My sorta free popcorn
Yesterday, my sorta free popcorn from Dale and Thomas Popcorn finally arrived. I ordered it on Wednesday, the 10th. My confirmation e-mail said it would be shipping on Thursday, the 11th. It was only going from NJ to PA, so I expected it by Monday, the 15th. On Tuesday morning, I replied to the confirmation asking for some more information. My credit card had already been charged (yeah, for free popcorn they ask you to pay for shipping and handling - I'll get into that later) and I wanted to know if it had even been sent out or could be tracked. I got no response. When the package arrived, it had a UPS shipping label on it and when I check the tracking details, turns out the origin scan is for Monday the 15th at 9:47 PM! It didn't even get to a UPS facility until MONDAY NIGHT! I know UPS doesn't shop ordinarily on Saturday and certainly not on Sunday but why did Dale and Thomas tell me they would ship on Thursday - but it not actually ship until Monday? How fresh is this product, then. Did the confirmation mean that they only made it on Thursday, but they let it sit in their warehouse for four days before they saw that it made it's progress to me? Or are they so overwhelmed with orders for their sorta free popcorn that they simply can't handle the load? Hell, I could have gone to one of their locations and picked up a bag for full price on my own TWICE in the time it took them to ship me my sorta free product.
The reason I say it's "sorta" free is this:
If you go to MyFreePopcorn.com they'll send you two bags of their flavored popcorn for free - plus shipping and handling.
First it's just the fine print on the TV ad (+shipping), then at the top of the web page it says they only ask for $2.95 for shipping and handling per bag. When you scroll down, you're choices are for two different "combos" - where you can choose for them to send you two bags... so that's where the $5.90 comes into play. Unless you live in NJ - apparently there's tax on shipping in NJ.
Sneaky, yes? Slowly upping the ante for you to pony up for their free popcorn.
Yeah, I did it. Because, well, gourmet popcorn sent to my door for under $6. I had never had it before so I thought I would give it a try. Now that it's finally arrived, I will say you get a decent amount of popcorn shipped to you - plenty to share (though I have no intention of doing so). The chocolate one was OK - not as great as I expected it to be. Almost too sweet it hurt my teeth. Now the butter toffee walnut - yowsa, that's good! More than half of that is gone.
So it's an interesting marketing tack - sending sorta free product to try to drum up sales for the holidays. However delicious I found their one flavor sample, however, I will not be throwing them any of my future business because this experience shows me I can't trust what they say. I expected my product to ship earlier based on their communications and when I questioned it, I got no answer. Based on that, how can I trust that any other orders I would consider for birthday or holiday gifts would arrive on time at all? I can't. So thanks for my sorta free popcorn. I will enjoy eating it now that it's finally arrived. But that's the last of Dale and Thomas Popcorn I'll be paying for.
The reason I say it's "sorta" free is this:
If you go to MyFreePopcorn.com they'll send you two bags of their flavored popcorn for free - plus shipping and handling.
First it's just the fine print on the TV ad (+shipping), then at the top of the web page it says they only ask for $2.95 for shipping and handling per bag. When you scroll down, you're choices are for two different "combos" - where you can choose for them to send you two bags... so that's where the $5.90 comes into play. Unless you live in NJ - apparently there's tax on shipping in NJ.
Sneaky, yes? Slowly upping the ante for you to pony up for their free popcorn.
Yeah, I did it. Because, well, gourmet popcorn sent to my door for under $6. I had never had it before so I thought I would give it a try. Now that it's finally arrived, I will say you get a decent amount of popcorn shipped to you - plenty to share (though I have no intention of doing so). The chocolate one was OK - not as great as I expected it to be. Almost too sweet it hurt my teeth. Now the butter toffee walnut - yowsa, that's good! More than half of that is gone.
So it's an interesting marketing tack - sending sorta free product to try to drum up sales for the holidays. However delicious I found their one flavor sample, however, I will not be throwing them any of my future business because this experience shows me I can't trust what they say. I expected my product to ship earlier based on their communications and when I questioned it, I got no answer. Based on that, how can I trust that any other orders I would consider for birthday or holiday gifts would arrive on time at all? I can't. So thanks for my sorta free popcorn. I will enjoy eating it now that it's finally arrived. But that's the last of Dale and Thomas Popcorn I'll be paying for.
Labels: customer service, free offers, popcorn
posted by The Original Miranda Lane @ 5:42 AM
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