Mangled Wolferman's English Muffins Crush A Man's Dreams
All John wants to do is order his Wolferman's English Muffins online from Harry & David, but fate has other ideas. As you can see from his photos, the packages keep coming all bashed-up and defiled, and the muffins inside are all bashed up and inedible.
John knows he can get freebies, but he figures more free messed-up muffins aren't going to do him any good. What he wants is for the shipping problem to be fixed.
He writes:
I feel that the usual channel of emailing Customer Service with my problem only results in a "make customer happy" automated-response. They just send a replacement order. If I called up after every order and had the slightest negative thing to say - they'd probably replace the order.
I'd have muffins coming out of my ears.
No, fix the problem. I think I have a sound theory on why their stuff is getting wrecked in shipping. I want this to go to the guy that puts the stuff in the box - see what he thinks. Is that the problem? What can be done to ensure an otherwise fabulous customer experience doesnt get wasted by a packaging and shipping problem?
So, let's bridge the gap between the Operations and the Customer Service departments and solve a problem!
Ok, a bit dramatic, it's just muffins afterall, right? And I'm sure you've never had anyone get this entirely passionate about muffins. But they are so good!
In his complaint letter to Wolferman's, John put together some complaints and suggestions:
In the first shipment, the box was not adequately taped on the bottom, which explains why it tore open. Tape is good, use it!
The box was crushed quite badly, which damaged the muffins inside. Crushing the muffins unfortunately makes them very difficult to eat since they are crumbled and broken into many pieces. These are meant to be toasted, which can't really be done.
I contacted customer service, and the service was wonderful. I was treated very well, and the customer service rep offered to replace the order. I was not expecting this, but it was most welcome. I even received a 20% off next purchase coupon.
The replacement order arrived very quickly. Unfortunately, the box was crushed again! The muffins inside fared much better this time, and only 2 or 3 were crushed. Overall, the order is acceptable. But alarming, nonetheless. One bad shipment I can understand, but two in a row suggests there is a problem.
I noticed something about both orders that got me wondering why this box-crushing keeps occuring: both orders were wet. Yes, wet.
Each muffin bag had what appeared to be condensation around them, and the box felt slightly damp. It was certainly not dripping wet by any means, but enough that the box felt softer than normal. Cardboard boxes are extremely sensitive to moisture and humidity.
So I have a theory: Is it possible that the muffins are baked, bagged hot, and boxed for shipment in such a short timeframe that they are not allowed to come to room temperature? Could the excess humidity from the condensation cause the boxes to weaken to the point that they no longer withstand the crush of shipment?
Keep in mind, there are 12 large bags in a box - that's a lot of heat, and a lot of moisture. So much in fact, the bag has water spots, and the bottom of the box has visible water.
Here's the deal. I'm not looking for freebies, and I'm certainly not complaining about your product. To be honest, the muffins are incredible. It's just unfortunate that it is getting wasted during shipment. I don't want this email to get filed as a "customer complaint" and get a handout to make me a "happy customer". I'd like to see a solution. Escalate it, think it over, problem solve. Look into the moisture issue and see if that is weakening the box? Maybe you need a different cardboard stock? Styrofoam inserts to keep it together? Surely a solution can be found that is not costly. I can't imagine that replacing an entire order is the most cost-efficient means to solve the issue. These things are not exactly cheap either.
Wolferman's wrote John back with an alternate theory of why the boxes busted:
All our bread products are flash frozen immediately after baking to preserve freshness, and will thaw in transit. As part of this process, the packaging of our muffins is extremely important to ensure arrival in optimal condition. It is necessary for the bag to be loosely sealed, allowing the product to "breathe" as it thaws in transit. If the bag was airtight, the moisture would be trapped inside with the muffins, causing them to arrive soggy.
Based on your description of the box, it sounds like the shipment was packed in a small, enclosed space under high temperatures at some point in transit. Perhaps the box was tightly packed among other boxes in the back of a hot UPS truck. Typically this is not a problem, but if the surrounding boxes created an airtight space, the moisture would not have been able to escape the box as the muffins thawed. This may explain the condensation damage to the box.
In your email, you did not make it clear which muffin varieties were not in satisfactory condition in the second shipment. Please let us know and we will gladly replace them again.
Your satisfaction is very important to us. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
And they concluded the letter offering John exactly what he didn't want — a freebie.
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Comments:
Have you seen the muffin man? At least he is getting more muffins right? We can at least hope the new ones are in good condition and tasty. Why not support a local mom and pop bakery and make a deal with them?
The problem is they're using UPS (United Package Smashers)
Whatever this man has to go through to get his them, it is worth it. Those are some good English Muffins.
Why don't they pack it in some sort of thing to
1. Keep it cold
2. Keep it from getting mangled
@I Love New Jersey: because it's not their problem. They had a system that worked. UPS smashed the box and threw it into the back and made the area airtight for the muffins.
I doubt anyone wants to pay for a cold chest for muffins. Packing them in a styrofoam shell may be okay though, if they decided to just fix it and continue letting UPS smash boxes. I've never had anything smashed by UPS though.
@pecan 3.14159265: Well I really don't see how they have a system if their chosen shipping vendor mangles it. An ounce of prevention seems like it would make sense here.
Is he ordering them directly from Wolferman's or from Harry & David? If he's ordering them from H&D, I'd suggest he go direct to the source:
[www.wolfermans.com]
I've brought Wolferman's on many occasions, and never have had a problem with the condition of the muffins. And we'd buy like 4 dozen bags at a time.
Mail-order muffins??? What's the world coming to...?
I just think it's awesome that a real person read his letter and responded to it. Sure, they still offered free muffins, but that's just being extra nice.
are they inedible? Or just not attractive-to-eatable?
@styrofoam: Does it matter? He paid for complete muffins and he got squished bread.
It's also hard to toast squished muffins.
@styrofoam:
I thought the same thing, but he said they were "meant" to be toasted....so if they are crumbled into pieces, toasting is a more difficult and/or not an option with pieced muffins
@styrofoam: He could put them in a blender with some whole milk and make a kind of milky English muffiny concoction. I bet he hasn't tried that. Man, I could go for a glass of that right now!
@Michael Ortega: I dearly love local bakeries, but I've never been in one that makes English muffins. (I think they're baked on a griddle, so I doubt many bakeries have the facilities.)
yeah im going to have to go along with that there is /nothing/ you can do to a muffin sealed in a bag to make it "inedible". still a dire consumer issue, but not "inedible"
the word you were looking for was "unpalatable"
What a shame. I was a telephone CSR for Wolferman's (and a lot of other companies) for a while, and they really went above and beyond to support the CSRs in making sure the customer was indeed happy. And their muffins are delicious! It's too bad there's such a disconnect between trying to do the right thing and actualy delivering on that promise.
@TheDude06: I was thinking about that, but I don't think "unpalatable" is right either. It's more like "unusable for their intended purpose," which is putting them in a toaster. Untoasted English muffins pretty much taste uncooked.
I would totally just use the broken bits to make the French Toast:
[www.wolfermans.com]
Or maybe a delicious bread pudding...yumm!
But all in all, kind of ridiculous about that; interestingly enough VitaTops (which also flash freezes their products) uses a successful method in packaging their muffins. They individually box groups of their muffins then put them in a bigger shipping box...
Yes, I'm not clear either on who keeps sending the damaged packages here: Harry & David or Wolferman.
I used to order english muffins directly from Wolferman and don't remember ever having a problem with a shipment.
As a native of England, I just have to say that those don't look like they could be English-type muffins. Though flat due to the transport issue, they look too rounded to be English muffins.
Genuine English muffins would transport a bit better as they are flat to begin with.
Shrut: they're flat, and OP is right - they're delicious.
I've ordered from them a bunch of times, and they're really good (and I've had no problems). They've even let me stack coupons when I called and asked.
As for the OP's complaint... it sounds to me like they gave a reasonable response (his hypothesis is incorrect, because they're actually frozen). Given that this doesn't happen all the time, and the lack of any environmental constraints or guarantees by UPS, that sounds pretty reasonable.
They might have given him what he didn't ask (a freebie), but they also DID what he wanted - looked into his hypothesis. Unfortunately, there was nothing to fix.
@I Love New Jersey: That would depend on the frequency of the mangling. It could just as well be possible that the culprit is in the last leg of the delivery to OP. In that case, it would be an overkill to do all for every package only because one customer has issues.
@ShrutiCaballo: Perhaps this is the crumpet-english muffin divide. I'm not sure. I believe there are 2 creatures in England, known as breakfast (or english) muffins and as crumpets. Perhaps you might clarify.
Those muffins in the pics are a bit misshapen and look thicker (rounder as you say) than they are when they are not damaged. Typically they are round, flat, and about 1 1/2" thick and 4" to 5" in diameter.
When I used to buy baked gluten-free breads and such from Kinnikinnick, they would be shipped from Alberta to Oklahoma without incident. It always surprised me.
What do you do with a case of English muffins? I guess if 2 people ate one a day every day, you could go through a case a month.
I have to say, they did a wonderful job. How is getting free muffins BAD?
I will actually look into buying from them now, as this is exactly what I would want a company to do. Replace them, while they look into fixing the problem (or already aware there is a problem) and how to solve it.
In this case, it seems to be a rare thing, so let them replace it again.
On a side note, Consumerist, your now giving companies a BAD remark because they gave away FREE stuff? That's the best way a company can talk and show they mean something.
As opposed to when TJMAX gets hacked, they give away free credit monitoring, instead of say a $50 giftcard or something.
@jpdanzig: We've placed several orders too, and never had a problem with them (when they were Wolferman's and not Harry & David)
@DaTaco: Giving away something free doesn't negate the fact that the items were damaged. Twice. Including the "free" muffins.
Those muffins should be in something besides a thin cardboard box. There's no way they could survive. Perhaps another box inside the box, or some kind of packing material around them.
I order cookies from a place in Santa Cruz (Pacific Cookie - super yummy) and they sell them in containers which so far, have withstood shipping very well. Something called the Tower of Yum comes in a cylindrical tube and is packed in a cardboard box and then shipped out FedEx Express as fast as possible because they are perishable. I have not had any issues.
I know Harry and David is kind of expensive. I would expect something better than this.
I meant Pacific Cookie COMPANY. Pesky work, interrupting my posts.
I'm not seeing the issue here. Not that getting mangled muffins is not an issue - but they explained the process, explained the hitch (and obviously this isn't widespread or it would get resolved - they can't afford to just willy nilly hand out free muffins) and offered to replace the unsatisfactory muffins (why is that bad?). The box even came mangled differently this time which leads me to believe it's closer to the OP's end that this problem arises, and it's not H&D or Wolf that's causing this.
@chgoeditor: Wolferman's is having a SALE!! I don't know if they're the kind of company that has "sales" 90% of the time, but at those prices, and some free shipping deals, that's not a bad price at all for top quality english muffins. Wait, those signature ones are double sized? Iiiiiiiiiinteresting....
I eat a fair number of the typical american english muffins, and I think I pay about that much for grocery store fare. If my fridge and freezer weren't totally full already, I'd totally give these a go.
@coren: It's probably some very small number of boxes get mangled, and the probability of manglage is related to getting muffins to this individual's location, so he sees it much more often, i.e. twice in a row.
@ludwigk: Yeah that's what I was thinking too - a local office botching it, or something in the process to get things to his area
@ChuckECheese: I'd say these just look like extra-thick English muffins.
Crumpets are different -- they are flatter, paler, and spongier in texture, with a top that looks like a pancake after you let all the bubbles rise to the top and burst open. They're not usually split in half like English muffins, you just apply the butter or jam or whatever to the top.
Man, now I want a crumpet.
What they need is better boxes. I worked at a bookstore and somewhere we'd gotten hundreds of mothers cookies boxes. They were very crisp and firm boxes that we didn't even need to tape to use. We just overlapped the flaps, filled them with books, and could carry them with no problem. There are varying qualities of cardboard, they should take a look at something more durable.
I'm actually the OP. Yes, in fact, the muffins are incredibly good. The customer service is actually very good too - predictably good, as I pointed out.
I did actually get a follow up from another rep. at Wolferman who stated they are forwarding my comments to the shipping manager to see what they can do. So - success!
And the hypothesis on why the boxes get crushed was right, just backwards. Being frozen first, then shipped around in a hot UPS truck caused moisture buildup in the box. Moisture + weak box + UPS abuse = mangled muffins!
My only hope in this exercise was to see if they could put something in to strengthen the box, or counteract this sort of abuse by UPS.
All in all, it was not a bad experience. It is more of an experiment / commentary on how shell-shocked some companies have gotten with customer service. Going too far and appeasing customers without fixing the underlying issue can be a bad thing sometimes. In fairness to Wolferman / HD, they seem to have a good balance.
and now i am shopping for english muffins... ugh
Wow, those look really yummy (and therefore dangerous).
Unfortunately, according to the response, it doesn't seem like there's anything to fix from the supplier's end and that this kind of thing is relatively rare.
I'd take the free muffins and run.
Good idea. Keep getting them replaced, and take the broken bits to the park and feed the birds and squirrels with them. You'll have fat, contented birds and squirrels!
@styrofoam: they're not attractive-to-eatable. kind of like when you cringe at the supermarket when the cashier chucks all your vegetables and fruits in a bag as if they were running experiments to make sure gravity still works, or when they grab your loaf of bread as if they were grabbing the neck of a bad dog.
or is that just me? because they all seem to give me this look when I want to bag my own bread, tomatoes, and mangos...
anyway, you buy food online, you expect them to arrive looking like food, no?
Have them replaced every time, I say. Could be that the only thing that will get them to change their practices is the cost of having to send out twice as many (at least) muffins as you paid for every time.