Shortly after moving into a small rental house, it became apparent that the septic system was going to give problems. Since part of the rental agreement was for us to maintain the system, we had the tank pumped and I was looking for a product to keep the cultures in the tank active (per landlords requirement).
Not long after having the tank pumped, I received a call from an FBK sales rep pushing their tank remedy. I discussed the product with him and as he was able to answer all my questions satisfactorily, I purchased, paying with a credit card, with the assurance that, if not satisfied, I could return any unused portion of the product for full refund within 6 months.
When the product arrived, I followed the sales person's instructions (also written and enclosed in the package) in starting treatment of the tank. Per his instructions, I was to start with two pouches of the product the first month and then one each month would be adequate to keep the tank in good shape. One of the problems we were having was a heavy oder coming off occasionally around the lid of the tank.
About two months after I had started treating the tank, I received a call from a different sales person wanting to sell me a drain cleaner, "Freshn' PRO". When I asked about the original sales person I had dealt with, she told me that he had moved to a different department and that she was handling his accounts. When I told her that I had just purchased the septic treatment and didn't intend to purchase anything else until I was sure what I had was working, which so far wasn't. She asked how I was treating and when I repeated the instructions I was using, she said, "oh, that is just to maintain the tank. You will probably have to use up to 10 pouches for the first six months to get rid of the oder." That would have amounted to using the full five year supply in six months.
When I declined the purchase of the drain cleaner, she became pushy but not belligerent. But I did have to finally cut her off as it was apparent that she wasn't going to take no for an answer. From that time on, we have gotten a call every couple of weeks pushing either the drain cleaner or the "Enza Power". After several calls, my wife purchased the "Enza Power" to try to get some difficult stains out of the carpet. We agreed to buy both the "Enza Power" and the drain cleaner because they told me that since we were on city water with chlorine, the drain cleaner would combat the chlorine and keep the culture active.
I had already began using 3 or 4 pouches of the septic treatment each month trying to eliminate the oder problem. The problem lingered. The addition of the drain cleaner has, to date, not done anything to eliminate the oder.in fact, if anything, the oder got worse after I started using the cleaner.
A couple of days ago, my wife took a call from FBK again, this time with a story that the toilet paper industry had increased the amount of re-cycled paper being put in toilet paper and because the chemicals remaining in the re-cycled paper was damaging the bacteria cultures in the treated tanks, they were having trouble with paper clogging the leach fields. They had, though, jus come out with a new product that was much more active and it would eliminate the problem. Since just recently we had started seeing indications that the tank wasn't draining properly, my wife indicated that we might be interested. She gave a tentative order pending my return home. That order will not be completed.
When I heard the story, all kinds of alarms went off. One of the issues I had discussed with the original sales person was "How effective is your product against regular commercial toilet papers or does it require the use of septic specific paper." I was told that it would handle all papers and would break them down. This was less than a year ago. Since I have a background in industry and how long it takes to find a solution to such a problem I suspected that if they now knew of such a problem now, they knew about it when they sold me the original treatment. Of course they were willing to "give us a $100 credit for the new order since we were already using the original.
When I hit the net, it didn't take long to find that my suspitions were correct. The deeper I dug the worse it became, backing up what I had seen, that none of the products are doing their jobs. My question now is, what have I been adding to my septic tank. I intend to have the products analyzed to determine if we are being used as a hazardous waste dispossal sight.
The six months guarantee for the original treatment has expired so I can't fight it through the CC company. However, I can and will fight the second order. I also agree with one individual who stated that a class action should be started against this crew.
I realize this is long but it was written with the intent that others looking for information on their own dealings can see the chain of events and possibly realize they are being had before they get in as deep as I have.
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