From: patter@dasher.cc.bellcore.com (patterson,george r)
Subject: Michigan Bulb Company
Organization: Bellcore, Livingston, NJ
Distribution: US
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 92 01:08:37 GMT

If any of you have been tempted to order from a company named Michigan
Bulb Company, you may find this interesting. This describes my first and
last experience with the outfit.

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Michigan Bulb Company
1950 Waldorf, N.W.
Grand Rapids, MI 49550


Dear Sir or Madam,

  I placed an order with your firm this fall, and I must say that I am

extremely displeased with the way in which you choose to do business.

  I had ordered a selection of wood hyacinths, hosta, hardy glads, English

primrose, and lily of the valley. The glads and lily of the valley arrived

as ordered, but the remainder of the order arrived piecemeal and included

many unuseable substitutions.

  Grape hyacinths were substituted for wood hyacinths. Since I have a

wooded lot and they require full sun, I have no use for these. The hosta

arrived in two orders, several weeks apart. Although I used a great deal

of care when raking the leaves that had fallen in the meantime, most of

the markers I had used to show the locations in which the first lot were

planted were displaced. As a result, the second shipment cannot be

planted until the first plants come up and I can tell where they are.

The last straw was when I discovered that Mt. Atlas daisies had been

substituted for the primrose with no indication on the shipping label

that this had been done.

  There were even substitutions for the promotional iris which were to

have been free with the order (I must admit that the "sunny twinkles" do

make good slingshot ammunition though, so I can't say that they're

completely useless).

  Your offer of a refund for returned merchandise is laughable. My

shipment was delivered in six separate parcels, several weeks apart,

making it impossible to ship everything back in one load (which I suspect

to be a deliberate strategem on your part), and it simply isn't worth

the postage to send it all back in the relatively short return period

which you allow. My time is also quite valuable.

  And, although my time is valuable, I feel that it is my duty to inform

you of the reasons for my displeasure should you wish to take corrective

measures in dealing with future customers. I also feel that it is my duty

to share my experiences with other potential customers (they call this

"word of mouth advertising"). In case you are unaware of this, recent

advances in computer technology and practices make this quite easy. There

exist several public news networks on a variety of computer systems which

reach thousands of people at businesses, schools, and military organizations

around the world. A copy of this letter is being distributed via Internet

throughout the United States.

  I would appreciate it if you would remove my name from your mailing

list, since I get far too much junk mail as it is.


                                                Sincerely


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                    |
George Patterson -  | When you're working on a project and drop
                    | something, it will never reach the ground.
                    |
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Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA