Over Victoria Day weekend, my friend Mimi went to Tim Hortons in Cornwall, and ordered Turkey and Wild Rice soup, and a donut. The donut was stale, and the soup had – I love this – a feather in it. Disgusted, Mimi complained to the staff who took her number and promised the manager would call her. He didn’t. Mimi has now written to Tim Hortons corporate, and awaits an answer.

Last year, lightspeedmom wrote to Superclub Videotron, to point out that films were too often considered “new releases” many months after their video release. She used the central web address that was on the plastic bag to get in touch with them. She got a badly spelled reply from the local manager who berated her for writing to the corporate headquarters instead of talking to him.

Last summer, T was bitching about how Cool FM had great programming in its first six months, but promptly became another CKMF – a change of formula they proudly trumpeted. I encouraged him to write a letter to express his disappointment, and an eloquent and respectful letter he wrote. No reply.

I also got no reply when I wrote to Expedia, a company through which I book a LOT of travel, personal and business. I told them that as a faithful client, I was disappointed that residents of Quebec were never eligible to enter the contests in which they raffled off trips.

See, I like the idea that with the Internet, it has become easier for consumers to express themselves to large corporations. My question is, does it work? I would imagine that companies would love to hear from us, if only because it’s not good business to do otherwise. And I believe that so much, that I think the experiences cited above are exceptions. Am I right? Have you ever written to a relatively large company and received more than a form reply?

Hey Mimi, if not the donuts, at least we know the soup was fresh…

UPDATE: As I was writing this, Mimi forwarded me an answer she got from Tim Hortons. They were very apologetic (they were “shocked” about the feather) and thankful for the feedback. They wanted to be provided with more details to investigate the matter further. Well, what do you know…