Friday, July 22, 2011

The Post I Didn't Want to Write - When Companies Don't Follow Through

Well, I'm very sorry I'm having to write this post.

I have delayed, procrastinated and debated
about whether I should write it at all.

But, I find it a little ridiculous when large companies
use us bloggers as part of their PR strategy and then don't follow
through on their end of the bargain.

Who am I talking about here?
Tassimo.

Way back on March 3rd, I got an email from a fellow blogger that
I'd won her giveaway for a Tassimo T20 Brewing System.
(I even blogged about it HERE!)

As you can imagine I was pretty excited! That was a $129 value!
My mom and aunt both have Kerig's and I was interested to see
how the Tassimo system compared to theirs.

I waited.

April 28th I sent the blog owner an email saying I hadn't
received it yet and was wondering if she'd heard anything.
She replied that she would attempt to follow up with them.

On May 24th the blog owner emailed me asking if I'd
received the product yet.
I said that I hadn't.
This is the response from her,
"I haven't received a response from them,
its weird, like they are ignoring me.
 I'll try to see if I can get another email contact from
some blogger friends. I'll keep you posted."

Well, it is almost August and I've yet to see my Tassimo.

This is unfortunate on several levels.
Obviously, I'd like to get my winnings! =)
AND in anticipation of receiving my Tassimo,
I'd purchased some coffee pods to use in it - wasted money on my part.

But even worse than that, I think, is that they wasted
that bloggers time and blog space for their advertising
and then made her look bad in the end.

Having done reviews and giveaway's for companies myself,
I'd be pretty upset if they failed to send the product -
and then ignored me when I tried to contact them about it!

Yes, she got a Tassimo system out of the deal,
but she spent time writing a review, hosting a giveaway,
and using up valuable blog space on a company who
didn't follow through on their end of the deal.

Shame on you Tassimo!

I'd love some feedback on this.
What do you think about this situation?
Has this ever happened to anyone else?
(Blogger or winner)

Disclaimer: I've purposely not revealed the name of the blog I won this product from.
I feel her blog is reputable and she doesn't have control over a company's actions.

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