Bacardi Wants Your Money, However Leave Your Opinions at the Door

Okay, I will come back, at some point to tell you about the eggplant parm, trimmed down, however (It was very good) I am taking a moment to “share.” Please indulge my little rant and do with it what you will.

Let me give you the back story… my husband received, as a gift, for Christmas a bottle of Disaronno. Disaronno is typically too sweet of a drink for me, but I thought it would make an interesting modification on a Manhattan. I was right. I am not sure what possessed me but I thought I would e-mail them and share my idea. I sent an e-mail simply requesting information on how I could send a recipe idea I had using their product. Silly, I know, but I guess I was (pardon the pun) full of the spirit.

Here is the response I got back:

01/17/10


Dear Vanessa,

We are frequently received information, ideas or inventions (“Information”) from people who are not our employees. It is our policy to return, unopened, all identifiable unsolicited Information. If, due to inadvertence or due to lack of knowledge of contents, an envelope is opened, it is our policy to forward the Information to our Legal Department who then returns it to the sender with out giving it any consideration.

Should you want to submit your information to us, please write to:

Bacardi U.S.A., Inc.
Legal Department
Attention: Advertising & Trade Practice Counsel 2100 Biscayne Blvd Miami, FL 33137

and request a copy of our “Unsolicited Information / Idea Submission Policy” (Policy) for completion before submitting your information. Information received before compliance with our Policy with be return without consideration and we assume no risk, obligation or liability whatsoever regarding the reception, retention, confidentiality and consideration of you Information.

Best Regards,


I am leaving the customer service representatives name off, because she was just doing her job and should not be included in my disgust. So follow me on my ride of logic.

Here is basically what she said, if anyone ever wants to contact our company via mail, they are required to write and ask for permission to write to us, once and only once that permission is granted, they may then write. Furthermore, lets say I purchased their product and had a problem with it, and I wrote them to address my grievance. Lets also assume, I didn’t know I had to write and ask permission to write (ughhh…duhhh), they would just send my letter back unread and unopened. Really. Really???

It seems to me the proper response to my question was:
Dear Vanessa,

Please don’t bother, we really don’t care at all about our customers. Your satisfaction, is really and totally irrelevant to us Really. I mean seriously, we are not joking about this. If you have a problem with it, please write us and ask for permission to complain. If permission (oh, and this is such a LONG shot!) is granted, you must twirl around twice prior to licking the stamp or we will not be able to give consideration to your complaint.

Stuff it sucker,

Bacardi.



Grrrr. Look let me make it clear that if they simply responded, that they don’t accept recipes, I would have no issue. I get it, they probably get thousands of recipes from silly girls like me that think they stumbled on to some great new drink. What I have an issue with is that this is their policy for ANY UNSOLICATED mail. Really. Really? Wow. It is sad to me. Maybe I am just sick of companies that seem to have forgotten that they need customers to make money, and that possibly it would behoove them to treat their customers decently. However, I can’t blame them because, we seem to have forgotten the ultimate power we have as consumers, not to purchase their product.

So on that note, I will in no way be a consumer of Bacardi products. The list includes:

Bacardi Rum (that was a surprise huh!)
Disaronno
Martini and Rossi
Dewars
Bombay Saphire (the most overrated martini gin in this girls humble opinion)
Cazadores
Grey Goose
42 below
Havana Club Drambuie
Eristoff Vodka
B&B and Benedictine Liquores


Maybe I should send them a letter letting them know I am not a customer any longer.