Mar 2, 2011

Your purchase broke? Write a letter!

I made an "investment" a few months ago, or so I thought. I bought a $12 Nalgene bottle. If you've read my blog about water bottles (read it here), you'll know that I made the switch from disposable to reusable bottles a while back and this has saved me a decent amount of money over time.

Anywho, I spent $12 on this Nalgene, and though it may not seem like a lot to you, I felt like it was a lot of money to spend on something that ended up breaking a couple months later. The cap busted and quickly my "investment" turned into a waste of money.

I was pretty annoyed to say the least. BUT, unlike every other time this happens, I actually decided to do something about it. I decided to write to Nalgene. And I did, using very harsh words about how I bought a Nalgene due to high recommendations from friends and was an extremely dissatisfied customer because it broke so quickly. I'm not sure the wording matters in this case, but I had fun making it sound like a really serious issue.

Less than 1 week later (I'm not kidding), I got this in the mail:

Nalgene sent me a new cap for my bottle, a couple stickers with a hand-written note explaining a strategy on how to make the cap last longer this time around. I was impressed, though i'm not sure what to do with the stickers?

The point of this story is, if you buy something and it breaks sooner than you think it should, try writing a letter to the company. Tell them you're dissatisfied. I know people who do this all the time and usually get back vouchers for free stuff, get new replacement parts or sometimes even full refunds. The letter-writing took me a good 10 minutes and the cost of a stamp. It saved a $12 water bottle and the cost of buying a new one.

Next time you don't like what you paid for or something breaks, write a letter! It's definitely a thriftier strategy than going out to buy a new product. It's worth a shot!
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