This does not look good. It is the 16th and this is the first post I have made this month. At least I have line of site to 3 posts (including this one), but I better start seeing some weird things soon or my quota will again be in jeopardy – I know, broken record but it is August and I am on goal and within tolerance of my New Year’s resolution – before you comment, how well are you doing on your resolutions to this point? 8^). In this post, there is good news and bad news. The good news first, my wife finally took the time to actually read my blog which requires me to use my second hand to count the number of readers so far. So my readership is increasing, but this one came at a small price. Having been with me to experience a number of the blog topics, she was in a position to correct some errors in my post. I always want to be as accurate as possible, so I am taking the time to correct a few of the mistakes she found and follow up on another post.
Starting off, I would like to apologize to Applebee’s for incorrectly identifying their fine establishment as the one causing us hardships with the gift card. You can read the post here if you are curious. Linda reminded it was not at Applebees, but rather:
That’s right, the episode with the gift card happened at Ched’duh’s in Springfield. Please go out of your way enjoy Applebee’s fine cuisine and make your own choice about going to the other.
Secondly, the location of the Moose encounter was not at Yellowstone National Park as indicated in my blog entry. The moose was actually seen as we were exiting the Rocky Mountain National Park. I sure hope he does not find out and decide to pay me a visit.
I also thought I would take the time to follow up on the post regarding Sunny D. You know, the one where they purposely labeled their container to deceive the consumer. Anyway, as mentioned in the post I did take the time to comment on their website and thought I would simply provide the details of their response:
This was my submission to their corporate website:
Content: I want to comment on what I consider intentional and truly deceptive marketing practices by your company. I was recently at Sams and decided to go with your orange juice offering over your competitors based on your label indicating 100% Vitamin C. Unfortunately, I purchased a case of your product under false pretenses. Once home I eventually checked the nutrition facts and noticed that a single bottle of your product only provides 80 percent of the DV. Sure enough when I turned the bottle over I found the small print of per 8 oz serving. Now I ask you, does a company with integrity put this deceptive label on a 6.75 floz container?… or maybe you think the consumer would be more than willing to op en another bottle and try to guesstimate 1.25 floz to conform to the label. I’ll accept the fact I failed due diligence on the purchase, but as a result of being deceived I will be hard pressed to consider any of your products in the future. I hope the loss of company integrity was worth not increasing your unit size or changing your label appropriately.
This was the ONLY response I received from taking the time to comment on their website regarding what I think is a serious example of deception:
Subject: RE: [BULK] Message from Sunny D
Good Morning,
Thank you for contacting SunnyD and sharing your thoughts with us. I will certainly share your feedback with the rest of the team. Thank you again for writing. Have a wonderful day!
Sincerely,
Sunny Delight Beverages Co
Consumer Relations Department
Contact Center hours are M-F 8am-7pm
Wow, I am truly a satisfied customer and looking forward to my wonderful day. I especially liked the [BULK] portion of their subject line so I am fully aware that the entry was never seen by anyone and the automated response had a built in delete submission line in the CGI. My lifelong ban list would like to welcome Sunny D to their pages.
I will contrast this to a recent corporate dialog with a company called RoadID. I always wear their product whenever I run to give both myself and my wife a bit of comfort knowing there is a possibility I could be saved after keeling over on a long hot run. Unfortunately, the strap came apart on it so I looked up their customer support email address from their company website and literally emailed their company president (yes, that is the address they gave out) and sent them short email telling them how much I liked their product and if there was a way I could purchase a replacement strap. Almost immediately, a support representative contacted me and told me how to purchase another one, but they were going to send me one right away and waive the fee. Hats off to Christy for going way above and beyond to satisfy a customer. I’ll recommend RoadID to anyone who wants some security while away from home.
That’s all I have for now, time to start planning the remaining minimum 5 posts for this month
On July 3rd Linda, myself and two of my friends headed up for a Bix practice run. If you happen to be new to the blog in the last year then you may not know that the Bix7 is my premier run of the race season. This is the race that started it all so many years ago and definitely the most enjoyable of the lot. As in the past, I like to get a practice run in just to set expectations. The two big hills in that race are nothing to be taken lightly – always good to know ahead of time how much of a struggle it is going to be. For this particular race, there was another reason for self validation…. but will get to that in a bit. This year Sung made the trek up there with us. He has been getting himself in shape and has lost an impressive amount of weight from a healthy diet and getting back into running. This was his second Bix training run and had intentions of going a little further than his previous 4 to 5 mile. His current 10K training program had put him around 6 miles but that was flat outings. The plan was to stick with him to help him negotiate however far he felt like going with a side benefit of forcing myself to take it easy. In the end, Sung made it over both hills and completed the course giving him two PRs in the process – the longest distance yet (7.3 miles – way ahead of his 10K program) and at an average pace of 11:07 which again was his fastest yet. I find it always helps when someone is talking to you the whole time so chatted him up the entire distance. On my front, that pace puts me 2 to 3 minutes over my standard pace so that part of the plan came out perfect as well. Nice and easy, got to enjoy running with a good friend and the fact that I completed it without issue pleased me GREATLY!!