Featured Post

Ellen, please be kind to the planet, not just to your fellow humans, gorillas in Rwanda

LUNCHTIME IN RWANDA: Ellen DeGeneres, right, and wife Portia de Rossi with a mountain gorilla. The Ellen DeGeneres Wildlife Fund  is supp...

Thursday, February 18, 2021

OXO and Costco may rhyme, but they are worlds apart on excellent customer service

If you find the expensive OXO Brew 9-Cup Coffee Maker isn't your cup of tea, the company will make you pay around $30 in postage to return it, then force you to jump through many hoops to get a refund. OXO is in effect saying, "How dare you dislike our product."

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I just got off the phone after talking to a woman named Dee who assured me she would look into why I haven't received a refund for an OXO coffee maker I returned more than 6 weeks ago.

The coffee maker, which has a retail price of $199.99, arrived at OXO International in South Haven, Miss., on Dec. 26, 2020, the post office said.

Dee said she would send an email, presumably to a supervisor, with all the details of my request.

I had asked to talk to a supervisor, but was told all of them are "in a meeting."

She is probably the fourth or fifth woman I've talked to at 1-800-545-4411 since I returned the coffee maker, and she asked me for a tracking number to confirm once again that the coffee maker I returned actually arrived.

Bad service

So far, I've received terrible customer service from OXO, even though the company's guarantee promises:

"If you’re not satisfied with your purchase, we want to hear about it. We’ll replace it or refund you, because we’re here to make it better – guaranteed."

The terrible customer service from OXO just highlights the great customer service available at other retailers, especially Costco Wholesale, Amazon and Lands' End.

Full refund plus $20

For example, I ordered a Valentine's Day bouquet and vase for my wife from Costco Wholesale (Costco.com), and delivery was promised for Feb. 13, the day before the holiday.

But bad weather delayed the package until Feb. 15.

On Feb. 13, I received an email from Costco.com, offering an apology and promising a full refund of the $54.99 purchase price, plus a $20 Costco cash card.

Last summer, I purchased a beautiful hammock fashioned from laminated wood from Costco.com for $599.99, plus tax.

Besides manufacturing flaws that made assembling the hammock difficult, the layers of wood began to separate after a couple of months of use, and my wife asked me to return it.

Costco provided free shipping for the return and refunded the full purchase price.

I could go on and on about all of the hassle-free returns and full refunds at the warehouse and on Costco.com I've experienced as a Costco member for more than 20 years, but you get the idea.

Flawed coffee maker

I was excited by news that OXO was offering a 9-cup coffee maker in addition to the 8-cup version, and that I could avoid having hot water coming in contact with plastic.

But the single button-and-dial control on OXO's stylish machine (made of stainless steel, glass and silicone) was difficult to fathom for this older American, and I could never set the time.

There were bigger problems:

If you wanted to pour a cup of Joe before the brewing process was complete, the coffee wasn't hot enough, and the spring used was too weak to prevent hot water from dripping onto the hotplate for the stainless-steel carafe.

Finally, 9 cups were simply not enough for our family.

Back to a percolator

After I shipped the OXO coffee maker back to the company, I returned to making our coffee in a 12-cup Farberware Superfast Automatic Percolator my parents used about 30 years ago.

I bought the OXO coffee maker online on Nov. 27, 2020, and got a good deal, paying only $102.35 after Black Friday and other discounts, plus free shipping.

Now, 6 weeks after I returned it, I'm still chasing a refund of the purchase price, but have no hope of getting back the $30 in postage OXO forced me to pay.

OXO guarantee

Here is the full guarantee from the OXO website: 

"At OXO, we believe in better – better design, better functionality, better experience – and that’s exactly how we make our products. For more than two decades, we’ve made tools that delight and exceed expectations. Our curiosity drives us. 

"Your satisfaction inspires us. And we hope our attention to detail is why you’ll reach for our products again and again. If you’re not satisfied with your purchase, we want to hear about it. We’ll replace it or refund you, because we’re here to make it better – guaranteed."

Don't choke on your coffee.

Friday, February 12, 2021

Staffers at The Record and 2 other dailies owned by Gannett are trying to join union

The Record of Woodland Park and the Hackensack Chronicle, a free weekly that reprints stories and photos from the once-great daily newspaper known far and wide as the Bergen Record.


By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Employees of The Record of Woodland Park and two other daily newspapers owned by Gannett are seeking recognition of a union after hundreds of them were laid off in recent years.

The other papers are the Daily Record of Morristown and the New Jersey Herald of Newton.

"The three papers represented by members of our union have provided local news to northern New Jersey for more than 100 years," Record reporter Terrence McDonald told the New Jersey Globe.

"In fewer than 5 years, Gannett has turned each into a shadow of their former selves," McDonald told The Globe. 

"We organized to bring more power to the writers, photographers and web producers who are dedicated to providing our communities with the journalism they deserve," he said.

The union effort includes employees of NorthJersey.com, The Record's website, where some stories are labeled "for subscribers" only.

If Gannett turns down the voluntary request, the employees can petition the National Labor Relations Board to conduct an election.

No comment

Globe Editor David Wildstein, who was a key figure in the Bridgegate scandal during the Christie administration, reported that Gannett appeared to have "embargoed" coverage of the bid by editorial staffers to unionize.

The Record has covered other bids by private sector employees to form labor unions, including bids by non-Gannett journalists to organize at the Los Angeles Times, Wildstein reported.

Dan Sforza, The Record's executive editor, did not respond to several requests for comment.

72 employees sign

Employees of the 3 newspapers are seeking recognition after "almost 90% of eligible employees -- a total of 66 -- signed on with the NewsGuild of New York," The Globe reported, later amending the total number seeking to unionize to 72.

Those employees posted a mission statement at TheRecordGuild.com, their website (and it appears in full in the comments section at the end of this post).

Previous union attempts

When The Record was headquartered at 150 River St. in Hackensack and owned by the Borg family, several efforts to unionize press room workers were made, but they were unsuccessful.

In the 1980s, a number of reporters also wanted to join the New York Newspaper Guild, but could not reach a consensus.

The Record closed its headquarters in Hackensack in 2009, and moved employees to 1 Garret Mountain Plaza in Woodland Park.

Sale to Gannett

The Borg family sold North Jersey Media Group to Gannett in July 2016 for nearly $40 million in cash.

Stephen A. Borg, who was then the publisher, engineered the biggest downsizing in The Record's history in 2008, targeting veteran employees who were earning high salaries.

He then froze newsroom salaries for several years before the sale.

NJMG published 2 daily newspapers, The Record and Herald News, numerous weekly newspapers and (201) magazine. 

350+ layoffs

By March of 2017, Gannett had laid off more than 350 NJMG employees.

Gannett was acquired by GateHouse Media in 2019, and the company reportedly plans to outsource 485 jobs to India this year.

Ultimately, SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate, owns the equity fund that controls The Record and (201) magazine. 

Stephen Borg and his partners are now building hundreds of luxury apartments on nearly 20 acres of land along River Street after tearing down NJMG's headquarters and a diner in Hackensack.


Read: Shit in driveway wasn't from dog walkers:

 The Record was delivered to us by mistake


Read: Readers turn thumbs down

 on editor who says they must pay for news


Read: The Record and NorthJersey.com

lose thousands of readers