Stingy Ben And Jerry's Manager Cuts Off Free Cone Supply, Ruining "Free Cone Day"
Well, Ben and Jerry's, you ruined my day. I love free cone day and have been going for many years. I once waited in line for over an hour to get a free scoop in Boston on Newbury Street. I was so excited for this particular Free Cone Day, because it's my first one ever in New York. I sent an e-mail out to all my co-workers to let them know about it, too. I got out of work and raced to 34th street, because this is one of the listed participating store. I flew up the escalator to the 4th floor, busted through all the tacky prom dressed, and almost shouted "HALLELUJAH" when I finally got to the B&J only to be turned away.Dude, you don't cut Free Cone Day short. Unless you ran out of cones. In which case you should be nicer about it. And next time, get more cones. You're in the freakin' Macy's flagship, and it's Free Cone Day. Stock up.
"NO MORE FREE CONES," the frizzy haired girl was yelling.
"WHAT?!"
I instantly grabbed for my blackberry to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Yes, 34th street is a participating location. Yes, it is free cone day. Yes, I am on the 4th floor of Macys. Yes, I can smell the sweet scent of victory.
But no, I would not be served a free cone. Nelson, the store manager, was telling everyone (there were 20+ people crowded around) that Free Cone Day is over. So, I called the store in Astor Place. They happily answered the phone and verified that Free Cone Day is all day, which I remember, because I
A) did not read ANYWHERE about any time limitations on Free Cone Day or honestly, I would have left work 30 minutes early just to bask in the glow of some Chubby Hubby
B) remember standing in line until almost midnight one year in Boston
C)it was advertised on the signage of the store that today is free cone day
FREE
CONE
DAY
Not free cone until 6pm or free cone until my arm is tired of scooping or free cone until I get a sprained eyelash and no longer want to give you a free cone. It says FREE CONE DAY!
So why, Ben and Jerry's were you so cruel to me? I have been a loyal customer for years. I have sworn you off for making my thighs too big, only to consume pint after pint at a time after a breakup or when Aunt Flo is coming to town.
Why would you treat me like this?
Ben and Jerry's, it's over. For real. Are you happy that you lost a customer for life over a $2.50 scoop of ice cream that is probably $0.05 cogs? Anyway, Hagen Daaz is just as happy to have my money and they deliver what they say they will when they will.
I just hope you truly know how disappointed your customers were. A little girl was literally CRYING because they were being so mean about it. There was no apology. No, "I'm sorry if we misinformed you. However, Free Cone at this location is over"
I felt like I was doing something wrong by wanting to partake in the festivities. You suck, Ben and Jerry's and I'm going to tell everyone I know what a crappy experience I had. If this is a marketing flaw, then you should fire whatever idiot doesn't know how to properly convey on the signage and e-mail blasts you give out about Free Cone Day.
Even if this particular Ben and Jerry's is technically owned by Macys, then you need to tell Macys that they suck too, because they do.
But nobody sucks more than you-you hire people like Nelson to manage stores. He hires rude employees and doesn't adhere to a customer loyalty program. Honestly, how much would free cone day have cost him?
Let's talk numbers for a moment-I used to be a Starbucks manager for 7 years and have lived through many "Free (fill in blank here)" day
Even if the average Ben and Jerry's pulls in $1500 a day, that's a lost profit of $1500 for that particular day. HOWEVER, if you make new fans who are dying to be faithful for the next 50 years (say they eat an average of 20 pints a year at $4/pint, so for 50 years that one person will spend an average of $4,000 of their ice cream eating life, you make it back and then some.)
Well, I will not make a dent in your profitability, but you definitely threw the monkey wrench in my day. You are cheap, you are mean, and you deliver false advertising, which is actually a CRIME!
This is a test using rich text formatting and html links. It's the generic "company" ad that should appear on all posts with the Company category if they don't have an ad attached to a specific company.
Post a comment
Comments:
Why would you wait for an hour to get a $1 cone for free? Just buy the damn ice cream if you like it so much.
so - did you go get more cones for them or what?
I was lost after the fifth time I lost place in your one paragraph...
I felt like the author of the letter was a 12 year old girl...That said, get some more cones B&J!
I love free ice cream too. But getting your panties in a bunch about this means you put Free Cone Day on a pedestal way too high.
In the end, it's just ice cream... although this particular B&J's reneged on their word, it doesn't make sense for you to take it out on the whole company... if you really love B&J's as much as you claim, you'll prob get over it.
There's no Jerry in Ben and Jerrys anymore.
If she was willing to "quit" Ben & Jerry's over one mistake like this, she must not really have been the loyal fan she was making herself out to be.
I had a somewhat similar experience last night, but luckily mine turned out better. Since I don't feel like retyping, here's the comment I submitted on the Ben and Jerry's website and their form response...
Hello Lisa,
Thank you for letting us know about a less than euphoric experience you had with one of our scoop shops. This information is very important in helping us to ensure our high quality standards.
Please do not hesitate to call us if you have any other questions. You can reach our Consumer Affairs department at (802)846-1500, 9am - 5pm EST.
We hope that all your future experiences with our scoop shops are as euphoric as you anticipate and deserve!!
Consumer Affairs
Ben & Jerry's
Here is the information we received from you:
------------------------------------------------------------------
On 4/29/08, you visited one of our scoop shops (9301 E. Shea Blvd. Suite #110) in Scottsdale, AZ at around 8:00 PM.
Comment:
I was excited about free cone day today. I used the store locator on benandjerrys.com to find the closest Scoop Shop that was participating in the event. According to the website page for Ben & Jerry's 92nd & Shea ([www.benjerry.com]), the hours of operation are 11am-10:30pm. I arrived at the shop around 8:10pm to find the shop dark and a handful of other people outside complaining that the shop was already closed. The hours of operation sign on the shop indicated that the location was supposed to close at 9pm.
An employee came to the door and told us that on free cone day the shop closes at 8pm instead of the normal 9pm. After a couple other people said they drove long distances to get to the shop, the employee sympathetically allowed myself and approximately 7 other people who were still waiting to come in and recieve a free cone.
I want to commend the employees who were working at this store for doing this something extra to make myself and the other people happy. I hope I don't get them in trouble for writing this email. It would have been easy to ignore us after what I'm sure was a busy day for them and I expect that all the employees were eager to go home. Yet everyone had a pleasant attitude when they served us. Rather than disappointing potential repeat customers, they instead created goodwill for the shop.
My complaint is that no where on the website or the exterior of the shop did it say that this shop would be closing early today. In fact, the regular hours of operation on the website and at the shop don't even match. Ben and Jerry's seems quick to advertise free cone day but slow to offer additional terms and conditions. Obviously I relied on the website information being accurate when I made the trip to the Scoop Shop and would have left feeling very disappointed if the employees hadn't been so nice.
I hope that you will take some time to ensure that the hours of operation on your website are accurate, and in the future if a shop is closing early please try to publicize it early and prominently to avoid disgruntled customers.
It's the principle of the matter :)
It's called false advertising.
As much as I agree that this is trivial the fact that they are not honoring thir advertisement is the real issue.
Can we address eating 20 pints a year as a national average? I'm no skinny and I'm hitting MAYBE 4.
The lady sure loves her them free ice creams.
They should have forayed it into "free cup day" or "free scoop in the palm of your hand day." Either of which would be acceptable.
That's weird. I was able to read it all. I mean, sure it would be better formatted with paragraphs, but sometimes when you rant it just has to all come out.
That being said, free is free! I'd wait forever for a free monkey. If this person wants a free cone, let them have a free cone!
Similar thing happened at the Athens, GA store which is in an independent downtown storefront and not owned by another store (like Macy's, in this case).
I went during the day to get my free scoop, and my roommate was unable to go with me at that time, so she wanted to go after we ate dinner. At a little after 8 pm, we walked over to the store and when we got in line, the old guy in front of us turned around and showed us a sign the B&J people had given him saying "I'm Last in Line." Actual employees weren't giving the customers the bad news, they were nowhere in sight and making a customer do it. The sign was legit because it was on the same kind of brightly colored card stock as the B&J menus - it wasn't just the guy joking around.
This particular location doesn't close until 12 am on weekdays because it's in the downtown bar district of a huge college town - it's not like 8 pm was their normal closing time. If it was, shutting off the free ice cream would be understandable. None of the event PR materials indicated that there would be an end time, and if it had, that would also be understandable, and my roommate and I would have gotten there earlier.
So no, it's not a huge deal because it's just ice cream, and I won't stop being a customer, but I do feel like it was handled badly. And in a town of 35,000 college students about to start finals week, you probably shouldn't mess with the free ice cream.
@lightaugust: thats what i was wondering, I am not a huge B&J fan, and I'd rather have a cone (drumstick) for my occasional ice cream fix, but there is no way in hell the population is averaging 20 pints of that per year. If you have kids, you are probably getting a 1/2 gallon of Breyers for the same price.
20 pints -- whoa.
The time spent waiting on line, and the time spent writing this letter to the Consumerist is certainly not worth the fuss over a 2 dollar dairy product loaded with sugar and saturated fat.
As delicious as they are, time is money, and this is certainly not worth the time.
Quick, somebody call the Waaaambulance!
It's the companies choice to hand out freebies. I really don't understand the sense of entitlement here..
I find it odd that someone would quit B&J in general due to the actions of a single manager.
Christ almighty this woman is insane. It's not like she waited in line, they were telling her when she got there that they were done, so pack up and go to the Astor store...Wah wah wah
I am beginning to think that this is a policy on Free Cone Day. My husband and I modified our evening run so that we could (hopefully) exercise off some of the Ben and Jerry's, then walk back home while enjoying the cones. We ran by the store at 7:50 pm, and saw a line of about 10 people waiting for ice cream. We decided to run a few more blocks, then get the ice cream on the way back. At around 8:00 pm, we got in line, and the owner/manager (?) came out and told us it was over. The store closing time was posted at 9:00 pm, so I thought we had plenty of time. We definitely didn't "need" the ice cream, but I felt bad that we made the decision not to stop on our first pass by the store and we missed out. Oh well, it's 31 cent scoop night at Baskin Robbins!
href="#c5453696">bonzombiekitty: Again one of those customer blaming the damn company when you should really be focusing your anger towards the manager/store.
I don't understand this concept, it's so much like racial stereotyping. Because the actions of one store/employee you feel you have the right to blame the entire company...
so.... what was the explanation why "free cone day" was over??
Cant provide what you promise/advertise?.... then you need to pay & pay dearly IMO. Yeah, even if its because you ran out of free cones or are just getting taken to the bank by an unexpected deluge of customers wanting their free cone.
I am still curious as to why the manager said free cone day was over. I need closure!
@pssshwhatever: I believe I heard in a past year that free cone day ended earlier not just because of running out of cones, but running out of ice cream - they have to get that stuff delivered, and they can only hold so much in their freezers. I'm sure not every store does (although, in Athens, as a college town, I could imagine it), but they probably want them to close at the same time so someone can't yell at a place that closed because it ran out that the B&J two towns away stayed open.
I've seen the Macy's B&J, of course, and it's teeny - I would imagine they really don't have a lot of space for a run on the store like I'm sure they got. They should have more signage, it sounds like but...
basically, I don't understand getting a bug up your butt because a company that annually gives away a huge amount of product for free probably ran out at a particular location, and a manager may have been a dick (he was just trying to fit it with everyone else who works at Macy's - if you're polite, they'll ostracize you). I'm sure OP will get a coupon for her trouble.
And, it's not false advertising if the small print says, "While supplies last" - which I imagine it does.
This brings to mind a classic story from Jean Shepherd, the man responsible for the storytelling that became the movie A Christmas Story. You might enjoy this live recounting of a story from his youth involving an 'ice cream war' between two shops on opposite sides of the street from each other (this from a live performance in NYC in 1966):
It's a much better read though, in his books than hearing it live with a boisterous audience of his fans, I must admit.
A really simple solution " if " they did indeed run out would be a coupon for a free ice cream cone.
Problem solved.
Simple solution if you run out of ice cream or cones. Rainchecks!
I must have missed that part in the constitution declaring our right to a free cone on Free Cone Day. It happens, the managers could have improvised and given out small cups of ice cream, which aren't as exciting as cones I will admit, but still... raising such a fuss over this is kind of pointless.
This means nothing to me as I buy Ben & Jerry at the grocery store since they don't carry Peanut Butter Cup anymore.
just think of all the calories she burned RUNNING to get ONE scoop of ice cream!
I have to agree. Complaints about layout are valid. If the text is visually unbearable to read, then no one will care to read the details of the story. Most people will just read the headline and maybe a few sentences here and there, and base their comments on that. And then we'll start seeing comments telling other comments to RTFA, blah, blah.
Anyways, I think the letter was supposed to be tongue and cheek. But it came out sounding like it was written by a child, as Toof_75_75 stated. I'm sure B&J will send her some free coupons or something.
On the one hand, it's free. They're not obligated to give you anything really, even if there's no cut-off time stated anywhere. But on the other hand, it's bad corporate image to promise something and not follow through. I would think the manager had a valid reason for all this. I hope there's a follow up to this story.
@forgottenpassword: But what happens if you run out of rainchecks!
To the New England lady in the original article: Midtown New York has more people living/working in that area than that part of Boston where you normally got your free scoop. Even moreso, since Macy's on 34th Street is a tourist fave.
I had the same experience at Macy's yesterday. I left work early and took the long subway home all to get to Ben and Jerry's by 7:05--55 minutes before free ice cream day concludes. I also spoke with Nelson and the employees were jerks to me as well.
For all of you who are saying Ben and Jerry's is ok if they ran out of cones due to "while supplies last"...think again.
This Ben and Jerry's had tons of cones and plenty of ice cream left; that played no part in their refusing to give out the free cones. Nelson said Macy's wanted him to stop the sale at 6PM, because lines were getting too long. Hence, he stopped the sale short.
It was completely false advertising. I called in and complained, and if they don't send me a coupon for free ice cream, I'm never going back to BJ's again.
A friend of mine in Nashville was frustrated last night because the Ben and Jerry's he went to closed early as well without notice. And this is a singer-songwriter who encouraged his fans to go out and take part in Free Cone Day.
This is not going well for B&J.
Ben & Jerry's I can also attest to the disappointment. I was also denied my Free Cone from the same Macy's location. Perhaps what burns most was the anticipation. You walk into that Macy's store with an air of superiority, in that you aren't a standard customer: you know what you want, and you'll be getting it free. So you slowly climb the escalators, getting more and more excited. Then, as BJ's is in sight, you hear the shrill shriek of a the girl at the counter making sure everyone around knows that there will be no more free cones. No apologies, not even an explaination. Just the loud proclamation that there will be no free cones.
I settled for a garlic pretzel next door, and they over garlic powdered it.
Overall, a ruined day.
I feel sorriest for the little girl described in the post as crying because of no free cone. Somebody tell her parents to put a crowbar in their wallet and BUY the kid an ice cream.
First I must say to some of you that posted above, who gives a frick if she posted in paragraphs. geeze. Suck it up and SCROLL DOWN.
And kudos to this woman for this letter. If I was the one to read this from Ben & Jerry's, I would surely send some free coupons or something and a nice apology letter.
@forgottenpassword: He simply said, the lines were too long, and Macy's wanted the sale to end. So he ended the sale at 6PM.
That's the whole explanation. And he wouldn't let even the most persistent Reaganite customer through his Berlin Wall defense.
You have got to be kidding me...
Alright fine you didnt get a free cone but you are going to write off an entire company after years of buying their products because one time, one manager irked you by not allowing you to get a free cone?
OMG!
They lost the business of someone who apparently only goes there on free cone day. So they are out nothing?
Is there no "until supplies run out' caveat on this stuff? That would seem reasonable.
Incidentally I only eat B&J's once a year; free cone day.
over priced indulgence is over priced.
I had the same bad experience at the Kirkland, WA store. The website said the store was participating in free cone day and it was open until 9:30pm, no mention of free cone day being shorter. I went to dinner with some friends and afterwards around 8:30pm we head to the store only to see a big banner out front "FREE CONE DAY UNTIL 8pm" We left without buying anything and a little miffed at the store. I don't hate the entire company for this one incident but it was definitely a bit shady how they handled free cone day..
How could they not provide free birthday candles ... er, I mean, why couldn't they comp the bill for laying the cable ... no wait, what's this one about? Oh, free cones. Why couldn't the store just keep enough cones on hand for everyone in New York?
I guess she didn't read the "At Participating Retailers" footnote.
Free samples doesn't mean you are entitled to it.
Give Ben and Jerry as frickin break. It's not like welfare cheese or something.
"i didn't get my free ice cream. waaaaaahh"
"I hate them. I'm never going back! Betrayal! Sew UNFAIR!!!" what a collection of feck-impaired whinging snivellers.
for the good of the nation they should invite you all back for double scoops of sftu and a boot to the head.
Argh, another paragraph-challenged post. Can the people who post the stories here please do a minimum of formatting to make the stories readable? That is one monster block of text of there.