I often go to Smoothie King (about 3 times or more a month) as I love their shakes and how they advertise they use best quality and healthy products for their consumers. I also tell my teammates at my job whenever a sale or event is happening so they are inform as well. So I trusted what I was buying from Smoothie King as I am a frequent customer. I would never have thought to find such a warning of cancer on their label. I purchased the Lean 1- Vanilla meal replacement powder. Before the purchased, I tried to asked the young employee questions about product, he acted like he didn't know anything. He wasn't sure what he was even saying. But I was still excited to had made the purchase because I really wanted to make my own shake at home. But when I got home, I follow the instructions on the label and I found the taste to have a bit of an iron/metal taste to it. Which lead me to read the label. On label, I found the "PROPOSITION 65 WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including lead which is known to the State of California to cause (cancer and) birth defect or other reproductive harm." At that point I wasn't going to drink anymore of it. I went to the 2020 W Brandon store (where I purchased) to get some kind of exchange or store credit to help my loss of $45.00 dollars. Or get anything else that didn't have the warning on the label.
The manager Kyle (I believe his name was) said "once product is open nothing he can do and that he wasn't going to take the loss. He wanted to give my daughter a small shake and that's all he could do for us. He also said, "Customers aren't always right" and that I should have read the label more carefully before opening.
This is really frustrating because I trusted Smoothie King and their products. I wasn't going to drink this drink and I feel comfortable knowing it can expose me to lead, cause me cancer and reproductive harm. I know a few people that have cancer or are currently fighting cancer. So reading that warning is very alarming and as woman, for me its not something I want to put in my body.
Nowhere on receipt or in- store does it say anything about their return policy. If I would have read their return or exchange policy, saying once a product is open no refunds or exchange I would have made sure to read every single detail about the meal replacement as it's not a low-priced purchase.
I have called corporate and no one cares to help as they just say they're a franchise.
I am writing this to let everyone know how Smoothie King works and make people aware what's in their Lean 1 shakes. Hopefully this will save someone's money! read more