Post# 262 - Wendy's and Their Father's Day Frosty Promotion

Previously, I had sent this positive note.  I decided to participate in the Wendy's Father's Day social media event, which donated 50 cents to Dave Thomas Foundation For Adoption. for every Facebook post or Tweet.

The more I posted, the better I felt about it.  I sensed their webmaster was doing something to slow me down, and that annoyed me,  so I wrote this.  Now, I'm really annoyed.  I sent this on 6/17/2011:
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Dear Wendy’s,

Everyone knows someone whose life has been changed by adoption.  Childhood friends who, for whatever reason, needed a happy, loving home.  Adult friends who, for whatever reason, decide to make a big commitment.  The stories that these adult friends tell are staggering-- expenses, paperwork, and the big microscope called “adoption agency”.  The idea is to ensure a good fit.  I get that.

We need to make it more affordable for good families to connect with children.  We need to increase awareness, raise money for the agencies, and in the meantime, take care of the kids.  I believe that’s what Dave Thomas intended.

This past week, I saw your annual Father’s Day Frosty promotion.  I wrote you a letter commending your promotion.  I never heard anything back, but that’s fine, whatever.  I also noticed your promotion on Facebook – “Frosty Treat-It-Forward.”  I downloaded an app that, whenever I share on my facebook page, Wendy’s donates 50 cents to Dave Thomas’s foundation.  Your words—not mine.

I decided to participate, in a big way.  I posted twice.  Wow— I just raised $1.  Then I did it 18 more times.  $10.  Then, I just went crazy.  While watching television, I kept posting.   Posting and posting.  80 clicks per minute.  I reached 1164 before it mysteriously stopped working.  The sign kept reading “$50,000 as of one hour ago.”   It should have read “$50582 as of one hour ago.”   Worse yet, the “app” stopped counting.  Who knows how much that cost Dave’s foundation.  It felt like I was being “stopped.”

I started a second account and posted 1037 more times.  In total, by your classification (“Help us spread the word and Wendy’s will donate $0.50 each time.”)  I started wondering if each click actually counts for $0.50, especially since the “$50,000 as of one hour ago” never changed.  Did each of my posts ACTUALLY count for $0.50?  Did I really raise $1100.50?  Or are you just using some whiz-bang macro that averages facebook traffic for a nice round number that looks a lot like $50,000?

Please tell me that you take your promotion seriously, as well as the time and effort of your loyal, caring customers.

Sincerely,

Jerry
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Subject: Father's Day Treat it Forward
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2011 00:23:54 -0400

Dear Rachel,

I found your email address in my "history."  I submitted the note below on June 17 and never heard back.  Can someone answer my questions?  I felt like I was being "stopped."

Sincerely,

Jerry-------------------

From: Rachel
Subject: Wendy's
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2011 13:30:48 +0000From http://thehermanletters.blogspot.com/

The donation was capped at $50,000 and this was included in our disclaimers also. Please let me know if you have any further questions and I apologize for the confusion!

Rachel

Consumer Relations

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To: Rachel
Subject: RE: Wendy's
Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2011 23:02:39 -0400

Dear Rachel,
Thank you for responding.  I’m sure you’re right—I missed the disclaimer.  I know it wasn’t glaringly visible on the posting that caught my attention.  That read “Thaaaaat’s right. Keep spreadin’ the word and Wendy's will keep donating to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Each shout-out on Facebook or Twitter is a 50¢ donation.”

I’m a big fan of Wendy’s, and a bigger fan of adoption.    Parents that I know spent 3 years and roughly $40k to adopt a son.  Friends of mine were adopted, and wouldn’t be who they are if not for this blessing.  Your video states 115,000 are in foster care, in need of adoption.

As a father of two, I don’t have a lot of spare money to donate, so I thought, “what a great opportunity to help!”

 I don’t have a lot of spare time, after work, commute, driving kids to practice, etc.  I made sure to donate most of my free time that week.  As I learned later, I started shouting out well after you reached $50k, , so every one of my clicks, several hours worth, were for naught.

Why, I wonder, wouldn’t you shut it down when you reached the $50k?  Could it be because each of my clicks was a tiny advertisement, and there were several thousand of us shouting out after the quota was met?

Look, I know Wendy’s profits are down.  My research says roughly $865 million in 2010, which is down.  We’re all struggling—underemployment, pay freezes, rising costs. 

Why did you cap it at $50k?  That’s $0.43 per kid.   My clicks, had they counted, would’ve accounted for roughly $0.01 of those $0.43 per kid.

I feel like I was tricked.  I feel like you used me as a pawn to advertise Wendy’s to my friends, well after the fundraiser was over.  It’s just disappointing.

Sincerely,
Jerry

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Post # 185 - Wendy's and Her Father's Day Event

I sent this on 6/13/2011:


Dear Wendy’s,

I just wanted to give you a hug and a pat on the back.  Thanks for acknowledging Father’s day with something other than a sale of items that you’d have on sale anyway.  This Sunday,  I’m going to have a great excuse/reason to pull the family truckster through the Wendy’s Drive-thru.  You’re donating  50 cents from each Frosty purchased to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

Here’s the deal.  Everyone makes a huge deal about Mother’s day, and justifiably so.  Mothers are very important.  There are promotions, beautiful brunches, boxes of jewelry, and lots of sales on things Mom would want.  Teachers in grade schools spend lots of time with the kids, creating little masterpieces.  Mother’s Day is a big deal.

Then Father’s Day comes along.  There might be a sale at Lowes on some nails and fertilizer.  Maybe a sale at Kohl’s on a dress shirt and crappy striped tie so Daddy can look nice on his big day.  That’s about the extent of it.

 And here’s the kicker—people complain about a lack of strong male role models.  Kids grow up without dads.  And maybe those dads were destined to be dooshes anyway, but couldn’t society help a little by throwing Daddy a bone here or there?  Couldn’t we all make Father’s Day a little more of a big deal?

Nobody expects Father’s Day to be equal to Mother’s Day because a) a happy Mom makes a happy home, and b) we’re all still recovering from Mother’s Day. 

Your event reminds us of the importance of adoption, and also on the importance of being a good dad.  I believe Dave would be proud.

Sincerely,

Jerry

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Post # 157 - Wendy, There's A Hair In My Food - 4/26/2010

This is a true story.   I removed the location because I think this can happen anywhere.
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Dear Wendy.

Today I tried a Black and Bleu burger at the suggestion of the drive through personality. I took my food home to enjoy it there. As I was biting and pulling the burger away from my mouth, I felt that “tug”. The burger was attached to my teeth by a thin black lasso. A hair, snagged between my upper incisors, and “where the bun meets the patty”. Probably five inches long, and black as night.

I don’t do well in these situations. I turn into the sickly barfing penguin at Sea World’s aquarium. I barely made it to the bathroom, where I heaved and hoed everything up. I felt a little gypped. I paid for dinner, and wound up giving back lunch and breakfast too!

So we’re all on the same page, my wife and daughter’s hair color is blonde, and they were never anywhere near my food. My hair is very short. This was definitely a Wendy employee. Not Wendy herself, mind you—it wasn’t fire red.

Look. I’m not trying to taddle. That’s not my way. I’m not looking for sympathy. I’m looking for policy change so this never happens to any Wendy’s customer ever again. I don’t really know the dress code at Wendy’s. Maybe people wear caps? The thing is, in food prep, I believe in hair nets. Hair nets with all of the hair contained in the hair net. That’s what I would do if I worked there. I’d be all for shaving all facial hair, arm and chest hair, and eye brows. Nostril hair, eye lashes, ear hair—gone!

The thing is, if they’re letting a hair find it’s way into my food, what else am I enjoying, free of charge? MAKE IT STOP!!!!!

If you don’t have a policy that prevents long hair from dangling over my food, you should. If you don’t have a policy that prevents long hair from dangling over my food, then that was your hand down my throat.

Sincerely,

Jerry
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Subject: Customer Response
From: rachel@wendys.com
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:30:51 -0400

Thank you for your interest in Wendy's and I apologize about your experience at your local store. If you would like to email me with the address of the location and your phone number, I would be more than happy to take care of this problem by filing a complaint and sending it to the regional office. If there is any thing else I can do for you, please let me know!

Rachel

Consumer Relations

(800)-443-7266 x6800
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To: rachel@wendys.com
Subject: RE: Customer Response
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:55:11 -0400

Dear Rachel,

You are as sweet as a Frosty for responding so quickly, and wanting to address the problem right at the source.

It sounds like your plan is to attack the problem locally (i.e. Someone didn't follow hair retention policy, whatever that may be). This means that there is, in fact, a policy in place, which you believe, was not being followed at my alleged restaurant stop.

I could give you the location. You could contact that location's manager. who would peruse his staff for someone, or more than one person, with long hair. They would get singled out, reprimanded, and maybe even let go, all because the manager, or worse yet, the company, doesn't have a good enough policy in place.

It goes deeper. Your bun and patty manufacturers. Your lettuce, tomato and onion growers. What if they let stray hair into their product? This policy, whatever it is, must span the entire Wendy's supply chain.

I can't remember ever seeing a hair net or a skin-head working at Wendy's. I think this is an overall corporate policy issue--tell me if it's not. I'd love for you to write back and tell me that you're implementing a more robust corporate policy throughout the entire organization. It's what Dave would have done.

Sincerely.

Jerry
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To: rachel@wendys.com

Subject: RE: Customer Response
Date: Tue, 4 May 2010 23:19:53 -0400

Hi Rachel,



The silence is as loud as thunder over here.  Here's how I see it:

1) I presented a problem--one that's probably possible to happen at any of your 6650-or-so locations. (Tell me it's not).

2) You offered to address it locally.

3) I suggested that you dig a little deeper. Fix the problem at it's very core. Hair nets or baldness across your entire worldwide network of employees, as well as your supply chain.

You went quiet. I assume one of two things:

a) You've taken my advice, and are very busy driving procedural changes.

b) You never really planned on fixing the big problem. Your offer to address this locally was merely an appeasement.

I am hoping that you're addressing this at a global level, but I am fearful that you are not. If not, I've probably heard the last from you.

I wish you a very happy life.

Sincerely,

Jerry
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Subject: I'm truly sorry about your experience at Wendy's
Date: Thu, 13 May 2010 00:27:33 +0000

Dear Jerry --

My name is Ken and I am the operating partner of the Wendy's in _________, MI. I just received a copy of your concerns today and I want to begin by apologizing for your experience at a Wendy's restaurant.

I'm not sure if it is was one of the restaurants I own and operate or if it was another location you visited. Either way you should not have had to experience the situation you did.

I understand your concerns for food safety in our restaurants and while I cannot speak for all Wendy's -- I wish to explain the steps we currently take in our franchise organization to minimize hair or other foreign objects getting into the food.

1. All manager are required to pass the national ServSafe Food Safety Managers Exam.

2. All new employees go through food safety training to include proper hand washing, personal hygiene (this includes having hair restrained under a baseball cap and not hanging in their face or extending past their shoulders in the back), how to avoid cross contamination and how to avoid time/temperature abuse.

3. We re-certify all employees on these food safety topics yearly in January and managers on the ServSafe every five years.

The above is verified by the local health departments semi-annually as well as by my leadership team and Wendy's corporate during unannounced inspections.

Again, I want to apologize for your experience. I had a similar situation happen to me at another restaurant in the past and I was very upset. I also would like to thank you for bringing this to our attention and I will be using this as an opportunity to reinforce the proper restraining of hair with my teams.

If you would like discuss this further with me personally, please feel free to contact me on my direct line at 586-555-7641 or at my email listed below.

I would also like to try offer you something whether or not it was one of my Wendy's you visited -- please let me know how I can be of service to you now or in the future.

Very truly yours,

Kenneth
Operating Partner
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To: Ken (and someone named Keith that Ken keeps cc-ing)

Subject: RE: I'm truly sorry about your experience at Wendy's
Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 20:37:02 -0400

Ken,

I appreciate the offer, and the follow-up. I didn't want this to go local, as I explained in my response to Rachel, I see this as a corporate procedure issue, rather than any one location. I see Wendy's restaruants, including your __________  location, as some of the cleanest in the industry.

It's funny--I was just at your __________ location today for my kids. It was a fine visit. I did, however notice that the various employees wear headwear, varying from cap to visor to no hat. To me, unless you go 100% hairnet, you can never avoid it.

Again, I appreciate your follow-up. I appreciate you reviewing procedures. The people at your store are great. Just keep in mind--no matter how often you review procedures, you can't stop gravity. I haven't had Wendy's since the hair, and it might be a little while longer, but I promise I'll be back.

Thanks again Ken!

Jerry

PS--Hi Keith

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Post # 83 - Senator Shelby and the Rising Cost of a Bee-Emmm - 2/4/2009

Last week, I guest blogged on hockeydino.com   The topic was a letter to Senator Shelby of Alabama regarding the Toyota mess.  In that letter, I referred to a previous love note that I wrote.

By the way, my other letter can be read HERE

Hockey Dino's Facebook Page is HERE
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A lot of people know, Senator Shelby from Alabama is one of my favorite people. He's one of the clowns that grandstanded in front of the CEO's to protect his own interests. If you like him or agree with him, I'm sorry. When something bad happens to me, I blame him.

If I burn the roof of my mouth on a chicken pot pie, it's Senator Shelby's fault.
If I lose my car keys, it's Richard's fault.
Burnt popcorn in the microwave? Blame Richard.

Here's my little letter. I sent it back in February 2009. I doubt he even read it. But it felt good.

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Dear Senator Shelby,

As an employee of the Big Three, I wanted to thank you for the scrutiny back a few months ago. Yes, some people thought it was “kicking a guy when he’s down,” and “geez—it’s a loan. Not like the $750 bank handout, squandered on parties and stadium naming rights." But those people only have the perspective of an outsider. They don’t see it through the eyes of YOU--one of our very important leaders. You certainly made us think: how can we be more productive. How can we do more with less?

On a personal note, your big production with the CEO’s scared a lot of my coworkers and colleagues into taking early retirement. So there’s a lot more ground to cover at work, which is fine by me. Again—I was already on this “More With Less” kick before you started on us. But again, your wisdom helped people redirect their paths. Nice work.

Let’s be honest—there’s only so much time in the day. I’m sure you’re like me—talking via Bluetooth to clients and colleagues during the commutes to and from work, watching the news while you run a hundred miles on the treadmill, thinking of ways to solve problems while you lie awake in bed.

Some of the changes I’ve made as part of my “More with Less” campaign: I quietly recite my Pledge of Allegiance every morning while I’m tooth brushing. I used to do these separately. I travel to and from work before and after rush hour to minimize time in the car. I buy only 12 things so I don’t have to wait in line at the checkout. I’ve switched to an all liquid diet to eliminate the 10 minutes a day I was squandering in the potty.

Senator Shelby—it could be argued that your wisdom, power, and terrific speaking skills are also a curse. As important as I am, someone representing the people, being paid all those tax dollars with far more frequent increases than I get, is that much more important. Every spare minute of your day is a moment that could be spent helping someone. Really, the only place you can’t get anything done, is in the lavatory.

Let’s face it, you can’t pass a bill in “there” doing “that”. Have you calculated how much your time in the can costs the average tax payer? A politician can’t make a former major leaguer squirm over steroid and perjury allegations while they are “punching a grumpy.”

Think it over next time you have a moment. It’s a simple plan: Carnation Instant Breakfast, V8 for lunch, Protein Drink for dinner, sometimes, a tasty Frosty from Wendy’s as a treat (you could have an intern get this for you). It works. I’ve lost 53 lbs. I feel great (you already look great as it is, by the way). I save trees (less toilet paper), water (less flushes), and I never need to worry about my stance in the Minneapolis Airport, if you know what I mean.

I would appreciate your thoughts. Will you consider this liquid diet proposal? Don’t you sort of owe it to the people? Do you have tips for how I can be more productive? By the way, I’m typing this on my treadmill.

Sincerely,

Jerry
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