My apologies in advance for the longwinded post but I’ve had some thoughts rolling around in my head for the last 72 hours or so that I wanted to share.
First off—and this isn’t meant to show off or to stick it to any of PureFit’s competitors—but you’d be hard pressed to find another founder/president of a nutrition bar company who spends as much time on the road interacting with customers as do I. Whether it’s exhibiting at a natural food/products tradeshow close to home or jumping on a cross-country flight to Nashville to talk with customers at the Country Music Marathon and ½ Marathon, no one from a truly comparable company puts in the roadwork like I do.
The best part about traveling for PureFit is meeting our customers. From talking shop to shooting the you-know-what, each and every interaction is truly awesome. So, to everyone who takes the time to ask questions, provide positive feedback, deliver constructive criticism, and share a success story or two, thanks–because without you, PureFit wouldn’t exist and I wouldn’t get to say: You Guys Rock!
Recently, I had an opportunity to spend time on the road, visiting customers. My trip, which stretched on for 10 consecutive days, started in Boston with the 112th running of the Boston Marathon, and ended in Nashville, TN, with the 9th running of the Country Music Marathon and ½ Marathon. And while I’m pretty used to spending time on the road, this particular trip wasn’t without certain challenges and obstacles.
Before going any further, I should tell you that I’m really good at dealing problems as they unfold. As Stewart Scott from ESPN would say, in the moment, I’m “as cool as the other side of the pillow.” It’s not until after the fact that I grind my teeth and become frustrated, usually due to the fact that follow-up work—work that ultimately takes time away from PureFit’s customers—has to be done. It’s in those moments, when I have to clean up from someone else’s mistakes, that I find the mistakes themselves inexcusable.
Case in point:
On this recent trip out east, I found myself having to deal with major issues with some of the nation’s largest companies and brands, including:
• American Express
• Enterprise Rent-A-Car
• Freeman Expositions
• Sheraton Hotels
• Sprint Nextel
• UPS
I’m assuming most of the people who read this blog have never had the distinct pleasure of coordinating and managing the process of setting up, staffing, tearing down, and shipping home a full-size corporate exhibit booth. For me, doing all of that is as easy as riding a high performance road bike, but when company after company throws roadblock after roadblock your way, there’s only so much you can do.
Freeman Expositions. For those of you not familiar with Freeman Expositions, they set up the expo halls, move your product from the receiving dock to your booth, and charge you about five-times or more what is reasonable. When I arrived at the PureFit booth in Boston for Boston Marathon, it was clear that our entire pallet of 11,250 nutrition bars had been dropped. So, for $1,640.00, union forklift drivers couldn’t get the product to our booth undamaged. What is astonishing is it cost less to ship the entire pallet 3,000 miles from California to the east coast than it did for Freeman to haphazardly deliver it from a loading dock or storage facility to our booth. As any good business owner would do, I tried to file a claim with Freeman for the damages but they denied it without much hesitation. The funny part… Freeman took a photo of the pallet as it arrived at the dock, which indicated it arrived in perfect condition. Now, since Freeman won’t be reasonable about the situation, I have to file a dispute with American Express because Freeman refused to waive the drayage cost (which in my opinion is nothing more than an extortion fee to move things on union-controlled soil).
Sheraton Boston. This story is so unbelievable that once again, I have challenged the transaction through American Express. Sheraton’s business center wanted to charge me $700.00 to simply move our UPS packages from their office to a shipping dock one floor down. I asked why I couldn’t simply pay a bellman to do it, to which the business center’s staff said they would similarly have to charge me the same $700.00. Funny part is, when I called a supervisor—a woman named Nicole Brown–to ask for clarification, she stated she had never heard of such a policy and promised to call me back. I called to follow-up and I still haven’t heard back from her. I’m sure Sheraton will respond when American Express contacts them about my chargeback claim.
Sprint Nextel. I’ve been a Sprint customer for more than eight years, and if the company ever offered a “VIP Plan,” I would be one of the first people to sign on the dotted line, especially if it meant being able to talk to a decision maker if and when problems arise. I won’t bore you with all the problems I have encountered with Sprint, because I know many of you have your own and similar war stories to share, but this story has a classic twist. The entire time in Boston, my cell phone was unable to receive a Sprint signal, forcing the phone to use a roaming signal form Verizon. When I called Sprint to verify I had nationwide coverage, the customer service rep assured me that I did. When I asked for credit for the roaming charges—because I was pretty sure Boston is located in the continental United States—I was told I would have to call back after I receive my bill because adjustments to my account could not be made until the end of the billing cycle. This is just a guess but I bet the rep I spoke with on the phone is still looking at a map of the U.S.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Of course, since I was on the road, I had a reservation for a car, for two days. When I was in Nashville, I wanted to drive an hour north to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to visit the manufacturing plant where Corvettes are made. As an owner of several Vettes over my lifetime, visiting the Bowling Green facility is a right of passage. When I arrived at Enterprise’s reservation/ticketing desk to pick up my rental car, I was informed they were out of cars. Sound familiar to anyone? From Seinfeld:
Rental Car Agent: I’m sorry, we have no mid-size available at the moment.
Jerry Seinfeld: I don’t understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?
Agent: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.
Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have the reservation.
Agent: I know why we have reservations.
Jerry: I don’t think you do. If you did, I’d have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to *hold* the reservation and that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody can just take them.
Agent: Let me, uh, speak with my supervisor.
Needless to say, Enterprise eventually scored me a pick-up truck, but really—did it have to come fully loaded with the stench of cigarette smoke, dirt and dust, and a broken windshield wiper? Sure, it had four wheels and didn’t shake at 80 mph, but get real… doesn’t a reservation mean anything anymore? Long story short, I made my 11:30 a.m. appointment at the plant and the tour was spectacular. Vette fans: Do yourself a favor and pay the $375.00 for the extended four-hour tour. I have it on good authority it’s well worth the price of admission. Renting from Enterprise… now that’s a whole-nother story.
UPS. Because they make it so difficult to file a claim, UPS’ entire claims process encourages you not to file one in the first place. Federal Express on the other hand simply pays you anything under $100 and lets you get on with your life. Not UPS; no sir… they appear to want to knock you down and eventually get you to “tap out” just like a contestant in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). One of my lifelong business dreams is to see Fed Ex Ground kick UPS’ ass. Once Fed Ex’s online system designed to ship packages is on par with UPS’, PureFit will ship exclusively with Fed Ex. In any event, here’s the situation I encountered this particular trip with UPS. When I arrived in Nashville, a box of coupons I shipped out for the Country Music Marathon and ½ Marathon Expo had been torn open and half of the coupons were missing from the box itself. So, here again, I get to waste valuable time filing yet another claim, which UPS will undoubtedly deny due to the fact that they didn’t get to inspect the package in question. We will also have to file a separate claim to receive credit for the cost of the replacement package—which had to be sent by next day air from our office in California to Nashville—but I’m sure UPS will deny this claim too, stating the incident triggering the over-night package never existed in the first place.
Situations like those mentioned above cost PureFit and a lot of other small to medium size businesses a ton of time and energy. Sadly, I’ve come to accept that some companies take advantage of us business travelers simply because they can. With the cost of gas being so high, eventually small companies like PureFit may be forced to sit on the sidelines, and service-oriented industries—not to mention our own customers—are going to feel our absence the most.
If there is a silver lining to the entire road trip it’s that I didn’t think I could top the Corvette factory tour, but with the help of a kind soul, I did. The concierge at my hotel in Nashville scored a great ticket for me to see Bon Jovi with Daltrey as the opening act. The show was amazing! The band played for something like 2 ½ hours, which included cameo appearances from Leann Rimes and Big & Rich. Bon Jovi ended the show with their version of the national anthem: “Wanted, dead or alive.”
