catbird’s world

We just received our replacement parts for Nate’s Build and Play erector set — all the way from Hong Kong, no less. It cost Meccano $3 in postage to send us four screws… but now we can once again build all the vehicles. Huzzah! (said with just a smidge of sarcasm.)

Meccano was prompt and courteous in their service, which is a refreshing change from Nikko America, which was their previous distributor. I tried to get replacement screws from Nikko America in August of 2008, but I eceived no reply to my email. In November 2008 I tried again, this time calling the Nikko America number on the box. The number didn’t work. My third try, also in November, was another email to Nikko Ameica. This time I got a reply:

As of July 1st, Nikko America is no longer Distributor for Erector sets. Unfortunately we were not given any new information from Meccano as to whom their new distributor would be. We apologize for the inconvenience that this may have caused.

But a few weeks ago I caught a lucky break. A local toy store started carrying the Build and Play sets. I looked on the new box and saw the Meccano URL. I’m not sure why I didn’t go directly to Meccano earlier. I can only think that I tried, but was somehow flummoxed.

Regardless, my email to Meccano was answered within 24 hours and our replacement parts arrived a week later.

Thanks Meccano for your excellent customer service… once I found you, that is.

UPDATE:
I believe Schylling is the US distributer for Meccano. I emailed info at schylling dot com and the very helpful person from Schylling who emailed me back was linda at schylling dot com.

catbird :: May.23.2009 :: customer service :: Comments Off

I buy bulk food from Whole Foods about twice a month and each time I come home with my plastic bag full of rice, beans, popcorn, cous cous, or whatever, and transfer it into a glass jar. Sure, I could reuse those plastic bags for diapers, dog poo, or car trash, despite the light coating of grains and husks that always remain inside. But I always thought it would be great if I could take my own container with me to fill and eliminate the plastic altogether.

A quick call to customer service in the Millburn/Union store confirmed that I can bring my own container and have it weighed first. Having to visit customer service first each time is a clunky solution for both me and customer service. Which is probably why WF doesn’t promote doing this.

The better (really fabulously better) solution, I found out at the Whole Foods live blog, is one implemented by the the Green Mission Specialist at the Whole Foods in Santa Cruz: A program providing Ball jars to customers for a $2 deposit, to be used for purchasing bulk foods. Excellent!

While my emails to the West Orange and Millburn stores, sent through the Whole Foods web site, went unanswered (as of three weeks later. yep. three weeks), my phone call directly to the Green Mission Specialist at Millburn resulted in a quick reply.

Lisa Heimbuch, the Green Mission Specialist in Millburn sent me an email saying she wasn’t familiar with the program but would get more information. I followed up with the name of the Santa Cruz Green Mission Specialist and an offer to help in any way I can. In our last email, Lisa said she’d see about getting a similar program going in Millburn, and also see whether customer service can weigh my containers in the meantime.

Lisa was so enthusiastic and helpful — and seemed genuinely interested in implementing the program. I was impressed with her quick and personable responses, as well as her genuine commitment to the WF Green Mission.

Now for phase two of my plan…. get in touch with the West Orange store Green Mission Specialist.

It would be incredibly great if the second store to implement the Ball jar program was in NJ. Who will do it first… West Orange or Millburn?

Stay tuned!

UPDATE 5/23/09

I received an email from Lisa Heimbuch today about a new program at the Millburn/Union store:

I’m happy to tell you that we have come up with a program for you & your friends to be able to bring in your own containers for use in our bulk department. It’s actually very simple. The only thing you will need to do is to go to our Customer Service booth before you fill your containers. They will weigh the empty container & put two pieces of masking tape on it, one will have the tare/weight of the container & the other is for you to write the product item number on. When you are finished shopping you then will be able to go to any cashier & they will know how much weight to take off of your bulk purchase.

While this is similar to what I was originally told by customer service, I’m excited that it’s being called an actual Program, which means I can count on it every time I buy bulk foods. Maybe I’m irrationally excited about it, but anything that helps reduce the number of plastic bags in landfills sounds really great to me.

I hope everyone takes advantage of this program… and I hope other Whole Foods follow suit. (Do you hear me West Orange?)

catbird :: May.11.2009 :: food, green :: Comments Off