I've become a letter writing fool

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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As opposed to just an ordinary generic fool.

Maybe it’s the fact that my job and home life don’t give me an outlet for anger and frustration. Maybe it’s a tin-foil hat worthy idea that major corporations are out to get me. Then again, maybe it’s the fact that I’m approaching the ripe old age of 37 and I find myself hiking my pant waists up a little higher each day. But in the last week or two I’ve started this insane practice of writing complaint letters to companies anytime they cheese me off.

The latest examples:

  1. Pampers - They had this program running where if you collected Pampers Perks points off of diaper and wipe packages, you could save them up and redeem them for some neato Fisher-Price and Sesame Street toys. We were saving them, hoping to get enough for the big battery-operated jeep.

The program end date was approaching and we figured that we had better send them in. As a last check, I visited their web site where I dicovered that the really cool stuff was sold out. No problem, they still had some stuff we wanted. We send in our order along with a small check for S&H. This week we get a letter stating that due to the unexpected popularity of the program, they are out of stuff and that we are SOL.

I jump on my computer and fire up Word. Next thing I know I’m drafting this diatribe full of words like “outraged” and “incensed” and phrases like “The unexpected popularity of a program is no excuse for crushing the dreams of a small child.” Truth be told our 22 month old could care less, but they don’t have to know that.

  1. The Cable Company - Our local cable monopoly (rhymes with Bombast) sent us a flyer informing us that they are pulling WWOR (out of NYC) and giving us YES (NY Yankee TV). All this for only a two dollar price increase. For some people this would be great news. BUT I DON"T WATCH SPORTS! I HATE the idea that any portion of my cable bill is going towards overpaid athletes and greedy owners.

Back to the computer. I go all out and raid my Quicken database to create a graph showing my cable bill over the last three years. It started out at $34.29 a month and is now $43.21 a month (not including the latest hike). Do we have more channels? Of course not. They’ve pulled several stations I used to watch and given me ones I don’t. Net gain = zero. I let them know that if they had a no-sports option that reduced my bill I would gladly sign up.

I can’t wait for the mail to come today. Fresh meat …

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Writing letters is good. It allows you to vent, to tell the company what you think of the product, to give the consumer a voice. Re: the cable company. If you are paying for bunches o’ channels that you don’t watch, and there are channels you want that they don’t offer, why don’t you cancel cable? I know, that’s heresy, and you think you can’t live without cable and what would the kid watch? I had cable for years, including illegal cable that gave me the premium movie channels. I cancelled it and guess what? Life goes on. Yes, a person can live without cable. Just think, you are paying over $500 a year to watch TV. Maybe your letter to them will get results, but if not, there are other options…

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Re: the cable company. I know I should cancel cable. One of the points I made in my letter was that their increased rates are making satellite options more attractive.

Re: Pampers. Hah! Hah-hah.

In addition to mailing the letter to Pampers, I e-mailed it to them AND to Procter & Gamble (the parent company). Today my wife got a phone call from Pampers telling us that they will be sending us a check for the full retail price of the items we wanted plus our initial S&H fee.

Hah!

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Go Duck!