Company responded
Rashida Hus

Stay Away - Ripoff

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I purchased the lifetime support package and let me tell you... There is no lifetime support.

After adopting a dog who was previously abused, my trainer came to my house 3 times repeating the same methods we were trying from the first time. Nothing worked that she pushed and she refused to even pet my pup which made it uncomfortable. Not only did she pressure us to leave a positive review after speaking for 5 minutes the first visit, she has not contacted us for months. At this point, we will take the loss but let me tell you bark busters - word of mouth about a bad experience spreads fast.

I have reached out to corporate multiple times and they refuse to answer my emails and make me call them, then they are never available and ignore my calls. This is top 3 worst customer experiences I have ever had and I implore everyone and anyone to STAY AWAY

View full review
Loss:
$700
Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Price reduction

1 comment
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

Hi there, I am with our customer care team and we are sorry if your concerns have been overlooked or not addressed in a timely manner. We appreciate you bringing this to our attention so we can improve how we continue our support.

If you would kindly reference this post in an email to office@barkbusters.com along with your contact information (name/phone) I will call you back promptly. Thank you

Company responded
Ann Ffl
map-marker Boone, Iowa

Disappointed

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Although the trainer seemed very knowledgeable and good with dogs, we ended up going to our local animal rescue facility for positive puppy training after our visit from Bark Busters. Nothing but positive enforcement is used with clickers to train the dogs at our local animal rescue league. Frustrating? Yes. It is up to the owner to work with a dog no matter what. However, I do personally prefer the positive training techniques the ARL advocates using. They’ve trained many dogs this way so it works with all types of situations. Magic? No. Hard work and dedication? Yes. I didn’t care for the techniques used with Bark Busters, so I didn’t use them again. I was shocked at the cost for this first visit, which is lifetime for my dog. But I won’t have them return due to the techniques used. Growling, pillow bags thrown on the floor, etc. I do need help with my now two-year-old beautiful Golden Retriever walking on her leash. The animal rescue recommended treating and clicking. All of the good stuff is with you. Peanut butter in front of their face on a ladle spoon so they stay near you, never pulling, and being rewarded. Just some of their ideas. Sounds good to me. Disappointed with the cost for this one visit from Bark Busters. If I had known more about them, I wouldn’t have paid $650.
View full review
Loss:
$650
Pros:
  • Excellent trainer
  • Are nationwide
  • Trainer
Cons:
  • Extremely expensive
  • Price
Reason of review:
Paid for a service I didn’t like.

Preferred solution: Price reduction

1 comment
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

Hi there, we understand you have a choice in choosing your dog trainer and wish you all the best and much success with your future training. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance at any time - our head office email address is office@barkbusters.com and we would be happy to learn more from you if you're interested in contacting us directly by email.

Company responded
Anonymous
map-marker Perth, Western Australia

Do not use this company

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I paid $750 as a new dog owner genuinely wanting to learn to take the best care of our new pet. One very basic session - they never followed up even after email/calling & the business was sold. I was told don’t worry - new owner will follow up. They have no interest!! Lifetime guarantee is a joke! Do not pay money fir this joke of a service!!!
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3 comments
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

Hi there, we are sorry to hear these comments and would like to further assist you. Can you please reach out to our home office by sending an email to office@barkbusters.com - thank you!

Guest

100% Received the same treatment. Paid a lot for pillows and papers and a bogus lecture 3.5 hours later and 750 bucks for absolutely nothing!

this company is a scam! DO NOT invest in there BS!

Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1759940

Hi there, we are sorry to see these comments getting posted and kindly ask you to please contact us at office@barkbusters.com if we can assist with your training experience.

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Company responded
Anonymous
map-marker Denver, Colorado

Nice Trainer - Methods Ineffective and Without Structure

Note: This is long because there's a lot to share about our experiences over approximately 5 or 6 months.. I've seen lots of comments on other reviews that "they're too long." If your attention span is that little, consider the title the TL;DR and don't bother.

We rescued our dog in mid-July and it was evident fairly early that he was going to need some training. Many of his behaviors were typical puppy things, but we wanted to ensure that as he grew it would be safe to have him around our daughter. We also didn't want to have to keep him locked up if we went out so we wanted to make sure he'd learn to stop chewing on everything and would eventually be OK if left unattended for a little while in our living room. I trained him to sit, stay, lay-down and heel on the leash on my own, but felt I went about as far as my research could take me with my limited time. We learned about Bark Busters from our nearby vet and I made the call to invest in ourselves and our pooch and go for the lifetime training option.

At first we were really pleased. The trainer arrived and immediately demonstrated the ability to get control over the dog who really loved to jump on everyone that came in and continue jumping on them until someone grabbed him and pulled him off. He immediately started telling us about the gradual escalation using body language, posturing and then getting up to the verbal. The dog seemed to respond to it at first. And I liked the idea of the structured approach - it seemed there were specific steps you would need to use and specific times to use them. Unfortunately that's where the structure ended.

We sat down and spent about 45 minutes talking training philosophy. I wasn't sure that was necessary, but I went along with it. The rest of the training involved describing some very loose concepts, but never really giving us a road map for what specific steps to take in order to correct the behavior. To put it another way, much of the Bark Busters training felt like I was being given an overall training strategy, without the tactics needed to execute against that strategy.

As an example, we were concerned about his excessive mouthing on people and wanted to stop that. The response from Trainer was "Well, you need him to understand that people aren't for chewing - that he can chew on his toys. So you want to use the escalating body language to get him to recognize that it's not OK to chew people, but instead can chew his toys." Right...that's exactly what I want. Now, tell me how? "Well you can start slowly by walking into him with your legs, or if doesn't like that you can try the "pillow" (more on this in a moment), but then you can always do a loud "BAH!" and the clap." Well, no, which steps do I follow exactly and in what order?

And on and on it went. And this was the case with many of our lessons from walking on the leash to trying to teach recall off the leash. He'd never give us specifics about what we could do. We'd get "OK, so when he's really distracted by another dog you need to get his mind to go blank, so do something that kind of resets him." AND WHAT IS THAT? "Oh, well you can try to just walk him back and forth really quickly." So we do that and Trainer sees it doesn't help - the dog keeps turning his head to focus on the other dog. "Yea he's very interested in the other dogs, so you'll have to just keep it up." No, man. I can't stop in the middle of a walk whenever he sees another dog and pace back and forth for 10 minutes in the hopes he'll "reset." Occasionally when I explained that something wasn't working he'd give me some instruction to poke or prod the dog in someway and say "Well, that's not really Bark Busters, that's Dog Whisperer, but whatever works for you."

The equipment provided to us was also fairly confusing because it was just ineffective. We were provided with what Trainer called "pillows." They're mesh bags filled with chains that are intended to make a loud, scary noise to stop the dog in his tracks. The dog had that reaction once, but every time after that just picked it up and ran off to chew on it. Similarly, the harness we were given and told to "pop" when we needed to correct him, just served to confuse him - it never stopped any unwanted behavior. Trainer's reaction was "Well you're not using it right then and not projecting the kind of anger needed when using the pillow." I told him to show me and he got the same reaction from the dog.

The final straw for me came when Trainer invited us to join him and his dog in a fenced in dog park/trail to let the dog run and practice recall. The dog absolutely WOULD NOT come back to us or Trainer. Trainer told us, just keep walking along the trail, he'll follow. Our dog "followed' in the loosest sense of the word. He was in the vicinity, but paid us no mind and spent the entire time hounding other people and their dogs. I told Trainer, "Look, this simply isn't working." He responded by getting frustrated with me and telling me that I insisted on seeing negative in something positive. I asked him to explain to me what was positive about the fact that the dog doesn't pay attention to our screaming and clapping in public and won't come back. He literally stormed away from me shaking his head. Several times he had to go and retrieve our dog and finally at the end of our time when he had to trek all the way back across the park to find our dog in the woods that wouldn't leave this other poor couple alone, he acknowledged that it wasn't working.

To sum this all up, I suppose the Bark Busters methods may work for some dogs and some people. I suspect our Trainer had an easier time with other dogs and may have dealt with clients who weren't as concerned about specifics as long as they could copy what they saw and it worked. That wasn't the case for us, we needed more work to be done with the dog and more instruction on what to do. It wasn't worth $800 to spend 30-45 minutes watching someone scream and clap and then just trying to copy that. And when it finally was evident that our dog wasn't responding and continued to have issues, Trainer's reaction was to direct frustration at us and suggest we were somehow misinterpreting what was happening. Yes, he finally saw the flaw in that and apologized, but this isn't a friendship I'm trying to maintain - it's a service I paid good money for and the damage is done.

I'm sure the quick reaction of some will be to suggest the issue is with us and our willingness to "practice" but, it's simply untrue. The problem is there wasn't enough structure for us to have anything to practice. I asked upfront if it's possible that there are dogs that just don't respond to the training and they said yes, but it's so rare they can't even think of one.

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Reason of review:
Bad quality
7 comments
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

Hi there, our home office realizes that each situation is unique and different. We realize your training was quite some time ago and do have a standing offer to be contacted at office@barkbusters.com to further discuss the specifics of your situation as we want you to have a successful training situation.

Guest

Does this devise keep the neighbors dog in his own yard and out of mine?

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1609885

I hope this training stuff works because we are tired of being woke up every morning by Barkley every morning. We have to work unlike the lazy dog owners who have no control over their bad behavior nor the their dog!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1609885

That is up to the dog owner, and the degenerates who do that kind of stuff need to grow up! I also found that most barking dogs are not friendly animals and kind of like their owners GRUMPY!. They all probably bite as well.

Guest

Unfortunately, I had the SAME EXACT EXPERIENCE! I paid $540 for some literature, dog pillows and to learn the word Bah!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1607304

I have same experience. I endup paying $875 for 1 visit of 45mins, 1 word "Bah" and 1 pillow.

Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

We appreciate your attention to detail and being thorough in your comments. We'd like to discuss how to develop the structure you're looking for as we understand the importance of it in achieving results with you and your dog.

On a personal level, I was just in a follow-up visit earlier this week where this was needed, and we stood by our client's side to determine clear actions that will help with their specific needs. If you can please reach out to our home office we'll work with you towards this. Our email address is office@barkbusters.com and we look forward to hearing from you.

Please reference this interaction in your email. Thanks!!!

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Company responded
Zenobia N Wyg
map-marker Novi City, Michigan

So disappointed

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Had purchased the lifetime program from Bark busters when our puppy was 4 months old. Worst mistake ever.

The trainers we have are so stuck on a set training method that they don’t think every situation could be a bit different. Our now 7 year old is having a few issues & I thought I’d turn to the trainers for help as we thought things or they might have changed a bit in how they deal with clients & dogs. Was extremely defensive right from the get go. Made me feel like a horrible dog owner & we do get compliments on how well behaved our dog is all the time.

I think she is just stuck on how dogs should be trained & it might be worth it if we think outside the box once in a while. Without even seeing my dog she said don’t baby the dog. I just feel horrible as we have just wasted $600+. & can’t seem to get the help.

We needed someone with a bit of compassion & kindness & never found that. SO DISSATISFIED. Now we have to pay for yet another behavioral specialist. We want our dog to be a dog not a ROBOT.

Our dog is extremely well behaved with dogs & people.

Just needed a bit of help in dealing with whatever is going on with him in a kind way & not add to his anxiety. Ugh so very disappointed.

View full review
Loss:
$600
Pros:
  • Trainer
Cons:
  • Poor customer service
Reason of review:
No help

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution

2 comments
Guest

It’s been 6 months & I was hoping against hope my issue with Barkbusters were resolved. However, after various attempts they still haven’t done anything that would help me.

At first the communication was prompt & then it stopped after they tried to resolve the problem over the phone.

I wish they would just refund the money I spent for lifetime support as I haven’t had any support. Thanks.

Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

Hi there, we are very sorry to hear about this and want to do our part to help with your ongoing experience. The best way for us to help you would be to send a note to our home office at office@barkbusters.com so we can further assist you. We appreciate you bringing this to our attention and look forward to hearing from you.

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Company responded
Laurie K Bol
map-marker Saint Anthony, Minnesota

Terrible!

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As stated by previous reviewers this training may work for some breeds but for independent and strong willed dogs it is definitely a waste of money and time. The cost is fairly high ($1000+) and much of the initial visit is spent on upselling and philosophy. The trainer was not personable nor did she interact with the dog in a way that indicated that she was comfortable. I would expect that there would be some kind of guarantee or reparation from Bark Busters but there is not. Growling at my dog is hilarious and I believe my dog agrees. She just looks at us and then continues doing what she was doing. The bean bag they gave us (I'm sure we paid!!) is also a worthless investment. I am very disappointed and really angry about the money waste! Just a crummy experience all the way around.
View full review
Loss:
$1000
Cons:
  • Poor trainers
  • Does not get results
  • Too expensive
Reason of review:
Not as described/ advertised

Preferred solution: Full refund

1 comment
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

Hi there, we are very sorry to hear about the experience you shared here. Should you wish to further discuss this directly with us please reach out by email at office@barkbusters.com and we will gladly assist you.

Anonymous
map-marker Kitchener, Ontario

Proffessional rip off!

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Almost 700.00 for pillows and papers and a lecture that went on forever. No follow up no training. Don't not waste your time and money this is a scam! they sell you there BS! I DO NOT believe these are profession trainers with experience in dog training they're profession rip off artists who have mastered the trade of manipulating people out of hundreds of dollars and feed them BS believing your getting life time training. Disgusting!
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Company responded
Fareeha
map-marker Toronto, Ontario

Worst money ever spent

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I absolutely hate this company I paid $900 and the trainer only came once and then made multiple excuses as to why she cant come and was so very unprofessional with her attitude. Pleade don't do it. The methods made my dog more aggressive .
View full review
Loss:
$900
Cons:
  • Poor customer service
Reason of review:
Poor customer service

Preferred solution: Full refund

1 comment
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

Hi there, we would be happy to get you in touch with our home office in Canada to help assist you further if you can kindly reach out to office@barkbusters.com

Company responded
Anonymous
map-marker Titusville, Florida

AWESOME

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Today we had our first session with Harv. He was patient, helpful, knowledgeable, and full of great advice for us!! We already see an improvement in our dog! Would highly recommend!!!
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1 comment
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

We are very glad to read about your positive experience with Harv and Bark Busters, thank you for sharing this! It seems you're in good hands with Harv, and if we can be of any further support from our home office please never hesitate to reach out to us at office@barkbusters.com That also goes for anyone else who might read this post as we want the best for each and every one of our clients and will do our best to help!

Company responded
Anonymous
map-marker Harveys Lake, Pennsylvania

Danger to animals

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We had found the Bark Busters information at our vet We rescued a pit in February. He was exhibiting fear aggression and I scheduled an appointment A male trainer assured me he was very well experienced. He cane to my home never acknowledging my dog only talking to my daughter and myself. Told us when the dog becomes aggressive tell “ arrrrgggh” then throw a toy with bells in it in the floor. Trainer pulled out choke collar my dog freaked out. He was leashed the entire time Trainer pulled it out three more times even after seeing how enraged my dog became. My dog lunged at him bitting him so the trainer kicked my dog and said I can’t help you. This man is a danger to himself and other dogs. I was lucky to find an experienced trainer who has worked with us to address my dogs fears. I sent an email to corporate they didn’t even apologize. Find a local trainer this company is all about making money
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1 comment
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

As we discussed in our prior private correspondence, we are sorry to hear your experience with Bark Busters did not meet expectations. While our first and primary goal was to work with you towards a successful outcome, we understand and respect your decision to choose another trainer, and we wish you all the best with your dog in the future.

Bark Busters was founded 30 years ago to promote the use of communication techniques that dogs understand, with a mission of helping to prevent dogs from being given up for adoption or euthanized due to behavioral issues. Our mission remains the same today, and we sincerely appreciate your contributions towards this mission as well through the commitment you've made by rescuing your dog.

Company responded
Anonymous
map-marker Blue Island, Illinois

Terrible ripoff trainer never replied after taking $1,000

Never ever use this company they stole our money and never returned our calls
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1 comment
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

This is something we would like to speak to you about in order to learn more about what happened and to make sure you are properly supported. Please email us at office@barkbusters.com so we can correspond directly with you about this and make sure we get this addressed. Thanks!

Company responded
Anne M Brz

I had a great experience, so far

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We have several dogs but the newly added dog had issues with taking things and possessing them and barking. This is the first big dog we’ve ever had, she’s about 85 lbs and alittle over a yr. old. The instructor called before the appointment and confirmed our targeted issues. he arrived on time, nicely dressed and polite. he spent 3 hours at our home with verbal and hand ones sessions. A little overkill on the history and mind behavior of K9s but all informative. It’s been alittle over a week and have seen significant improvements in the dogs behavior. It almost seems like the dog is relieved that she doesn’t have to bark at neighbors cars pulling up and with instructions has stopped grabbing items and if she does, we are able to retrieve without major incidents of aggression. She seems much calmer. so far, so good. I think the price was reasonable, we got the lifetime contract. We have a follow up visit upcoming. I think the in house training was a good way to go, training in the pets environment.
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Pros:
  • That i saw immediate results
Reason of review:
Addressed specific concerns
1 comment
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

Thank you for your positive feedback. We are glad you are having a great experience and expect you'll continue to be in good hands with your Bark Busters trainer!

Company responded
Anonymous
map-marker Edmonton, Alberta

Thank you for honest people

I was about to spend $900 on these people for the ‘life time’ guarantee. Thankfully all these honest reviews have changed my mind. I will not be using this service.
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2 comments
Guest

Excellent choice to move on invest your money in a real trained professional not these clowns who think their trainers. They are trained in professional ripping off of good ,honest hard working people who trusted them and fell for their BS!.

Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

We are sorry to hear you have decided on another path for your training, yet we wish you great success and happiness with your training so you may live a happier life together with your dog. Should you ever reconsider we would gladly welcome speaking directly with you to make sure we provide you comfort and confidence in advance of ever choosing Bark Busters for your dog training.

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Company responded
Amanda H Dxj
map-marker Wellington, Wisconsin

Resolved: No thank you

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Updated by user Apr 08, 2019

I had a series of phone calls with a very kind Bark Busters rep. He listened to my story and validated what I was upset about.

He offered to be the middle-man and contact the trainer to see if we could have a refund. The trainer offered a 50% refund, which wasn't what...

Original review Apr 04, 2019
A Bark Busters trainer came out to our house about a month ago. I wish that I would have trusted my gut and just said "No thank you" to the trainer after he completed his 20 minute consultation, but because they don't really even tell you what the system is until you sign up and fork over $600, I am stuck.
The presentation was 100% scripted and was where I became increasingly uncomfortable with their methods and approach.

It goes against everything I believe about handling a dog. It has put a strain on the relationship that I worked incredibly hard to create with our rescue dog and has increased her anxiety and abandonment issues. I dislike the collar used for correction and find in inhumane and potentially damaging to my dogs neck. The bean bags and spray bottle do nothing.
I canceled our second session due to sickness in our house but have no desire to reschedule it.

I want my money back. I absolutely regret signing up and would not recommend these services to anyone and wish I would have researched further before jumping into this.
View full review
Loss:
$600
Cons:
  • No value in the cost
  • Price
  • Lack of training methods
Reason of review:
Approach/philosophy of dog training, cost, contract, sales pitch/pressure

Preferred solution: Full refund

2 comments
Bark Busters
Bark Busters Response

Hi there, I'm writing from our home office and I'm not aware of Bark Busters having a trainer in your area, so this is quite important to us to first verify the validity of our trainer serving you, and also to help you find a better outcome than what you've shared. We care deeply that every customer has an experience that fits the unique needs of their situation, so if you can kindly reach out to our home office by email that would be much appreciated. Our email address is office@barkbusters.com - thank you!

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Bark Busters Response

Hello, I am working on updating this review but am having difficulty doing so. This matter has been resolved, and I will expand more upon that once I figure out how to mark this as resolved with help from pissedconsumer.com.

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Dave B Afp
map-marker Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario

Waste of time and money

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WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY! A dog collar, a bean bag type thing with metal bits in it and you're told to growl at your dog, this is what you get from Andrew Gawur at Bark Busters for $672.

Andrew made one visit and spent a whopping 1h 45m in our home, during that time he threw that bean bag thing on the floor a few times, made us sit through some antiquated flipbook presentation, was unable to get our 9-month-old pup to do anything that we couldn't get him to do and he growled and our dog a few times. Overall the entire experience was awkward and generally made us feel uncomfortable in our own home. I reached out to Bark Busters head office and explained that I didn't feel like we received the level of service that we were promised and that Andrew wasn't the right fit for us and our dog. That was a useless exercise because they told me that if I wanted to get a refund I would have to reach out to Andrew and negotiate with him.

Normally with any other kind of business if you're buying goods or services and you're not satisfied you aren't directed to negotiate to get a refund. Anyhow, I reached out to Andrew and explained how we were feeling and I asked for a partial refund, as we believe he should be paid for the 1h 45m he spent with us. Andrew replied with the following " I understand. I'll think it over and let you know as soon as possible." So Andrew is going to think it over and let me know if he's going to give me back any portion of my payment.

I thought we were being fair but Andrew seems to want to drag this out a bit longer. A simple Google search of Andrew Gawur lead us to find other reviews and apparently, this is what he does when you ask for a refund.

I'm not sure what he has to think about here but it's infuriating that he's going to hold on to my money and let me know sometime in the future if I'll get anything back. I'll update this review when I get this resolved and let you know how long it actually took.

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1 comment
Guest

This is a duplicate post. We don't need to read your gripe (ever so slightly reworked) more than once. Learn how to train a dog properly ; this is your fault, not the dog's.

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