The tale of two snack companies - Pt. 1 - The case of the...who am I talking to?

We love Pirate's Booty around our house. We used to buy them in a pack of 2 massive sized bags from Costco until it disappeared from the warehouse about a year ago. I'd asked the manager at Costco about it and he did acknowledge that it's something they normally carry so he went to check his computer for more info. He informed me that there are none at all in my area, nor are there any shipping to our area any time soon. Needless to say, it was a sad day in our house. After my experience with Orajel, I decided to write to Pirate's Booty about how much we love their product and hope that they'll carry it in Costco again. (Because I don't write just to bitch and complain. ;) ) Here's my email to them:

From: Web Mail Robot
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 12:59 AM
To: Pirate Info
Subject: N. L. has a sent a request.

I'd like to say that my family and I absolutely love Pirate Booty. We love it so much that we can easily go through a Costco bulk pack in just a couple of days. To that end, is there any consideration for distributing bulk packs of Pirate Booty to Costco again? I haven't seen any in the [redacted] area Costcos in about a year now, and we're deeply saddened by this. When I asked a manager at Costco, he was unable to offer me any info. Please consider distributing Pirate Booty to Costco again. It's really difficult and non economical to buy smaller packages at retail prices for my family. Thank you.

I was happy when I got a prompt response about 12 hours later until I read the first 2 words of the email:

From: Pirate Info info@piratebrands.com
Date: Tue, Jun 22, 2010 at 9:45 AM
Subject: RE: N. L. has a sent a request.
To: "N. L."

Dear Campbell –

Thank you for contacting Pirate Brands regarding your search for the 10oz bags of Aged White Cheddar. At this time, these particular bags are only sold at Costco and a select number of Whole Foods Markets. We are currently working on becoming a permanent product at all Costcos, but if you’d like to request Pirate’s Booty as a permanent product at Costco, we would certainly appreciate your support by contacting your local Costco manager.

If you are interested in purchasing Pirate’s Booty in our other bag sizes, please refer to our website (www.piratebrands.com) where you can find our store locator, which allows you to find local Pirate’s Booty vendors just by typing in your zip code. You can also purchase our products by the case directly from our web-site.

In general, we can be found in the all-natural/organic section of the following supermarkets:
Acme
Albertson’s
Chubb
Fred Meyer’s
Fry’s
Gelson’s
Giant
Giant Eagle
Harris Teeter
HEB
Hy-Vee
Jewel
Jubilee
Kroger’s
Larsen’s
Mejer’s
Publix
Safeway
Raley’s
Ralph’s
Randalls
Ray’s
Stop and Shop
Super A
Tom Thumb
Vons
Wegmans
Whole Foods

Pirate Brands is committed to providing the highest quality snacks available and consider our customers as part of our family. Please don’t hesitate to contact us should you need additional information.

Meanwhile, happy snacking!

Emily A., MS, RD
Consumer Relations Associate

Pirate Brands
100 Roslyn Avenue
Sea Cliff, NY 11579
t 516.656-4545 x [redacted]
t 800.626.7557
f 516.759.2713
www.piratebrands.com


I couldn't help but chuckle a little when I read the salutation of the email. Dear Campbell? Who is Campbell?!?!?!? I redacted the info for this post, but my name...at least my first name, was fully included in the subject of the email that was forwarded from the web form I used to send the inquiry AND it was in the subject of the response email. My initials does not in any way shape or form elude to the name Campbell. Where the heck did the CSR pull THAT from? Clearly the response was a canned note that she was supposed to edit, but perhaps she forgot about the salutation of the email?

Second, I don't feel that she really addressed my inquiry, do you? I informed her that I cannot find any Pirate Booty in Costcos in my area, and that I hope her company will do so again soon. She tells me the size I'm looking for is only sold at Costco. Furthermore, she told me to talk to my Costco's manager...which I've already done. Thanks for the lengthy list of other stores where I may find them, but if you read my email, I noted that it is not economical to purchase them in other stores considering the amount we consume. Also, thanks for pointing me to the website where I can find a store locator because it's not like I used your website to contact you or anything, as indicated by the email notes that says "Web Mail Robot."

Third, wait a second...why is this an issue? The email wasn't even addressed to me! It's addressed to Campbell. I'm not Campbell.