7 Reasons This Muffin Mix Can Save America

[PSPS]

16. Most people's past seems to include such an experience

When I first read the article in the OP a while back, it reminded me of a couple of times my family had complained to a company about a product.

I was a little kid and my dad had a routine where, when he came home from work, he would always have one bottle of beer. It was one of those stubby bottles of brown glass which he would open, pour into a glass, and slowly sip over the course of, maybe, an hour. (A child's perception of time is different, so it could have been mere minutes.) This was back when most major cities had one or more local breweries. Anyway, one day, my dad said his beer "tasted funny." He wrote a letter to the company just to inform them of this, not asking for anything. The next day, when they received the letter, they called and asked my mother (this was back in the days when the mother stayed at home to raise us four kids while my dad could make enough money to support the whole household and, gasp, even take a vacation every year) if they could stop by. Later, a man from the brewery stopped by, apologized profusely, took back what was left of the beer and left two cases to make up for my dad's experience. When my dad came home and discovered this, he opened one of the bottles, poured it into a glass, took a sip and said, "Oh, yes. This is just right!"

Another experience involved my maternal grandmother. She lived in our city but was born and raised in England and loved Cadbury chocolate. She worked at a department store (again, this was back in the day when most major cities had at least one locally-owned large department store) and enjoyed buying Cadbury chocolate there with her employee discount! One day she found what she thought might be a piece of wood in her chocolate. So she sent it to Cadbury's home office in England (probably Birmingham) along with a brief note. She received a reply saying they had meticulously examined what she thought was "foreign material" and, in fact, it was merely the usual wafer portion of the bar which had not been "cooked properly." They thanked her profusely and, a few days later, a large box arrived from Birmingham with an assortment of Cadbury chocolate!

Needless to say, both my dad and grandmother remained loyal customers and, due to their telling others of their experiences, both the brewery and Cadbury surely garnered good will that no advertising can buy.