“This Is Costco Calling. Put Down That Sandwich!”
Written by Fred J. AunJanuary 28th, 2009
How does a retailer morph the inadvertent selling of dangerous products and its dusty CRM program into a public relations victory? The answer is as old as the telephone. In fact, the answer is the telephone. The $73 billion Costco is using automated systems that dial the numbers of customers to alert them about product recalls. The system was activated recently to spread warnings about salmonella-tainted peanut butter.
This tactic is hardly new, as many chains—including Price Chopper and Wegmans—have been doing this for at least a year and several very large retailers are exploring it. But Costco is the largest retailer to have launched it on such a large scale.
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2 Comments | Read “This Is Costco Calling. Put Down That Sandwich!”
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Christine
February 3rd, 2009 at 2:17 am
I wish Sams Club followed this practice. A month ago my wife and I purchased a platter of baklava from the Same store in Maumee, Ohio. She ate several pieces but it seemed tainted and gave her diarrhea, so she threw it out. A few days ago we received a first class letter from Same Club reporting that some of this product was contaminated with salmonella. We were asked to return it to the store for a refund. We took in the letter, but the Customer Service staffer explained that we needed to also return either the month-old receipt (which we didn’t have) or the unused product or wrapper (which we had thrown away a month ago.) We pointed out that their computer wrote us so they knew we had purchased the baklava; it was unreasonable for us to keep all of our receipts for months or still retain the wrapper or product. Sorry, they said. Despite the letter, no $10 refund. It seemed to us that the formal notification of possible salmonella poisoning was not in good faith; it was just a way to comply with the law but not actually give many customers an actual refund. So much for Sam’s Club. Does the FDA need to hear about this?
February 5th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Dick’s Sporting Goods chain did this too – they not only notified me of the recall via EMAIL and a card in the mail but also the info I needed to file a claim. The recall was on a lazy recliner and replacement parts were available. Dicks managed this perfectly…otherwise the chair tended to break which could have caused back pain and / or other injury.