General Mills... An Experiment

Do you ever get a bad box of candy, or bag of chips? What about a box of cereal? Well, I have found that if you inform the parent company about the issue, in a calm, cool and collective manor they will reward you.

Take for example the time I got a bad box of JujyFruits. The candies had what at the time I thought could possibly be little pieces of glass stuck in them, and not just one of them, all of them, I checked. So, in my somewhat over dramatic fashion I wrote the manufacturer, Heide Candy Company about my concern that I could die from the little pieces of glass getting stuck in my throat because it somehow got mixed in with the little pieces of chewy goodness.

So, obviously I did not die and a couple weeks later Heide Candy Company sent me a thank you letter, an explination of the "glass" and like 5 boxes of Jujy's! Apparently sometimes the sugar crystallizes in the candy making process and hardens into the candy creating something similar to little pieces of "glass"! ha ha ha

Okay, so back to the experiment with General Mills... Last week I opened a new box of Oatmeal Raisin Crisp, Hearty Raisin. Everything seemed normal with the box, from the outside, but once I tasted the cereal I found out that was not the case. So, after a little investigating I found the contact information where you can email General Mills about consumer related issues. Below is a copy of the email, notice my calm, collective and cool ways ;)

My First Correspondence Email to General Mills:

Everything seemed normal about this unsuspecting box of Oatmeal Raisin Crisp, Hearty Raisin... until I ate a bite of it. Me and my mom have been eating oatmeal raisin crisp for as long as I can remember, it's like a staple in the kitchen pantry. That's why we were so surprised that this box was so bad. The crunchy flakes were yummy but the raisins were not so yummy. The raisins must be like ancient or bad. They stuck to our teeth and we had to spit them out, eew tmi. Anyways, normally we love the stuff, not this time though. Just thought y'all should know, maybe there was a mix-up in the raisin factory...

General Mills Response:

Thank you for contacting us.

Your message is being forwarded to a Consumer Services Representative who will review your inquiry and reply. Please be assured that we will respond to you as quickly as we can.

General Mills Consumer Services

Please do not reply to this mailbox. This address is not monitored for incoming mail.

TO BE CONTINUED...

5/17/10

wow, General Mills get's an A++ in the customer service department... check out their super fast response email:

Dear Ms. Stoffer:

Thank you for contacting us regarding your disappointment with Oatmeal Crisp hearty raisin cereal. As a responsible manufacturer, we strive to produce high quality products and are sorry your experience did not meet the standards we expect from our products.

We are sending you some certificates for compensation. Please allow up to 10 business days to receive the certificates.

We appreciate that you have shared your concerns and hope you continue to use and enjoy our products.

Sincerely,

Tracy Tanner

Consumer Services