Seed Imp© to the rescue! Responses to my Feb 9 post (about Whole Foods Seeded Jewish Rye Bread sold without the seeds) have inspired the design sketched here. A self-help problem solver, it hinges together two molded pieces of high-impact, transparent, dishwasher safe plastic. I call it the Seed Imp©. Instructions: –Place device on a [...]
Do-It-Yourself Jewish Seeded Rye Bread
What did Whole Foods do with the caraway seeds? Letter To: Whole Foods Corporate, 550 Bowie Street, Austin TX 78703 The label affixed to your bread package says ORGANIC JEWISH SEEDED RYE BREAD. It is a rye bread. I’ll take your word about it being Jewish and organic. But where are the seeds? It was [...]
Stems In My String Beans
Is Del Monte selling stems as beans? Until yesterday I never had stems in multiple cans of string beans. Given how the agricultural industry now works, I was lucky the stems weren’t stones. I enclosed the stems with this letter today: The enclosed string bean stems were not as dry as they are now. [...]
Mango Mystery Solved
In Ecuador, they take mangoes seriously Last week, a mango, labeled as “sweet,” had had enough time to ripen. It felt right and looked right. Yet when I cut a slice for breakfast, it was sour. I reacted the way any self-respecting consumerist would: After coffee, I sent an email to the Ecuador Mango Foundation [...]
Remote Customer Disservice* for my Remote
Comcast knows the value of outsourcing The Caribbean Comcast telemarketing operator confirmed my Comcast remote device (made in China) was dead because fresh batteries did not light it up. Service solution: Bring it to and swap it at a local Comcast center. I asked “Which NJ Comcast is near Montclair?” Starting with the A’s, he [...]
My Anti-Preview Campaign
Do the Studios Make NETFLIX Play the Previews? I like NETFLIX. I appreciate its friendly staff and service. I look forward its vast selection of movie choices. However, one choice is annoyingly denied to consumers: Let us decide whether or not we want to see the damned “previews.” They really are amped-up ads for movies [...]
Where Have My Sardines Been?
They arrived after a 15,000 mile journey My “wild sardines” were “sustainably caught” along the California coast. After being captured, the “Delicious meaty portions [were] cleaned and scaled.” And they were tasty. But there is just one nagging detail squeezed into “mice type” between four other lines hidden away on a carton flap. The sardines [...]
Harry & David Deliver Happiness
They are happier if you forget what was free My order for the expensive Fruit of the Month selection went smoothly until it was time for Harry & David’s telemarketing person to process my credit card payment. When we got to the end, the $317.95 catalog price for 12 monthly packages climbed above the $400 line. “How can [...]
Apple Pays Up
Apple’s Doctrine of System Infallibility Is Undone Apple techies are programmed to believe in the Doctrine of System Infallibility. The customer must be wrong because the Apple system is always right. So it was that I ran into Apple policy’s of “no serial number, no service” last week when Apple’s system insisted the new iPad in my [...]
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This Is Customer Service Week!
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Scam Sightings
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FedEx Wins DIBY Award
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Bernie Madoff: Is He Now A Consumerist?
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Why Don’t ZWILLING Peelers Peel?
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The Backyard Definition of “Local”
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Dr. Seuss Turned Down Ronald Reagan
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Caraway Seed Implantation Device
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UPS Infiltrated By FedEx?
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Do-It-Yourself Jewish Seeded Rye Bread
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Stems In My String Beans
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Mango Mystery Solved
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Remote Customer Disservice* for my Remote
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My Anti-Preview Campaign
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Robert Rossi: Charles I think Del Monte is borrowing a page from...
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Charles Selden: Hope my post was helpful....
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liz nohren: I've been exploring for a little bit for any high ...
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Reegan: Deadly acrcuate answer. You've hit the bullseye!...
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Kurt Selden: Here's more about how Whole Foods paints the pictu...
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steve: Help! I believe we have been scammed by this compa...
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cynthia: they got me...
Why This Blog?
My name is Charles Selden. I write this blog for consumers who have been abused by corporations. Like you.
Me?…abused?
That’s right. Abuse is not confined to children, spouses, the elderly, or baseball umpires. The most regularly abused person is the American consumer. It has gone on so long that most people accept it as “just the way things are” and are sure nothing can be done about it. You have been abused as a consumer--unless within the last 12 months you have not shopped for food, called a toll-free number for technical assistance, tried to find “your question” in a list of FAQs, bought an appliance or computer, eaten out, booked a flight, watched cable TV, taken a vacation, used a credit card, paid a medical bill, bought an item on the Internet or purchased a cashmere sweater. If all of your purchases and calls for help ended happily, you are either exceptionally lucky or a wee bit delusional. The fact is abuse of consumers is profitable for corporations, although abuse is not a word they would use.
There’s no shame in being a consumer abused by a corporation. The shame is that more consumers do not fight back when abused. That’s where this blog comes in.
I’ve been a consumerist for more than four decades. I look forward to corporate abuses, especially the compensation and fun parts. The corporations do their part and I do mine. This blog chooses a few of the “better” episodes to amuse and instruct consumers. The blog will not urge you to join a movement or contribute to a cause. Indeed, it is absolutely not about trying to change what corporations do to consumers. Why spoil a good thing?
As for my Manifesto, it owes a lot to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. He used the word abuses to describe what King George and his cohorts were doing: “a long train of abuses…to reduce them under absolute Despotism.” Corporations treat consumers that way.
To see how I fight back, try my blog for a while. Laughter is good for your spirit and getting compensation for abuses is good for your bottom line.
Portraits by Mike Peters
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