Jeff for America

I’ve always been an advocate of my rights as a consumer. Both my parents instilled in me a strong conviction to stand up for getting what you paid for or for what you were promised. As a middle school student myself, I can remember returning french fries at McDonalds because they were cold. My friends thought I was rude, but it just made sense to me. Along the way, I’ve actually found that demanding a certain level of service generally means you’ll get something in return. No doubt – there’s a line you shouldn’t cross: when you go from being someone taken advantage of to a raging jackass in the customer service aisle. I don’t cross that line. I’m firm, but reasonable.

This isn’t coming from no where – I promise. In the last week, I’ve encountered two such incidents, in which I brought myself (almost too naturally) to challenge the products and services rendered by United Airlines and Hershey. On my recent flight home, my checked bag was lost for a day. They found it and delivered it the following day, but I still had to do something about it. I had, after all, paid $15 of my hard-earned money to have them check my bag and bring it to my destination. The least they could do is refund that service fee, since they failed in their service. I called United a few days ago and logged a complaint in their online system. Lo and behold – I received an email today with a $15 refund and a $100 gift card on a future United flight. Boo ya.

Then, I bought a 4 lb. bag of Jolly Ranchers at Target this weekend for my students. When I got to school and opened the bag, the Jolly Ranchers were all green apple – every single one of them! And my kids hate (absolutely hate) the green apples. It was kind of funny and I won’t deny that I enjoyed torturing them, but I really felt annoyed and wanted some kind of redemption. So, of course, I called Hershey today…during class…on speakerphone…hooked up to my speakers. I thought the kids could use a lesson in consumer rights.

And they loved it.

And I’m getting a coupon to replace the bag next week.

Jeff, 2. Corporations, 0.

- Jeff