It sponsors teams, spends billions (of dollars) on advertising and is probably the world’s most well-known brand. But Coca-Cola seems to have forgotten what it takes to service a customer. What’s worse, Coke prefers to maintain a deafening silence—and enter a state of denial—when confronted with what is a major slip-up at its end
The next time you have a strong urge to down a bottle of Coke, do make it a point to hold up the bottle (as you would do with a Rs1,000 note) and examine it minutely to see if it contains any insect life.
On 7th April, your correspondent gulped down an insect or two from a 200-ml Coca-Cola bottle.
(Please see : http://www.moneylife.in/article/8/4652.html).
You would imagine that the soft-drink multinational would have taken prompt action—at least an apology over the telephone—for what obviously is a major slip-up at its end, which could have had potentially hazardous ramifications.
But Coca-Cola India feels that an apology to a customer would be stooping too low. It has told Moneylife that it wants our article (see above link) pulled out.
Since the numerous executives who are ‘in charge of customer service’ for the multinational’s operations in India have failed to respond in a satisfactory manner, we even went to the extent of contacting its Atlanta headquarters.
But the deafening silence continues from Coke’s end.
Coca-Cola India now wants to ‘inspect’ the bottle with insects floating around in it. An executive from its public relations department (Amit Govind) has told Moneylife that Coke wants to ‘scrutinise’ the bottle.
We’ll keep you posted on what happens after Coke’s sleuth inspects the bottle.
So the next time you want to enjoy the ‘real thing’, do ensure that a Coke executive is around before the bottle is uncorked. If you have some flora and fauna floating around in the liquid, the soft-drink major will have all the ‘proof’ it needs to take any further action—if it chooses to do so, of course.
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30-day online access to the magazine articles published during the subscription period.
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I have had multiple experiences which i would compare to be similar to the above mentioned.
Luckily you are able to expose it with a blog, I have tried it on my blog but there are no readers to expose it.
I have come across a racket in Telecom recently, i wish to drag them to court, but i am unable to.
http://blog.zanilhyder.info/2010/02/electronic-cheating-deceit-by-telecom-companies/
defiant attitude by the companies seems to be the PR strategy these days.
PEPSI IS EVEN WORSE THAN COKE! IN THE SODA WE BOUGHT, HORRIBLE CARBONATED CHLORINE/BLEACHING POWDER SMELL & FLAVOR WERE THERE.
WRITING TO THE INDIAN HQ WAS LIKE WRITING TO GOVT. OF INDIA! WE HAD TO WRITE TO THEIR INT'L HQ WHERE INDRA NOOYI SITS! ONLY THEN SOME MINIONS BOTHERED TO CALL & TOOK SEVERAL MONTHS BEFORE THEY MADE SOME PALTRY COMPENSATION!
SAARE JAHAN SE ACHHA HINDUSTAN HAMARA!! MY FOOT!
http://farsuna.com/en/news.php?id=2949
Coca-Cola has disclosed that the famous drink natural dye carmine which is derived from dried cells of Cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), a scale insect or primarily sessile parasite living on cacti from the genus Opuntia in tropical and subtropical South America and Mexico.
The insect produces carminic acid which deters predation by other insects. Carminic acid can be extracted from the insect’s body and eggs to make carmine dye. Carmine is primarily used as a fabrics colouring and for cosmetics.
Good work. We need to work together to see that MNCs like Coke start respecting India as a Nation, and not as a "market".