Tuesday, April 27, 2010

No more flipping our lids over spilled syrup

Something unusual happened today - the mail lady came and pulled into the driveway with a box for me. Odd b/c I wasn't expecting anything. Can you guess what it was??

I'll give you a hint... it has a red lid and was packaged up like this..

The packaging was colorful but not practical b/c after I opened it I realized that it had been damaged in shipping... a sheet of bubble wrap would have been better than the red confetti.

Where this story started was several months ago I emailed the company that makes Hungry Jack Microwavable Pancake Syrup and I told them that I've been buying this brand ever since they designed this bottle that fits into the microwave and has the little "hot" indicator on the label.. I guess about 10 years now? maybe longer..?

For as long as I can remember there was a pull up style lid = a lot like one you find on the top of a liquid dish washing bottle... worked great except sometimes got sticky...but I always closed it and used a wet paper towel to clean off before storing..

Then this school year, while making Nora breakfast, I pull out a new bottle and open it up to find they CHANGED the lid and it's just a flip top with one very large hole in it and made a mess everywhere - no control over the speed of syrup coming out.

and mostly upset by Nora that I could no longer make her cross on her waffle like this. There were tears, and I wanted to cry too over the mess I was gonna have to clean up...

So I wrote the company and made my complaint telling them everything about it that I didn't like... their "new" lid certainly was not "5 year old kid friendly" at all.

after my emailed complaint - they did mail me a coupon for a free product of anything they made but I did not buy any more pancake syrup from them. Well today I got another freebie coupon plus this letter and bottle of their "NEW IMPROVED" lid and asked for me to try it and let them know what I thought about it.

wow - really? they changed their lid?? How cool is that!!! It was even more cool to get to show and teach Nora about how companies do listen to customer complaints and then have a R&D Team (research & development) that all they do is come up with new ways to make their products better... yes, very cool! I even told her of my working days.. before she was born.

wanna see what the new "kid friendly lid" looks like...

of course she had to see if it still smelled the same too... ;)

isn't that cute or what? Sure did put a smile on Nora's face when she saw it.

And here is what it looks like from the side view. Has a spout on it - which I tried and when you are done pouring you slowly tilt bottle upright and it will stop dripping and not leak.

Nora gives the Smucker's R&D team a thumbs up!!!

and then she said - I wonder what they'll think of next?

Here's a closeup photo of the Syrup - so you'll know what to look for at the grocery - and each time you open that lid and see that smile you can think of us ;) They're calling it "Skip the Drip" We're just calling it - cool!

The twins wanna know how come we didn't get our own bottles TOO momma????

"Thanks Hungry Jack for changing your syrup lid so that now I won't make a mess anymore when I'm trying to put syrup on my waffles. My mom has a lot to do in the mornings like make my lunch box and get my backpack ready and now I can do it myself again! It makes my mom happy when I do things by myself." ~Nora, 5 years old.

I tried calling their number they gave to let them know what we thought of the new lid but was not able to get thru. On hold time took too long on 2 different days... so maybe just maybe they'll read my post if I email it to them. :) If so - thanks so much. It was a fun teaching experience for my daughter. ;) Nora's even talking about going to the grocery to get another bottle that handle is not broken so that she can take it to school for show-n-tell soon.

and speaking of school - this is for you Papaw & Mamaw in Kentucky - look how much her handwriting is improving! ;)

and also how much her newest tooth has moved forward into place. ;)


1 comment:

Holee said...

What a great story! I don't usually eat pancakes but now I just have to have a bottle so on bad days I can open the lid and see the happy face!