Landing Gear

Before I start doing any memorandums of law, I'll wait until the Big Cheese speaks again, or I get tired of waiting. In the meantime, you have the Attorney General's address I posted.

Hanlgt

I really can't understand the motivations of this company. It is totally odd to me that a company that resorts to a "exciting" promotion to sell more cheese in the USA (and steal away the market share from that Laughing Cow) would risk alienating all the new customers and the excitement they have created by shutting down the program. The only reason anyone might do this is if they so miscalculated that continuing to award miles to people will actually put them into bankruptcy or something. I understand they are a huge company in Europe--so that is rather unlikely. Do you think they simply misunderstand the American mentality toward fairness, etc? Am I wrong in believing that the same indignation would also happen in Europe? I can't figure it out

Landing Gear

Somewhere a spin doctor is working on these questions.

dogmom11

And evidently, at least some employees are working on this as well...I just received this response to an email I sent yesterday (to the email listed on the company's website):

Dear ***,

Thanks for contacting EMMI USA.

Please send these certificates, my attention, along with your original
store proof of purchase dated on or before Dec. 1, 2006 and EMMI USA
will fulfill your miles.

EMMI USA Inc.
704 Executive Blvd. Valley Cottage, NY 10989

Thank You,
Daniel Schnyder

Landing Gear

Dogmom,

I urge you to respond with this question:

"What about coupon codes that have already been entered?"

dgwright99

My guess is that they were thinking about this the way companies do about MIRs - they expected a relatively low redemption rate; this is normal with MIRs, which is why compenies offer them - it costs less to offer an MIR for (say) $25 than to simply discount by (say) $10, but is usually more effective in terms of increased sales. Same thing probably applied here; they figured that 500 miles costing them $2.50 (???) with a 10% (???) redemption rate would be more effective than discounting by $0.25. What they presumably didn't reckon on is FTers buying the product in bulk simply for the miles - and in the process likley pushing up the redemption rate above 50%.

Lets be honest - how many who bought in bulk now like the product enough to keep on buying it without the promotion ? And even if everyone who bought a hundred cheese wheels started buying a wheel per month after the promotion, it would take years for Emmi to get their promotion costs back.

Seems like last week, after the scale of their misjudgement became evident, they paniced. Presumably, they thought that seriously annoying a couple of hundred FTers would cost them less in lost sales than honoring the promo. My guess is that this was likely a decision by a marketing manager worrying about his next performance review; then all hell breaks loose, and the CEO starts attempting damage limitation.....

Getiton

What if Swissbliss's post is a Farce,there is know confirmation of the legitimacy of this poster.Should this be the case and because it is of such importance to those posting above and it is found to be a malicious perpetration.The party should be banned from FlyerTalk

nako

I suppose you haven't read the last few posts, then?

Mike

dogmom11

Looks like the employees are still refining their message as well...received another reply (time stamped 5 mins from the previous one) with the subject line '2nd email' and an additional sentence:

Dear ***,

Thanks for contacting EMMI USA.

Please send these certificates, my attention, along with your original store proof of purchase dated on or before Dec. 1, 2006 and EMMI USA will fulfill your miles. Only those certificates that have not been entered already will be honored!


EMMI USA Inc.
704 Executive Blvd. Valley Cottage, NY 10989

Thank You,
Daniel Schnyder



While I appreciate their quick response and willingness to honor certificates, it still does not satisfy the T&Cs as stated on the website, previous emails, etc. I do not keep grocery receipts...I either throw them out while leaving the store or they end up in the trash bag of some unlucky FA as I clean out my purse during flight delays.

Further, their proposed solution does not cover folks who have made group buys or packages currently in stores--none of which say 'this promotion may be changed or ended at any time without notice'. A better response, IMHO is to turn back on the web entry link or (at a minimum) honor all codes postmarked by a specific date (sans receipts). I will email them with this suggestion and I encourage all of you to do the same + add your own concerns, as someone is clearly picking them up and looking for a way to respond.

Although they clearly miscalculated the impact of offering airline miles as a purchase incentive, there are many ways they can turn this around to honor the promotion entirely and get publicity valued beyond the cost of all those miles...think of all the positive stories (a la pudding guy) from cheese shared w/fellow travelers/relatives/friends, being donated to food banks, etc. Much better than looking like Scrooge...

[email protected]

GDIW

Swiss Bliss has quoted the exact same policy that was sent in the e-mail by Daniel Schnyder. I would not call that a farce.

As far as previously entered codes go - I received the following in an e-mail from the same Daniel Schnyder:

"All valid codes entered through Dec. 1, 2006 on our website have been submitted to American Airlines for posting to your accounts shortly."

flyupfront

What about the people who are shopping today and come across this promotion. How can they possibly be told "NO, since you didn't buy your cheese by Dec. 1st you get a knife instead."

I say that sounds like Emmi CUT the cheese!

martian

I am actually truly amazed that we got all the way to post 507 before anyone said that

Landing Gear

Somewhere, someone is perhaps trying to translate this into German.

dhacker

Not to mention the lack of Limburger analogies.

cactuspete

I find this entire saga to be rather humorous.

On a side note, this is exactly the type of promo abuse that has a chilling effect on companies contemplating future promos.