Well that doesn’t smell right…
I mentioned in previous posts that I have had numerous experiences with contacting companies to voice my opinions/disapproval/dissatisfaction with products or services. As a marketing manager, feedback (good or bad) is vital to continuing to provide (or to improve upon) quality products or services. I have even gone as far as to mail back (on the companies dime) a product to their quality assurance team for inspections Lysol wipes is a good example. I couldn’t ‘tear’ the wipes off when you pulled them out of the container. Their quality assurance team asked if I could send the remainder of unused wipes back in the original container so they could find out what happened. I was happy to do so.
In the past few years, I have contacted:
- Pampers – I bought a package of diapers and the tabs on almost half of them was affixed to the next diaper- effectively making them unable to close.
- Campbell’s Soup – I opened a can of Spaghetti O’s and it was obvious by the horrendous stench and odd look of the product that something wasn’t quite right with it.
- Pillsbury – I purchased a can of Orange Danish (YUM) for the girls for breakfast, and when I opened it, the rolls were flat as pancakes and hard. (But the expiration date was still weeks away.)
- Charmin Toilet Paper – About a year ago, I picked up a large package of their product from Target. When I opened it, there were several rolls that had black (what looked to me like oil) on them and were unusable.
In all the experiences I have had (and there are many more I didn’t list), The Charmin experience had to be the most disappointing. In most of my experiences, the companies politely apologized for the grievance and mailed me a coupon for a replacement product (or in some cases 2 or 3 – thanks Campbell’s Soup & Pampers), which, in my opinion was very appropriate.
Now let me be clear here, I am not the type to call and complain about something just to be a pain in the you-know-what. I call because there is a real issue with the product. Let’s face it, I spend my hard earned cash on this stuff (however small the cost) and I expect to get what I paid for.
Charmin (owned by Proctor & Gamble) kindly asked me to send them the “defective” TP back for their own internal investigation. I agreed and promptly sent it back in return packaging they provided me. A few weeks later, I received a letter from their “Quality Control” department which stated they were not sure what the foreign substance was, but they were certain it must have happened after leaving their facilities. WHAT? Are you seriously suggesting I did something to the TP? Unbelievable…
As if their letter wasn’t insulting enough, a few weeks later I received a coupon from them to purchase a new product. But it wasn’t a “free product” coupon – it was a BUY ONE GET ONE FREE coupon! So basically, (from my professional marketing perspective) they were trying to get me to buy MORE of their product without compensating me for the error on the previous item I purchased that was defective. I was NOT pleased. Needless to say, I have not purchased Charmin again.
Have you even had a situation where you purchased a defective product and contacted customer service for a resolution? If so – what was your experience?
