priced at $5. I'm not paying more than triple the list price just because I live out of state, that would be ridiculous.

After I received the partial refund notice, I emailed them almost immediately to let them know that if they were only able to fulfill 1 of my 3 sauces, it'd be my preference to cancel the order entirely. No response there, and after a few days I called their phone number a few times to say the same, and only reached a voicemail. A few days after that, I received notice that the partial order (that I no longer wanted), had shipped, and it finally turned up today. Goodie for them, they went 1/3 on the sauces I ordered, at least they didn't mess that up too.

Maybe go if you're a local, but be forewarned - customer service does not exist for their...

Something's going wrong with this company. I've placed orders with Spicin, and Original Juan, for over a decade. I've always been happy with their products and their customer service. My most recent order, 12 jars of salsa, was placed in early November. It seemed like a normal order. I didn't get shipping confirmation, though. I tried contacting Spicin foods through email, their website, and by phone. I never, once, received a response. They did, eventually, provide a shipping confirmation. This was about 8 weeks after the order was placed. They only shipped 8 jars of the salsa, instead of the 12 that I paid for. I can't get a hold of anyone to correct the issue. Although, I love their products, I'm not going to order from them anymore.

Update: Small victory! I was able to get a hold of a representative a couple of weeks ago on the phone. I informed him of the issue with my partially fulfilled order. He said that they would send the remainder out. It's been a few weeks since the call. They haven't fulfilled the order. I would be shocked if they will at this point. Congrats, you've got my $30.

I told him how I had struggled to get a hold of anyone at the company for a number of months. I asked him if everything is ok with the company. He uncomfortably said that they were experiencing some supply chain issues.

Their 'supply chain issues' didn't impede their ability to take my money.

There's nothing that this company can do to earn my trust.

If you absolutely must order from them, I'd recommend that you familiarize yourself with your bank's...