Hooray for good companies!

[rerant]

This may or may not be the right place for this, but I couldn't think of where else to post it.
For backstory read this: http://hkasylum.blogspot.com/2008/03...arachnids.html

The condensed version is that I found a spider in my Five Alive and wrote Minute Maid, but didn't ask for any compensation; I just wanted to let them know what was up.

Well today I got five coupons for $2.50 off Minute Maid products from Coca Cola Company.

There you go: further proof that NOT being an ass gets you farther with companies.

[Sheldonrs]

Back in High School, one of my writing assignments was to send letters to companies and famous people to try and get some kind of response.
I sent one to the company that makes Marlboro Cigs.; one to Life Savers and one to Richard Nixon.
I got 2 free cartons of cigs from Marlboro, a case of Life Savers and a signed letter from Nixon.
This was back in the 70s and I think companies have stopped going that far but it was cool then. :-)

I'll bet that spider didn't die of a cold, what with all that orange juice in him or her. :-)

[Boozy]

Well today I got five coupons for $2.50 off Minute Maid products from Coca Cola Company.

Wait a minute...you found a spider in your Five Alive, and they throw a few coupons at the problem?

I think they're cheap bastards, personally.

[RedRoseSpiral]

Back in High School, one of my writing assignments was to send letters to companies and famous people to try and get some kind of response.
I sent one to the company that makes Marlboro Cigs.; one to Life Savers and one to Richard Nixon.
I got 2 free cartons of cigs from Marlboro, a case of Life Savers and a signed letter from Nixon.
This was back in the 70s and I think companies have stopped going that far but it was cool then. :-)

I'll bet that spider didn't die of a cold, what with all that orange juice in him or her. :-)

Damn, I didn't get shit when I had to do something like that in 6th grade. Candy companies have become cheap this the last few decades.

[BlaqueKatt]

ok so you found the "one dead" are the "five alive" hiding?

Maybe they're in my carton.....<sooo not looking>

[JLRodgers]

I wrote to a company just recently to tell them the batch #, product, etc of something I had purchased (well actually a family member bought) that felt as if half the product was missing. I even weighed it and discovered approximately how much the box weighed based on the weight of the product (I had a full box to compare to as well). Contacted them to tell them. I didn't really care for a reply - I'd buy the stuff again since I like it, and I know accidents happen albeit rare anymore, a coupon would've been nice just to cover the cost of the missing product - but didn't ask.

They sent: 3 $1 off coupons and 2 "any one item free" coupons (so basically about $9-10 off [the product costs about $2.50-3/box]). I love the "free" coupons. Those are the only ones that let you get the product with no (well taxes) money out of pocket for it.

[Andara Bledin]

I sent an email to the Sobe people about the fact that some of their bottling plants had issues with overly tight caps. There were times that it was impossible for me to get the caps off without help.

They sent me back a note that they were aware of the issue and they were working on it, but it would continue to be a problem until they could work out how to keep them tight enough without being too loose.

And then I got a t-shirt in the mail. I thought that was super cool.

^-.-^

[Linda]

My other half found a bone in a McDonald's chicken nugget. He got £15 in vouchers and a written apology. Best bit though? He was an employee, and the nuggets were part of his break so he hadn't paid for the food. He simply forwarded the batch number and problem to Head Office, clearly stating he was an employee who happened to have it on break, but they sent the vouchers anyway

Our boss let us use them in addition to the employee discount, so it took forever to use them all up!

[Bagga]

My first wife loved white vanilla blancmange, but one day to her displeasure she found that the vanilla blancmange that she had bought from her favourite firm was actually yellow - it was effectively vanilla flavoured custard.

So she wrote them a letter saying something along the lines of "I wish you hadn't changed the formula, I really liked it best when it was white."

So they replied, "Sorry madam, but we have been making vanilla blancmange for many decades, and we have never changed the recipe. It has always been yellow. However, we feel that you will enjoy the flavour of ours much more than our competitors, once you get used to it, so we enclose coupons for 5 large boxes."

Wifey had bought the blancmange from a different manufacturer by mistake. We did use all the coupons, but unfortunately for the firm we went back to the pure white blancmange as soon as we could.

[rerant]

Wait a minute...you found a spider in your Five Alive, and they throw a few coupons at the problem?

I think they're cheap bastards, personally.

Well I can't think of much else they could do on the customer end to help mend the issue.
They were very diligent in their correspondence with me and followed up on everything very well.
Plus I got a lengthy and detailed apology letter with the coupons. Not one that seemed like a fill-in-the-blanks sort of letter either, but rather a genuine one.

I think they did rather well, and since I didn't ask for anything in return for the incident the coupons were a nice bonus.

[Bandit]

Had that sort of thing happen to me twice.

Once when Coke started putting a "Contact Us" number and "Let us know how you like it!" on the cans of diet Coke when they changed things around a bit.

I called them up and simply said that I didn't like it. And that was it.

Until they *mailed* me a 12-pack of cans.

Yes.

Mailed.

And a few coupons for free cases. I didn't ask for anything, just volunteered my opinion.

Then came the Pringles ad campaign here where they were touting the can as a way to keep the crisps intact. Next can I bought, it looked like Pringle Bits - fresh and yummy - but about a third of the can was in crumbs. Called the number, gave them the info about the lot number, and I thought that was it until they sent about 1/2 dozen free tin coupons to me. Again - an unexpected and very pleasant surprise.

B

(as I reach for the Pringles and Diet Coke)

[Ironclad Alibi]

I also had a similar encounter with the Coca-Cola company. Several years ago my wife was drinking a bottle of Coke and found a dead fly in it. I called up the local distributor and spoke to the receptionist, describing the problem. Her first words were "Ew, yuk." They sent a rep to our house to get the fly infested bottle. His comment was that there were no flies around at that time of the year, so it must have gotten in the bottle during processing. He took it with him and left a case (24 bottles) of Coke for us to enjoy.

[Boozy]

Plus I got a lengthy and detailed apology letter with the coupons. Not one that seemed like a fill-in-the-blanks sort of letter either, but rather a genuine one.

The personal letter is nice. I'm guessing a sincere apology was all you were asking for anyway.

I just don't like coupons as an apology because the customer often has to spend some of their own money in order to use them. Companies know this and that's why they send them. I don't like the idea that the company that wronged me gets even more of my money if I choose to use their apology coupons. Its disingenuous and presumptuous.

There is a difference between a $2.50 voucher for free product and a $2.50 OFF coupon. If you all you received were coupons, I personally would have preferred they just leave those out. The apology letter would have been enough.

But that's just me. I suppose they've found that most people like their coupons.

[Rapscallion]

I was once accused of having sent a 'form letter' when I was actually working on it from scratched, which impressed me.

Another time, I sent a few recipes out as per a request, along with a request for them to tell us how they went since we'd not actually tried them yet... They responded and said they loved the tone of my letter.

Some you win, the others you win.

Rapscallion

[SugarBeef]

My experience hasn't been quite so nice.

When I worked at wally world I would sometimes go get a burger at the mcdonald's in the store on my lunch. One day I tried the dollar chicken burger and liked it so I stuck to that since it was cheap. Then I got it one day and started feeling sick an hour or so later, and on my break talked to other people who had gotten chicken products that day from there and they were feeling sick too. So I went back in after my shift to tell the manager there could be a problem with the chicken and was asked for basic info for any complaint of that type. Sure, whatever, they might send me some coupons or something right?

Wrong. I got a call from their legal department about a week later. Here's pretty much how it went (working from memory so I don't know the actual conversation, just the direction it took):

Me: just tried to warn them before someone got really sick and complained
JA: Jackass lawyer that decided to "save his company from the evil customer"

Me: hello?
JA: *opening spiel* is SugarBeef available?
Me: speaking
JA: this is regarding the incident on [date], did you go see any doctors after you ate our food?
Me: no, I just felt sick as did some of my friends so I wanted to warn the boss before someone got really sick from bad chicken.
JA: since you didn't visit a doctor, your illness could have been for any reason and therefore you can't sue us
Me: I didn't plan to sue you, I was just trying to help
JA: good, because you can't sue us since you didn't go to a doctor
Me: if this is how you're gonna act, I wish someone had gotten sick and seen a doctor just so you could get your precious lawsuit *click*

I never heard anything more from them besides a form letter a few days later saying I couldn't sue them. Not even an apology or anything.