Complain about a product or service

LitterMaid

Littermaid • Fire hazard • Feline entrapment • Unhappy new customers • Unhappy repeat customers • Accessory problems • Customer diagnoses • Privacy tent • Slow order processing

Who likes cleaning out a litter box? No one we know, so it seemed like a great idea when LitterMaid came up with a self-cleaning box. Only trouble is, it doesn't seem to work very well. Despite that, even the most ravenously dissatisfied customers keep coming back like cats to catnip, buying one derelict pooper scooper after another.

A few of the more recent complaints ...

Rodney of Cranbury, NJ September 3, 2009

We purchased a Littermaid mega liter box from Walmart. # months later the motor stopped working. We called Littermaid to get a new unit under the warranty. The person on the phone wanted me to remove a lid next to the battery compartment. This lid did not exist. I tore the unit apart to gain access to the electronic circuit board to remove the ic chip they wanted. There were 2 chips on the board and they were both soldered in. Now the supervisor wants me to mail them the circuit board. None of the parts they wanted exist in this unit. No one should ever buy this product or ant item made by Littermaid. They have no idea about what they are talking about.

michael of kalamazoo, MI August 25, 2009

Littermaid quality is hit or miss at best, mostly miss. I have used them for years and max life is a year. I had a replacement last just a week. My Elite just dumped after a year, gears are stripped, tries to cycle. Spent a lot of time trying to repair but most important components are sealed. Made to fail. In the past I have been able to correct cycling issues with the reset button, have any of you tried that for your problems? It's not in the manual. Found one of the old style for 80 on line and seems to be working ok. I would never buy another and hope somebody comes up with a better system, if it works I would gladly pay more.

Rick of Sylmar, CA August 8, 2009

Over the years, we've had two or three Littermaid cat boxes. They had their own idiosyncrasies but for the most part worked well. The last one finally broke after two or three years so we bought the new "upgrade," Littermaid Elite. The new system is completely different than the old. While its physical appearance may seem fancier, the product just doesn't work. It is no better than a manual cat box which you can buy for 10.

The new rake is made of metal tines which stick to the feces in the box. Cat pee also collects in areas and even with the correct litter the rake just breaks up the clumps and leaves them there. Feces is simply dragged back and forth and left in the tray. Some of it gets into the bin, but you have to manually scoop the rest of it out, defeating the whole purpose of buying this expensive machine to begin with.

Another flaw to the new design is that the crap in the box is simply shoved into the bin. While this might make sense at first, the tines of the rake ride on a track that slightly lifts them up in the process -- allowing the crud to stay in the box while the tines simply pass over it or stick into it. Such design flaws are unexplainable. The rake should be positioned behind the poop and push it, not sit on top of it. The volume levels of litter are correct in our box. A plastic track for the rake may be the problem, but the old box never had such problems at all.

I heard that Littermaid has been bought out by another company, and it seems that whoever is now responsible for their products had no idea of what they're doing. The rep at Littemaid suggested using a non-stick spray on the tines and the box every 30 days (!) That would mean a lot of unnecessary work. We are planning on returning the unit and hope to find one of the older models that worked. It was a good product but not any more.

Expensive box over 100 dollars, plus necessary expendables like littler bins, etc. We're busy people and if the cat box doesn't stay clean our cat pees on other things around the house. That's the way cats are.

Barry of Miami, FL July 31, 2009

I had a Littermaid cat box for years and years. It finally broke after about five years of two cat use. I bought a new LME5500 almost a year ago and it works fine.

Lori of Kings Mountain, NC July 18, 2009

I purchased the Littermaid self-cleaning Litter box at Wal-Mart in Shelby N.C. The device stopped working less than 60 days after purchase. The device is plugged in and the on/off indicator lights up when it is turned on and goes out when it is turned out. However the motor on the device does not function it will not even make a sound like it would be trying to engage. I am very dis-satisfied with this product. I have purchased Littermaids in the past and they have lasted for at least 2 years before malfuctioning. I always keep the litter just below the full line yet well above the fill line. The previous products I purchased had the Ionic Breeze built in yet I believe this part of the product did not perform well. So this time I purchased the LitterMaid without this extra feature. I would hope the company would replace my device since I have had it so short a time.

Evelyn of Oakdale, PA July 5, 2009

I know of several people who have this product. I only wish that I had consulted the above complaint web site before I purchesed this product. It is a piece of junk Not only was it difficult to put together but it just doesn't clean the litter box like it says I still have to remove the urine and fecal matter. what good it it anyway.

sue of coleridge, NE June 18, 2009

I purchased a littermaid 500 in November of 2008. It was the second machine that I have had. Loved the first one. This one has been nothing but trouble. It will run continually until turned off and then I have to take it apart to get it all straightened out. Since I am gone all day this is not good for the cat not to have his litter box all day long.

Tom of Selden, NY June 16, 2009

We had the previous LitterMaid self cleaning litterbox(es) all of them worked with a few hitches every now and then. We had been buying their product since 2000. After our last MultiCat box broke we decided to go to the store and buy their Elite product figuring newest product would be an upgrade. Boy what a mistake! The first machine that we bought from Target had the motor installed backwards. Once we completed assembly and plugged it in, it kept making a noise that the motor was starting but wouldn't go anywhere.

I looked at it carefully and found that the rake was trying to go backward. I called customer service and they told me to return that to Target and get a new one. We did that. After assembling it we found that not only the new product was horrible, it seemed like they stopped doing quality assurance on their products. I am not sure if their engineers are still working at their company because no one can go from a good working product to the P.O.S that we bought recently. The new product was horrible even with their recommended special litter. It never cleaned the box if one of our cat passed a lot of urine. The Motor had no power, it would hit the clumpped up litter and start going back to reset, you all know what I am talking about. So I resorted to cleaning big clumps with a hand rake, but then in less than 30 days of buying the new one, the motor decide to quit altogether. When we called the Customer service rep. (very pissed, I might add), he was so rude. When I asked to speak to his supervisor, he actually said to me, "Why? What would you like to say to him." I was so mad, I informed him that

I will never ever buy another of their product because I essentially bought the most expensive manual litter box ever. He basically said, "If you don't have anything else then I have reported your incident. You can return it back to Target." At which time I informed him that my cats have been using it for the last month and that I can't return a used product to Target. To which he replied, "Well then I can't do anything about it." DO NOT BE FOOLED. If you had their old product, it was good. This new product is made with cheap plastic parts that break within days of use. Maybe they sold the company to some mainland Chinese operator who is making cheap, worthless products and selling them here.

Gerald of Manassas, VA May 25, 2009

The product does not work. Did research on line and found hundreds of complaints concerning the product not working like it should.

Bob of Oviedo, FL May 25, 2009

We had a Littermaid unit for several years with no problems. Once it wore out I had no problem buying a new model, the LME5500. It is a horrible product. It started to bind up and we experienced the same problems other hear complain about. There was no response to two e-mails and I too got just voice mail. I kept trying and finally got a live person that was very nice and agreed to replace the box. The new box arrived and it is simply a lousy product. Everything sticks to the rack and tray. It is extremely noisy. It is nothing like the origianl product we purchased years ago BUYER BEWARE!!!

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