The Real Poop on Customer Service

But, clinging desperately to the notion of brand loyalty and hoping against hope that the weight of the stuff was the only non-improvement improvement, I brought the litter home. Almost needless to say, it was totally different. Still eco-friendly and non-perfumed, but it had — horrors — little stick-like bits that our cats simply will not tolerate. When the they finally realized that no amount of burrowing, flinging and circling was going to make me toss an entire box of $12 cat litter and they deigned to do their business in it — well, it didn't work nearly as well as its old and unimproved predecessor.

I called the store and was told that yes, indeed, my favorite litter had been improved and that the old version was no longer available. So I called the company that makes the litter and was put on permanent hold. I went online to the company website — yes, kitty litter is that big a deal in my home — to get the scoop, if you will, on this new iteration. No explanation for the change, just lots of starbursts and exclamation points touting the new product nestled amid photos of cat lovers and their pets, and verbiage about us all being valued members of the XXX brand family.

And, going a little further than I would normally care to admit, I clicked on the Contact Us link to lodge a complaint. My first peeve was that the link opened to a form that I had to fill out with my name, address, phone number, e-mail and comment — but that didn't provide an e-mail address. Hit Send, and your comment just goes off into cyberspace. For some reason, the lone "Your Comment Has Been Sent" message never makes me feel even moderately confident that it has. I always feel better about a comment link that opens to a page listing a real e-mail address that includes the company name and, better yet, a person's name — mlsmith@kittylitterinc.com, for example.