Cowboy Charcoal Company Cheats Customers

There are two reasons I like to cook outside on my charcoal grills. First, of course, is that so many things taste better when they're cooked over live coals. And second, when it's a hot summer's day, I prefer to cook outside and not add any more heat to the kitchen from running the stove or the oven.

Economy, however, is one thing that doesn't enter the equasion. No matter how you look at it, using charcoal outside is more expensive than using the stove or the oven. And because the cost is already higher than indoor cooking, it pisses me off that a company would deliberately game the system in order to cost me even more money.

But that's what Cowboy Charcoal does. There have been rocks packed in with the charcoal in two consecutive bags I purchased. I don't usually find them when I'm pouring the charcoal into the chimney to light it. I find it later, when I'm emptying ashes or raking out unburned charcoal to re-use. They're not small pieces, either - one of the rocks I found was a pound-and-a-half chunk of sandstone. That might not sound like a big deal, but it's a good percentage of an eight-pound bag of charcoal.

I sent the company email last week, asking if they were having some problems with quality control (after all, it has to be a mistake, right? Right??) but they've ignored me so far. So the hell with them. Whether it's a deliberate attempt to short their customers or just a problem with their process, I don't give a damn any more. They've lost my business permanently.

Here's an example of what I'm finding in my grill after the charcoal has burned off. The rock on the left is a piece off of a much larger chunk of quartz that was cracked and split by the heat. The piece on the right is a chunk from a large piece of sandstone that was indistinguishable from a large chunk of charcoal when it was poured from the bag.

Their website is w­ww.co­wboycharcoal.com. I'm not going to make it a link, because they don't deserve it.