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dennyOn Wed, 2007-08-08 at 12:09 +0100, innocent drinks wrote:
> Fete accompli
>
> If you came, we’d just like to say thanks. We hope you had a great time. It wouldn’t have been the same without you.
>
> If you have a moment, we’d love to know what you thought of it all – just fill out this little survey.
I've filled in the survey, but I intended to email you anyway, so here it is...
I was hugely disappointed with a few factors about the fete. The most important set of things that bothered me were:
1. No free water, on a very hot day.
2. Very expensive drinks, particularly water (£1.70 for a bottle from some stalls, who were conveniently out of stock of your own (smaller and generally warm) £1 bottles).
3. No re-entry after exiting the event.
The combination of these three factors meant that a lot of people had to make the decision between leaving early or suffering quite serious dehydration. My own party of about thirty or forty people split half and half on which we chose, with half of us leaving around 4pm to go and get some desperately needed cold drinks at vaguely affordable prices, before heading home to wait for the other half of the group, who eventually turned up with headaches and very empty wallets - usually symptoms of over-indulging in alcohol, but on this occasion purely a matter of dehydration setting in despite spending a small fortune between us on tiny bottles of luke-warm water.
I can't see any reason for the combination of factors listed above, most crucially the third one, other than 'we want people to have no choice but to buy lots of our expensive drinks', and I find this very disappointing from a company whose PR presents them in such a strong ethical position in general.
Fruitstock the last two years and the Fete this year are fantastic events, with a really nice atmosphere, but they seem to be heading full-steam for financial gains over ethical conduct. You're supposed to be a company that prides itself on being nice - make more (any?) effort here. Give people drinks they can afford, supply free water for those who can't afford your drinks, and ideally, supply advice on avoiding dehydration to people entering the event. Even London nightclubs supply free water to people, it's very disappointing indeed to see you not doing so.
I could start on the prices being charged by the stalls too, but I assume you'll say that they're not under your control. I do wonder how much they were charged for being at the event though, if they feel they need to charge £6+ for a burger that's worth about half that.
Finally, while I'm highlighting the downsides of the fete for me, I really should mention the member of the security staff who stopped me as I was heading into the event. I can only assume he wanted to check why I was carrying a five-foot long pole (a firestaff, which I was playing with (unlit of course) during the day), or possibly search my bag (which he eventually did). However, he didn't say 'excuse me' or 'hold on' as I walked past him, he yelled 'OI!' at me when I was halfway into the event, and then jogged up to stand really close to me and just stared at me. It was quite confusing and a little intimidating, and really didn't make a good start to my day at your event at all. It's not my fault he wasn't paying attention as I strolled past where he was chatting to his colleagues, and I have no idea why he felt the need to crowd me for a few minutes before actually saying anything to me.
Yours faithfully,
A very disappointed Innocent customer,
Denny
> Fete accompli
>
> If you came, we’d just like to say thanks. We hope you had a great time. It wouldn’t have been the same without you.
>
> If you have a moment, we’d love to know what you thought of it all – just fill out this little survey.
I've filled in the survey, but I intended to email you anyway, so here it is...
I was hugely disappointed with a few factors about the fete. The most important set of things that bothered me were:
1. No free water, on a very hot day.
2. Very expensive drinks, particularly water (£1.70 for a bottle from some stalls, who were conveniently out of stock of your own (smaller and generally warm) £1 bottles).
3. No re-entry after exiting the event.
The combination of these three factors meant that a lot of people had to make the decision between leaving early or suffering quite serious dehydration. My own party of about thirty or forty people split half and half on which we chose, with half of us leaving around 4pm to go and get some desperately needed cold drinks at vaguely affordable prices, before heading home to wait for the other half of the group, who eventually turned up with headaches and very empty wallets - usually symptoms of over-indulging in alcohol, but on this occasion purely a matter of dehydration setting in despite spending a small fortune between us on tiny bottles of luke-warm water.
I can't see any reason for the combination of factors listed above, most crucially the third one, other than 'we want people to have no choice but to buy lots of our expensive drinks', and I find this very disappointing from a company whose PR presents them in such a strong ethical position in general.
Fruitstock the last two years and the Fete this year are fantastic events, with a really nice atmosphere, but they seem to be heading full-steam for financial gains over ethical conduct. You're supposed to be a company that prides itself on being nice - make more (any?) effort here. Give people drinks they can afford, supply free water for those who can't afford your drinks, and ideally, supply advice on avoiding dehydration to people entering the event. Even London nightclubs supply free water to people, it's very disappointing indeed to see you not doing so.
I could start on the prices being charged by the stalls too, but I assume you'll say that they're not under your control. I do wonder how much they were charged for being at the event though, if they feel they need to charge £6+ for a burger that's worth about half that.
Finally, while I'm highlighting the downsides of the fete for me, I really should mention the member of the security staff who stopped me as I was heading into the event. I can only assume he wanted to check why I was carrying a five-foot long pole (a firestaff, which I was playing with (unlit of course) during the day), or possibly search my bag (which he eventually did). However, he didn't say 'excuse me' or 'hold on' as I walked past him, he yelled 'OI!' at me when I was halfway into the event, and then jogged up to stand really close to me and just stared at me. It was quite confusing and a little intimidating, and really didn't make a good start to my day at your event at all. It's not my fault he wasn't paying attention as I strolled past where he was chatting to his colleagues, and I have no idea why he felt the need to crowd me for a few minutes before actually saying anything to me.
Yours faithfully,
A very disappointed Innocent customer,
Denny
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-08 12:28 pm (UTC)if you get a reply I would love to see it.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-08-08 03:55 pm (UTC)I ended up not going this year (in favour of going to CCK and playing uno) and to be honest I'm quite glad I didn't.
On the flip side I was walking through liverpool st station about to get on the underground and people were handing out 75cl bottles of water on the way through the barriers.