Positively Probiotic LLC Reviews 100

I ordered two yogurts and kefir, on a “three for” deal. It turns out the kefir wasn’t eligible though this was not clear on the website. PP sent me a random yogurt instead. It was the kefir I really wanted. PP claimed they had sent me an email, which I didn’t receive. I asked them to resend it. They stopped communicating with me after that. I would not do business with this company again due to poor communication and poor service.

I was kept in the dark regarding the shipping company once it had landed and spent a lot of time and energy chasing it up. A couple of months later I tried the culture and did not work at all. I would not suggest bothering with ordering these products if you live outside the United States

My order, which was placed on April 4th, was shipped out very quickly the following day. So if you are ordering from the US, they're quite good regarding shipping time.

BUT! If you live outside the US, I would seriously think twice about ordering from Positively Probiotic.

My order has been stuck in customs for weeks. I reached out to them twice via email and received no response, so I posted a review here - to which they promptly responded. It appears they're not so much concerned with me as a customer as they are with their image (and receiving our money).

They responded that if I don't receive my order within 30 days, I should contact them. Now that it's been more than 30 days, I did just that. This was their response:

"We have no issues with shipping to the EU. I checked on another order that went to Germany and had no problems. It’s most likely being held for your pick up.

Have you gone down and checked into it?

If your order is truly not to be delivered let us know, along with documentation you receive from customs. Or we will need to wait until we receive the order back to us.

As with all businesses, it’s the customers responsibility to be aware of potential issues with customs in their own country."

The customs office where my order is located is the main customs office through which all international shipments are processed. That customs office is a 4-hour train ride away. Furthermore, I would have been notified if it was being held for my pick up.

Regardless of whether I receive my order or not, their customer service is appalling. I don't expect I will receive a refund if I never receive my order. If, however, I'm wrong, I will update this review.

This was one of the rare companies willing to send heirloom yogurt starter out to me in Asia. I ordered a selection of 6 varieties, which spent over a month in the summer traveling out here by post. So far I've only had a chance to try one kind, but when I followed the directions on their site it worked perfectly and gave me fantastic yogurt, so I'm happy I ordered from this company.

Out of 4 cultures only 2 survived. I don't consider that a good result, especially given the rather high prices of the cultures. But most frustrating was the customer service. At first pretended to be excellent to get the good reviews (which I did write for this business). Then, when it turned out that 2 cultures were unusable, the owner completely changed her tune. She was ignoring my e-mails for several weeks, then reluctantly promised to mail the replacements, which took her another 3 weeks with several reminders from me. And she didn't even bother to apologize. When it turned out that she's mailed the unusable cultures again, she just started ignoring all of my e-mails.

About those 2 cultures (out of 4) that were unusable.

1). Long viili. Never formed the long ropes. At first they were short, then the culture just died. Not only it wasn't heirloom (though it was sold as one), but it was defective. The replacement was even worse - it never even started making any ropes whatsoever, it was just a gelatinous mass.

2). Buttermilk. It was included as a free sample with my order. I wish it wasn't. It was incredibly bitter. At first I thought bitterness might go away with several refreshments, so I screwed up several batches, trying to make it work. And what's worse - I used up several gallons of organic milk trying to make farmer's cheese. All of it also turned out to be bitter and inedible. When I e-mail the owner about this problem, she said: "Yes, it's a bit bitter. We have a new culture for buttermilk now". REALLY?! It's not "a bit" bitter, it's totally horrible. And if you knew that - why would you give that to people, knowing they would be wasting their money, time and energy?
Anyway, she mailed the replacement. Guess what? It was working for a few weeks and then also turned into a gelatinous mass just as the long viili replacement did. I tried 3 times from scratch - same result.

And now the owner is just ignoring all the e-mails. Not only it's rude and bad service, but it's a refusal to take responsibility for the product that she is selling. Very bad choice to treat customers like that. And most of all I feel guilty for recommending this business to a lot of people on Facebook - I had no idea I was setting them up for a major disappointment.

What a delightful experience I have had doing business with Positively Probiotic. Time after time!!!
I now own many of the sourdough starters they offer and am having wonderful results with each and every one. I have had a collection of international sourdoughs for years, but lacked many countries in having a well-rounded set, so you can imagine my delight when I found a place that offered so many I was missing.
My orders were filled promptly and accurately, and then shipped right out.
The only thing I wish Positively Probiotic would consider doing in the future is give a few more details about each starter on their website.
Keep up the good work. I have enjoyed the comments about the CT (child tester), I would just love, as a collector, to find out the history behind the individual sourdoughs you offer.

Very good kefir grains and packaged nicely! I was a total novice at this and really was clueless. I contacted Sabrina the owner. She was so awesomely patient with me as I sent her photos and described my curds vs. grains issue several times. She even ultimately offered to do FT with me to help! I now have it figured out enough to be able to drink the kefir! She had sent me an additional type of grain initially thankfully because I recently broke my bottle of the Russian type:( I will definitely buy again from Positively Probiotic!

I bought Mild Greek thermophilic yogurt and have re-upped it three or four times so far. It's a good tasting and fast setting yogurt, and if you like to drain your Greek yogurt to make it thicker, this one drains very well.

The order showed up in a couple days to colorado from california. I ordered the three mix match pack and got a bulgarian style thermo yogurt, a buttermilk style yogurt and a gluten free sourdough starter. They all showed up in great shape. I am currently just working with the bulgarian style and it is very tart but delicious. I thought I had ordered the buttermilk style yogurt but accidetly only typed buttermilk so that is what they sent. I thought it was a mess up on their part so I emailed trying to get the buttermilk style sent which they did only to come to find that it was my fault. They sent me a buttermilk style yogurt starter anyways for free!! So far love this company! Thanks for all the help!!

the site is perfect, the range of products also great, very fast delivery, beautiful packages, and what is most, the fb group are very friendly and customer service is awesome.

I wanted to make another purchase, unfortunately the quality of your product is not that great. All the yogurt starter did not work very well. The coconut didn't work at all, the rest has curds, and texture is not good. I have bought from other sources before, so this is a comparison with my previous purchases.

dont need to make this review public, perhaps I just had bad luck.

Yogurt is so easy to make! Thanks for the starter! I incubated mine in a sous vide, it was perfect!

Fast service, great products

Shipping was quick and instructions easy. Looking forward to lots of great baking!

Good Stuff, great service! Great place to get cultures!

Cultures worked great! Within 24 hours of my cultures arriving, I had homemade greek yogurt and buttermilk. The culture activation guides on the website are very informative and easy to follow. Thank you!

Super easy instructions. My husband and I are newbies to kefir and we had no trouble getting our milk kefir grains to populate. We enjoy smooth, slightly tangy kefir every morning. Highly recommend!

Making wonderful buttermilk now, thank you!

I got a pkg of red wheat sourdough starter. It was a vigorous and tasty starter! I have made lots of treats with it and used the recommendations on the website to help me learn.

Good service but the flakes of dried starter yogurt tended to carry on through many batches, making them lumpy. Would have been much better with yogurt dried onto a cotton swatch.

Arrived very fast. Great customer service too.