Thursday, November 22, 2012

Got some freebies in the mail on Wednesday......

I have had a run of bad luck with some products recently and have had to call up companies a couple of times to ask about their products.

At the top of the photo is a flyer telling me that next time I use my credit card I will get 10,000 bonus points which I think is worth $10.  Mind you in the small print it could be next April before I get the points.    Regardless that's a bonus.

I then got a coupon for a free bottle of Dove "Style Care" Frizz Proof Cream/Serum.  Which I will say is more useful in the Summer with the humidity than this time of year.

I bought Blue Water's Simply Bake Haddock.  When I cooked it it shrank by more than half.  Dh wondered what he had done wrong when I plopped this tiny bit of fish on his plate.  Even I looked in the bag to see if it had broken in two and the rest was in the bag!!!  Anyhoo, turns out the company has had shrinkage problems and have changed the cut of haddock it uses and were more than happy to send me a free product coupon, which I thought was awfully nice of them.

However will say General Mills gets the gold star for customer service.  I have recently discovered Old El Paso's Extra Mild Taco Kit  It is not at all spicy so I am a big fan of it.  The first time I bought it when I come to open the taco package most of the taco's were smashed to pieces.  So I called them to get a suggestion as to what to do with it.  The lady told me to smash the rest up, heat them in the oven for a few minutes then pour the ground beef mixture on top along with the rest of the toppings.  It was okay, but not as good as the original way of serving them.  She also sent me a free product coupon, along with a $1 and two 50 cent coupons off of any General Mills product.  So I was more than happy.

Went out and got another box from the same store as before and you know what's coming next.......the tacos were broken, not as much as last time.  So I call them again to see if this is from the same batch.  She didn't know but insisted on sending me the same coupons as before.

Do you call to complain when you are not satisfied with a product?

I posted a couple of book reviews here yesterday, really lovely books.

12 comments:

Joolz said...

I t certainly doesn't hurt to complain if something is wrong or faulty as long as you do it in a nice manner. How else does a company know when things are not right?
I once bought a packet of Arnott's Chocolate Mint Slice biscuits from our Woolworths store. It was summer time. I went straight home with my shopping and unloaded the bags so heat on the day was not a factor. Next day when I went to serve the biscuits to a guest with a cup of tea, all the biscuits were melted and smooshed together. I was quite angry so next day I dashed off a nice letter to Arnott's saying how I had grown up eating Arnott's biscuits, how I loved several different varieties and how disappointed I was that the biscuits should be melted when purchased straight from a supermarket.
Time went by and I forgot all about the letter then one day, I was out front, watering my garden when a strange car pulled into the driveway. A man got out with something in his arms. It was an Arnott's biscuits representative and he had 6 packets of chocolate biscuits (unmelted!) to give me as compensation for the melted ones! I was dumbstruck but so pleased that they had taken the time to get someone to come see me. He explained that all biscuits leave the factory in pristine condition and the fault was more likely Woolworths (melted in transit or left sitting on their loading dock), but they were happy to appease me with some replacements.
Arnott's get my tick of approval for that!

We own a car dealership - we would much rather a person tell us if something is wrong so we can fix the problem than have them tell 20 people that something was wrong and that we didn't fix the problem because we weren't aware of a problem. Customer service is everything. Sorry for raving on like a loon...

Cheers - Joolz

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing this. very nice

Cindy@NorthofWiarton said...

Yes I have called when a product I have purchased has been broken, or not quite up to pare by containing something it shouldn't, with very good results from Customer Service.

Crafty Gardener said...

Freebies are always good. I'm a coupon clipper and a price matcher and by the time we cashed in some money from the credit card, some from Air Miles and did price matching we saved about $50 this week on groceries and gas.

Anonymous said...

Bess says.....Often times a company appreciates hearing the 'good things' about their products as well. It isn't all about the negative things and when they hear from you, sometimes they will reciprocate. I have had luck that way as well. Bess

Boyett-Brinkley said...

I don't but I should.

laura | no more spending said...

I complain, usually in writing.

bonsaimum said...

Yes I usually ring up and so far have been happy with the responses.

Aodhnait said...

A few years ago I found something in a bottle of pepsi max. It looked like a piece of cola coloured plastic. I rang them and they said it was caramelised sugar and sent me 6 bottles of pepsi max as a replacement.

BTW - Pepsi Max doesn't contain sugar!!! ;-)

Anonymous said...

I normally just return things to the store for a refund. Your way sounds better :)

Anonymous said...

When it's fresh or frozen produce I'll return it to the shop for a refund or exchange (usually refund), especially when it's the Supermarkets own brand.

When it's a named brand item, I will email them with a photo of any damage, mold (yep, I've found mold on food that was in date. Put me right of eating the food from that company again), or foreign body that shouldn't be there.

Very often I've received vouchers or replacement foods. To put myself through College (all those years ago, lol!)I worked in a Supermarket and saw how much of the foods were left out on the palettes or thrown around when being sent out onto the shop floor for the shelves and freezers.

Hamitana

Rose said...

Yes, I do complain...I forget what you were talking about before and I think I told you about the deal with some precut fabric I bought.

Well, about the time of your last post, my DD had gotten me a puzzle. I started to work it and for some reason the pieces would not lay flat. Some were not cut apart good.

So in a day or two, I got on here and contacted the company that made it, told them my daughter had not gotten it there, so in a day or two I recieved a reply to send the UPC code, pieces that were defective, and some numbers stamped on the bottom of the puzzle.

I am still waiting for the puzzle but am at least hopeful of getting it. I have not told daughter yet...will tell her when I finally receive it.

{{{SIGH}}}

Tuesday was a mixed bag type of day. Had the appliance repair guy come again to install another circuit board in the fridge.  When hubby got...