Cantaloupe Listeria

And the Kansas cases are the same Listeria strain.

Oh the fun never ends

An update in the ongoing saga of bullshit that is dealing with The Berry Company. The following is the email I sent off today, after receiving the phone bill.

Stephannie,
I spoke to you about a month ago, regarding the billing through
Century Link for the Yellow Pages listing Draggon's Veterinary Clinic.

A summary of my complaint, in case you've forgotten:

I purchased this business in January, and updated the information with
Century Link at that time. I was not made aware until February that
the Yellow Pages listings were contracted through your company and
that updating my Century Link account would not update the phone book
information. I learned this from Century Link; I was never contacted
by The Berry Company prior to the directory being sent to publisher.
When I called in February to update my information with The Berry
Company, I did not receive return calls, and was unable to contact
anybody until after the date at which it was too late to make
corrections.
This is in direct contrast to the three other yellow pages companies
in this area, all of which contacted me (and presumably every other
business listing they carry) to make sure that their information was
correct and up to date prior to publishing.

In early March, I finally got through to someone instead of
dead-ending in your phone tree to just leaving yet another message. I
spoke to Chad, who was frankly quite rude. He informed me that it was
too late to make changes, and had not a word of apology about the fact
that nobody had contacted me about the several messages I had left
before it was too late. He claimed that he could make any changes he
wanted to any account he wanted, but stated that he would not credit
me anything, asserting that I was required to pay the full amount
because I had signed a sales agreement when I purchased the clinic. He
further demanded that I send a copy of said sales agreement to him. He
snidely informed me that "The Berry Company has thousands of
customers", and that he can't be expected to make every one of them
happy. Since I had, by this time, spent several cumulative hours
listening to hold messages claiming that The Berry Company's goal is
"100% customer satisfaction, 100% of the time", you may guess that I
was rather displeased by my conversations with Chad.

After I faxed over a copy of my sales agreement for the business along
with a written complaint about the customer service (or rather, lack
thereof) up to that point, I was directed to Bonnie Cook, who said
that I would not be charged for this year's listing.
I was then credited 11 months at $21.50, but have been being billed $22.50.

After several months of attempting to contact Bonnie Cook again, and
not receiving return calls despite many messages left, I contacted you
through the general customer service line.

When I spoke to you, my dispute was thus the 12th month, and the 1
dollar difference for the rest of the months, totaling $33.50.
Last month, after speaking to you, we received at $22.50 credit.

This month, we received THREE $22.50 credits, when I was expecting
only $11. While I don't mind having extra money, I am quite confused
about what exactly is going on with this account and don't really want
to be billed back for this over-credit at some future/unexpected date.

Can you please get this thing sorted out?

Anybody care to join me in a relaxing game of "slam your head into a brick wall"?

More cantaloupe fun.

FDA announced today that Carol’s Cuts LLC, Kansas food processor, is recalling 594 pounds of fresh cut cantaloupe packaged in 5-pound trays as chunks and as an ingredient in 8-ounce mixed fruit medley because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

The Carol’s Cuts recall is part of a larger recall involving cantaloupe traced to Rocky Ford cantaloupes produced by Jensen Farms in Holly, Colorado.

Pepperidge Farm recall

Pepperidge Farm, Incorporated is voluntarily recalling a limited quantity of 10.2-ounce boxes of Baked Naturals Sesame Sticks as a precaution due to the possible presence of small, thin pieces of wire.

The affected product is marked with a yellow 20% More! banner across the top of the package and has the following codes on the top package flap:


W07*1781 Sell by 11/20/2011
W07*1891 Sell by 11/27/2011
W07*1921 Sell by 12/4/2011
W07*2041 Sell by 12/11/2011
W07*2061 Sell by 12/13/2011
W07*2221 Sell by 1/1/2012

No other Pepperidge Farm products are affected.

ETA: Initial link sketchy on service, try this instead.

E. Coli Recall

Palo Duro Meat is recalling 40,000 pounds of frozen fine ground beef products that may be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.

The products subject to recall include:

40-lb boxes containing four 10-lb chubs of fine ground beef.