Writing A Complaint Letter to a "Seed"y Company
Author: Nick
Category: Money
Topics: business, food
Last weekend, my wife and I planted a few food-bearing plants on our patio. We decided to start with just seeds in pots of dirt to see if we have green thumbs or if we’re just kidding ourselves.
We had no trouble planting the seeds for radishes, chives, and basil, but when we opened the package of tomato seeds, we noticed something rather odd: them tomater seeds done gone missin’ on us! I figured I might have opened the package incorrectly and the seeds spilled somewhere on the patio, but we didn’t see anything. It even occurred to me that I hadn’t recalled hearing the tomato seed package rattle like the others had.
So it looks like the folks at American Seed robbed us of our seed money… all ten cents of it. Yup, the little packages had just enough seeds for container planting, so they only set us back a dime each. Still, I had spent ten cents on a purchase and received nothing but an empty pouch for my troubles. And I was really looking forward to homemade tomato and cheese sandwiches. (Yes, with store-bought bread and cheese, but with the tomatoes of my blood and sweat!)
I’m left with a few options, none of which seems particularly satisfying…
- Forget about the tomato seeds. I probably won’t do this. Even though we’re talking just ten cents, it’s the principle. (I’ve been ending way too many conversations with “it’s the principle” lately. Maybe I should stop being so principled.)
- Go back to the store. The main problem here is that the store isn’t nearby and we usually go there only once a month. Making a separate trip just for this would be the most expensive proposition, what with gas prices being
$2.79$3.09$8.43Gas station, stop changing the price for thirty seconds, will ya? - Write a letter of complaint directly to the company. I’ll likely end up writing a letter to American Seed and ask for my money back or, even better, for replacement seeds. While it would cost 39 cents plus a few cents worth of paper and envelope just to request a refund or replacement worth a dime, I’ll feel good about myself for not letting a company get away with selling me a defective product.
So what would you do? Write off the loss and buy more seeds? Threaten to take your ten-cent seed purchases elsewhere? Or just hide inside for the summer so the bees don’t get you?
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15 Responses »
1.
Dave
April 20th, 2006 at 3:00 am
Write a letter to them saying how much you were looking forward to planting the seeds and if it went well you were going to plant more and get a greenhouse to grow them in etc etc.
They should at least send you a replacement packet. Hopefully, they will send you a few more to go with it.
2.
Nick
April 20th, 2006 at 6:48 am
Hopefully they’ll do just that. I really was looking forward to my little tomatoes… *sniff*
3.
jim
April 20th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Write them an email, those are free.
4.
Nick
April 20th, 2006 at 9:28 am
I was considering the e-mail idea, but my initial search for their website didn’t turn anything up. The seed package has the company name and an address (just city, state, zip) but no website. There are tons of companies named American Seed, too, but none of them seem to be the correct one so far.
I think whether I e-mail or snail mail, I’ll also include some pictures of our empty pot of soil and me standing over it crying “Why?! Why American Seed?! My family will go hungry now (until we make a trip to the store)!”
5.
inagm
April 20th, 2006 at 5:38 pm
I wouldn’t write a letter, I’d email them or call them. It’s free, just takes time. They should have a toll-free number I think - anyways if not, it shouldn’t cost extra if you use your cell phone. Perhaps you can guilt them into sending you free seeds and other samples.
6.
Nick
April 20th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
I finally managed to track down the website for the seed company (it was under a different name). I’m thinking about e-mailing them, but I’m still considering sending a letter so that I can include the empty package of seeds. I feel that a written letter with “evidence” may be more likely to encourage a response with a bunch of free seeds than an e-mail saying the same thing.
I have the day off tomorrow (my first in a looong time), so I might try the letter approach. If nothing else, it’ll be a nice exercise in writing to a company.
7.
Stock Mama
April 20th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
Oh, definitely write to them! Most companies want happy customers, and any time I’ve ever written to a company to complain, I’ve gotten a letter back and quite often a hefty coupon or sample products. When our relatively new Sunbeam breadmaker came to literally a screaming halt in the middle of the night (I’d set it on a timer so we’d have fresh bread in the morning), we wrote to Sunbeam and they sent us a whole new breadmaker, no questions asked.
At least when I wrote to corporation. I’ve written to local stores to complain about service, such peeling off a price sticker and finding a lower price underneath, and have gotten nothing back. So then I write to tell the store why I’m not shopping there any more.
8.
The Chilli King
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:58 am
that is a real shame. they should at least offer a refund!
you could always ry growing some chilli peppers from seed??!
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