I recieved a call from John Groff at Kent yesterday and got the same request for a 1lb sample from each pail. He said that for their US customers they were prepaying the shipping through UPS, but that was not possible with international shippments. He said he "would look after me later", but did not provide any detail on that. I sent the two one pound samples off yesterday with UPS; total shipping cost was $21.54 for standard service plus a $1.80 for a packing box from Staples (great timing to have just taken all my cardboard boxes to recycling :rolleyes: ). I did check Canada post for shipping rates too. It would have been approximatly $12 to send it with them, but the delivery time would have been longer.

To be fair to Kent, John seemed genuinly concerned about this issue and was very quick at responding to my e-mail. He phoned me while I happened to be out, I called back and left a voicemail for him and he called again within 20 minutes. For a big company that is a very good response to a customers problem. I won't make any judgment on Kent until I get the final resolution on this, so far I am satisfied with the way they are dealing with it.

As for why they need a full pound of salt to test, I can only make assumptions. Probably they want to ensure that it is a large enough sample to allow for multiple tests. Also a very small sample may not accuratly represent the chemical mix in the salt.

I'm told that you can adjust the alk pretty easily with baking soda (sodium bicarb). It beats the heck out of a long drive and expensive shipping...

I too have gotten a bad bach of salt . I emailed Kent Tuesday and John Groff called me yesturday. He did try to set up UPS to pick up my salt sample from me at there cost but was unfortunatly unable to do it across the border. I was also contacted by a Chris (didn't get his last name) . I sent the email to a couple of there contact emails. I was impressed by the quick response. I too like BMW Rider was told that they would give me something extra for my hassle. he also came across genuily concerned about this matter. I am waiting to find out what happens with this to make my judgement. I would urge anyone who has questions or is unhappy about this to email Kent and let them now at kentmarine@verizon.net

I wouldn't recommend this as Kent has never said exactly what was wrong with that shipment. For all we know some mystery ingredient was added that dropped the ALK and is deadly to our aquatic friends. Be safe and replace the salt.

My thoughts exactly. I know the alkalinity is off, but what else is too? I will not use it at all until I here from them what the situation is.

Well I tested my bucket last night and unfortunately, my bucket is screweed as well.

I fired off another letter to Kent, I was thinking this morning, if they send us a new bucket through UPS, we would have to pay a 30 - 50$ brokrage fee. I wonder if they could just send a pallet of replacement buckets to one place so we can all just pick it up from there. Of course I am talking about all the local LOWER mainlanders that are affected by this.

FYI I took my bad bucket into J&L and was given full credit for the bucket with no hassles what-so-ever. They simply subtracted the cost of one bucket of Kent salt from my total purchases.

Thanks Allen.

Allen told me that as long as we bring in our receipt, we will get the credit.

I don't usualy keep a receipt from that long ago.. I may be lucky and find it but I doubt it.

Have anybody got replacement buckets from KENT? Any updates? I sent an email a week ago and i haven't received a reply so I'm wondering if something else is going on......