Saturday, December 16, 2006

"What else would you expect a salesman to say to you?"

That was the first sentence of a comment I received today. It is a great point, and one I have been meaning ot bring up for several days now.

On November 5, I posted comments I received from one Wayne Evans, a VP of Sales and Marketing at Twinings North America. He denied any changes to the Earl Grey blend, and invited me to visit the Twinings NA headquarters, so that they could "restore [my] faith in Twinings and further enhance [my] enjoyment of [their] teas."

At the time, I was optimistic that the offer was sincere. A family field trip to Twinings could be fun. That and an overly-developed sense of fairness motivated me to post his comments in full. However, it soon dawned on me that this fellow offered no contact information whatsoever. Was I supposed to print his comments out and carry them with me to the doorstep of Twinings NA? Maybe if I explained the situation to some random customer service representative they would be able to transfer me directly to his extension? So I invited Mr. Evans, via this blog, to contact me privately through email in order to set something up.

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised that he has not responded. Once I posted his comments, his "friendly" message--and utter denial--was there for the world to see. His job as Marketer to the Masses was complete. Oh well, so I'm a dupe.

Meanwhile, comments continue to roll in from people who have noticed some change in their enjoyment of Twinings Earl Grey and have done a quick Google search to find out if they are alone. In fact, you are not. Thanks to all for writing in.