It stopped spraying
On this page10
Blocked orifice
Dried product or undissolved fragrance in the nozzle. Common on a water-based spray left unused, and the customer experiences it as the bottle being broken.
Lost prime
Air in the pump after the bottle has stood, or a dip tube that no longer reaches the liquid. A pump that needs twenty strokes to restart reads as poor quality.
Swollen seals
Alcohol or fragrance attacking the gasket over months. It fails slowly, which means it fails at the customer rather than in testing.
Dip tube wrong for the bottle
Too short and the last third is unusable; too long and it kinks against the base. Either way the customer is left with product they cannot get out.
Which is the complaint they actually make
Not that the tube is the wrong length. That the bottle is half full and does not work, which sounds like a short fill and is not.
Leaking in transit
A pump sprayer is not a seal. Shipping a filled unit without a transport cap or a locked actuator is how a case arrives wet, and it is worth testing a packed case on its side.
Test to the bottom of the bottle
Spray a full unit down to empty, over weeks, in the conditions it will live in. Every failure on this page shows up in that test and none of them show up in a few strokes from a fresh bottle.
Ship with the actuator locked or capped
Most fine mist pumps have a locking collar or take an overcap. Using it costs nothing and prevents the single most expensive transit failure in this category.
Supply a spare sprayer for a glass range
On a premium glass product the bottle outlives the pump. A replacement sprayer offered as a cheap add-on turns a failure into a small sale and keeps the glass in use.